Overholser Mansion and Fred Drummond Home renamed to honor women
Published: December 10th, 2020
The City Sentinel is an independent, locally-owned newspaper based in Oklahoma City.
OKLAHOMA CITY — The Oklahoma Historical Society (OHS) Board of Directors has voted to change the names of two historic homes in order to recognize the contributions of women to the history and culture of Oklahoma’s communities.
The Fred Drummond Home in Hominy will now be known as the Fred and Addie Drummond Home, and the Henry Overholser Mansion in Oklahoma City will now be known as the Henry and Anna Overholser Mansion.
The names now represent the couples who, together, helped the Hominy and Oklahoma City communities flourish in their early days.
The Henry and Anna Overholser Mansion (https://www.overholsermansion.org/) is located at 405 NW 15th St. in Oklahoma City. The Fred and Addie Drummond Home (http://hominyheritage.weebly.com/drummond-home-photos.html) is located at 305 N. Price Ave. in Hominy.
“The OHS is proud to celebrate the centennial year of women’s suffrage by taking these women out of the shadows of history,” said Kathy Dickson, director of Museums and Historic Sites for the Oklahoma Historical Society.
“Although the changes are long overdue, adding Addie and Anna’s names to the official name of these sites reminds visitors that both women and men built communities and were central figures in the creating what we now know as Oklahoma,” Dickson added.
Henry Overholser (https://www.okhistory.org/publications/enc/entry.php?entry=OV003&l=O)
moved in Oklahoma City shortly after the Land Run of 1889, where he soon built six business buildings and was elected president of the board of trade. By 1894 he was elected to the Oklahoma County Commission, and he continued to boost civic causes and the expansion of the city.
Within six months of his arrival in Oklahoma City Henry married Anna Ione Murphy and the two were active in Oklahoma City social circles. The couple built a 20-room Victorian mansion in Anton Classen’s Highland Park Addition, the area now known as Heritage Hills, completing it in 1904.
Anna made their home a center of society in early Oklahoma City.
The Henry and Anna Overholser Mansion was listed in the National Register of Historic Places in 1970, and was acquired by the OHS in 1972. It is operated by Preservation Oklahoma, a private non-profit dedicated to preserving Oklahoma’s historic places.
In 1886, Fred Drummond (https://www.okhistory.org/sites/drummondhome) moved to Pawhuska and worked as a licensed government trader. He married Addie Gentner in 1890, and by 1895 the couple had saved enough money to buy a partnership in the trading company for which he worked.
In 1904, the Drummonds formed the Hominy Trading Company, and soon expanded into ranching, banking and real estate.
The three-story, Victorian-style Fred and Addie Drummond Home in Hominy was completed in 1905.
The home was deeded to the OHS in 1980, and listed in the National Register of Historic Places in 1981.
The mission of the Oklahoma Historical Society is to collect, preserve and share the history and culture of the state of Oklahoma and its people.
Founded in 1893 by members of the Territorial Press Association, the OHS maintains museums, historic sites and affiliates across the state. Through its research archives, exhibits, educational programs and publications the OHS chronicles the rich history of Oklahoma.
For more information about the OHS, visit okhistory.org.