1082 - Mattie Beal Home

Instead of another land rush, the Southwestern Oklahoma land lottery of 1901, offered nearly 170,000 registered hopefuls a chance at winning their portion of the 2,080,000 acres up for grabs. Only 6,500 names were drawn. The second name drawn in the lottery was Martha Helen “Mattie” Beal, a young, motivated telephone operator from Wichita, Kansas. Mattie selected a 160-acre parcel of land to the south of the original Lawton townsite, between present day J and Lee Boulevard.

You can imagine that with that type of luck, Mattie was faced with suitors of all kinds vying for the opportunity to marry her and share in her good fortune. But it wasn’t until roughly a year later that Mattie fell in love with local lumberyard owner and entrepreneur, Charles Payne.

Thousands of unlucky settlers grew frustrated from not having won a piece of the land, but as luck would have it, the fact that Mattie was one of those winners, equated to their own winning in a way. Mattie recognized that these settlers simply wanted to stay and settle in the area, which was good for the community. So she broke her land up into lots for auction. In addition, she also donated a portion of her land for Lincoln School, one park, and a church. It is said that her “generous spirit and gregarious personality made her the belle of early Lawton society.”

At the heart of their estate was the home that she, along with her husband, Charles, built from 1907 to 1910. The historic 2-story home consists of 14 rooms, with Neoclassical Greek Revival style with Baroque ornamentation and a Mediterranean roof. In 1923, the Paynes simplified the exterior of their home to its current Art Deco style. Mattie and Charles raised three daughters together, and lived for nearly 30 years in the home. Throughout the years, it would become a prime location for social gatherings, bridge games, and dancing amongst friends and neighbors in the ballroom. Venture inside to peer back in time, and imagine some of these fun scenes right before your eyes.