NewsWest 9
MIDLAND- The Midland Savings Building has been soaring the Tall City's streets for more than 49 years, but the building has been closed for three decades. And with Saturday's implosion a little bit of Midland's history will go down with it.
"In some ways it's disappointing to see it come down, because it has been part of our landscape and our identity of the skyline," Bobby Burns, Former Midland Mayor, said.
The 49-year-old building will be the second building to be imploded in the Tall City. The first one was the Scharbauer Hotel back in the mid 70's. But the history behind this building will never be forgotten.
"I have walked by that building several times and recall a number of the attorneys that has hade an office in that building, ate in that cafeteria in the basement a couple of times when it was in business," John Hyde, Midland County District Judge, said.
The Savings Building has been closed for almost 30 years. As oil companies left town the building was left empty. It was owned by infamous New York real state investor Leona Helmsly and it took many efforts from Former Mayor Bobby Burns for her to sale it.
"This building shows a lot of our history, it's been that green building people identified with, they knew so it's really part of what Midland is and what made our sky line special," Burns said.
The effort paid off, but the building was never able to go back to its former glory.
"We looked at different options that the city has to convert it to different things and different owners looked at different options, but we are here today and it's time to make a change," Burns said.
After the all the debris from the implosion is cleared there are plans to use the space for a parking lot and the building of a hotel is in the works.
