TULSA, Okla. — The Post 1 Legion building is settled quietly off Peoria Avenue. It’s old-school awnings, gardens, and picturesque view of the Tulsa skyline signal its legacy.
More than 500 legion members have called the building home. Soon, they’ll have to make memories elsewhere.
"I opposed the sale of the property myself, anyway because we’ve been there for a hundred years," John Nelkorn, longtime member, said when he first learned of the sale a few weeks ago.
Bryan D. Davis, President of the Joe Carson Post Building Association sent the following statement to 2 News Oklahoma.
“It is with mixed emotions that the Joe Carson Post Building Association announced the successful sale of our historic building to our membership last night. The selling of the building, although painful to our membership, became a necessity due to the cost of operating the eighty-year-old building. Moving forward, we are enthusiastic to move our membership into a new state-of-the-art facility which will enable American Legion Post 1 to continue to proudly serve our local veterans. On behalf of the Joe Carson Post Building Association, I would like to thank Family & Children Services for their generous terms which will allow Post 1 to continue to operate as the membership relocates. This is a wonderful opportunity provided to our membership that we may relocate to a more functional space enabling Post 1 to thrive for the next eighty years and continue the valuable mission of the American Legion serving our veterans, our community, and our children. Once again, I would like to express our gratitude to the community and to Family & Children Services for their support of American Legion Post 1.”
"The building needs some repair, but some of the stuff we’ve got up, that’s posted, we would have to take the inside walls with us to take the history that’s there," Nelkorn said, "It would not be an easy move.
He’s wary of some of the things surrounding it.
A media relations rep with the legion told us they would have no comment – until a higher level investigation is complete.
"There’s a lot of our members that are very elderly. They can’t always make it, they don’t come in," Auxiliary President Kim Fields said, "But they still want their membership. I feel that they owe the membership answers."
Davis thanked Family and Children’s Services for their, “generous terms” in the sale of the building. He’s looking to the future, hoping the next building will take them into the next eighty years.
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