Cave House

Tulsa's Cave House is one of the city's most unusual pieces of vernacular architecture. The stone building on West Charles Page Boulevard has an irregular, cave-like appearance that has inspired decades of rumors about tunnels, speakeasies and Prohibition-era activity. The structure began as a restaurant or roadside business in the 1920s and developed an increasingly eccentric appearance over time. Its location near the old highway corridor west of downtown placed it within an area associated with travelers, industry and Tulsa's rapidly growing oil economy. Stories about hidden rooms and underground passages are part of the property's appeal, but not every dramatic claim is equally well documented. Guided tours, when available, are the best way to separate the known building history from later legend. What is undeniable is the architecture: rough stone, unusual interior spaces and a form unlike almost anything else in Tulsa. The Cave House is a good reminder that roadside architecture did not need to be polished or conventional to become memorable.