Gentner Drummond House: The Story Behind His Historic Tulsa Home

Jack LeeJuly 30, 2026Last Updated: July 30, 2026

Gothic Revival exterior of the Gentner Drummond house, the McBirney Mansion, overlooking the Arkansas River in Tulsa — The McBirney Mansion in Tulsa, restored by Gentner Drummond and his wife Wendy after they bought the historic home in 2014.

Oklahoma Attorney General Gentner Drummond owns one of Tulsa’s most recognized homes. It sits on the banks of the Arkansas River and carries nearly a century of local history. Long before he held public office, Drummond bought a mansion that once belonged to a Tulsa banking pioneer.

This article covers how Drummond found the home, what he and his wife Wendy did to restore it, and why the property still draws attention from Oklahomans today. You’ll also find answers to the most common questions people ask about the house.

Table of Contents

Where Is the Gentner Drummond House Located

The house sits at 1414 S. Galveston Ave. in Tulsa, in the Childers Heights neighbourhood. It overlooks the Arkansas River and sits on 2.91 acres of land. The address places it just south of downtown Tulsa, in one of the city’s older and more established residential pockets.

The site includes river frontage and a natural spring, features that made it desirable when it was first built and still set it apart from newer Tulsa properties.

The History of the McBirney Mansion

The home is known locally as the McBirney Mansion. Banker James H. McBirney commissioned the house in the 1920s. He co-founded Tulsa’s Bank of Commerce with his brother in 1904 and used his banking fortune to build several properties in the area, including this one. Architect John Long designed the Gothic Revival house, and construction finished in 1928. Long also designed Tulsa’s Philtower building around the same period, giving the mansion a connection to one of the city’s other architectural landmarks.

The McBirney family lived in the home until 1976. After that, the property changed hands several times and took on different roles:

A private residence for local philanthropists Roger and Donna Hardesty starting in 1975
Office space for the law firm Doyle, Holmes, Gasaway and Green
A treatment facility linked to Tulsa Regional Medical Centre in the mid-1990s
A bed and breakfast and wedding venue by 1999
A proposed luxury hotel site under a 2007 ownership group
An event centre before falling into legal disputes tied to its ownership

The house earned a spot on the National Register of Historic Places in 1976, which helped protect it through decades of changing use.

How Gentner Drummond Bought the House

Drummond, a Tulsa attorney and co-founder of the Drummond Law Firm, purchased the mansion in 2014 for about $2.03 million. He bought it from the Pauls Corporation, a Denver-based real estate firm that had acquired the property as part of a legal settlement.

For Drummond, the purchase closed a personal chapter. He grew up as a fifth-generation Osage County native and has said he remembered looking up at the house from Riverside Drive as a boy and hoping to one day live there. Buying the property let him turn that early memory into reality.

Real estate broker Roger Erker, who represented the listing, said the Drummonds beat out three competing offers, including two that would have kept the home as commercial property. Erker noted that a return to residential use matched what the McBirney family likely would have wanted for the estate.

Inside the Renovation of the Home

The Drummonds did not buy a home ready to move into. Though structurally sound, the mansion needed significant work to function as a modern family residence after decades as commercial space. The renovation ran close to a year and a half and involved a team that included interior designer Chad Renfro, general contractor Chad Osgood, and architect Scott Ferguson.

Key updates included:

A new heating and air conditioning system
A new roof and updated windows
A rebuilt kitchen with Calacatta marble countertops, replacing what had been split into four separate rooms
A herringbone floor pattern echoing the home’s original kitchen design
New stained glass windows made by Tulsa artist Roy Loman, sourced from the same Indiana glass factory that supplied the original 1920s panels
A wine bar added in the basement

Wendy Drummond told local reporters the goal was to keep the house intact rather than expand it. Gentner Drummond echoed that approach at the time, saying they were not looking to add to or take away from what already made the house special.

The mansion covers roughly 15,900 square feet across four floors, with an elevator serving the lower three levels. It has seven bedrooms and seven and a half bathrooms, along with a wet bar suited for large gatherings.

A Home Used for Charity Events

Once renovations wrapped up, the Drummonds opened the house for community fundraisers rather than keeping it entirely private. Their first major event was a New Year’s Eve ball benefiting Emergency Infant Services, which drew around 300 guests. In the years that followed, they hosted additional fundraisers connected to organisations including the Parent Child Centre and Tulsa Ballet.

This mix of private residence and occasional public event space became one of the defining features of the Drummond ownership. It let Tulsans experience the interior of a house many had only seen from Riverside Drive.

Current Status of the Property

In 2022, the Drummond family listed the McBirney Mansion for sale at $8.5 million, marking the first time it changed hands in eight years. Reporting at the time noted the home’s updated systems, its wet bar, and its history as both a private residence and event venue. As of the most recent public records, the property remains associated with the Drummond family and continues to draw interest from real estate watchers in the Tulsa area given its historic status and river location.

Why This House Matters in Tulsa

The McBirney Mansion is more than a large home. It represents a piece of Tulsa’s early 20th-century banking history, tied to one of the businessmen who helped shape the city’s financial sector. Its National Register listing means the exterior and key structural elements are protected, which limits how future owners can alter the property.

For Gentner Drummond, the house also reflects a personal journey. A person who once looked up at the mansion as a boy from Osage County ended up restoring it and living in it as an adult. That kind of story adds to why the home continues to attract local interest well beyond typical real estate coverage.

If you’re interested in other notable homes tied to public figures, you can also read about the Norman Braman house.

What Makes the McBirney Mansion Architecturally Unique

The house stands out for its Gothic Revival design, a style more common in older European buildings than in early Oklahoma construction. Architect John Long used pointed arches, steep rooflines, and detailed stonework to give the home a castle-like character that still looks distinct against Tulsa’s skyline.

Structurally, the mansion rests on 16 steel piers driven down to bedrock along the Arkansas River, a detail that speaks to the ambition behind the original 1920s build. Few homes from that era in Oklahoma were engineered with that level of permanence in mind.

Other real estate stories with similar architectural depth include the Clinton Portis house and the Emilia Clarke house, both of which show how personal history and property choices often connect.

FINAL THOUGHTS

The Gentner Drummond house tells a story that goes beyond square footage and price tags. It links a Tulsa banking family from the 1920s to a modern Oklahoma attorney who once admired the home as a child. Between its Gothic Revival design, its river setting, and its decades of shifting use, the McBirney Mansion remains one of Tulsa’s most storied residential properties.