Built in the early 1900s, the building that now houses Mad Jack’s BlackRoom Bar survived the infamous explosion and fire of Ardmore in September 1915, its walls scorched but not broken. One room — the space that now holds the bar — was visibly scorched by the fire, and locals came to call it simply “the black room.” The name endured.

In its earliest years, the building served as a boarding house — a maze of hidden doors, private rooms, and secret passageways. Guests came and went. Some were never seen again.

Decades later, it served as the broadcast home of KVSO Radio (est. ~1935), transmitting voices across southern Oklahoma. During renovations, fragments of its past emerged: Ardmoreite newspapers from 1917, handwritten notes, strange blueprints, and relics hinting at something... unexplainable.

Now, that history lives on — reawakened as Mad Jack’s BlackRoom Bar