Branches, Buttons, & Bootleggers: A Tour of the Tulsa Cave House

I have driven by the Tulsa Cave House my whole life, and always wondered about the story behind such a unique building. Was it a home, or a restaurant, or possibly a club of some kind?

Turns out…it has been all of those things and more during its long life, and I got to hear about the house’s colorful history during my recent tour.

Tours for the Tulsa Cave House are by appointment only, and I booked ours on Dan’s birthday as a fun small adventure to a place neither of us had been before.

Tours are scheduled by phone with the house’s owner, Linda, who asked how many would be in our group. (I didn’t realize until later how personalized she makes the tours for each group and how much attention and time she gives to each visitor!)

Our tour was at 3pm, and Linda was waiting to greet us with a big smile at the front door. She welcomed us in and invited us to have a seat in the front room while she pulled up anther chair and began to tell us about the house’s history.

About the Tulsa Cave House

“The Cave House in a landmark in Tulsa. It was built in 1924, as a Chicken Restaurant. Built during prohibition, it was a place you could quench your thirst! It not only has quirky architecture, but it probably best known for its stories, full of interesting and sometimes amusing information” (TripAdvisor).

Linda is a master storyteller, and she thoroughly entertained us with stories from the house’s past. I won’t share them all here, because that is a huge part of the tour and it is an absolute treat to hear them while exploring the very same spaces so many years later.

Somehow, as Linda tells about the colorful, creative, and sometimes odd people that inhabited those walls, you are irresistibly drawn in. You can almost hear the distant jingling of the crazy key lady on her bicycle, smell the fried chicken on your Route 66 road trip, and feel the Prohibition-era thrill of secret ballrooms and hidden tunnels right before a police raid.

Even more magical: every new visitor somehow becomes a part of the house’s long history, as Linda asks her guests to share their own memories of the place and weaves them into the tapestry of stories that she shares during the tour.

What We Saw at the Tulsa Cave House

The house is a curlicued stucco wonder full of collected treasures. Everywhere you look, your eye will catch something strange and marvelous.

Some items help to tell the stories of the house, like the parking meter in the corner or the jars of buttons.

Other collected pieces, like those filling the vintage kitchen, allow guests to imagine themselves back in time, visiting the former residents to drop off old rags and perhaps get a custom dress made by the lady of the house.

Many things have been created by Linda herself, whose artistic eye sees beauty where others do not (which may have been a prerequisite to buying the Cave House in the first place!)

From the branches decorating ceilings and hallways, to old bones turned into sculpture, to broken window glass from an overnight intruder transformed into a lovely suncatcher, the house is full of nature-turned-art and things you won’t see anywhere else.

What We Learned

The Cave House’s background as a bootlegger’s hideout is a big part of its history, but I didn’t know that Prohibition wasn’t repealed in Oklahoma until 1959!

More About the History of Prohibition

“Prohibition” was a 13-year period in U.S. history in which “the manufacture, transportation, and sale of intoxicating liquors was banned” nationwide. It started in 1920 with the passage of the 18th Amendment, which prohibited making, selling, transporting, or possessing liquor (except for reasons of scientific research, which must have made those lab parties way more fun), and went all the way until 1933 when the 21st Amendment repealed it.  

The move toward Prohibition was decades in the making, though, with local temperance movements across the country deploring the evils of liquor and its corrupting influence on society. Interestingly, it wasn’t until the US entered World War I that President Wilson signed a temporary order banning alcohol as a wartime grain-saving effort. Just 11 months later, the US Congress quickly turned that temporary order into national law with the Volstead Act as part of the 18th Amendment.             

The Oklahoma Territory watched was what happening on the national level and said, “Hold my beer.” Or rather…don’t, because as it prepared to become the 46th state in the Union in 1907 (long before the 18th Amendment), Oklahoma’s legislators wrote the prohibition of alcohol into the new state constitution. This state law remained in effect long after passage of the 21st Amendment…all the way until 1959.

Oklahoma Sooners and Bootleggers – Apparently We Don’t Follow Rules Well

Starting with the “sooners” who opted not to wait for the Land Run of 1889 to claim their piece of Oklahoma real estate, to the enterprising “bootleggers” who – true to their predecessors’ habit of smuggling rum in their boots – delivered legally purchased liquor from neighboring states surreptitiously to speakeasys like the Tulsa Cave House…apparently we Oklahomans don’t follow rules well.

The Cave House was a bustling restaurant during that time, offering chicken to hungry daytime customers and “chicken” to thirsty evening patrons. However, it always had to stay one step ahead of the police and protect its customers from raids intended to catch boozy criminals in the act.

This meant that secrecy, passwords, hidden rooms, and escape tunnels were all a necessary part of staying in business. The Cave House had plenty of these…some sadly lost to time, but many brought back to life through the stories and photos Linda shares.

Tulsa Cave House – Worth a Visit?

I was already planning my next visit before we left. It’s the kind of place that, once you go, you’ll want to invite someone to bring back, and then someone else to bring back again. It is completely unique, utterly charming, and a Tulsa landmark that you know you’ve wanted to see inside.

About the Cave House

Location: 1623 Charles Page Blvd, Tulsa, OK

Cost: $15 Adults, $7.50 12 and under

Hours: Appointment Only

Website: Tulsa Cave House | Facebook (there is also an older website, but it’s not up-to-date)

Learn More: Tulsa Cave House | Discover Oklahoma TV