Kevin Gaddis
Arch 311
October 15, 2009

My hometown is Midwest City of Oklahoma the population is around 60,000, which makes it the seventh largest city in Oklahoma. Midwest City was founded in 1942 by W.P. Bill Atkinson. A well known businessman and builder in Oklahoma. The name Midwest City confuses some people because Midwest City is not in the Mid-West. The name is actually has its roots from Tinker Air Force Base. The Tinker Air Force Base at one time was named the Midwest Air Depot, so when W.P. Bill Atkinson founded Midwest City the name seemed appropriate since it was affiliated with the air force base being located in the same town. In addition the name Midwest Air Depot also helped to identify the East and West borders of the “Original Mile” which are two major streets, Midwest Blvd and Air Depot Blvd. The town of Midwest City was in corporate in March 11, 1943 by the Board of County Commissioners. The population at that time was about 366 people. The area that was being incorporated was 211 acres. On August 19, 1948 the first City of Charter was filed changing the name of my hometown to the City of Midwest City. Midwest City would be great place to start a family. Midwest City provides the needs of a community, such as education, shopping centers, recreation facilities, medical facilities, churches and etc. Midwest City built a new building section similar to a shopping outlet. Having over about 70 stores. The Center Town Plaza is about 60,000 square feet with a large water fountain in the middle of the plaza. Midwest City is a city of whom that is a border of Tinker Air Force Base, which is a major U.S. Air Force base located in the southeast Oklahoma City area, directly north is the surburb of Midwest city. Furthermore in the history of Midwest City,the economy continued to progress until the early 1980s when a major oil bust occurred in 1983. The bust was a severe economic blow to not only the Oklahoma City metro area but also the two cites, Midwest and Del City. The City of Midwest City in many ways remains fairly unchanged over the last twenty years. The major street Air Depot Blvd stretching from Tinker Air Force Base to Heritage Park Mall still serves as a major commercial area of the city. With a lot of businesses of Midwest City that have came and gone, there as been one through out it all. Which is Andy’s Akropolis , a Greek restaurant started by Larry Hicks. Through out the thirty years of service they served many of thousands of hungry airmen. In the City of Midwest City, Tinker Air Force Base is the main topic when you talk about Midwest City , Oklahoma. Tinker Air Force Base brings in most of the population of the city, and produce a lot old buildings and companies for the city. It also was the base of the City, for instance it brought a lot of businesses, and attraction to the city. The Tinker Air Force Base was directed south of City of Midwest City. The Air Force Base is named in honor of a Oklahoma native by the name of Major General Clarence L. Tinker, the first Native American Major General. The Tinker Air Force Base has more than twenty six thousand military and civilian employees. Which is the largest single-site employer in the state of Oklahoma. The Air Force Base is nine square miles and have over seven hundred and sixty buildings with a floor space of over fifteen million two hundred thousand square feet. The Air Force Base intercept through two major highways, I forty on the north and I two forty on the south.

Throughout my hometown Midwest City we have two High Schools and two Middle Schools. The High school I attended was Midwest City High School. In 1943 the high school was built, during the time when it was the Europe war. So the high school receive a lot of families and students because Tinker Air Force Base. Around May 2005 a tornado swept through the heart of Midwest City taking out most of the high school, tearing down a whole section of the