Most longtime Sallisaw residents recall the corner of Chickasaw Avenue and Elm Street as the location for 75 years of a funeral home, first Moore then Sequoyah and ultimately Agent.

But few are still around who remember the corner lot being home to a hotel several years before statehood, reportedly as early as 1902. Among the names under which the hotel operated were Central, Phoenix and Exchange hotels.

Then last week, after a dozen years under the ownership of Sequoyah County, the mostly wooden building was demolished to make way for the construction of a new county courthouse annex. According to research by Earl Strebeck, president of the Sequoyah County Historical Society, it was 1936 when E.L. Moore and his son, Ted, completed construction of a new funeral home on the southeast corner of the city’s center, where numbering begins in all four directions for city addresses. Newspaper reports in November 1936 said when complete, the funeral home “will be one of the most modern in the state.”

It was surmised that Moore, who had been in the funeral home business for several years, was planning to turn the business over to his son. But in 1937, Ted became ill, and then died in July 1938 at the age of 25. In August 1938, Moore sold the funeral home to Paul Agent and Carl Frix Jr., and the name was changed to Sequoyah Funeral Home.

Agent’s brother, Jack, soon joined the business, and they bought out Frix, changing the name again to Agent Funeral Home in 1942, Strebeck’s research shows.

After Jack Agent’s death in 1988 and Paul’s passing in 1997, Jack’s son Neal became owner of the funeral home. Neal’s son Rick became owner upon his father’s death in 2008. In June 2011, Rick closed Agent Funeral Home and sold the business to Mallory-Martin Funeral Home.

Then in 2012, the county bought the building and property that was the former Agent Funeral Home.

Demolition of the building, which took about four hours, occurred Nov. 20, and clearing the debris has been underway since.

During their weekly meeting Monday, county commissioners heard a presentation from BWA Architects, Tulsa, at which time a rendering of the proposed new courthouse annex and a floor plan for the 10,684-squarefoot building were discussed. The commissioners have not given final approval for the design, but the architectural firm is working with the commissioners and principals for the county offices that will relocate to the new building. No start or completion dates have been projected.

How it started

District 3 Commissioner Jim Rogers in February championed the idea of razing the 88-year-old building to make room for the construction of a new courthouse annex, projecting the size at about 10,500 square feet. By utilizing American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) funds already in the county coffers for the new project, Rogers said it would keep the cost “from ever becoming a tax burden on the constituents of the county, people we represent.”

While Rogers initially wanted the ARPA funds spent by the end of the year, as long as the funds are encumbered by Dec. 31, it serves the same purpose.

“We’re just trying to be good stewards with the funds the county has available. That’s always been one of my primary goals is not to add any expense to anybody, but add something that’s gonna be beneficial. We’ve worked hard to do that over the last 13plus years.

“The county is financially in great shape. So for us to be able to do this will be big, too. I’m kind of a tightwad when it comes to spending money, even with somebody else’s money. I just want to make sure we’re getting the best bang for our buck that we can. I feel like the other two commissioners (Ray Watts in District 1 and Beau Burlison in District 2) are the same. We all seem to be on the same page there — make sure all our constituents are getting the value out of the monies we utilize,” Rogers said in February.

The building that was demolished last week had many issues, such as roof leaks, and was near the end of its useful life. The building previously housed the county’s emergency management office, community sentencing offices and Court Appointed Special Advocates (CASA). The building also provided space for training for the sheriff ’s department, fire departments and emergency management.

Why build an annex?

There are multiple factors that led to the push for an additional building.

First, in 2022 there was a concern at the courthouse when a wall between the floor of the third floor and the ceiling of the second floor separated. While condemning the old part of the courthouse was considered, structural engineers subsequently determined that the building was still structurally sound. Nonetheless, there may come a time when the courthouse — Rogers says the original part of the building was built in 1910 — becomes a safety hazard, and Rogers wants to be prepared.

Second, the courthouse has reached its maximum office space occupancy. In addition, storage space for important county records is at a premium. Any additional offices or personnel are problematic.

Third, ARPA funds in the county treasury expire in December. “When the ARPA funds came out, the only areas those could be used for were water, sewer and broadband, which basically took the county completely out of the picture. We got a little over $8 million,” Rogers explained in February. The Association of County Commissioners of Oklahoma, for which Rogers serves as president, subsequently petitioned the federal government to allow counties to utilize the appropriated funds where needed.

“We want something nice for the constituents,” Rogers said of the facility that he said in February is expected to cost about $2 million. “We feel like that’s one of the better areas right now to utilize the ARPA funds. Anytime we can do that and keep the financial burden off the constituents, that’s what we want to do.”

When the annex is complete, Rogers said among the offices expected to be relocated to the new building include the county clerk, treasurer, emergency management, OSU Extension office and the county commissioners.

When plans are finalized, the proposal will come before the county commissioners for approval, which will trigger a two-week bid process.

The annex is planned as a one-story building, primarily because of recurring problems with elevators in the courthouse.

Among the considerations for the size of the annex is a city ordinance that mandates providing one parking space for every 300 square feet of the new building, and the commissioners have taken that into account.