Guthrie, Oklahoma: The Town Where a State Began
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Some Oklahoma towns preserve a few historic buildings.
Guthrie preserves an entire chapter of Oklahoma’s beginning.
Brick streets, Victorian storefronts, old government buildings and ornate commercial blocks still fill the historic center of this Logan County town. Walking through downtown Guthrie today, it is easy to see why the city feels different from almost anywhere else in Oklahoma.
This was once the center of territorial government.
Then, for a brief but important period, it became the capital of a brand-new state.
A Town Born Almost Overnight
Guthrie’s story is closely tied to the opening of the Oklahoma District to settlement in 1889.
When the land opening began on April 22, thousands of settlers poured into the territory. Guthrie developed with extraordinary speed and soon became one of the most important communities in the region.
What had been a small place along the railroad rapidly filled with businesses, newspapers, banks, hotels and government offices.
Oklahoma was being built.
And Guthrie was near the center of it.
Oklahoma’s First Capital
Guthrie served as the territorial capital from 1890 until statehood in 1907.
When Oklahoma entered the Union on November 16, 1907, Guthrie naturally became the new state’s first capital.
For several years, the decisions involved in building a new state government were made here.
That changed in 1910.
Oklahoma voters selected Oklahoma City as the new capital, and state government moved south. The Oklahoma Historical Society records the capital change as taking place following the June 11, 1910 election.
For Guthrie, losing the capital could have erased much of the town’s prominence.
Instead, something unusual happened.
Much of the city that had grown during those territorial and early-statehood years remained.
A Downtown That Survived
That surviving architecture is now one of Guthrie’s greatest treasures.
The Guthrie Historic District contains an exceptional concentration of late nineteenth- and early twentieth-century commercial, residential and civic buildings. Its importance earned it designation as a National Historic Landmark in 1999.
Walk the downtown blocks and the details begin to tell the story.
Decorative brickwork.
Tall windows.
Stone cornices.
Old storefronts.
Second-story offices.
Buildings constructed when Oklahoma was still a territory.
Unlike a reconstructed historic village, these are the actual streets and buildings around which a growing territorial capital developed.
That authenticity makes Guthrie particularly valuable.
Where Newspapers Helped Build Oklahoma
Government was only part of Guthrie’s influence.
The city also became an important publishing center.
Frank Hilton Greer arrived in Guthrie in 1889 with modest resources and went on to build the State Capital Company, which became a major printing operation and published some of Oklahoma’s most widely circulated newspapers.
Newspapers were extraordinarily important in territorial Oklahoma.
They advertised businesses.
Debated politics.
Promoted towns.
Reported land openings.
And helped create a shared identity among communities being established across the territory.
In that sense, some of Oklahoma’s earliest story-telling happened in Guthrie too.
The Town That Didn’t Tear Down Its Past
Perhaps Guthrie’s greatest modern significance is not simply that history happened there.
It is that so much of the physical evidence survived.
Many American downtowns lost historic buildings to demolition, redevelopment or decades of neglect.
Guthrie retained an unusually large collection.
Today the downtown remains home to restaurants, antique stores, boutiques and other local businesses, meaning the district is not simply preserved scenery—it continues to function as a living town.
That combination is exactly what makes a place interesting for Handmade Oklahoma.
History is still being lived inside the historic buildings.
Why Guthrie Matters
Oklahoma has towns connected to cattle trails.
Towns built by oil.
Railroad towns.
Mining towns.
Route 66 towns.
But Guthrie occupies a particularly unusual place in that collection.
For a time, it was where Oklahoma itself was governed.
Its buildings witnessed the transition from territory to statehood, the growth of early Oklahoma businesses and newspapers, and the political struggles surrounding the location of the state capital.
More than a century later, much of that landscape can still be experienced on foot.
That makes Guthrie more than a charming Oklahoma small town.
It is one of the places where Oklahoma became Oklahoma.
Explore Oklahoma
Historic Downtown Guthrie
Guthrie, Oklahoma
Allow time to walk rather than simply drive through downtown. Much of what makes Guthrie special is found in individual architectural details and the relationship between the historic buildings.
Look for:
- Victorian-era commercial architecture
- Historic brick storefronts
- Former territorial-era government and business buildings
- Original architectural lettering and stonework
- The Oklahoma Territorial Museum and Carnegie Library
- Historic publishing sites
- Brick streets and sidewalks
- Locally owned shops and restaurants occupying old buildings
The Oklahoma Territorial Museum and Carnegie Library is a particularly natural companion stop for understanding the period when Guthrie served as the center of territorial government.
Handmade Oklahoma Tip: Guthrie should be a high-priority photography town. Don't photograph only entire buildings. Capture cornices, old lettering, windows, brickwork, signs, doorways and street perspectives. Those details could ultimately create an entire Guthrie collection rather than a single photograph.
Along the Route
National Route 66 Museum / Elk City Museum Complex — Elk City, Oklahoma
Explore the Elk City Museum Complex →
Continue the Journey
Visit the Coleman Theatre on Route 66 →
Explore more Oklahoma Route 66 →
Small Town Oklahoma is part of Handmade Oklahoma’s Visual History of Oklahoma—a continuing collection preserving the communities, architecture and stories that helped shape our state.