According to the United States Census Bureau, the CDP has a total area of 3.04 square miles (7.9 km2), all of it land.

The area that we have come to know as Midland in part was often referred to by the pioneers as Puyallup Hill.

Come night it was impossible to see for the stars and moon could not penetrate the tree canopy.

A few years after the local uprising of the native populace more commonly known as the Indian War of 1855 & 56 and the death of his brother Oliver while on a family business trip in San Francisco, Ezra became disenchanted with his claim and in 1862 moved to Puyallup.

In September 1888, Joesephus S. Howell and Dr. Charles H. Spinning developed both claims into lots with streets, the Plat of Southeast Tacoma.

97th Street E, also known in the past as Mount Tacoma Drive, was originally platted as Division Avenue.

The first was the Tacoma Puyallup Railway incorporated by a man named Randolph Foster Radebaugh.

In 1889 Randolph put together the street car line, named the Tacoma and Fern Hill Railway for the area it served.

This streetcar line was initially powered by a steam dummy on a narrow gauge 40 lb.

The steam dummy at the time was an eight-ton locomotive that from the outside looked like a coach rail car.

On paper the right of way continued out to what is now the 23 hundred block of 112th St. E. This is close to where the Washington State Patrol building is now.

If people got wind of another major railroad coming to town, land prices would escalate.

In actuality, by 1889 the Union Pacific Rail Road was having genuine financial difficulties and was on a shoe string budget anyway.

In 1890 Jay Gould and John D. Rockefeller pooled their money and gained control of the Union Pacific, halting further progress of the Portland and Puget Sound Rail Road.

However, after the death of Jay Gould and some years later, the plans for the Union Pacific to gain access to the Puget Sound Region were revived, under the new name of the Oregon & Washington Rail Road, later changed to the Oregon & Washington Railroad & Navigation Company.

In the beginning, with multiple speculated routes, the Union Pacific was serious enough to start digging tunnels in the hills of both major cities: Tacoma and Seattle.

This, however, did not stop any rumors of the Union Pacific building their shops in the Midland area using the old Portland and Puget Sound right of way.

The southern border is 112th St E with the 14 hundred block on the west to just past 22nd Ave E, then north to the 107 hundred block, and West to half a block east of 26th Ave. E. This puts Midland Elementary School in the Northeast area of the plat, Ford Middle school in the Northwest corner of the plat and Franklin Pierce High School in the Southwest corner of the plat.

[citation needed] The actual midpoint centers on 97th St E. and Portland Avenue, almost a ½ mile nearer to Tacoma from the townsite plat where Midland school is located.

Frank Meeker drove the customary last spike on June 29, 1890, making the track still under construction when the plat was signed.

In 1900, the centralized community of Midland was centered on the corner of Achilles (also known as Summit Road) and Van Buren St. known today as 104th St E. and Portland Ave E. The Midland Community of today now centers closer to the actual midpoint of the old trolley Line at 99th St E. and Portland Ave.[3][verification needed] As of the census[2] of 2000, there were 7,414 people, 2,841 households, and 1,929 families residing in the CDP.

[4] Zoned elementary schools for the Franklin Pierce section include: Midland, Harvard, and Central Avenue (in Summit).