Mid-Continent Life Building meets you at 1400 Classen Drive in Heritage Hills. From this spot you can feel the intent of Col. R.T. Stuart, founder of the Mid-Continent Life Insurance Co, who had this elegant structure designed by Solomon Layton and opened in 1927 to house his company. The building’s Neoclassical design reads like a civic promise—orderly lines, classical echoes, a sense of permanence that was meant to reassure policyholders and passersby alike.
In 1979 its significance was recognized nationally when it was listed on the National Register of Historic Places, a claim to enduring value. Decades later the Oklahoma Heritage Association purchased the building in 2001 using a $3 million donation from Edward Gaylord, and today it is home to the Gaylord-Pickens Oklahoma Heritage Museum, the home of the Oklahoma Hall of Fame. Stand close and look at the stonework, the balanced proportions, the way Layton’s design frames the sky above Classen Drive.
Notice that Edward Gaylord's three-million-dollar gift in 2001 turned this building into the home of the Oklahoma Hall of Fame.