Butler Place Historic District

Butler Place Historic District is a 42-acre area east of the central business district of Fort Worth, Texas. From about 1940-2020, it was a public housing development with 412 units. The site is now to be dedicated to a new purpose, perhaps a museum focused on African Americans in Fort Worth's history.[2][3]

Butler Place Historic District
Butler Place in 2013
Butler Place Historic District is located in Texas
Butler Place Historic District
Butler Place Historic District
Butler Place Historic District is located in the United States
Butler Place Historic District
Butler Place Historic District
LocationRoughly bounded by Luella St., I.M. Terrell Way Cir. M., 19th St. & I 35W,, Fort Worth, Texas
Coordinates32°44′59″N 97°19′1″W / 32.74972°N 97.31694°W / 32.74972; -97.31694
Area42 acres (17 ha)
Built1940 (1940)
ArchitectW.G. Clarkson, C.O. Chromaster, J.R. Pelich, H.H. Crane, P. Geren
Architectural styleColonial Revival, Moderne
NRHP reference No.11000514[1]
Added to NRHPAugust 4, 2011

Before the housing community was built, the area was known as Chambers Hill. In the 1930s, Chambers Hill was notorious for squalid housing and prostitution. In 1938 the Fort Worth Chamber of Commerce lobbied the Public Works Administration to help clear the dilapidated housing in Chambers Hill and replace it with low-rent housing. Financed by local and federal money, Butler Place opened in 1941. When it opened, rents ranged from $15.50 to $16.75 per month.

The housing project was named after Henry H. Butler, a Civil War veteran, who settled in Fort Worth after the war and became its first African American teacher.[4][3] He was a friend of I. M. Terrell, for whom the closest school is named. The housing project was added to the National Register of Historic Places on August 4, 2011.

See also

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References

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  1. ^ "National Register Information System". National Register of Historic Places. National Park Service. November 2, 2013.
  2. ^ Butler Place, at Fort Worth Housing Solutions web site
  3. ^ a b Linda Blackwell Simmons. Goodbye, Butler Place. Fort Worth Weekly, 2 Oct 2019
  4. ^ A Look at Butler’s History, at Fort Worth Housing Solutions web site

Further reading

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  Media related to Butler Place Historic District at Wikimedia Commons