10/21/2026
Ten years ago, on October 22nd, 2016, Tulsa lost John Brooks Walton, an Oklahoma-born architect and architectural historian who knew the city’s old houses inside and out.

This month, as we mark the 10th anniversary of his passing and the Halloween season, we feature his interview as our interview of the month.
Some of those houses, he told us, came with a ghost.
Walton was raised in Ponca City and moved to Tulsa after receiving his architectural degree and marrying Margaret (Mag) Alice Stanley. He was best known for his long and celebrated architectural career of design, restorations, and books that encompass many famous landmarks.
Walton not only designed houses for his architectural clients but also purchased and restored historic ones. Two of them, the Simpson house and the Skelly Mansion, became home to the Waltons. In 2003, at the age of seventy-four, he began a second career as an artist, painting in acrylic on canvas.
Then there are the ghosts. As Walton put it:
"JW: ... yes there’s a ghost in a lot of Tulsa homes. Some are real and some not so real."
He also tells of a spine-tingling moment that happened to one of his own clients in a home he helped remodel.
Listen to John Brooks Walton tell the stories behind Tulsa’s historic homes, and the spirits that may still be living in them, at:
https://voicesofoklahoma.com/interviews/walton-john-brooks/
