Paseo Neighborhood Association

Welcome to The Paseo!

Dotted with small family dairies, one of Oklahoma City's first sub-divisions was platted as Guernsey Park Place.

From 1910 to 1930, modest frame bungalows and small brick cottages were built at the end of the Shattel Streetcar line. Not until the late 1920's did the area become an exclusive suburb. A well-known local developer, Dr. G. A. Nichols, developed the first suburban shopping district on a two-block curved street. This development now is the namesake for the entire neighborhood, The Paseo.

To support his business district, "Doc" Nichols constructed twelve of the "best apartments" in the city. For almost fifty years, the Paseo was a fashionable address which housed the lawn chair society. Over the years, the stability of the Paseo ebbed and flowed with the economy of the city.

In the 1980's the drastic downturn of the oil industry created a housing glut and there were newer, larger houses and apartments all over the city. Coinciding with the decline in the economy, was the age of the neighborhood. Residents were leaving homes to children who neither wanted or needed them. As properties were abandoned, crime quickly moved in causing greater decline of the area.

In late 1987, at the urging of The Neighborhood Alliance of Oklahoma City, the City Council designated the Paseo neighborhood as a pilot revitalization project. The decline of the Paseo was adversely affecting many surrounding stable neighborhoods. If such a project could be successful here, it could be duplicated in other areas.