Skip to main content
GeneralNews

Phillips Murrah sponsors 2019 Plaza District Festival

By June 13th, 2022No Comments
image_printPRINT

The law firm of Phillips Murrah is proud to announce our first year as a sponsor of the Plaza District Festival, which will be held on Saturday, Sept. 28 2019. Our Firm believes that supporting our community is vitally important. Through our partnership with the Plaza District Association, we are able to help continue the bold efforts that have gone into making Oklahoma City’s Plaza District a great destination.

“I believe the revitalization of the Plaza District is one of the great success stories of Oklahoma City,” said Selena Skorman, Executive Director of the Plaza District Association and the Plaza Business Alliance. “Thanks to investment from the City of Oklahoma City, the surrounding neighborhoods, Lyric Theatre, artists, volunteers and stakeholders, this area has experienced a huge turnaround in a short amount of time.”

“If you claim to care about making Oklahoma City a big-league city, supporting the Plaza District is essential,” said Dave Rhea, Marketing Director at Phillips Murrah. “What they have achieved is a testament to how residents, business owners, investors and developers can come together to rebuild an area and make it authentic and vibrant. I think it is incredibly encouraging.”

Plaza District Festival graphic

What had once been a thriving commercial corridor in the 20s and 30s had sadly devolved into a blighted area since around the 1970s. Around the mid-1990s, the Plaza began its comeback thanks to “a small network of community servants pulling weeds over the weekend and dreaming of a new future for the district,” according to The Plaza District Association website. The Association formally began in 1997, and the recognition began to spread that the historic strip of 16th street between Indiana and Blackwelder Avenues held a lot of potential.

Members and volunteers of the Plaza District Association were eager to bring patrons into the area to introduce a new level of vitality, and thus the Plaza District Festival began.

Now, 21 years later, the Plaza District is home to some of Oklahoma City’s hottest hot-spots, including its historic anchor, Lyric Theatre (a renovated version of the original Plaza Theatre), locally-owned (and locally famous) restaurants, art galleries, bars, retail shops, and a monthly, second-Friday artwalk event called “LIVE! on the Plaza,” featuring live music and featured artists late into the evening.

“We are very lucky,” Skorman enthused. “The next time you visit the district, which I hope will be very soon, just take a second to look around. We have around 50 local businesses in an area of 2.5 blocks. It’s easily walkable – no median to navigate, everything is nicely scrunched together. It’s beautiful with different colors and awnings all lined up.”

Find out more about the Plaza District Festival on their website, and on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter.

image_printPRINT