Skirvin Hilton Hotel

• 1. Introduction

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  On the 26th of September 1911, the Skirvin Hotel swung open its doors in downtown Oklahoma City, offering 224 rooms across a ten-story, two-winged tower. Over a century later, that same building still stands, the oldest hotel in the city, and it carries a reputation that extends far beyond its brass fixtures and restored exterior walls. NBA teams have blamed it for losses. A Kyrie Irving film project was announced because of it. And room 1015 holds a story that no one has ever been able to prove or fully disprove. What made William Balser Skirvin build this place? How did it survive decades of decline and nearly two decades sitting empty? And why does a hotel in the middle of Oklahoma occupy such an outsized place in American sports folklore?

• 2. Bill Skirvin's Vision

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  William Balser "Bill" Skirvin founded the hotel that bears his name, and he was by all accounts a man who left a mark wherever he went. Reporters Steve Lackmeyer and Jason Kersey, both from The Oklahoman, described Skirvin as "a notorious womanizer and drinker," and the hotel's 10th floor earned a reputation during his era for gambling and other vices. His personal life spilled into the building's lore in ways that are difficult to separate from legend. His family believed he kept his assistant and bookkeeper, Mabel Luty, as his mistress. She outlived him. Whatever his private conduct, Skirvin built something that endured. His daughter, Perle Mesta, became the ambassador to Luxembourg under President Harry Truman, suggesting the family moved in circles that stretched well beyond Oklahoma. On the 24th of September 1912, former President and then-candidate Theodore Roosevelt spoke from a Skirvin Hotel balcony to a large crowd of supporters during his Bull Moose Party campaign tour through Oklahoma.

• 3. Growth and Decline

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  By 1925, a third wing had been added to the original two-winged structure, pushing the building to 12 stories. Between 1929 and 1930, all three wings were raised to 13 floors, and the hotel reached a peak of 525 rooms. In 1945, local hotelier Dan James bought the Skirvin Hotel and the adjacent Skirvin Tower. James invested in the property over the years, adding air conditioning, a new swimming pool, and updated furniture to keep it relevant for tourists visiting Oklahoma. Despite those efforts, occupancy eventually collapsed, and the hotel closed in 1988. For the next 19 years, the building sat abandoned in downtown Oklahoma City.

• 4. The Long Road Back

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  In 1999, Oklahoma City Mayor Kirk Humphreys appointed a Skirvin Solutions Committee to determine whether the building could be saved. The committee toured other restored historic hotels, studied how those projects were financed, and in October 2000 recommended that the city explore a public-private partnership. Oklahoma City acquired the building in May 2002 for $2.875 million and issued a request for proposals later that year. A firm called Partners in Development, assembled by principal John Weeman, proposed a $42.1 million renovation to re-open the property as a full-service Hilton-branded hotel operated by Marcus Hotels and Resorts. The Oklahoma City Urban Renewal Authority selected Partners in Development as the developer in January 2004. Weeman bought the building from the city in 2005 and drew on a mix of his own investment alongside tax increment financing, grants, Empowerment Zone credits, historic tax credits, and New Markets tax credits. The total renovation cost came to about $51 million. When the Skirvin Hilton re-opened in 2007, the project had restored the original exterior finish, installed historically accurate windows, reconfigured the guest rooms, and added new elevators. The expanded room sizes reduced the count from 525 to 225, with roughly 22,000 square feet of meeting rooms and common areas.

• 5. The Haunting Legend

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  Room 1015 carries the hotel's darkest story. As the legend holds, founder W. B. Skirvin had an affair with a maid named "Effie" that resulted in a pregnancy. To shield his reputation, Skirvin supposedly locked her in room 1015, where she eventually jumped from a window, killing herself and her unborn child. The death was reportedly recorded as the suicide of a saleswoman to suppress negative attention. Hotel staff have described objects moving on their own and unexplained sounds at night. There is, however, no real-life evidence that "Effie" ever existed. The 2010 visit by the New York Knicks produced the most cited episode in the hotel's sports folklore. The Knicks blamed their loss to the Oklahoma City Thunder on the haunting. The same year, Chicago Bulls players reported doors slamming shut by themselves and strange noises outside their rooms. In June 2012, the Miami Heat were staying at the hotel during the NBA Finals, bringing the story to national attention once more. The Baylor Lady Bears, defending NCAA Division I women's basketball champions, later stayed at the Skirvin and lost 82-81 to Louisville in the regional semifinals of the 2013 NCAA Division I women's basketball tournament, one of the biggest upsets in tournament history. In January 2019, Brooklyn Nets star Kyrie Irving announced he was producing a feature film about the hotel's purported paranormal activity.

• 6. Ownership and Legacy

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  The Skirvin Hilton is managed by Marcus Hotels and Resorts under the Hilton brand and holds membership in Historic Hotels of America, the official program of the National Trust for Historic Preservation. In 2022, ownership passed to a joint venture between Ortus Hotel Investments, LLC, a group of local investors, and the Chickasaw Nation's Sovereign Properties Holdco, LLC. In 2025, the hotel completed a further $22 million renovation, adding another chapter to a building that has now cycled through founding, expansion, sale, abandonment, rescue, and reinvention. The Chickasaw Nation's involvement in a structure that Theodore Roosevelt once addressed from its balcony carries its own resonance, given the Nation's deep roots in the region the hotel has served since 1911.