Historic Inns

Oklahoma City, Oklahoma

Historic Hotels & Inns in Oklahoma City

Six historic stays in a city that began with the 1889 Land Run, on land formerly held by the Muscogee (Creek) and Seminole Nations, from the 1911 Skirvin Hilton to a 1904 Victorian house.

6 historic places to stay · verified October 2026 · by Historic Inns editors

The short answer

Book The Skirvin Hilton, opened in 1911 and the only one of the six built as a hotel, or stay nearby in City Center at the Colcord Hotel, in the 1910 tower called the city’s first skyscraper, or The National, where rooms are in the 1931 tower. The Fordson Hotel, Ford’s 1916 assembly plant, is a 5-minute walk from Film Row by the hotel’s figure, and the Ambassador Hotel Oklahoma City is in Midtown, which the streetcar’s Downtown Loop serves. The Grandison at Maney Park, the one B&B, is next to Heritage Hills; its guest rooms are upstairs by stairs only, and you’ll want a car or rideshare. No stay is inside Bricktown or Automobile Alley, but the fare-free streetcar serves both. Book early for April 22–25, 2027, when the Festival of the Arts and Memorial Marathon weekend overlap.

Our top picks

Grand hotel

The National

Built 1931

Guests sleep in the First National Bank and Trust Company's 1931 Art Deco tower, topped by a tapered beacon, which became a…

Check ratesBook direct

Compare them side by side

InnAreaBuiltRoomsTypePriceHaunted
The Grandison at Maney ParkNext to Heritage Hills19048B&B–Rates
Colcord HotelDowntown & Automobile Alley1910108Boutique hotel–Rates
The Skirvin HiltonDowntown & Automobile Alley1911225Grand hotel–YesRates
Fordson HotelFilm Row & West Village1916135Boutique hotel–Rates
Ambassador Hotel Oklahoma CityMidtown1928–2954Boutique hotel–Rates
The NationalDowntown & Automobile Alley1931146Grand hotel–Rates

Price is a typical nightly rate: $ under $200, $$ $200–349, $$$ $350–549, $$$$ $550+. Rates vary by season; check the inn for exact prices.

Where they are

The neighborhoods

Where to stay, by area

Downtown & Automobile Alley

Three of our six stays are in City Center, none of them in Automobile Alley itself: The Skirvin Hilton, opened in 1911 and the only one of the six built as a hotel; the Colcord Hotel, in the 1910 tower called the city’s first skyscraper; and The National, in the 1931 bank tower. The Colcord lists Paycom Center and Myriad Botanical Gardens at 0.2 mile, the Oklahoma City National Memorial & Museum and Scissortail Park at 0.6 mile, and Bricktown at 1 mile. The Clara Luper National Sit-In Plaza, at Robinson Avenue and Main Street, marks the Katz Drug Store sit-in of August 19, 1958, when Luper led 13 Black students into Katz and asked to be served; the store desegregated within days, more than a year before the Greensboro sit-ins. Automobile Alley, which has no stay, runs along North Broadway between Fourth and Thirteenth streets, where 52 of the city’s 76 dealerships stood by 1921, and the streetcar serves both districts.

Bricktown

No stay sits inside Bricktown, a former warehouse district on the eastern edge of downtown; Visit OKC calls it a short walk from downtown hotels, and the Colcord puts it at 1 mile. The Bricktown Water Taxi runs a narrated round trip of about 40 minutes year-round, weather permitting, and Chickasaw Bricktown Ballpark hosts the Oklahoma City Comets. At the south end of the canal, the 45 bronze statues of the Centennial Land Run Monument by Paul Moore stretch 365 feet; the monument has drawn protest since 2007, and a 2022 report to the Oklahoma City Arts Commission called it one-sided and hurtful to Indigenous communities. Deep Deuce, the center of the city’s African American community and its jazz scene in the 1920s and ’30s, lies just north.

Film Row & West Village

Film Row is the stretch of Sheridan Avenue just west of downtown where, in the 1930s, theater owners came to screen and lease films from Paramount, MGM, Universal, Fox and Warner Brothers. Visit OKC folds it into the West Village, and the stay is the Fordson Hotel, on West Main in the 1916 Ford assembly plant that became the 21c Museum Hotel and joined Hyatt in August 2023. The hotel puts Film Row a 5-minute walk away, The Jones Assembly 2 minutes and the OKC Civic Center 6 minutes, with Paycom Center and the National Memorial each 1 mile out, and it notes a complimentary shuttle to nearby destinations.

Midtown

Midtown sits on the northern edge of downtown, just west of Automobile Alley. The stay is the Ambassador Hotel Oklahoma City, in the Osler Building, a medical office building begun in 1928. The hotel gives distances rather than walking times: the National Memorial 0.7 mile, the Oklahoma City Museum of Art 0.8, Paycom Center 1.5 and Bricktown 1.9. Visit OKC points to the patios, Dust Bowl lanes and shops here, and the streetcar’s Downtown Loop serves Midtown.

Heritage Hills & the Maney Historic District

The Grandison at Maney Park is next to Heritage Hills, not in it, and it is the only B&B of the six. The inn’s site describes a 1904 Victorian house moved to this lot in 1909, and it stands at the heart of the three-house Maney Historic District. Heritage Hills, Oklahoma’s first Historic Preservation District, lies just north between NW 13th and NW 23rd streets; it grew up around Henry Overholser’s 1903 mansion, and residents fought demolition and a planned 16th Street boulevard before the City passed its preservation ordinance in 1969. The inn says it is minutes from Bricktown and downtown but gives no walking times, and EMBARK’s streetcar map stops short of Shartel Avenue, so plan on a car or rideshare here.

The inns

The Skirvin HiltonEejjmm8888 / CC BY-SA 4.0

Built 1911 · Downtown & Automobile Alley · Grand hotel

The Skirvin Hilton

Why stay W.B. Skirvin's hotel, opened in 1911 across from the Rock Island depot, gained a third wing in 1925 and taller wings in 1929–30; a Hilton since 2007.

The ghost story Oklahoma Magazine reports the local legend of Effie, a maid and lover of founder W.B. Skirvin who was hidden on the 10th floor to have his child and later jumped from a window with her baby, while noting there is no historical record she existed; it adds that male guests have reported the advances of a female presence. NBC Los Angeles reported in 2010 that New York Knicks players Eddy Curry and Jared Jeffries said a bad night at the hotel unsettled them.

Good to know Elevator

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Before you book

Planning your stay

Getting around

OKC Will Rogers International Airport is about a 16-minute drive from downtown by the Colcord’s figure, and Visit OKC puts the average taxi to downtown at $25; Uber and Lyft pick up on the upper level. The OKC Streetcar has been fare-free since August 7, 2026. Its 4.86-mile Downtown Loop has 22 stops through Automobile Alley, the Arts District, Bricktown, City Center and Midtown, leaving each platform about every 12–15 minutes: Monday–Thursday 6 a.m.–midnight, Friday 6 a.m.–2 a.m., Saturday 7 a.m.–2 a.m., Sunday 7 a.m.–10 p.m. The 2-mile Bricktown Loop runs Friday to Sunday only, on the same hours. Amtrak says the Heartland Flyer continues, leaving Santa Fe Depot each morning for Fort Worth and returning that evening; check the current schedule.

Parking

Downtown meters are enforced Monday–Friday 8 a.m.–6 p.m., except on listed holidays. EMBARK says rates vary and are posted on each meter, and the National Park Service quotes $2 an hour near the Memorial. EMBARK’s four public garages are open 24/7, and event parking is $15. Hotel parking is mostly valet: the Skirvin’s overnight parking is $40 plus tax, the Colcord’s valet is $35 a night plus tax with in-and-out privileges, and the Ambassador’s 24-hour valet is $25 a day. The Fordson offers valet with no published rate; ask The National and The Grandison about parking before you arrive. The National Memorial’s garage at NW 6th and Harvey is free with paid museum admission or $5 an hour otherwise, and it closes at 7 p.m.

When to go

Visit OKC gives average temperatures of 45.9°F in January and 80.7°F in July. Storm season is real: the National Weather Service says May is the peak month for tornadoes in the Oklahoma City area, followed closely by April and June. The Festival of the Arts is April 22–25, 2027 in Bicentennial Park, Oklahoma City Memorial Marathon weekend is April 23–25, 2027, and the free Paseo Arts Festival is May 29–31, 2027. The Thunder’s last regular-season home game is April 9, 2027, and the Paseo’s First Friday Gallery Walk runs 6–9 p.m. on the first Friday of every month.

Accessibility

The OKC Streetcar has level boarding at every platform, and EMBARK PLUS is lift-equipped paratransit within the city limits for riders who can’t use fixed-route buses. The Oklahoma City National Memorial & Museum has wheelchair access, elevators on each level and free wheelchairs, and each Bricktown Water Taxi carries a portable ramp and two wheelchair spaces with tie-downs. The Grandison at Maney Park has no accessible accommodations: guest rooms are upstairs by stairs only, with wheelchair access to the first floor and dining area. We couldn’t confirm details for the other five stays, so ask before you book.

Before you book

Book early for April 22–25, 2027, when the Festival of the Arts and Memorial Marathon weekend overlap downtown. Colcord guests must be 21 to check in, and the Skirvin requires 72 hours’ notice on cancelable rates. At The Grandison at Maney Park, payment is due in full within 30 days of arrival and half down before that, changes need 14 days’ notice, and check-in is 4 p.m. with check-out by 10 a.m. Museum tickets are limited, so reserve the National Memorial online.

Things to do

Tours in Oklahoma City

Tours from GetYourGuide

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Questions travelers ask

What is the oldest hotel in Oklahoma City?

The Skirvin Hilton, opened September 26, 1911, is the oldest of our six stays built as a hotel. The Colcord’s tower dates from 1910 but stayed offices until it became a hotel in 2006, and The Grandison’s 1904 house is the oldest building, a B&B since January 1997 by the inn’s own account.

How did Oklahoma City begin?

On April 22, 1889, the Land Run opened nearly 2 million acres in central Oklahoma, and an estimated 4,000 to 6,000 settlers reached Oklahoma Station. That land was formerly held by the Muscogee (Creek) and Seminole Nations before the Civil War, and for many tribal members the run remains a source of generational trauma. The city incorporated on July 15, 1890, and voters made it the state capital on June 11, 1910.

How do you visit the Oklahoma City National Memorial?

The outdoor memorial at 620 N. Harvey Ave. is open 24 hours a day, year-round, on the site of the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building, where a bomb killed 168 people on April 19, 1995. The museum is open Monday–Saturday 9 a.m.–5 p.m. and Sunday noon–5 p.m., with adult tickets at $18, and parking in its garage is free with paid admission.

Is it better to stay downtown in Oklahoma City?

Yes, for most trips. The Skirvin, Colcord and National put you in City Center near the Memorial, Paycom Center and the fare-free streetcar, and the Ambassador is in Midtown, which the streetcar also serves. Pick the Fordson for Film Row and the West Village, or The Grandison at Maney Park, the one B&B of the six, for a historic house next to Heritage Hills.

Do you need a car in Oklahoma City, and is the streetcar free?

Not for a downtown stay. The OKC Streetcar has been fare-free since August 7, 2026, and it links City Center, Bricktown, Automobile Alley and Midtown; the Bricktown Loop runs Friday to Sunday only. Plan on a taxi (about $25 on average) or rideshare from the airport, and a car or rideshare for The Grandison. Hotel parking runs $25–$40 a night where rates are published, and meters are enforced on weekdays only, 8 a.m.–6 p.m.

Is the Skirvin really haunted?

There is no official ranking of haunted hotels, and the Skirvin has a story, not proof. Local legend says a maid named Effie, hidden on the 10th floor, jumped from a window with her baby, and that male guests have reported the advances of a female presence, but Oklahoma Magazine, which reports the legend, says there is no historical record she existed. NBC Los Angeles reported in 2010 that New York Knicks players Eddy Curry and Jared Jeffries said a bad night at the hotel unsettled them. It is the only ghost story we found among our six stays.

Keep exploring

Tulsa →All of Oklahoma →

How we chose these inns

Every place on this page is at least 50 years old, holds a credential we can check (National Register listing, a listed historic district, landmark status, or Historic Hotels of America membership), and takes bookings today. We verify each one against primary sources before it goes on the list, and last checked this list in October 2026. Read our criteria.

Planning details on this page (parking, transport, seasons and events) come from: npgallery.nps.gov, colcordhotel.com, memorialmuseum.com, nps.gov, travelok.com, velocityokc.com, news9.com, okhistory.org, en.wikipedia.org, automobilealley.org, visitokc.com, embarkok.com, bricktownwatertaxi.com, yahoo.com, amtrak.com, bricktownokc.com, downtownokc.com, culturalatlas.metrolibrary.org, historypointer.com, fordsonhotel.com, ambassadorokc.com, grandisoninn.com, heritagehills.org, skirvinhilton.com, okmag.com, abetterlifeokc.com, flyokc.com, media.amtrak.com, hppr.org, deeparrival.com, weather.gov, artscouncilokc.com, okcmarathon.com, thepaseo.org, redearth.org, route66news.com, famok.org, nbclosangeles.com.

Sources (16)

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