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A Midland Staple Gone: The Western United Life Building gets imploded

After more than 60 years serving Downtown Midland, the Western United Life Building was finally demolished.

MIDLAND, Texas — The demolition for the Western United Life Building has been in the works for a few years now ever since it was purchased by the Midland Development Corporation in 2018.

Onlookers both on the ground and on rooftops nearby gathered around, waiting to see the old building literally go out with a bang.

Residents also seemed to be on board with the demolition happening in the first place.

“I think that it’s going to help out the city because it’s really just an abandoned building,” Rubi Vasquez, a Midland resident, said.

“I feel like more people are going to be happy about it because they might turn it into something more useful than just an old building being there and they might build something useful there,” said Roxanne Vasquez, another resident.

Whatever the plans will be, it seems that people are of the opinion that it will only help bolster downtown.

“It’s going to allow more people to come downtown," said Jeremy Braxton, another Midland resident. "Because there’s a lot of new businesses opening up, especially in this building that we’re on [The Wall Towers Buildings]; little shopettes and that thing. It’ll allow more people to come and see downtown and maybe pull in more smaller businesses to be able to produce more money for local smaller companies.” 

At around 8:30 a.m., the building that seemed like it would continue to stand the test of time at one point, finally came down.

It'll take crews weeks to clear the debris.

A decision on what to do with the space hasn't been made yet since proposals are still being submitted.

For now, downtown will be getting used to one less tall building in the Tall City.

If you'd like to see our special we did over the building, the people in it and it's history, check out NewsWest 9's Western United: The Life It Lived.

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