The Ranch House in Pryor celebrated its 70th birthday last weekend.

The original building on West Graham Avenue was, according to long-time patrons, a barbecue restaurant until is was destroyed by the April 27, 1942 tornado. It re-opened as a bar and has been a mainstay in town for the past 70 years.

One long-time patron said a man named Johnson from Muskogee was the original owner. Oak Browning purchased the bar on Feb. 27, 1950, and ran it  with his partner Betty Williams for the next 30 years.

Browning died about 1980 at the age of 73. Williams kept the bar until 1994.  During Brown’s tenure, patrons of the bar came to know it as Oak’s.

 Rick Peters was at the birthday celebration Saturday with his wife, Cindy, and sister-in-law Susie Hassinger.

Hassinger said she has been a regular at the Ranch House since 1973 when she and her sister moved to Pryor.

Peters said he used to deliver The Jeffersonian newspaper to the Ranch House as a kid. Browning always gave the kids a 10-ounce Coke and a bag of peanuts, Peters said.

 Hassinger said when Oak was around, “you didn’t cuss, especially if there were women and children around.”

Browning kept a steady schedule. He was known to arrive at the bank drive-in window every morning to get change, then went to Thomas Restaurant for breakfast with friends — and often picked up the check.

At 10 a.m., he would open the bar and stay until about 4:30 in the afternoon. Williams would come in at that time and close the place in the evening.

“Many rounds were bought here,” said Tony Palmer who was tending bar Saturday. “It would be a shame if they ever tore this place down.”

The Ranch House has a lot of dark wood paneling, tables and chairs, a wall of photos of present and past patrons, and a dart board.  The atmosphere might be described as “cozy.”

Tony Boback said not much has changed with the Ranch House in 70 year. There once were booths along the walls. The booths are long gone. And there was once a pool table, shuffleboard and cigarette machine. Those are gone as well.

Boback said the cigarette machine was heavy. “There was a time when cigarettes in that machine cost 25 cents a pack.”

Smoking is allowed in the Ranch House, making it a real tavern experience, but there is no longer a cigarette machine.

The Ranch House is today a beer bar. It has no liquor license.

Boback said his parents used to run around with Browning and Williams. They would sometimes go to Spavinaw to the Ritz or Sportmen’s bars, which were popular places of the time.

John Ridgway owns the Ranch House, but not the building. He purchased the business six or seven years ago, he said.

“I have thoroughly enjoyed owning this place,” he said. “It reminded me of an old beer joint my dad went into in west Tulsa when I was a kid. Everybody knew each other and there wasn’t any trouble.”  

Ridgway says the same about the Ranch House.  

So do his patrons.