Booker T. Washington Recreation Center In Sapulpa Set To Receive Remodel While Preserving History

The Booker T. Washington Recreation Center has served as the Sapulpa community center for more than 50 years. Before that, it was a school for the African American community during segregation. 

The walls of the Booker T. Washington Recreation Center in Sapulpa hold decades of history.

“This gym was the place where we gathered, everybody. Girls, guys, from first graders to college guys, this was the hang out,” said Rick Bruner. 

Part of that history includes Bruner.

“It really goes way back because it was a place where I went to elementary school,” he said.

Rick runs the place now, but it first opened up as an all-black school during segregation in the early 1900s.

“This one used to be a classroom but it's more of a storage room now, but this one I'll be glad to see tore down,” he said. 

The City of Sapulpa said it's time for a revamp.

“We've just kind of done little things here and there to keep the building going with hopes and dreams over the years of doing something really big and really exciting and we're finally to that point,” said Sapulpa Parks director Susan Bencke. 

In 2020, voters passed a bond for some renovations to the building, but because of rising inflation, designers had to go back to the drawing board.

“We can't necessarily get everything that we wanted when we went out for the GO bond so we're looking at the whole design and dividing it into multiple phases,” Bencke said. 

“I came up with this slogan, 'it's time to make new history,'” said Bruner. 

While shiny new equipment and pictures would eventually fill the old classrooms, Bruner also looked forward to preserving the history that filled them before.

“It means a lot and that's why this space is so important to us.”

The projects have been broken down into phases to help with costs. The city says it hopes to begin construction in 2025.