Historic Hotels & Inns in Tulsa

The neighborhoods

Where to stay, by area

Downtown & the Deco District

The Deco District is the heart of downtown, where 1920s oil money paid for what the Downtown Tulsa Partnership calls the city’s most robust collection of Art Deco buildings. Four of our eight stays sit inside the Oil Capital Historic District: The Mayo Hotel, opened in 1925 and the only one of the four built as a hotel; Tulsa Club Hotel, a 1927 club and Chamber of Commerce building; Courtyard Tulsa Downtown, in the 1922 Atlas Life Building; and Hyatt Place Tulsa Downtown, in a 1967 office tower. Aloft Tulsa Downtown, in the City Hall Tower of about 1969, is the fifth downtown stay, in the Tulsa Civic Center Historic District. Visit Tulsa describes eight walkable downtown districts, and Aero stops at 2nd and Boulder, 1st and Cincinnati and Denver Avenue Station.

The Mayo was a segregated hotel. By one account its first Black guest came in 1951, when Harry Truman phoned to ask that Margaret Truman’s maid be allowed in, and she still had to use the service elevator.

Cathedral District

The Cathedral District takes up the south end of downtown, and the Downtown Tulsa Partnership builds its character on six historic churches, Tulsa Community College and new places to eat. Its centerpiece is Boston Avenue Methodist Church, an Art Deco National Historic Landmark that held its first service in 1929. Visit Tulsa lists the Ambassador Hotel Tulsa, built in 1929 as an apartment hotel for oil executives, among the district’s places to visit. The downtown leg of Route 66 runs through the district past the Vickery Phillips 66 Station.

Blue Dome & Greenwood

Neither district has a stay. No historic hotel survives to stay in on Greenwood, and none of our eight Tulsa stays has a Greenwood link. The Stradford and Gurley hotels were lost in the 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre. Sleep in the Deco District and walk or drive over. We found no official walking times.

Greenwood, at Archer and Greenwood, was the Black business district popularly known as Black Wall Street, home by 1921 to two newspapers, several churches, a library branch and scores of Black-owned businesses. On May 31 and June 1, 1921, about 18 hours of violence ended with thousands of armed whites looting and burning the district. The Oklahoma Historical Society says more than 1,000 homes and businesses were destroyed; the Museum of Tulsa History says 35 city blocks, and that the 2001 state commission estimated 1,256 homes. Death estimates are disputed: the Oklahoma Historical Society gives 50 to 300, and the Museum of Tulsa History, citing the commission’s report, gives 100 to 300. No white person was ever sent to prison.

Greenwood Rising, opened in 2021 at 23 N. Greenwood Ave., tells that story, and John Hope Franklin Reconciliation Park is at 321 N. Detroit Ave. The City’s search for victims’ graves at Oaklawn Cemetery has continued into 2026. The Blue Dome District takes its name from the 1924 Blue Dome at 2nd and Elgin, once Tulsa’s first 24-hour service station and now the anchor of the city’s main nightlife district, with a Green Book marker outside Red’s Bar.

Cherry Street & Route 66

The Campbell Hotel stands on East 11th Street, which is Route 66, not on Cherry Street. Max Campbell built it in 1927 as the Casa Loma Hotel, and Route 66 moved onto 11th Street in 1932. Cherry Street is the old name for a stretch of 15th Street, loosely Peoria to Utica avenues, where Visit Tulsa counts about 20 restaurants plus antique and collectible shops; no walking time from the hotel is published, so plan on a short drive. Along Route 66, the Meadow Gold District has the Historic Meadow Gold Neon Sign, Buck Atom’s Cosmic Curios and Decopolis, and Aero stops at Peoria and 11th.

Maple Ridge & Midtown

Maple Ridge is the oil-boom mansion quarter south of downtown, listed on the National Register in 1983. Harwelden Mansion sits just outside it: oilman Earl P. Harwell’s 1923 English Tudor house is in the Riverside district, on one full city block above the Arkansas River. The mansion says it is minutes from the Gathering Place and riverfront trails but gives no distances, so this is a car or rideshare base, not a walking one. The Gathering Place has no admission fee, and Philbrook Museum of Art is open Wednesday–Sunday.

Before you book

Planning your stay

Getting around

Visit Tulsa calls Tulsa International Airport a 10-minute drive from downtown, and Uber and Lyft pick up at the upper-level Arrivals curb. MetroLink’s Route 201 runs between the airport and Denver Avenue Station about every 45 minutes on weekdays, roughly 5:40 a.m.–7 p.m., and also has a Saturday schedule; a 1-day pass is $4. Aero, the Route 700 bus rapid transit line, links downtown with the Peoria corridor every 20 minutes on weekdays and every 30 minutes on Sundays. Downtown is the walkable part of the city: Visit Tulsa says to expect a 15–20 minute drive to almost anywhere else.

Parking

Downtown has more than 1,000 on-street spaces at $1 an hour, with a two-hour limit enforced Monday–Friday 8 a.m.–5 p.m.; the Downtown Tulsa Partnership says street parking is free after 5 p.m. and on weekends. Hotel parking downtown is mostly valet: The Mayo Hotel charges $30 overnight, Hilton pages list Tulsa Club Hotel’s valet-only parking at both $28 and $30, the Courtyard’s valet is $30 a day at the Philtower garage about 0.1 mile away, and Hyatt Place lists $28 overnight valet with no self-parking shown. Harwelden Mansion has free on-site parking for overnight guests. Ask the Aloft, the Ambassador and The Campbell before you arrive. Greenwood Rising has no lot: use paid ParkMobile street parking on Archer and Greenwood, or the free lot at the Greenwood Cultural Center about a block away.

When to go

NWS normals put Tulsa’s high at 72.1°F in April, 79.7°F in May and 73.6°F in October, the comfortable months, against 93.6°F in July and 48.9°F in January; May is also wet, at a normal 5.73 inches. Route 66 Marathon weekend is November 20–22, 2026, the Chili Bowl Nationals run January 10–16, 2027 at Tulsa Expo Raceway, Mayfest is May 14–16, 2027 downtown, and Tulsa Oktoberfest is October 21–24, 2027 at River West Festival Park. Greenwood Rising is closed on Mondays.

Accessibility

Aero buses have level boarding at designated stops, and LinkAssist is MetroLink’s door-to-door ADA paratransit for riders who can’t use fixed routes. Greenwood Rising keeps all its galleries on the first floor, lends wheelchairs at the Admissions Desk and has accessible parking to the right of the main entrance. Harwelden Mansion has an entrance ramp and an elevator from the lower level to the 2nd-floor suites, and its Dogwood Suite has an accessible sink and shower. TravelOK lists The Campbell Hotel as ADA compliant with ADA rooms on an undated listing. We couldn’t confirm details for the other six stays, so ask before you book.

Before you book

Book early for Route 66 Marathon weekend, November 20–22, 2026: the race sold out for the first time in 2025, and organizers expect 2026 could be its largest yet. Mayfest and Oktoberfest are the other weekends to plan around. At Harwelden Mansion, ask for Primrose, Redbud, Dogwood or Lilac; cancellation takes 14 days’ notice with a 10% processing fee, and pets aren’t allowed. The Mayo Hotel checks in at 4 p.m. and out at noon, and Harwelden at 3 p.m. and 11 a.m. Hyatt Place’s minimum age to reserve is 21. Greenwood Rising says tickets must be reserved online in advance.