11 finds from the house that Frank Phillips built

When you step inside the Frank Phillips Historic Home at 1107 Cherokee Ave., you may feel like Frank and Jane Phillips have never left.  

Nearly everything inside the incredibly well-kept neo-classical mansion from the artwork, the books and the bearskin rug to the china, the furniture and the grandfather clock, once belonged to them.  

It was built in 1908 and completed the next year, several years after the couple came to Indian Territory, and after Frank Phillips, along with his brother L.E. Phillips, hit oil the first time with the Anna Anderson in September of 1905.  

It was one of the first homes to have electricity and indoor plumbing. The fireplace was taken out and replaced with a steam boiler system in the 1930s, which lasted until 2014 when the piping started to rust and spring leaks in the basement.

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Michelle Swaney, director of the Frank Phillips Historic Home, said that prompted the installation of a new heat pump system to spare the home from any damage. 

The Phillips also spent time at their apartment at the Ambassador Hotel in New York City as well as their ranch at Woolaroc. But by the 1940s, Swaney said that Bartlesville was where they spent most of their time until their deaths, Jane in 1948 and Frank in 1950. 

While they lived there, there were three major renovations: one in 1917, 1930 and 1947 when an elevator was installed. They spent $500,000 on the 1930 remodel and once complete, Jane Phillips had a local photographer take interior photos of all the rooms. Today’s furniture arrangement and furnishings are based on those photos. Guests entering the home today are seeing it much like appeared in 1930. 

Elizabeth “Betty” Irwin, the Phillips’ granddaughter, inherited the home and lived in it for 25 years with her daughters who graduated from College High School before moving away. Realizing the historic significance her grandparents had made to the state, the community and the petroleum industry, Irwin donated the home to the Oklahoma Historical Society in 1973. In January of 2018, the home was deeded to the Frank Phillips Foundation, which was set up by Phillips himself to maintain the ranch at Woolaroc. 

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Here are a few fun finds from the Frank Phillips Historic Home: 

MOUNTAIN SAGE – Before Frank Phillips struck oil, he was a barber with a flair for salesmanship. He created a treatment for hair loss with the primary ingredient being rainwater. His “Mountain Sage” concoction sold well even though he, himself, was balding. 

Phillips embraced the barbering trade over farming and after living through a grasshopper invasion that drew his family out of Nebraska. According to Phillips, it was a good trade “for a young chap who wanted to see the country.” He traveled throughout the west and mining camps before settling back in Creston, Iowa, where he bought out a shop along with most of the barbershops in town by the age of 24.  

“I became a monopolist,” he said. 

WEDDING PORTRAIT - One of his hair customers was John Gibson, a wealthy banker and his future father-in-law. He was smitten with his daughter, Jane, but Gibson tried to keep them apart. The couple stayed in touch and Gibson realized he would not be able to quash the romance, so he made a deal. He would support the marriage if Phillips would get out of the barbering business and go into the banking business with him. So in 1897, they were married and her parents gave them a check for $20,000 as a wedding gift.  

FRANK'S CABINET - Phillips had a special cabinet in the basement of his home where alcohol was stored and used for “medicinal purposes” during Prohibition. Many of the bottles, which include Grand Marnier and Hiram Walker gin, date back to the 1920s. An interesting aside, when the attic in the home was refurbished in 2010, two empty bottles of Cora Vermouth distributed by Messr. Joseph P. Kennedy were discovered when they ripped off the old insulation.  

IS YOUR SLIP SHOWING? In front of the original entryway table, one could check their hair and hat, but the mirror on the bottom was especially important. With another person’s help looking at the reflection, a lady could make sure her petticoat wasn’t showing. 

ART FOR THE FUTURE – This is a replica of John Singer Sargent’s “Madame Helleu” which hangs in the music room. It replaced the original that the Phillips had purchased in 1927, which was sold at Christie’s in 2018 to raise funds for an endowment to secure the future upkeep of the Frank Phillips Home. 

RAINWATER - The original cast iron sink features three knobs. One for hot, cold and cistern (or rainwater) all piped into the house. Swaney said the cistern provided softer and probably better-tasting water than Bartlesville had in the 1920s and 1930s. 

EATING QUARTERS – The Phillips had nine full-time and six part-time servants and they would have taken their meals in this room and perhaps rested their feet awhile on the chaise lounge. The intercom call system was also operated here and they would be alerted to any calls from Frank or Jane’s rooms.   

JANE’S FAVORITE CHAIR - This well-worn chair was Jane Phillips favorite. An avid reader and book collector, she would have read in this very spot. Nearby is her smoking stand, a three-volume bible that predates the Revolutionary War and the many peacock feathers that she collected.  

SECRET HIDING SPOTS - Kidnapping was a concern for wealthy people in the 1920s and 1930s. Phillips wanted two hiding places in case of an intruder which were installed behind wood panels next to the bookcases. One is now sealed off by the air-conditioning unit and the other is now much smaller, but they once were large enough for an adult and two children. One was connected to an outside phone line and one was connected to the house intercom system so they could call for help if needed.  

A ROOM WITH A VIEW - Looking out her window or sitting on the front porch, Jane Phillips was never far from her son and his family who lived across the street. As the story goes, the Phillips had the house built in the mid-1920s. They invited their son, John, and his wife, Mildred, to Bartlesville for a visit and told them they had a surprise for them. 

“When they got in, they handed them the keys to that house and said, 'It’s staffed, it’s furnished, you will live across the street,'” Swaney said.  

Later, it is known that John lost the house in a card game. His father bought it back from the winning gambler and told him to never to play cards with his son again and not to come back to Bartlesville. The home was then put in trust for one of Phillips’ grandsons so that it would not be lost again. 

TWO LITTLE GIRLS - The Phillips had just one biological son and always wanted more children. They met four-year-old Mary Francis at a foster home out of state, but she refused to go unless they took her two-year-old sister, Sara Jane, who tugged on Jane Phillips' skirt. 

“Frank had sat down in a chair and the two-year-old crawled in his lap and that was enough, the Phillips became legal guardians of both those little girls,” Swaney said.  

Their room today has been restored to how it looked in 1930 with some of the original furniture and pictures. The dolls and the stuffed owl are more than 100 years old.