OUR STORY
The Drexel Event Center is a hidden gem with a neat history, located in Oklahoma’s original capital city.
Originally home to E.J. Birch Grocery & Fresh Meats, the store was a bustling enterprise in a time when neighborhood markets were run by your actual neighbors, and everybody knew everybody else.
Over the decades the store evolved, like things do, touching hundreds of lives over multiple generations. Ultimately the time came to close, like so many other neighborhood mom-and-pops did, and the property sat empty for a long time.
Today, we are adding a new chapter to the story. Or rather—you are! Book the Drexel and be one step closer to the event of yours dreams.
"When I was a little girl in the late 30's and early 40's we always celebrated Christmas at the store. I can still remember the smell of the stuff they put on the floors before they swept the old wood floors. My Daddy worked as the butcher, my oldest sister as bookkeeper. It was owned by Daddy's aunt. Osyth and I think his name was Ed Birch. When they closed down the store after the Moore's had it, I was able to buy some of the things used in the store. My favorite is the long handled thing they used to get cans off the top shelves. I also have an old pickle barrel. I remember the out door signs and remember when they did the Grapette sign. Most of you would know me as Joyce Birch Thompson Wood." - Joyce Wood
"Lots of good memories there for me In the '50's. We went to the grocery store daily. Carl and Imogene Moore were always so nice and friendly when it was Moore's. Lots of memories for my Dad from Pine Street when it was Birch's in the '30s. So much history there for lots of Guthrie people." - Jenny Nelson
