No Wildlife But Squirrels and Stray Dogs and other Norman, OK Off The Beaten Path Tips

Squirrels flock around the University of Oklahoma campus, but otherwise the town has no wildlife. The Oklahoma City Zoo however is about a half-hour away by taking I-35.

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Website: www.okczoo.com

Occupying one of the historical buildings on Main Street, the Midway Barber Shop boasts a continuous business since 1893. If true, the haircutter is possibly the second oldest institution and going concern in town, second only to the University (1890). While the barber may have originated in Norman as early as 1893, the moniker Fidelity on the entablature argues a different origin for this particular building (note also the bay window on the upper story).

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Other Contact: 213 E Main

Though OU is considered by many the preeminent school in Oklahoma, the competing universities at Edmond and Stillwater were founded in the same year (1890). About forty-five minutes from the Norman campus lies one of the state's great but unknown gems. The building pictured is the first constructed in Oklahoma Territory for the purposes of higher education. Known then as the Territorial Normal School, its classes first assembled in a nearby Methodist church before this building rose on its present site in January 1893. This National Historic Site remains Edmond's most impressive historic building, and sitting as it does on the edge of campus, it still serves higher education by quartering the administration for the University of Central Oklahoma.

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Once a church with Romanesque pretensions constructed in 1926, the Chouse is now associated with public charities and events. Located just north of the University of Oklahoma campus across Boyd Street, the rose window and belltower are unique in Norman. At the time of construction there were no other buildings in the immediate vicinity but the president's house farther east on the road.

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Other Contact: 717 W Boyd