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Historic place

Taft Stadium

2901 NW 23rd St, Oklahoma City, OK

A WPA stadium whose three-story native rock wall on May Avenue is the one feature the 2013-2015 renovation left unaltered.

🏛️ StadiumStill here
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The story

Taft Stadium was built by the Works Progress Administration. Historian Marjorie Barton calls it one of the largest high school football stadiums built as a WPA project in Oklahoma. Its most recognizable feature is a native rock wall about three stories high facing May Avenue, with a circular TAFT STADIUM stone monogram, six arched entries and six ticket windows.

Over the years it hosted a NASCAR Convertible Division race on June 8, 1956, won by Allen Adkins. The Oklahoma City Plainsmen played professional football there in 1968, and lower-division pro soccer clubs used it off and on. It closed in 2013 for renovation and reopened in 2015, with seating cut from about 18,000 to about 7,500. The red-stone facade is the only unaltered feature. Energy FC played there from 2015 until pausing in late 2022.

What's There Now

Local high school football and other teams play there.

Everything that was here

Did you know?

A NASCAR Convertible race was held there on June 8, 1956.
Seating dropped from about 18,000 to about 7,500 in the renovation.
Energy FC paused after a USL field-size rule left the stadium non-compliant.

Nearby history

All Sports Stadium

3001 General Pershing Blvd · 2.1 km away
The 89ers' home from 1962 to 1997, and an outdoor concert venue for the Beach Boys, Jimmy Buffett and Lilith Fair, until

Holland Field / Texas League Park

1837 NW 4th St · 3.0 km away
The Oklahoma City Indians played here from the 1924 opener until the team folded; Rogers Hornsby managed them in 1940-41

Cities Service gas station

4106 NW 39th St · 3.1 km away
The building's first use, on Route 66.

Belle Isle Power Plant (OG&E)

50 Penn Pl · 3.7 km away
OG&E's art deco plant ran as a standby until 1980 and was imploded in January 1999 for retail space.

VZD's Restaurant & Bar

4200 N Western Ave · 4.1 km away
A Western Avenue music bar that Chad Bleakley ran for 24 years. The Tax Commission shut it in 2014 and it closed for goo

Tower Theatre

425 NW 23rd St · 4.2 km away
A Streamline Moderne movie house with a pipe organ that went adult in 1989, closed in 2000, and came back as a music ven

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Sourceshttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taft_Stadium