OKPOP Museum To Be Built Across From Cain’s Ballroom

It took 10 years to be funded, and months to find a perfect location, but the land has been donated and the long-awaited OKPOP Museum finally found its home.

The impact Oklahoma artists have had on music and popular culture is hard to deny; their stories are told on the sides of buildings and through concerts at historic city venues.

But there is more to tell, and the OKPOP Museum will do just that - and now we know where it will be built.

7/12/2016 Related Story: OKPOP Museum, Retail Development Considered For Brady District Lot

"What site would allow us to tell this story and take advantage of the trust from families to tell their stories,” asked Bob Blackburn with the Oklahoma Historical Society. “Well, we found it, and it is across the street from Cain’s Ballroom."

The empty parking lot will soon be home to the $25 million museum.

Previous sites have included the BOK parking lot off Archer and the empty space across from ONEOK Field.

Blackburn said they were all great options, but said the location on Main Street in downtown was meant to be.

"In each of these cases, they tell us they want it in Tulsa and want it to be the best it can be, and, in part, that generosity has kept us moving forward,” he said. "It is not just in a site, but it is the perfect site, across from this iconic holy ground as we call it."

The OKPOP Museum will focus on everything Oklahoma has to offer as far as popular culture - one example will be the Bob Wills estate collection with more than 350 photographs and documents.

Bob Wills’ daughter, Carolyn Wills, said, "He would be just amazed and be so proud, and he would feel so right that he has been taken back to Tulsa."

Alongside Carolyn's father, exhibits will highlight Patty Page, Hanson and the list goes on.

The hopes are that by building the museum, not only Tulsans but people from across the state, country and world, will finally get to know how much Oklahoma, and people like Bob Wills, contributed to popular culture.

Carolyn Wills said, “People say, 'What is so cool about this guy? Everybody thinks he is so cool.'”

Well, now that the OKPOP Museum has a home, they will have a chance to find out.