Oaklawn, located south-southeast of Wichita, is marking 70 years.
In July of 1951, a plat was submitted to the Wichita city-planning department for a development of 1,100 single-family units on a 260-acre tract just west of Highway K-15, a mile south of MacArthur Road, and running west to the Big Arkansas River near 47th Street South.
The project was to be developed by the Oaklawn Development Corporation, at a cost of $11 million. The project was a joint venture of the Henry C. Beck Company of Dallas and the Utah Construction Company of San Francisco. Ownership was held by four subsidiary companies and the purchase price of the land totaled $271,000.
The project, in addition to the two- and three-bedroom family homes, also called for 190 units in Sunview Heights, immediately to the north; all were to be rental properties. It was projected the area would house up to 4,500 defense workers and their families.
During the Korean War, when the employee total at Boeing reached a peak and there was allegedly a housing shortage in Wichita, the houses were built when the Defense Production Administration declared Wichita a critical area and emergency defense housing was authorized.
Oaklawn-Sunview is an unincorporated community, and it's served by the Derby public-school district.