Adah Robinson

Born in Indiana, she was educated in art schools in the Chicago area, as well as receiving private lessons from noted artist there during the late 19th century.

[1] Yet, she is best known for her role in designing the Boston Avenue Methodist Church in Tulsa, which is now a National Historic Landmark and considered an exceptional example of Art Deco architecture, although controversy surrounds whether she or her former student, Bruce Goff, deserves more credit for the church's distinctive design.

She then studied at the Chicago Art Institute, then with artists Charles Hawthorne, George Elmer Browne, and John Carlson.

She had been selected as valedictorian of her high school class in Richmond, but an attack of rheumatoid arthritis forced her to miss the event.

When she was 23, her brother became very ill, and his doctors recommended that the family move him to Oklahoma, thinking that the climate there would be better for him.

Adah stopped her activities in Chicago and joined the family in the move to Oklahoma City.

[1] One of her art students during her first year at Central was an aspiring senior named Bruce Goff, Later, she taught another talented artist, Joseph R. Koberling, Jr., who would become a successful architect in Tulsa.

Robinson had her own Art Deco style house built in 1924, with the assistance of her former students, architects Bruce Goff and Joseph A. Koberling, Jr.

The house is constructed of hollow tile with leaded glass windows and terrazzo floors.

[4] According to Thixton, Robinson originally intended to use the building only as her studio, and made it her residence only after adding a kitchen.

Robinson submitted her drawings for a radically different church design to Audrey Cole in 1926, who asked her to personally explain them to the committee.

The contracts stated that Adah Robinson "in charge of all things artistic, both inside and outside the building and for carrying out the wishes of the church.

[2] A letter to The New York Times stated that the firm insisted on listing Goff's name as the designer on the church cornerstone.