The year 1922 was momentous for the Oklahoma City Branch, as construction started on a dedicated branch office building in the heart of downtown.
Since opening in August 1920 as the Kansas City Fed’s third field office, the Branch had been in the Continental Building at Second Street and Broadway.
By the summer of 1922, the southeast corner of Northwest Third and Harvey streets had been cleared, and ground had been prepared for a 39,000-square-foot building. The property had been acquired a year earlier for $65,000, according to the Kansas City Fed’s 1921 Annual Report to the Board of Governors. (Incidentally, calculation by the Bureau of Labor Statistics estimates that $65,000 in 1921 would have been the equivalent of about $1 million in 2021.)
In April 1923 the Branch moved into its new home, described at the time by a local newspaper as “a financial Rock of Gibraltar.” An addition to the building was completed in 1962. Utilization evolved along with advancements and consolidation within the Federal Reserve System.
Learn more about the Oklahoma City Branch’s history and ongoing work.