The Kennedy Mansion built in 1925 by Dr. Samuel Kennedy
The Kennedy Mansion is now a quiet bed and breakfast with six guest rooms, hosting numerous weddings, private parties and corporate retreats throughout the year.He was Tulsa's first doctor. Dr. Samuel Kennedy was one of Tulsa's first doctors. He was an early opinion shaper for the community. Dr. Kennedy's signature was one of the signatures on the now lost original charter for the city of Tulsa.
But the question remain whether Samuel Kennedy is indeed responsible - unintentionally - for Tulsa's growth to the south. Kennedy was a county doctor who settled in Tulsa with his brother J. L. Kennedy, in 1891. Kennedy wrote in his memoirs "I was a "specialist in every disease and ailment known to mankind. And, dentistry being never heard of, I had to extract all the aching teeth for miles around".
When Sam Kennedy married Agnes Lombard, an Osage Indian, he used her tribal claims to accumulate thousands of acres in Osage county - land that is today Gilcrease Hills and most of the land located northwest of downtown Tulsa.
In 1913, Dr. Kennedy drilled his first oil well in Osage Nation territory, on land that was put up for sale by the Indian Agency. He and his partner, W A Springer, made $6 million in four years.
The question remains whether Samuel Kennedy is indeed responsible - unintentionally - for Tulsa's growth to the south and east of downtown. According to the story, after a dispute with city leaders, Kennedy refused to sell the land that now makes up most of north Tulsa, keeping the land north and west of downtown from being developed.
As a result, Tulsa moved south - away from the major highways and downtown. His own family owns up to the story that Dr. Kennedy inserted a clause into his will insisting the land not be sold for 20 years.