But the real value of the home is how much closer it’s made her feel to everyone else. “Like all houses do or should do, it’s really brought our family together,” Anita said. “It’s really united this generation of Thorpes.
” “If my grandfather is looking down from above, I think he’s most pleased about that.” The former home of sports legend Jim Thorpe in Yale, a small town 43 miles west of Tulsa, is now back in his family. The Oklahoma Historical Society announced recently that it had sold the property, at 706 E.
Boston Ave., to the Jim Thorpe Memorial Foundation . The society had owned the home since 1968 but lacked the resources to maintain it.
Over the years, it’s fallen into disrepair. Family members are confident, though, that better days are ahead for the site, which has remained open to the public. Anita and her brother, James Thorpe, are leading the effort as the foundation’s vice president and president, respectively, with other family members around the country also serving on the board.
Anita Thorpe, of Oklahoma City, said they have ideas about some new things they’d like to do in memory of Jim Thorpe, who is widely recognized as one of the 20th century’s best athletes. But the first priority is to save the home, which Thorpe lived in from 1917 to 1923. She said an estimated $60,000 to $70,000 worth of repairs and renovations are needed.
“It needs help from top to bottom, from the roof to electrical to plumbing to the foundation,” sh.