Images. Downtown Midland 1950s.

7/11/2010

It's a little grainy, but this is downtown Midland from the 1950s, courtesy of the Midland County Historical Museum. No doubt a lot of you can recognize a lot of the structures. I've got the Wilco Bldg. identified. Anybody else?

Jimmy Patterson's book, "A History of Character: The Story of Midland, Texas" is currently in the research phase. It will be published in the Winter of 2011-2012.

10 Comments

Jen W.

7/11/2010 12:27:55 am

I've got the Petroleum Bldg on the far right and the courthouse in front of it. I can tell this was pre Wall Towers and BOA bldg :)

J.P. Hearn link

7/11/2010 12:51:24 am

Ok, starting in the foreground right of center - 3 structures that are gone - now Midland Center
Up from there right is the old post office - now Centennial Plaza
Up from there of course is the courthouse that is remodeled now
Further right is the Hogan Building - My father in law remembers when they used to store hay in that building in the 30's
Western Life building and to the left - 4 buildings recently demolished
Starting down the middle - Old First National
Old Scarbourgh Hotel - Demolished and now the Hilton
The building kinda in middle of the hotel just up is the Executone Building (might be called something else now)
Wall Towers would be built just to the right of that
Up from there I think is the Wall building, nice art deco
Up from there of course is where Midland's tallest building is now.
If you look at the extreme top of the photo, in the middle you will see Midland High

Cindi Mladenka

7/16/2010 10:24:32 am

The building in the far right corner at the bottom is the first church of Midland, ...First United Methodist Church.

Linda Harrington

7/21/2010 09:17:00 am

the building under construction in the back is the Wilco Building.That's neat to see.

Ken Zoller

7/21/2010 10:18:42 am

The old Cowden Junior High (formerly Midland High) is on the block where The Fasken Center/Wells Fargo now stands. Across the street on Texas is the building where Union Oil of California (Unocal) was located. That building is still there. At top left is the Humble Oil building, now the school administration building.

Andrea Avery

8/20/2010 09:40:16 am

The courthouse is in the center on the big open block. The street "below" the courthouse is Loraine. The one/two story buildings across from the courthouse on Loraine on the quarter block belonged to my grandparents. (As mentioned here, they were "iminent domained" by the City for the civic center). From left to right in the 1950's it was Kirkland Pharmacy (corner of Wall and Loraine), The Anada Shop (ladies clothing) and Wemple's Music(my family). The other quarter block on Loraine (to the north) was the main post office (about 5 o'clock on the picture with a chimney? sticking up on the back). The Scharbauer Hotel is catty-corner (diagonally) from the courthouse also Wall and Loraine.

I'll show to Mother to get some more. She'll enjoy this. Thanks!
Andrea Avery
P.S. That's not
the First Methodist Church. First Methodist is farther to the northeast. FMC had heavily Spanish architecture. Believe it was on Baird? The old sancutuary became the chapel and was then torn down to make way for the Monte Glass Chapel. The old chapel had a state historical marker, but that didn't save it. My parents were married in the old sanctuary in the late 40's.

4/9/2013 02:52:13 am

I was in Midland, for the first time, during the summer of 1958. At that time, one building stood out much taller than any other structure in Midland, and was visible from many miles away driving into Midland. I was told that that building was the Scharbauer Tower. Do you know if that is the same building that is now called the Wilco building? I see from the history that the "Wilco" was built in 1958, but I believe that it is the same building that I saw that year by the name of Scharbauer Tower.

M G M

11/10/2014 05:54:18 pm

No Scharbauer Tower is now called the Bank of America Building. The southwestern corner from the Courthouse. Originally the Tower was 6 stories tall with the top floor belonging to the Scharbauer Family. In 1978 the building was heavily renovated and they added 18 more stories to make it 24 stories and the tallest building between Dallas and Pheonix to date. The original bank is still the bottom two floors and never completely shut down during the renovation. When the new floors opened the Scharbauer Family moved up to the top floor. Mr. Clarence Scharbauer had a foyer constucted so that the public could look out to the north and south of Midland on that floor. We must have ridden the glass elevators a hundred times to catch the view that first year. My father had taken a group of offices on the 6th floor and I loved to sneak off and go look. The glass elevators were used in a movie called "Hanger 18" in 1980.
What you can't see is that a number of the larger buildings surrounding the Courthouse are/were connected by public tunnels a left over from the Cold War. I was young when the last of them was made off limits, although some are still down there. Sigh, wish I had a key. Wow that picture brings back memories.

Candi P

4/29/2015 10:58:11 am

Does anyone remember a Bar/Restaurant ( not sure which or if both ) somewhere in the Midland /Odessa area . It's gone now. They had a live band play there also. sometime in 1956 - 1959. The only thing I know about it for sure is what I wrote above and it was owned by Maw and Paw West., this is what everyone called them. Anything at all would help.

Judy Dover

3/24/2019 03:31:19 pm

I so remember the Scharbuaer hotel, I worked for Mabel Volgelsang from1967-1970, as she lived in the penthouse apartment. Oh why did they bring such a beautiful building down, that was built in 1928..that had class and so many memories. Ranchers and farmer coming in to have their breakfast, coffee and cigars, with long conversations...so neat..I was carried up by the elevator man to the top, for my shift of the day, and everyone knew each other you can't find this any more and it really is sad..wish we could

About the Blog

Welcome, and thanks for your interest in what will be a rewarding trip through our shared past. This "History of Character" blog is only the beginning. A book by the same name -- "A History of Character: The Story of Midland, Texas" -- will be published September 2014. Through this blog you'll be able to track the progress of the project and learn along with the book's author, Jimmy Patterson. If you have stories to share that you think deserve mention in the history of our city, drop an email to historyofcharacter@gmail.com.

Images. Downtown Midland 1950s.

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