Ramsey Reminisces About Old Hangout

By Clytie Bunyan | THE OKLAHOMAN (Originally published May 9, 1998)

Not everyone gets to return to their childhood hangouts, but Arthur Ramsey recently did, reminiscing about summers frolicking in a lake in what has become one of Oklahoma City's most prestigious housing subdivisions.

Ramsey, 83, is the son of Walter "W.R." Ramsey, who in 1927 developed Stonebridge as a country home for his family. Arthur Ramsey was visiting Oklahoma City for ceremonies inducting him into the Oklahoma Journalism Hall of Fame.

The former newsreel cameraman recalled that his father dredged a 10-acre area and built a lake and the now-famous bridge of stone. The Ramsey family would leave their Heritage Hills home (next to what is now the Overholser Mansion) to spend dozens of summers on the 55-acre retreat on the northwest shores of Lake Overholser.

W.R.'s retreat included a lighthouse, fountain and beach house. The indulgent father also planned to build a runway for his two teen-age sons, who were pilots.

"But when one of the planes crashed at Wiley Post, dad sold the other one and that was the end of that," Arthur Ramsey said.

Arthur, along with his brother, Charles Ramsey, and sister, Marie Maril - who still lives in Oklahoma City - spent dozens of summers enjoying the waters at Ramsey Lake and the surrounding serenity.

The bridge, and some of the original stone retaining wall around the lake, are all that remain of W.R. Ramsey's original handiwork. However, the retreat laid the groundwork for expansion and further development of Stonebridge Lake Estate, an exclusive single-family area with some of the finest homes in the city.

"It's still undiscovered country out here and the people who live here love it," said Ted Zachary, president of the Stonebridge Homeowners Association.

Arthur Ramsey reminisced about growing up in Oklahoma City, becoming a newsreel cameraman at 15 when in 1927 a New York company sent him to photograph the president of the United States, Calvin Coolidge.

"I think they sent me because I was the only kid with all that equipment and I was the only one with sound. Dad spent about $150,000 on equipment, and I had a film studio in our basement and later a sound stage on West Main," he said.

Ramsey's childhood fancy became a career that took him to World War II and Hollywood.

Existing early aerial photos of the Stonebridge homestead and surrounding areas were taken by Ramsey from his own airplane.

"The landscape has changed much," he said while pointing out details on an old photograph of the area. "NW 39 Expressway wasn't even there, and that was Route 66 running beside the (Overholser) lake."

Ramsey, who still works in the oil business, said his father's legacy in Oklahoma City is not restricted to Stonebridge. W.R. Ramsey also put in street lights in the Harndale development and donated $100,000 to the YWCA that once was downtown.

"He was a generous man who gave back a lot to this community, more than many people realize," said Bill Moore, who befriended Arthur Ramsey during his research for a master's thesis. "Without the unique combination of Arthur's interest in film and his father's money, we would not have been able to preserve a whole lot of history."

During the Depression, W.R. and partners also built the 33-story Ramsey Tower, now called City Place, at Park and Robinson avenues.

The senior Ramsey, who died in 1947, grew up to hold several jobs - he worked in a shoe shop, started an ice cream plant and a soap factory, owned a laundry and became a banker - before discovering the lucrativeness of oil and gas leases.

He made his first $1 million in 1920 when a major company offered the sum to drill one of his wells in Louisiana, and "had Marshall Fields come in and redo the whole house," his son said.

"He was a pioneer in a lot of things, for a guy who was born in a log cabin in Gainsville, Texas, and came across the Red River in a tub," Ramsey chuckled.