MIDTOWN DISTRICT
MIDTOWN DISTRICT
History
In Hub City's modest beginnings, business, trade, and government all took place in and around what is now known as the Historical District. As a matter of fact, in the town's modest beginnings, Hub City didn't consist of much more than the area surrounding original town square in the Historical District. And for a little over a hundred years, that was fine with the founding fathers and the residents of Hub City.
Midtown first began to bloom out of a desire by residents to connect the existing city center (in what is now the Historical District) to the centers of shipping and import in what is now called the Warehouse District. For much of Hub City's burgeoning growth, travel to and from the docks to the city center involved a trip overland along the St. Mary River on what colonists called the Seaway Road. As population and demand increased, settlers began to make homes along the Seaway road to shorten the trip. Market-sellers and tradesmen began to set up their shops there soon after, and more and more, the area began to prosper. By the 1830 census, the area Hub City residents were beginning to call Midway Town (so named because it marked a sort of midway point between Hub City and the ocean) had almost as many residents and tradesmen as Hub City itself.
Midtown's growth didn't stop there. Its nearness to the ocean, frequent traffic, and fertile conditions along the less-turbid St. Mary's River made it an idea place, in many minds, to build a house or set up shop and live, and from about 1850 onward, the population center of Hub City had moved away from the Hub City town center and into the Midtown District. By the early 1910's, the old town center was pretty much a bygone relic and many of the bigger businesses and government buildings were beginning to follow the crowds to the new center of the growing metropolis. After various legal proceedings, the Midtown District became incorporated into greater Hub City, lots were purchased by the government, and a new capitol building, state legislature building and various city and state offices were erected, truly making the Midtown District the seat of government for Hub City.
To this day, many people are under the misconception that Midtown always was the thriving center of Hub City... most would be shocked to learn that simply wasn't the case.
If anything-- be it a bill of law, a scandal, subsidized funding, or anything of the like-- involves the city or state governments, chances are it runs through Midtown. The City Center houses both governmental assemblies, the mayor's office and the state capitol building. It also houses the government archives, the city-county building, and and more government buildings than anyone could shake a stick at-- including the main state offices of the Departments of Transportation, Alcohol and Firearms, Labor, Housing and Urban Development, and the Board of Education.
Knowing that, some might be led to believe that Midtown is nothing more than an over-aggrandized center of government for Hub City with a nouveau-gothic skyline and a few smaller buildings to fill out space. That's certainly not the case. While a few of the larger businesses that head the money flow in the city have moved-- like some of the population-- to the suburbs, many of Midtown's large buildings are skyscrapers built with corporate money. The main offices of the Hub City Herald are located in Midtown, as are the main offices of three of Hub City's television stations, and many of Hub City's banks. Midtown is also the home of the main offices for Hub City Tech Vocational College, Atlantic University, Ellington Media, the Hub City Sports Corporation, and METRO-- the Hub City subway and public transportation authority. Midtown also houses Miller Square Arena-- home of the Hub City Zephyrs of the NBA, the Hub City Freeze of the NHL, and the Hub City Express of the WNBA.
Midtown may not boast the sheer numbers of live-in residents of some of the suburban areas in the past few years, but most of those people who live in the suburbs spend their mornings commuting to Midtown. On any given day, fully a quarter of Hub City's residents might be found in Midtown. The Suburbs have the shops and the scenery... but the gears of progress start in the center of Hub City, at Midtown.
The Midtown District breaks down into the following sections:
ST. MICHAEL'S COMMON (18)
.
SOUTH BEND (19)
.
WEST HUB (20)
.
CITY CENTER (21)
.
EAST HUB (22)
.
ST. ANNE'S TOWNSHIP (23)
.
HAMILTON SQUARE (24)
.
