The Biltmore Hotel in Oklahoma City was conceived and built during the Great Depression and designed by the architectural firm Hawk and Parr.

The tallest building in the state, it was completed in 1932 and offered 619 rooms, each with amenities like free radio, circulating ice water, ceiling fans and – later – air conditioning.

Guests in the oil business flocked to the property but financial woes plagued the hotel throughout most of its life.

Despite protests by conservationists,  city leaders agreed with the owners in 1973 that it had outlived its purpose and the building was destroyed in a planned demolition shown on televisions across the United States.

Some 900 explosives were planted around the building so that the steel-reinforced structure would collapse inwards. Black and white photographs of the impressive event are still available on the internet.

This charming room service menu showing an illustration of a refrigerator was for the NightHawk Room Service, which went into effect at 11pm after regular room service closed.

This menu is dated in the 1950s, since there is a note about the items on the menu being priced according to the Office of Price Stabilization (OPS.) 

The OPS was the federal agency introduced by then-President Harry Truman to control prices during the Korean War.

The onset of hostilities in June 1950 came as a surprise to most Americans, causing prices to rise and worries about hoarding and price-gouging. During the first month of the war, for example, coffee prices rose nine per cent. A few months later, the price of an average basket of groceries had risen 25 per cent.

OPS was not a popular policy and it ended in 1953.

Courtesy Private Collection.