History of Oakhurst

Oakhurst has a unique history that has developed over 80 years in Ft. Worth.  Many contributors provided information regarding the history of the neighborhood as well as the history of the Riverside area.  Below are some of the stories which have helped to create our neighborhood's colorful past.

Oakhurst Beginings

In 1923 and 1924 Fort Worth businessmen John P. King and Henry King began to develop the Oakhurst Neighborhood through their Oakhurst Land Company, Inc.  Just 2 years after Riverside had been annexed to the City of Fort Worth in 1922, these men saw the many benefits their 175 acre development could provide to new residents. 

Eighty years after development of the neighborhood it is fascinating to compare the Kings’ vision for Oakhurst with the neighborhood as it is today.  Their enthusiasm for Oakhurst fairly leaps off the page of their promotional material for their development.  Reprinted below is one section of the Kings’ 1924 brochure describing and promoting Oakhurst to potential buyers.

 


“Oakhurst is more than a fine suburb, it is more than a charming place in which to build one’s home.  For, in truth, it is the fulfillment of a dream long held in the hearts of Fort Worth business men.  The growing need has been felt for years, but never before has the opportunity presented itself to justify the offering of a sensibly restricted suburban residential district which the average family can afford – where life will be better!

Now we have in OAKHURST a desirable residential district where every suburban advantage may be enjoyed – and only eight minutes from Country life for the city man has been the theme of many an advertisement designed to sell lots in localities that can not compare to OAKHURST in value, and at prices several times higher.  But, regardless of the price of property, there is no place where the city man can enjoy more country-suburban advantages than in OAKHURST.

You must visit OAKHURST to fully appreciate it, for it is impossible to adequately describe in words and pictures the surpassing beauty of this newest of Fort Worth’s suburbs.”
 


The Development of Riverside

Rick Herring, a founding member of the Oakhurst Neighborhood Association and the Riverside Alliance, compiled the following historical information about the development and growth of Riverside.  His work hangs in the McAdams Building on the Corner of Race Street and Belknap as a reminder of what this piece of Fort Worth means to all of its residents.


In these early years the rural community east and northeast of Fort Worth was known first as Greasy Bend, then later called Sylvania, and by the early 1890’swas known as Riverside, taking its name from a large residential development near present day E. 1st and E. 4th Streets.  The first bridge across the Trinity River to Riverside was on E. 1st Street.  A blacksmith shop, general store, and saloon were in operation near E. 1st Street and Sylvania Avenue by the late 1880's.


The first Riverside school, built by Dr. Daniel Eagle in 1876, flourished and grew so that by 1905 Riverside voters established the RiversideIndependentSchool District to educate the growing school age population.  Before assimilating into the Fort Worth school system in 1923, the Riverside ISD built four school buildings.  By the early 1900s, residents founded several churches to care for the spiritual welfare of the community.  Many of Riverside’s early residents were produce farmers and a good number were employed in several nurseries operating in Riverside, including Baker Bros. Nursery. Riverside was a prosperous and growing rural community and suburd with schools, churches, businesses, and fine homes when the city of Fort Worth annexed it in 1922.  Annesation resulted in improved municipal services, including streetcars, bussess, firefighting, and police services.  These services allowed large-scale residential develoment to take place north of the original Riverside community in future years.  During the years following annexation the subdivisions of Oakhurst, Sylvan Heights, Springdale, Riverside Estates, and others were born.  Many of the street names in Riverside reflect the area's heritage.  The "flower streets" of the Oakhurst and Sylvan Heights additions are a reminder of the community's gardening and nursery heritage, while many other streets are named for early settlers and residents of Riverside.  These streets remind us of Riverside pioneers named Race, Holden, Barclay, Clecker, Clary, Eagle, McLemore, Bird, Cartwright, Westbrook, Hollis, Chesser-Boyer, Tom Ellen, Seaman, Goddard, Beach, Harper, Van Horn, Selma, Ivey, and Maurice.

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Riverside is a section of Fort Worth that is rich in history and is a prime example of how a community on the outskirts of a large city developed from rural to suburban to urban to inner city in the span of 100 years.

More Oakhurst History

Did you know......

The current site of Calvary Cathedral International used to be a 9 hole golf course? 

 "Titanic Thompson" and friends bet on many golf games at the site?

 Legend has it that Thompson carried a gun to the course because he never knew just how seriously his gambling buddies might take losing thier bets on any given day?

In the 1940's a plane crashed in Oakhurst? 

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