Philbrook: An Oil Baron's Villa, Given Away
Near Tulsa, Oklahoma
The Philbrook Museum of Art began as a private home. In nineteen twenty-six, oilman Waite Phillips hired architect Edward Buehler Delk to design an Italian Renaissance villa on twenty-five acres in Tulsa. The house was finished in nineteen twenty-seven.
Twelve years later, Phillips and his wife Genevieve donated Villa Philbrook and its grounds to the city of Tulsa as a public art institution, with the stated vision that it would house works of art including those representative of native North American peoples. Philbrook opened on October twenty-fifth, nineteen thirty-nine, under its first director Eugene Kingman. A new wing was added in nineteen ninety, and the original villa galleries were renovated the following year.
Waite Phillips also gave away Philmont Scout Ranch in New Mexico to the Boy Scouts. He had a pattern of spectacular generosity.
