Spencer: a 1901 townsite that boomed in the 1960s
Spencer is older than many of the towns around it. In 1901 Oklahoma City businessmen Louis and Henry Kramer developed the townsite through their Canadian River Water Power Company and named it for their home of Spencer County, Indiana. The site sat in Crutcho Township, farm country on the North Canadian River floodplain, close to the St. Louis and San Francisco Railway. For decades the town stayed at roughly 300 people. A 1948 push for gas utility service led to incorporation, and after World War II, jobs at the nearby General Motors plant and Tinker Air Force Base drew new residents. By the 1990s Willow View Hospital was the town's largest employer, while most working residents commuted elsewhere in the metro.
The real growth came in the 1960s, when the population jumped from 1,189 to 3,713 and the city annexed several nearby housing additions. Spencer now covers about 5.3 square miles, Oklahoma City borders it on three sides, and the 2020 census counted 3,982 residents.
Spencer's housing stock
The Census housing numbers match that history. The American Community Survey counts about 1,900 housing units in Spencer, roughly 1,600 of them detached single-family houses. The 1960s were the biggest building decade at about 550 units, followed by about 380 in the 1980s, and the estimated median year built is 1969. The town also has about 54 mobile homes and about 216 units in small apartment buildings of five to nine units. About a third of households rent.
For a plumber in Spencer, that points to a few common starting places. The 1960s houses are at the age when galvanized supply lines, cast-iron drains and original sewer laterals wear out, often all at once. The 1980s homes are now about forty years old, which is old enough for supply valves, water heater connections and the sewer lateral to deserve a look. Mobile homes need their own approach, because their supply lines usually run under the floor inside the skirting, where a gap lets wind reach the pipe. Intact skirting and insulation on exposed lines are the two best defenses before a cold snap.
Spencer water and the February 2021 freeze
Spencer runs its own city water system. Federal drinking water records list the City of Spencer system as groundwater-supplied, with about 1,200 service connections. When something goes wrong on the city side, such as a main break or a citywide outage, the city handles it. Leaks and pressure problems past the meter are usually the property owner's to fix, and that is the work we do. If your water runs rusty or cloudy right after a city main repair, run the cold tap for a few minutes before you call anyone.
Spencer felt the February 2021 freeze directly. Oklahoma City dropped to minus 14°F on February 16, its second-lowest reading on record according to the Oklahoma Climatological Survey, and on February 19 the City of Spencer set up a drinking water distribution station at the fire department to help residents with no or low water flow, Fox 25 reported. If your neighbors have water and you do not, the freeze is probably in your own line, usually in an outside wall, a garage or the riser where the line comes up from the ground. Our frozen pipe repair service and the tips on our winter plumbing page can help you get through the next one.
City limits and permits around Spencer
Because Oklahoma City wraps around Spencer on three sides, a house near town can sit inside Spencer's city limits or inside Oklahoma City, and that decides which office reviews the permit and sends the inspector. Inside Spencer, the city handles it. Inside Oklahoma City, the permit comes from the city's Development Services office. We confirm the jurisdiction before we start any permitted job, then file the paperwork and schedule the inspection. For bigger projects such as a sewer line replacement or whole-house repiping, that step keeps the job on schedule.
