Ardmore, OK

Please help promote Ardmore, Oklahoma :

A Wonderful place to Live, Visit, Work and Play... Nestled at the foot of the Arbuckle mountains and surrounded by seven lakes totaling 100,000 acres, Ardmore is one of Oklahoma's most unique communities. Its strategic location on I-35, just 90 miles from either Dallas or Oklahoma City, gives Ardmore a unique market proximity.

Ardmore's turn-of-the-century downtown is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. Brick sidewalks, period street lamps, benches, and landscaped islands lend flavor to the area. Boutiques, antique malls, specialty stores and quaint restaurants are found among the historic structures on and near Main Street.

In 1887, a Santa Fe railroad crew stopped in the Chickasaw Indian Territory halfway between Dallas and Oklahoma City to set up camp. They plowed a quarter-mile furrow to designate a main street among the buffalo bones and hers of wild horses and deer. The emerging town was named after Ardmore, Pennsylvania, which was named after Ardmore-By-The-Sea Ireland.

Twice the city was nearly destroyed, and twice it was rebuilt. In 1895 a livery stable fire burned 82 businesses and homes in six hours. Then in 1915, a worker pounding on a railroad tanker full of gasoline set off an explosion in the railroad yard that leveled the depot and blew off building tops.

The spirit and character that twice rebuilt the city remain today. Agriculture, oil, and industry fueled the growth of Ardmore into the city it is and is still becoming.