William Franklin ,the owner of DECOPOLIS, standing next to our loyal Z-X Mega 3000!
William is a 3rd generation Tulsa Artist who specialized in Trompe' Loeil Murals and Themed Environments. Williams new mission is to use his talents to create a magical place that's more than a mere store, it will become a Tulsa Attraction!
In 2011, William opened a tiny booth in a local area Flea Market as a way to begin selling prints of his artwork. He also had the long-range dream of creating the DECOPOLIS, a kind of "Disneyesque" attraction featuring an Art Deco Main Street leading to an Art Deco Cityscape/Castle, along with an Art Deco Museum. That year he and a group of friends and volunteers gathered together to get the museum component going. They approached the owners of the Philcade and asked if they could use the vacant window displays in the beautiful lobby to showcase Art Deco artifacts. The owners agreed! The group also worked to create a board and turn the Museum into a non-profit entity.
In 2012 William opened a small, stand alone, store having an Art Deco theme on the same street as the museum in downtown Tulsa's Deco District. This was the first location for DECOPOLIS.
Left: The first DECOPOLIS located in the lower level of a downtown parking garage. Shelves were pretty sparse starting out!
Meanwhile the museum effort ran into a set of untimely, and unfortunate, circumstances that led the board to determine that the museum as a non-profit entity was no longer viable.
William, not wanting to let those years of effort be lost, decided to then re-form the museum under the care of DECOPOLIS to become, the DECOPOLIS Tulsa Art Deco Museum!
