Old era ends, new beginnings to come

‘Best days are ahead’ for Marble City community

Cherokee Nation tribal officials and leaders from the community gathered at the old Marble City School gymnasium on Friday to kick off a demolition event which will culminate with construction of the new Marble City Community Center.

“It’s sad to see the old building go, but it’s very exciting there will be a new one in its place,” said town historian Mildred Taylor, who provided archival photographs of the venerable structure.

According to Taylor, the Marble City School was built in 1911, at the same time the Citizens State Bank building was built, appropriately enough, of Marble City marble. The original school building was a two-story with a gabled roof, and was built diagonally facing the corner at Main Street and Seminole Avenue with entrances on all four sides. The front entrance facing the northwest corner, as well as those on the northeast and southwest sides, were elaborately outlined with a pattern in the stonework. The southeast access at the back of the school was only an entry door, Taylor said.

Taylor said an early Marble City resident, Aileen Choate Foreman, who was born in 1913, was interviewed in 1989. She recounted attending school at Marble City, and gave this description of the building: “Upon entering at the front or back of the building, you faced a staircase. The lower grades went around the staircase to their classrooms, and the high school students went up to the top floor.” Mrs. Foreman couldn’t remember exactly when the high school students began to be bussed into Sallisaw, but she started high school at Marble City.

Other information shared by Taylor referred to an article from the Sequoyah Democrat and the Vian and Muldrow newspapers dated Nov. 18, 1927. The article told of the Marble City Sequoyah High School girls playing the Dwight Mission girls in a basketball game. This is the first known reference of the school being Sequoyah High School. (At that time, the current Sequoyah High School in Tahlequah was an orphanage.)

Sometime later, circa 1930, the top floor of the school building was removed and a flat roof was constructed. The primer (kindergarten) and first grade classroom was on the stage, second grade on the southeast corner, fifth and sixth grades shared a classroom in the northwest corner, and seventh and eight grades shared a classroom in the northeast corner.

In 1948, three classrooms were built on the back of the building. Primer remained on the stage, first grade was on the west end of the new annex, second grade on the east end, and third and fourth grades shared the center room. In 1955, three classrooms were built on the northeast side.

About 1958, the front of the building was extended and the roof was raised to make room for a gymnasium. Concrete blocks were used for the extension, and a gabled roof was constructed.

In 1986, the school was moved to its present location north of town to the Flute Springs community, and remained stagnant for several years until it began being used as a food pantry by the Marble City Community Food Pantry. The new building will continue to be used for that purpose.

Clifton Pettit, who serves as president of the food pantry organization, said the food pantry will continue to be open to the community, but will be based out of a warehouse located north on Main Street from the old gym location while construction of the new facility is underway.

“We’re just so excited this is finally taking place,” Marble City Mayor Tamara Hibbard said. “We just appreciate the Cherokee Nation chief, deputy chief, council and the administration for everything they’ve done and are doing for our community.”

Although there were rumors that the building would be “blown up” on Friday to begin the demolition process, David Kerns, vice president of MASKA Builders of Jenks, which has the contract for the demolition and new construction, said plans are to “knock it down and build a new facility,” and that the current structure will not be “blown up.”

The new center will house a multipurpose gym, complete with a commercial kitchen, a clothing bank and a wellness center with workout equipment, according to project manager Calvin Henrie, also employed by MASKA Builders.

“It’s an $8.9 million project. The new center will measure 226,000 feet and it will take 14 months to build, with plans to begin the work in a few weeks,” Henrie said. There will also be a patio and playground equipment for the children.

Attending the kickoff to the demolition and new construction event were Cherokee Nation Principal Chief Chuck Hoskin, Deputy Principal Chief Bryan Warner and tribal councilmen E.O. Smith (Dist. 5) and Daryl Legg (Dist. 6) who represent Sequoyah County, along with other tribal and Marble City representatives.

“It’s been a year since we began plans for this project,” Legg said. “Today marks the beginning, and I love it. It’s going to be great for the community, and we just want to let them know Marble City hasn’t been forgotten.”

Smith recalled playing a basketball game against Marble City when he was in the fifth grade.

“It was a big deal for us to come from Vian to Marble City and play against them. I remember scoring four points in that basketball goal,” he said, pointing to the basketball goal which is still located inside the gym.

“There are a lot of good memories here.”

The building still has a lot of boxes of items left over from the food pantry and clothing bank which will need to be removed, along with some of the fixtures that will be saved for the new building, Pettit said. Some include parts of the gym floor and some of the existing marble stone. The building was one of the last WPA buildings to be constructed in Sequoyah County, Taylor said.

Hoskin called the plans to demolish the old structure and replace it with a new center a “milestone” for the community.

Hoskin said although it may be difficult to erase the history and move into a chapter that requires tearing down the “historical significance” of the old building that is special to the community, he admires the way Warner and leaders from the community went about making plans for the new center.

“It takes the community wanting to make improvements and the Cherokee Nation be3hind them to continue the progress for this community,” Hoskin said.

“This community has seen a lot of history, but the thoughtful way in which this has happened will make all the difference in the world. It’s not just a circumstance where you wake up one day and think the Cherokee Nation is building a building and wonder what this new building will look like. The people here know what this new building will look like. It’s such a simple idea. It’s difficult seeing something like this torn down, but the fact that we’re preserving some of these elements for the new building is special,” Hoskin said.

The chief said there are a lot of ways to measure progress at the Cherokee Nation.

“We can measure it all in numbers, from our billions of dollars in budget, or the number of programs, such as health care, or the number of employees we have,” he said, noting the nation’s current 11,000 employees. “We can do it all in numbers with our economic impact, and it is amazing the progress of the Cherokee Nation when we measure in numbers.

“But I think what we ought to do is remember the real measurement of the progress in the Cherokee Nation is what happens at the community level, whether our communities remain alive for generations to come.

“There are a lot of communities — such as Marble City, Belfonte, Nicut and Kenwood — where the Cherokee language is still spoken and a lot of things are still alive, and we want them to stay alive. We want to be purposeful in saving it,” Hoskin said.

“It matters to me if Marble City is here in the next generation and generations to come. We measure our progress not by our businesses or even health care, although that’s all important. But let’s measure our progress by acknowledging that these communities will be here in generations to come.

“Progress is how we measure ourselves across the reservation and the generations ahead. Marble City has a brighter future, and its best days are ahead.

“All the spread sheets are important, but in our Cherokee communities, such as in Marble City, the best days are ahead, and that’s good. That’s the real measure of progress.”

Top, the old Marble City gym to be demolished; above, architectural rendering of new community center.

Cherokee Nation tribal officials and Marble City community representatives at kickoff ceremonies for the demolition of the old Marble City gym holding pieces of the old gym floor, which will be saved for the new community center, are (from left) Clifton Pettit, president of the food pantry organization; District 5 Cherokee Nation Councilman E.O. Smith; Cherokee Nation Principal Chief Chuck Hoskin; Marble City Mayor Tamara Hibbard; Cherokee Nation Deputy Principal Chief Bryan Warner; and District 5 Cherokee Nation Councilman Daryl Legg. LYNN MCCULLEY | TIMES