OkieLegacy

Special Update...

" . . . . Some say, 'Alva was NOT named for Alva Adams,' an attorney, for the Santa Fe Railroad. Most source quote that but . . . While doing research for Centennial, Joan (Wagner-Hodgden) and a couple of others went to Topeka where there is a Sante Fe Railroad museum and they could not find where Alva Adams was an attorney for the RR. Joan wrote several articles for the Courier during Alva's Centennial that are most interesting and they are all in a scrapbook at the Alva Public Library. You would enjoy them and you know Joan (Wagner-Hodgden) never did anything halfway."

1895 - Alva, Okla. Downtown Square

[CLICK photo for larger view.]

• Naming of Alva - How Alva got it's name
• Alva Adams - "...Alva Adams, three time democratic Governor of Colorado, was born in Iowa County, Wisconsin on May 14, 1850. While Adams had little in the way of a formal education while he was growing up, he had a voracious appetite for literature which made up for his lack of schooling. By the time Adams died, he had acquired a collection of over six thousand books, which was one of the largest private libraries in the region. Like many people who settled in Colorado, the Adams' moved west when a member of the family contracted tuberculosis. The arid climate was reputedly beneficial for sufferers of this debilitating disease. At twenty-one years of age, Alva Adams began his rags to riches story by hauling ties for the Denver & Rio Grande Railroad...."
• Alvan's Meeting with Bonnie & Clyde - Alva citizen meets the Barrows Gang, Sept. 1933
• Alva Greenhouse- Dorothy's Flowers (aka Maxwell Florist)
• Alva Bell Hotel - Past & Present views
• Alva's Hospital History
• Alva Post Office - Past & Present views
• Runnymede Hotel History - History of the Runnymede Arms, Alva, OK
• Runnymede Restoration - The history of and the restoration of the Runnymede Hotel, Alva.
• Marvin Henry's Homepage - While you're over at Marvin's Place check out his Treasures of "Oklahoma". Washington School's 1950 5th grade class with Mrs. Hoch; The Golden Krust Bakery, 1940; A Postcard Foto-Vue booklet of Alva & Northwestern; The Monfort Drug Store burning down; and A Burial Association Certificate. What else can I say! It's GREAT!
• United Methodist Church - Located on NE corner of College Ave. & Church Street. Thsi photo was taken September 1999.
• McGill Bros Swimming Pool - Located downtown, behind and west of McGill Bros Furniture that was on the SW corner of the square.
• Old Alva Schools - The Old High School, the West Side School (Washington), and the East Side School (Longfellow)
• Alva Presbyterian Christmas Choir (ca. 1950s). Can you help identify nay of these young ladies and gentlemen of the the early 1950s?

Postcard of Alva taken looking up College Avenue straight up to the Castle on the Hill, before paved streets. No date given (I don't have it yet, so if I discover a date on it, will let you know). Click Photo to see large view. - photo submitted by Rod Murrow © 2012 by WWWPubCo & OkieLegacy.org   All Rights Reserved.