Shortly after settlers rushed to claim land in the Oklahoma of 1893, Naval officers and their families were lining up to mark their own territory -- the newly completed red-brick duplexes at the edge of the Naval Academy parade field.
The neighborhood soon became known as "Oklahoma" because the arrival of all the wagons with household goods waiting for the gates to open reminded people of the land rush in the Oklahoma Territory," said James W. Cheevers, senior curator at the Naval Academy Museum.
Now, the houses on Upshur and Rodgers roads are among the oldest buildings on the yard. With their wrap around porches, intricate woodwork and numerous bedrooms, they offer a glimpse into life at the academy at the turn of the century, when it was common for large, middle-class families to have live-in servants. And they have another, probably unintended, effect.
"This has cured me of wanting a big house," said Janet Rodenbarger who lives with her husband, Capt. Syd W. Rodenbarger, and their two children in a 4,000-square-foot house on Upshur Road. "This is plenty to keep clean."
Mrs. Rodenbarger's home has seven bedrooms, five bathrooms and five fireplaces, two of which are working. It is the fireplaces, with their oak and cherry hand-carved mantles that catch a visitor's eye.
The living room fireplace once was covered over with white paint, but a former occupant scraped off the paint, revealing a carved lion's head, rosettes and other decorations, Mrs. Rodenbarger said.
In the late 1800s, housing for academy staff members and their families was scarce on the yard, historians say. Many officers were forced to live in Annapolis, paying rents often inflated by landlords who knew their tenants had little choice over where they could live.
To solve the problem, the federal government bought 12 acres from St. John's College in 1891, according to Vicki Escude, author of a book, thus far unpublished, on the historic homes and life at the academy.
The Navy hired O. von Nerta, a Washington, D.C., architect, to design the new homes that would be built on streets named after previous superintendents. The first two homes on Upshur Road, named after the second superintendent, George P. Upshur, were completed in 1893 and the last in 1899, Ms. Escude wrote. The second street was named after Admiral Christopher P. Rodgers, the superintendent from 1878 to 1881.
