Home Histories

This dark purple-red brick English style house has the traditionally high-pitched roof broken by unusual rounded-headed "eyebrows" at the second story windows and by a pitched gable in the center over the entrance. The entrance is flanked by clustered brick pilasters with stone caps and bases.

L.A. Mideke 1928-38
Claude McDuffey 1938-1944
Dr. Harold Shoemaker 1944-49
Maurice Baldwin 1950-70

Mr. and Mrs. Mideke designed and had this house built. Mr. Mideke is secretary of the family-owned Mideke Supply Co., one of the first plumbing supply companies in Oklahoma City.

Dr. Harold Shoemaker was a professor of pharmacology at the University of Oklahoma College of Medicine. He was a former assistant dean of the school and served as acting dean in 1942-43. Dr. Shoemaker organized the state's first poison information center at the medical school as an aid to physicians and hospitals in diagnosing and treating victims of toxic substances. The service subsequently became a state-wide center operated by the State Department of Health. He died in November of 1960.

Mr. Baldwin is an architect in the firm of Bramlet and Baldwin. This firm built many high schools and shopping centers including the Reding Shopping Center and Monroe School for which they received national acclaim. They also built the historic Park-O-Tell, which was just north of the State Capitol on Lincoln Boulevard. This was the first national motel chain. The plan was to build such inns 250 miles apart which was a day's drive in those early days. The Park-O-Tell was an Oklahoma City landmark until recent years when it was torn down to allow for expansion of the State Capitol complex.