City of Norman history

In 1886–87 the Southern Kansas Railway (a subsidiary of the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway) laid tracks through the area and established station grounds at the present townsite.

The university was established in 1890, 17 years before Oklahoma achieved statehood.

Norman was incorporated as a city in 1891 with five election districts, each choosing a councilman.

Instruction began in 1892.

In 1893 workers completed the first university building, which fire later destroyed.

Norman, city, seat (1907) of Cleveland county, central Oklahoma, United States The city is located on the South Canadian River, immediately southeast of Oklahoma City.

The last expansion was announced by J.E. Hurley, General Manager of the Santa Fe Railway, in 1909.

By 1919 Norman’s population had grown to 5000 residents.

During the next three decades Norman experienced slow steady growth reaching a population of 11,429 in 1940.

In 1941 OU, with help from Norman officials, established Max Westheimer Field, a university airstrip, and the next year offered to lease it to the United States Navy as a training facility.

In 1944 Norman residents passed bonds to fund the hospital.

John Womack, Cleveland County, Oklahoma: Historical Highlights (Noble, Okla.: Privately printed, 1983).

In 1984 the community supported sixty-three manufacturing establishments, which employed 2,562.

Bonnie Speer, Cleveland County: Pride of the Promised Land: An Illustrated History (Norman, Okla.: Traditional Publishers, 1988).

Jim Miller, A Pictorial History of Norman and Cleveland County (Norman, Okla.: Norman Transcript, 1995).