Park Hill

HISTORY

The Park Hill neighborhood is located three miles southwest of the Fort Worth Central Business District overlooking the Fort Worth Zoo and parts of Forest Park.

It is included in two surveys. Most of Park Hill lies within the 1864 S.A. & M.G. Railroad Survey, owner of most of this land at the time, and the 1860 Gouhenant Survey. Much of the land in this survey was sold to the City of Fort Worth in 1909-1910 to form Forest Park and the City Zoo.

The Fairmount Land Company began general development in 1926. W.C. Guthrie began developing Park Hill in 1926 with building permits for $12,000 homes with at least nine rooms and tile roofs. By 1928, fifty homes had been built at a total cost of $1,250,000.

This addition soon became the home of many prominent Fort Worth professionals, oilmen and city leaders. The Tarrant County Historic Resources Survey lists 22 homes in this area as historically significant and possible candidates for historic markers. The neighborhood entrance gates, street lights and tile street name insets in the curbs are also mentioned as being historically significant.

Period street lights were added to Park Hill in 1927, and were updated in their original form by the City of Fort Worth in the early 1980's.

In 1915, Mrs. Ida Turner, a Fort Worth artist and postmaster, convinced the Fairmount Land Company to contribute two and one-half acres, later increased to six acres, of Park Hill for the building of a children's hospital. Located at 2400 Winton Terrace East, the land extended to University Drive. Much of this land was used for raising cows, chickens and fruit trees for children in the hospital.

The Federated Women's Club of Fort Worth, in conjunction with the prestigious architectural firm of Sanguinett & Statts, designers of Thistle Hill, and various building trades, donated their services towards the construction of the Fort Worth Free Baby Hospital.

Building was interrupted by World War I, but was finally completed in 1918. In 1923 a second story was added to accommodate children over five years of age. After the Fort Worth Children's Hospital was built on Pruitt, the Fort Worth Free Baby Hospital was abandoned and destroyed in the late 1950s.

NEIGHBORHOOD DESCRIPTION

Gates and a low brick wall mark the entrances to the circular streets of Park Hill. The majestic homes include styles of Spanish architecture and Tudor Revival among others. Most of the older homes are two story, many with basements, with the newer additions being one story. New houses have been built in recent years going back to the older two story styles. Sidewalks, old style street lights and large trees add elegance to the area.

NEIGHBORHOOD ASSOCIATIONS

The neighborhood association in Park Hill is an active one, governed by a Board of officers and members at large, usually representing each street, and supported by dues from each household.

ACTIVITIES

A committee monitoring City Hall has fought to remove the billboards along University Drive at the western edge of the neighborhood, and has successfully negotiated the replacement of streets lights and the Park Hill Dr. bridge to remain with the old appearance.

Other activities include a Christmas Home Show, Fourth of July Parade, Halloween Party, Christmas Ladies Luncheon, Security Patrols and the sale of note cards and tablets printed with a design of the gates on them.

SCHOOLS

Elementary
Lily B. Clayton, 2000 Park Place Dr., 922-6660

Middle
W.P. McLean, 3816 Stadium Dr., 922-6830

High School
R. L. Paschal, 3001 Forest Park Blvd., 922-6600

OTHER INFORMATION

Nearest Fire Station: 1301 W. Rosedale, 871-6800, emergencies 911
Nearest Medical Facilities: All Saints Hospital, 1400 Eighth Ave., 927-6102
Nearest Post Office:2600 8th Ave., Berry Street Station, 924-0673
Nearest Grocery Shopping: Berry Street
Nearest Park: Forest Park
City Council District Number: 9
School District Number: 5
Voting Precinct Number: 4095

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.