Oklahoma State Firefighters Museum

On July 18,1966 the Directors of the Oklahoma State Firemen's Museum decided to use the municipal trust method to finance the museum, which at the time, was expected to cost $200,000. On December 14, 1966 the museum board met with the state insurance commissioner at the Will Rogers Memorial Building and was granted final approval for the location of the museum.

In April, 1967, it was agreed to lease 5.7 acres at Grand Boulevard and N.E. 50th Street as the site of the Museum. Groundbreaking for the museum building was performed on April 6, 1967. In June, 1967, the Highway Department agreed to hard surface driveways and parking areas. No money was appropriated for this service. This was when the museum board approved a Cadillac raffle.

Ground breaking for Museum.

That July the committee began selling raffle tickets. In September 1967 the raffle for the Cadillac and other prizes was televised live on KOCO-TV in Oklahoma City. The reported profits totaled $41,317.37. Also, in July of 1967 bond subscription packets were distributed. By September  $24,000.00 worth of bonds had been sold. In December the Liberty National Bank of Oklahoma City bought the remaining bonds.

In November 1967 the Building Committee reported plans and specifications ready for bid. The Architect advised the building should be under construction before January 1, 1968. However, contractor bids were accepted up until January 9th, 1968. On January 9th the contractors and their bids were present at museums board meeting in Oklahoma City. They were asked at that time if any contractor had bid in the vicinity of $175,000.00, but were told none were even close to this figure. As a result we returned all the bids unopened and had to start over.

Construction in progress - Sept 28, 1968

There were two things to blame for this. One, the Architect did not prepare a very accurate cost estimate. Two, the bid price also included approximately $6,700.00 for sewer and water lines, which hadn't taken into consideration. New plans were drawn up. It was decided the size of the building should remain the same. Instead of reducing any room or number of the rooms, the plan was to cut down on the cost of construction materials.

On March 26, 1968, bids for the building were again opened. J.W. Skaggs Construction of Oklahoma City was the lowest bidder at $175,257.00, with a high bid of $191,191.00. The bid was accepted and Skaggs Construction Co. began construction.

The building was deemed completed March 1st,1969.

The museum officially opened to the public Sunday, May 31, 1969.

John Knupple was the first Curator of the Firefighters Museum and served from June 1, 1970, until December 31, 1971. In January 1972 Sam Oruch, an active firefighter for the Oklahoma City Fire Department, became the part-time curator; after Oruch retired as a full-time firefighter, he was hired full-time to care for the museum. Oruch gave tours in the Museum for over 33 years and is the last one to hold the title of curator. Jim Sanders, a veteran of the Bethany, Oklahoma Fire Department, became the museum director in 2004. Mike Billingsley, a retired firefighter from the Nichols Hills Fire Department, was the next to take the title of museum director in September of 2006. [2] In 2014, Gene Brown, a retired firefighter from The Village, took over as museum director and still is to this day.