Woman Helps To Restore Chandler’s Rich Architectural Heritage

Chandler, Oklahoma has a rich history, and if you look closely you'll find a lot of its history is in the buildings themselves.

The buildings themselves are too numerous to mention, but the list includes schools, gas stations, and even an old armory.

It was not an easy task to get so many building on a historic register, but there are plenty of Chandler area residents who pitched in.

Sally Ferrell is one of those. She's spent most of her life in Lincoln County, but didn't really grasp its historical significance until she spent time away.

Ferrell and her husband spent a year in the Washington D.C. area in 1980. That was the last year of Henry Bellmon's term as a U.S. senator, and Don Ferrell served as Bellmon's press aide.

Ferrell was taken with not only the rich history of the area, but the remarkable preservation efforts she observed. She served as a volunteer tour guide at Robert E. Lee's home and also at the Carlyle House in Alexandria, Virginia.

She returned to Chandler with a new passion, to restore the history in the Lincoln county town's area.

"How exciting it is to have so much left of our architectural heritage," Ferrell said. " You live with it, but you don't notice it."

The Ferrells published the Lincoln County News, and Sally Ferrell began a series of preservation stories called "Significant Scenes."

Chandler currently has twenty buildings on the National Register of Historic Places, thanks to efforts of the Lincoln County Historical Society. Ferrell seems satisfied with Chandler's current state of preservation, but she's always looking.

"I'm through for now," said Ferrell. "But I'm always interested in patting someone on the back for restoring something."