Cooke's Meadow

HISTORY

The Cooke's Meadow neighborhood lies eight-and-a-half miles east of the Fort Worth Central Business District and includes two original surveys, the 1873 C.P. Madden Survey and the 1878 Enoch S. Johnson Survey. It is bordered on the north by I-30, on the east by Cooke's Lane, on the south by Meadowbrook Drive, and on the west by Morrison Dr.

Cooke's Meadow and Cooke's Lane derive their name from Jacob Cooke. Cooke owned and operated a campground and trading post in the area of Cooke's Meadow in the late 1870's for teams coming from Johnson's Station, the small community later renamed Arlington. The teamsters usually departed over the dirt lane to Birdville, (now Haltom City) to the north before turning west to gather buffalo hides for later sale in Dallas. This road became known as Cooke's Lane.

Around 1841, Comanche Indians in the area had been trying to protect their lands from settlers by generally disturbing the peace. Subsequently soldiers were sent to protect the settlers. General Ed. Tarrant and his troops, including Col. Wm. Cooke, embarked on an expedition to find the Indians and followed a lone squaw who had been washing clothes in Village Creek to her camp and routed the Indians. In this battle only one casualty occurred, an old Indian man who refused to run or surrender was killed. He was buried where he fell in an unmarked grave.

This was before Major Ripley Arnold established the fort he named Fort Worth in 1849, and before Texas joined the Union in 1845. When Texas became a state in 1845, Cooke and Tarrant were honored as peacekeepers by having counties named after them.

An early landowner in Cooke's Meadow was Mrs. George T. Clower, who purchased land in 1931. In 1953 Louise Gause Ware permitted the Magnolia Gas Company to lay underground pipelines under her land. She granted further easements in 1974 when Cooke's Meadow Development Company purchased the land for development.

NEIGHBORHOOD DESCRIPTION

Cooke's Meadow is a neighborhood full of large, mature trees towering mainly over traditional ranch-style brick homes with low-pitched roofs. There are a few two-story Tudor and contemporary homes, a few duplexes but no apartments or commercial shopping strips.

To ensure a quality development, restrictions were filed which forbade the following items: no animals but pets, no unreasonable amount of noise, no mobile homes or campers allowed and no noxious fumes. Other restrictions which were not so usual were the forbidding of clothes lines, dog houses visible from neighboring property, servants quarters not more than 1,200 square feet in size and garages which hold no more than four cars and open to the rear. All fences must be wood or masonry.

SCHOOLS

Elementary
Atwood McDonald Elementary, 1850 Barron Lane, 817-496-7445

Middle
Handley Middle School, 2801 Patino Road, 817-496-7450

High School
Eastern Hills High School, 5701 Shelton St., 817-496-7600

WILLIAMS TREW

FORT WORTH REAL ESTATE BROKERAGE

Williams Trew is a Fort Worth real estate brokerage specializing in residential real estate and offering some commercial real estate properties throughout Tarrant, Parker and Johnson Counties and serving the following cities: Aledo, Azle, Arlington, Benbrook, Burleson, Crowley, Fort Worth, Hurst-Euless-Bedford, Haltom City, Keller, Kennedale, Mansfield, Mid-Cities, North Richland Hills and Watauga.