While the name may not sound familiar, the Ledbetter House designed by Bruce Goff is one that we all know well. Located right down W Brooks St. behind the McFarlin Methodist Church sits the Ledbetter House: one of the most impressive and successful pieces of architecture in Norman, OK history. Initially designed and built for oil-guru H.E. Ledbetter, the house is now owned by the University of Oklahoma. The house features Goff’s take on what modern architecture is supposed to be: unconventional, shocking, and speechless. When the house reached its completion in 1948, it drew in a crowd of 14,000 visitors to tour the home before anyone was allowed to move in. Features of the home such as a large ramp instead of a staircase, corrugated aluminum panels, and water drips in stone walls (among many other details) bewildered the Norman community of what modern architecture meant.

While the house was designed for Ledbetter, he never actually resided in the home because of the cost to build it. So, for the sake of keeping the home alive, the American Legion group and Alpha Gamma Delta sorority raised money to preserve its beauty. The home was eventually bought by the university and added to the National Register in 1999.

Resource: https://okcmod.com/2012/12/consternation-and-bewilderment-in-oklahoma-the-ledbetter-house/