The City of Fort Worth is gearing up to determine the future of the historic, now-vacant Butler Place apartment homes.
Located on the “triangular-shaped island” bordered by I-35 West, I-30, and U.S. Highway 287, just east of Sundance Square, the empty Butler Place public housing project spans some 42 acres and consists of more than 400 different units.
The public housing project became isolated over time as the freeway system was built around and over. Apartment buildings also fell into disrepair as not enough federal taxpayer money went into maintaining the units.
Before she left her unit, a former resident named Eva, 44, told Fort Worth Weekly:
“I was just a kid when my Aunt Brenda lived here. It was nice back then, and I have fond childhood memories. It’s sad to lose some of my history, but I’m ready to move.”
The last of the families that called Butler Place home had moved out in December 2020, the final phase of a federal taxpayer-funded initiative to deconcentrate residents and move them into “beautiful new apartment homes in good neighborhoods throughout the city,” using the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development’s (HUD) Rental Assistance Demonstration program, according to Fort Worth Housing Solutions (FWHS).
Now the City is faced with a decision over how to move forward with the property.
As far back as 2019, FWHS held community workshops to discuss redevelopment plans for Butler Place.
“Everybody has some level of interest in Butler Place apartments,” said Sonya Barnette, an executive at FWHS, speaking with NBC 5.
She continued, “A lot of the individuals who participated … said that there needs to be some kind of mixed-use residential, commercial office space. There was a lot of talk about some kind of educational facilities, institution going there.”
Hanging over any future development, however, is the fact that the property hosts 25 buildings that are listed by the National Register of Historic Places. The federal government designates such structures as worthy of preservation for their historical significance.
Butler Place originated in the 1940s as one of Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s Public Works Administration projects during the New Deal. It was built to provide roughly 250 black families at the time with lower-income housing.