Midland City

Midland City Hall is located at 300 N. Loraine Street, Midland, TX 79701; phone: 432-685-7200.

Beginnings [1]

The stagecoach route of the Southern Overland Stage Mail Company established Midland's physical location. The route consisted of bi-weekly mail and passenger transports from St. Louis, Missouri and Memphis, Tennessee to San Francisco, California, and became the forerunner for the location of the Texas Pacific Railway and eventually portions of Interstate Highway 20 and Interstate Highway 10. In the 1880's, Texas railways were expanding, with more than 4,000 miles of railroad track laid in West Texas. In 1881, the Texas Pacific Railway built a section house at the midpoint of a new rail line between Fort Worth and El Paso, which became known as Midway Station. With the increase in population that followed, a post office was established in 1884 on the condition that the name of the community be changed from Midway to Midland.

Midland Town Company, an Ohio real-estate firm, helped further establish the community now known as Midland by drilling water wells and selling land at auctions. Growth continued, and on July 16, 1906, the City of Midland was incorporated. By 1914, there were approximately 2,500 people in Midland. Oil discoveries within the Permian Basin in the 1920's brought new jobs and a booming economy and established Midland as an economic center for petroleum companies. The Great Depression had adverse effects on Midland, but the City proved resilient and by 1940 the population was again on a growth trend with more than 9,400 people living in the City. Between 1945 and 1960, major expansion of the oil industry occurred and led to increasing development in Midland as well as the region. Midland became known as The Tall City because its skyscrapers could be seen towering over the plains from 30 miles away.

1. City of Midland Texas, Midland Master Plan, 2025, May, 2005, www.midlandtexas.gov, accessed February, 2012.