First National Center

The First National Center is a striking 456-foot tall art deco skyscraper built in downtown Oklahoma City in 1931. Over the course of  93 years, the tower has changed owners 5 times, had 2 major additions, and several restorations. Today, its 33 floors hold 149 hotel rooms, 210 apartments, 3 restaurants, 2 bars, 3 stores, event venues, and even a barbershop. 

The First National Bank was founded on the same day as Oklahoma City, April 22nd, 1889. It started as a tent pitched on what would be designated Main and Broadway, eventually upgrading to a Pine one-story building.  By 1891, the bank was able to move into what was known as the Huckins Estate building, a 3 story native stone building on the same cross streets.  Then, another move happened, this time a block west, into another 3 story building. The building hosted a meeting lodge upstairs for masonic orders and had a stable out back filled with horses for bank employees to ride in their spare time. 

First National Bank 1930-1986

Eventually, that property was torn down to build a different skyscraper, and soon First National would make the decision to pursue a skyscraper of their own, spending over $1 million dollars in 1930 on the site at First and Robinson where the tower now stands. 

Construction took about a year, and after it was finished one month behind schedule, the First National Building contained more aluminum than any building in the world and was the tallest building in the state. The First National Bank and Trust company invited the public to its opening on December 14th, 1931,  where 32 armed guards in armored vehicles transferred $45 million in cash and securities to the new vault. 

4 Murals depicting the history of Oklahoma, from the Louisiana transfer to the Land Run, were also completed in 1931 in the Great Hall. The great hall is a high-ceilinged room coated in marble and granite, surrounded by teller booths, and was the main lobby for the bank. The murals were created by renowned art critic and painter Edgar Spier Cameron, who traveled from Chicago to complete the murals as the last big project of his career. 

Over the years, the bank and building flourished, adding drive through banking service underground, alongside a 13-story parking garage in 1956. In 1957, they completed construction of an attached office building which housed 8 new businesses on the ground floor, and celebrated their 100,000th customer with a free $100 dollar savings account. 15 years later, another addition would be built, this time a 14-story annex on the Broadway street side. The growth continued, with deposits reaching $1.1 Billion in 1979, making the First National Bank and Trust Company Oklahoma’s largest bank.

First National’s meteoric growth was brought to a halt with the worldwide oil and gas collapse of the 1980s. Between 1985 and 86, thousands of drilling wells across the U.S. were stopped due to an excess of oil, leading to crashing prices. This crisis hit Oklahoma’s oil-reliant economy particularly hard, and by July 14th, 1986 First National Bank had lost more than $100 million dollars, joining 47 other Oklahoma banks by going bankrupt.

First Interstate Bank of Oklahoma City 1986-1990

First Interstate Bancorp out of Los Angeles saw an opportunity to take over the bank and building for cheap after the bank’s failure, assuming $1.5 billion in deposits and $1.2 billion in loans. They reopened the bank only one day after the bankruptcy, as First Interstate Bank of Oklahoma City on July 15th, 1986. Despite the name change, financial troubles continued, needing additional assistance from the FDIC, and the building’s increasing age leading to the need for costly restorations. First Interstate only used 30% of the building’s 33 floors by 1988, and the building’s condition led to disagreements about the lease. 

Boatmen’s First National Bank of Oklahoma 1991-2000s

In 1991, the business was sold again, for $86 million to Boatmen’s Bancshares, and was opened with another name change, this time as Boatmen’s First National Bank of Oklahoma. The tower’s problems persisted, with Boatmen’s inheriting the lease disagreements, leading to only a quarter of the building being occupied, until Boatmen’s decided to vacate the building, setting up headquarters in the nearby Leadership Square tower. This departure marks the last time the building was used as a bank. 

First National Center 2006-Present

In 2006, the building changed hands again, getting sold to The First National partnership, a real estate conglomerate, for $21 million dollars. The group, led by CEO Aaron Yashouafar, announced plans to renovate and improve the building as an investment in the growing downtown. By 2015, dozens of properties owned by Yashouafar’s group across the country went into bankruptcy, including the First National Building. Legal troubles followed, with tenants at buildings from New York City to Las Vegas raising issues of broken elevators, windows, and flooded residencies.

The First National Center also reported serious concerns, with broken elevators and no air conditioning, due to bills not being paid. A Federal Judge placed the building in receivership, restoring air conditioning and elevator service to the building. Yashouafar would go on to be indicted for a number of financial crimes and pled guilty to felony embezzlement in a separate case in Nevada. 

Jim Parrack, a local real estate broker, was given receivership of the building, and by 2017 was able to find a buyer. This time it was sold to two local investors, Gary Brooks and Charlie Nicholas, for $23 million dollars. Over $275 million dollars was spent restoring the building, including converting the 1957 and 1972 additions into a 700-car parking garage. Finally reopening in 2022, the great banking hall that used to be filled with bank managers and lines of account holders now hosts Tellers, a restaurant that incorporates unique architecture into its design, with the original line of Teller booths still standing.

Even the walk-in vault in the basement from its banking days has been transformed into a bar specializing in selling obscure spirits. The Building now hosts an upscale hotel called The National, and apartments called The First Residencies at First National. In 2018, The First National Center was listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

The story of the First National parallels the story of Oklahoma City, and the state as a whole. What stood as a barren prairie on April 22nd 1889 became a sea of tents in a matter of hours. In a matter of a year, tents turned into cabins, native stone buildings, and roads. 42 years later, the tallest building in the state was built.  48 years after that, deposits from the children of pioneers added up to over a billion dollars. 

Gallery Below of First National Center

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