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By David Dishman, The Oklahoman - https://www.oklahoman.com/story/business/2022/05/22/mcalester-oklahoma-downtown-revitalizing-buildings-business/9792568002/?fbclid=IwAR0E7uP_HkCJVWA9UTZ32nU2zJ2KmCHGD273YIA-CdzX59LK1UK26QjUxU8
McALESTER — Historic buildings nearly a century old were basking in the glow of one of those magnificent sunsets only southeast Oklahoma can produce as a softspoken local attorney sat down and poured himself an IPA into a cold glass in downtown McAlester.
“This is the most comfortable I’ve felt all day,” Jeremy Beaver said to me, as we sat just outside a local coffee shop and bar listening to live, red dirt country music coming from within.
Beaver had just finished serving as host for the 2022 Grillmarks Steak Festival, an event he helped launch in 2017 as part of an effort to build community in the city he lives and works in.
He's one of many helping McAlester undergo a renaissance. A passionate group of locals are investing in their downtown buildings, bringing business opportunities to the city and orchestrating cooking competitions and concerts.
I’ve watched it from afar after living in the city for three years, from 2014 to 2017. I moved site unseen to work for The McAlester News-Capital, a publication that to this day remains pound-for-pound one of the best newspapers in the country. And despite not having grown up there, every time I return it feels like home.
The continued growth within the city, and especially its downtown, only strengthens that feeling.
I returned most recently to serve as a judge at the Grillmarks Festival, where 30 teams competed in the competition on May 14.
Stuffed full of steak, Beaver and I drank a beer together at the end of the day after he had helped with seemingly everything that occurred, from getting teams set up, to acting as unofficial league commissioner for the “steak draft” in which teams took turns selecting from 150 ribeyes with which to grill, and later cutting and serving the official entries to the five judges for the event.
It was my fourth or fifth competition that I’ve judged, and while the steak is always phenomenal, I did something else this trip and spent time talking to many of the folks who are helping to ensure McAlester remains vibrant. The city has a charm that escapes the attention of those who rarely leave Oklahoma City or Tulsa, and especially those who spend most of their lives on the coasts or in large urban areas.
I had dozens of conversations with individuals who deserve recognition, all of whom play a role in laying out a blueprint for civic engagement that any city would be wise to follow. But some conversations stood out, and are worth reading to catch a glimpse of why McAlester is a hidden gem within Oklahoma.
Flipping historic buildings has become more than a hobby for Cully Stevens; it might border on an obsession.
The McAlester native is a real estate agent, and he’s taken a highly active role in the redevelopment of downtown. Currently the owner of three buildings — including Spaceship Earth Coffee Shop, home base for all Grillmarks events — he’s bought, remodeled and sold several more.
For him, it’s all about improving the city he lives in.
“I feel like as you grow up, you come back to a place and have to decide if it’s really home,” Stevens said. “I realized I was here and passionate about my community and I realized this could be better.”
He found partners for some of his building flipping ventures, including Zach Prichard with Krebs Brewing Co. for the Spaceship Earth Building. Prichard’s company owns Prairie Artisan Ales, and most Prairie beer is brewed in McAlester.
Some now serve as home for additional small businesses.
I should also note that Stevens served on the McAlester City Council for a few years, and while I’ve never told him this, I observed the heart behind the words he preaches about improving his community once nearly six or seven years ago after I played a game of ultimate Frisbee with him and others who regularly played at a local park.
After the game had ended, and everyone had left, I sat in my car checking my phone before leaving the parking lot. Stevens stayed, and spent time walking the parking and cleaning trash. After about 20 minutes, the active city councilor walked home. It was an act of civic servitude from an elected official I’ve never forgotten.
Fast forward to today, and that same attitude toward improving his home drives Stevens to keep working.
“I wanted to see McAlester grow McAlester and pour into each other,” Stevens said.
Adrian O’Hanlon moved to McAlester for the same reason I did — to pursue a career in journalism. Like me, he found a home and continues to live there today, serving as the News-Capital editor.
I worked with him some when our time in the newsroom overlapped, and he has a unique perspective on the growth across the city, particularly downtown, having covered development for years now after leaving his native Texas.
“Downtown is the heart of the community,” O’Hanlon said.
Private development from people like Stevens and Beaver (who has also bought and redeveloped some downtown buildings) is being paired with city investments into beautification projects, O’Hanlon said.
It’s paying dividends.
“What it brings to the downtown community contributes to why I think a lot more young people are willing to move here and start their lives here,” O’Hanlon said. “I moved to McAlester because I saw a bright future.”
He’s not the only one. Stevens said he’s seen an influx of out-of-state people looking to buy houses in the community. He feels the move toward remote work is allowing for many to have more freedom with where they live.
“I grew up here, and this is not the town I grew up in. It’s not the town it was seven years ago, and it’s probably not the town you left five years ago,” Stevens said to me.
The Grillmarks festival takes place a couple times a year, and it has served as a selling point for what McAlester has to offer.
Jon Paul Mitchell found out when he hauled his grill from Wilburton to McAlester for the competition.
“My buddy lives in Wilburton and he’s done the rib cook before, and he just hollered at me and said why don’t you come down and let’s do this cookoff,” Mitchell said.
Other contestants might have preferred he didn’t because Mitchell showed up and scorched his competitors, taking home first place in his inaugural competition.
And trust me when I tell you this, having sampled 30 steaks at the competition — this man's work is a cut above.
Besides walking away a champ, Mitchell noticed something else about the town that he says will keep him coming back.
“It was mainly the people,” Mitchell said. “They were courteous and great and fun to talk to. They made me feel like family, and I felt like I knew them my whole life.”
That sort of experience is exactly what Beaver envisioned when he and others started the event five years ago.
“The goal always has been to get people to come downtown,” Beaver said. “There just hasn’t been a lot of events going on downtown in a long time.
“There’s something that happens when you shut off the street and you put a couple dozen grills and people start smoking, and sharing food and drinks — people are almost guaranteed to have a good time,” Beaver said. “One big cookout, everyone loves a cookout.”
Before Grillmarks, before the revitalization of more than a half-dozen buildings (and more in the works), and even before her husband served on the city council, Morgan Stevens opened Harper and Grey House with her business partner, Taryn Grippando, in 2015.
The pair sell clothing, home goods, bath and body supplies and more at the store, and their business predated much of the other development.
Harper and Grey was one of only a few retail stores downtown at the time, plus a couple of banks and limited office space. Many buildings were in disrepair, and many were vacant.
That was then, and as Harper and Grey has grown, Stevens and Grippando have watched downtown grow, as well.
“I feel like there’s more of an excitement of people wanting to get involved,” Morgan Stevens said. “It’s really cool to see other people picking up the torch and carrying it forward.”
It has not all been easy, Morgan Stevens said. But she’s “very proud of where I’m from, and it’s been fun to do it in my hometown.”
The store has had enough success that the business partners are planning to launch a second location, in Hochatown, later this year. But they won’t be leaving downtown McAlester anytime soon, and they look forward to further development.
“It’s been really cool to watch,” Morgan Stevens said. “Terren and I are definitely proud to have been a part of it.”
David Dishman is an editor and writer for The Oklahoman. If you would like to reach him about this story, or to share information about future coverage, email him at ddishman@oklahoman.com.
Photo by Dakota Snell.
