He made lakes and stocked them with fish and filled the whole preserve with pheasants, mallards, swans and peacocks. he allowed the public access to the preserve just as he permitted it to us the pool which was part of his private estate. One three-hundred acre tract was reserved for the conservation of wildlife and was enclosed in a sixteen foot high game fence. He had roses planted along the fence so that there were blazing blossoms bombarding the tourist along the road.
Late in the 1920's Marland began building a mansion in the game preserve. The grounds around it were patterned after the famous Hampton Court in England and the Palace of Versailles in France. Sculptors, artists and landscape designers were brought from France, England and Japan to make the Marland castle "by all odds the finest and most costly one in Oklahoma." Reminiscent of a feudal estate were the moat and the gatehouse, a lodge and a pretentious building called the art gallery and studio. The multimillion dollar oil empire magnate lavished an estimated three to five million dollars on the mansion and its surrounding three hundred acres of landscaped gardens and terraces.
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In 1929, however, Marland's fortune began to wither. ...Marland was to enjoy the magnificence of his mansion for only two years. With the loss of his company late in 1929, he moved into the studio building and the mansion was open therefore only on special occasions.
Studio and lodge
It was said that Marland intended to leave the mansion to some Catholic order, but in his state of bankruptcy, he could neither afford to maintain the estate nor to make a gift of it. ...The Most Rev. Francis Clement Kelley, bishop of Oklahoma City and Tulsa,...knowing about Marland's original intentions, advised the Discalced Carmelite Monks to purchase the Marland estate...for $66,000.
...On July 19, 1948, Rev. Stephen A. Leven, pastor of St. Joseph School in Blackwell (Lodi, New Jersey Felicians were staffing the school at the time) accompanied Mother Simplicita and Mother Mary Alexander on a tour of the Marland house, which was for sale. ...Mother Simplicita was inspired to name the site for the most lovely of women - Assumption Villa.
The Marland Carmel Priory was purchased by the Felician Sisters on the following day for $50,000.
Pavilion and one of five lakes in the background.
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