Dinner Belle

BY CINDY WEBB

The Pink House, a charming, Victorian-style restaurant located in the Belvidere Mansion in Claremore, is a quick 30-minute drive from Tulsa. The Rogers County Historical Society purchased and restored the Belvidere in the 1990s, and it is now an Oklahoma treasure. The Pink House restaurant and gift shop are on the first floor, historically furnished living quarters on the second and an expansive ballroom on the third.

The Belvidere was constructed in 1907 by John Bayless. Though Bayless died before the home was completed, his family lived in the house until 1919. In the 1920s the home was sold and divided into apartments. By the early 1990s the mansion was deserted and ready for the wrecking ball when the Historical Society rescued it. The mansion is open for touring and rental.

I have a bit of family history with the Belvidere. My Mother’s cousin, Joan Hawkins, was on the board of the Historical Society when the mansion was purchased. Joan and many other volunteers spent long hours

meticulously restoring the then tumbledown Victorian-style mansion. In 1997, while it was still in process of restoration, my daughter Kathryn had her 9th birthday party in the freshly painted, sunlit ballroom of the Belvidere.

The Pink House has not always been a part of the Belvidere. Kay Grubbs originally opened it in 1982 in a literal pink house in Claremore. In 2007, Margo Stewart and her daughter, Shari

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THE PINK HOUSE Belvidere Mansion 121 N. Chickasaw • Claremore, OK 11 a.m. – 2 p.m. • Monday – Saturday (918) 342-2544 www.pinkhouseofclaremore.com