High Quality Content by WIKIPEDIA articles! Midtown is a district southwest of Downtown Houston, bordered by Neartown and U.S. Highway 59. Around 1906 what is now Midtown was divided between the Third Ward and Fourth Ward. Before the 1950s what is now Midtown was a popular residential district. Increasingly, commercial development lead homeowners to leave for neighborhoods they considered less busy. The area became a group of small apartment complexes, low-rise commercial buildings, and older houses. According to a City of Houston report, the remaining churches and the Houston Community College System Central campuses provided the neighborhood's "only stability.