Picture yourself in this area back in the 1880s. In the days before
the Land Run, when all of the land in this part of the state
belonged to the Federal Government. In these days, there were no
roads built along the lines of the section. The only indications of
where the section lines were located were the wooden posts and
stones that were set at the section corners. These monuments were
set by Theodore H. Barrett (Deputy Surveyor for the Government Land
Office) in his survey of 1873, when he and his crew divided the
Council Grove township into sections and quarter sections.
The SW Quarter of Section 17, T12N R4W was part of the Ft. Reno
Forest Preserve, created by Presidential Executive Order dated
December 26th, 1885. This preserve served to supply timber for the
needs of Ft. Reno, which had no timber growing in the area of the
fort itself. By the April 19, 1889 Land Run, much of the Forest
Preserve had been released for settlement.
During the Land Run, Levi Braniger laid claim to the
approximately 160 acres in the SW quarter of this section. There is
no indication on whether Mr. Braniger was a "Sooner", or if he made
the Land Run in the legitimate manner. His claimed lands were eight
miles Northwest of Oklahoma City, and neither Bethany nor Lake
Overholser existed.
In 1923 one of Braniger's sons subdivided the heavily wooded
south half of the property into residential lots. This became
Woodlawn Park, a rectangle of approximately eighty acres, measuring
one-half mile east-west and one-quarter mile north-south.
An incorporated town in Oklahoma County, Woodlawn Park is one of
several urban islands surrounded by other towns of the Oklahoma
City metropolitan area. Woodlawn Park lies within the city of
Bethany, which is itself surrounded by Oklahoma City. It is bounded
by Council Road on the west, Glade Avenue on the east, Northwest
Thirty-sixth Street on the south, and Northwest Thirty-ninth Street
on the north. Within the boundaries, between Thirty-seventh and
Thirty-eighth streets lies a long park, the center of the town. A
few homes were constructed in the late 1920s, but most of the
development occurred in the late 1940s and through the 1950s.
Woodlawn Park was incorporated as a town in July 1952 as Bethany
began to envelop the neighborhood. The 1960 census recorded 129
inhabitants. Woodlawn Park's large lots were gradually sold, and
housing construction continued into the 1990s. After peaking at 220
residents in 1970, the community's population declined to 161 in
2000. The town is 100% residential, and supports no commercial
development. A mayor and board of trustees are elected, but city
services are provided by Bethany and Oklahoma City.
