The History of Butler Place: Fort Worth's Public Housing Project

The Butler Place public housing project was a low-rent, federally-subsidized apartment complex east of downtown Fort Worth. The project, opened in 1940, was one of the Public Works Administration’s fifty-two public housing projects built nationwide in response to the Great Depression. Built on a twenty-acre lot, the project was named by local African American civic organizations in honor of Henry Harrison Butler, one of Fort Worth’s first Black educators.

During the Great Depression, Fort Worth’s population growth outpaced new housing development while many residential areas deteriorated. In 1940 it was reported that 7,400 families lived in “blighted areas” that lacked proper infrastructure, including running water, ventilation, and sanitation. In 1935 the Fort Worth Chamber of Commerce unsuccessfully petitioned the Public Works Administration to construct low-rent housing in Chambers Hill, a predominantly Black neighborhood which contained I. M. Terrell High School (later Carver-Hamilton Elementary School). In 1938 a $2,231,000 contract between the U.S. Housing Authority and the newly-created Fort Worth Housing Authority (FWHA) was signed to fund a 252-unit low-income housing project for White families and a 250-unit project for Black families. The latter became the Butler Place housing project, and the White housing became the Ripley Arnold housing project. Between April and July 1939, 220 “substandard dwellings” in Chambers Hill were cleared for the Butler Place project site.

Wiley G. Clarkson designed Butler Place with assistance from numerous notable Fort Worth architects, including Wyatt C. Hedrick, Hubert H. Crane, Joseph R. Pelich, Elmer G. Withers, and Preston M. Geren, Sr. Charles O. Chromaster was the supervising architect, and J. E. Morgan & Sons, an El Paso firm, served as the project’s contractor. The design of the buildings was “guided by economy and utility” in a “stripped or minimal Colonial Revival style.” Construction on Butler Place began in July 1939 and was substantially completed in August 1940. The first units were leased in September 1940. Individual units contained one to three bedrooms, living space, a kitchen, and a bathroom, with rents ranging from $15.50 to $16.75 per month, slightly less expensive than those at Ripley Arnold. To qualify, applying families were to have a net income of less than five to six times the rent amount, depending on the family’s number of dependents. In addition to the red-brick apartment buildings, an administrative facility was constructed that housed “an 800-square-foot social room and an African-American branch of the Fort Worth library.” In September 1941 Butler Place housed 803 residents, while more than 500 applicants remained on the waitlist.

The FWHA gave preference to World War II service members and their families in housing at Butler Place and Ripley Arnold. In 1946, thirty-two units, intended for Black veterans and their families, were added to Butler Place. Due to increased wages and higher costs of living, rent rates and the maximum income limits were raised several times throughout the 1940s to allow residents with higher incomes to continue living at Butler Place and Ripley Arnold. In 1949 the Fort Worth Star-Telegram noted that the two housing projects had “had a most salutary effect” on their respective areas and helped to “spur the rehabilitation of adjacent properties.” Butler Place residents developed a strong sense of community during the public housing project’s earliest years, and the weekly outdoor movie showings at the “Free Show Hill” were fondly remembered. In 1960 the city council approved a proposal to build 244 additional units of Black public housing on a twenty-four-acre plot just north of Butler Place. The Butler Place Addition opened in 1963.

Butler Place and the surrounding neighborhood were isolated from downtown Fort Worth and important community resources. The area was originally bound by railroads to the south and west and the Trinity River to the east. By the late 1950s the construction of Interstate 30, Interstate 35, and U.S. Highway 287 to the south, west, and east, respectively, of Butler Place solidified its seclusion from the heart of the city. In 1966 a pedestrian overpass spanning Highway 287 was constructed so that Butler Place residents could access the Harmon Field Recreation Center. The major thoroughfares not only created minimal and confusing entry and exit points for residents but also discouraged community support from the outside. By the 1970s housing quality at Butler Place had deteriorated, and the area was plagued by violent crime and pervasive drug problems.

In 1980 Butler Place underwent renovations to provide updated heating systems and insulation, install new bathroom and kitchen appliances, and lay tiles to replace concrete floors, among other improvements. Attention to improving the housing project was spurred by the organized efforts of Butler Place tenants and came amid criticism of public housing projects that stymied the building of additional projects in Fort Worth. Further controversy arose when plans were made to demolish eighty-two units at Butler Place to clear space to widen Interstate 35 and redevelop the Interstate 30 Mixmaster interchange. The FWHA proposed to resettle the displaced Butler Place residents in Polytechnic Heights in southeast Fort Worth, where the FWHA would redevelop vacant houses. The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) rejected the proposed relocation in a low-income, minority-majority area. Subsequent efforts to locate housing in the Meadowbrook area received criticism from Meadowbrook residents. In 1994 the Fort Worth City Council approved a plan to scatter the Butler Place tenants across twenty-three census tracts, although limited funds hampered this deconcentration effort.

Efforts to improve Butler Place were supported by HUD’s HOPE VI program. In 1995 the former Carver-Hamilton Elementary School north of Butler Place was acquired by the FWHA and renovated to house FWHA offices and a social service center. Also in 1995 Butler Place resident Cushon Holmes founded the Men of Butler to organize volunteer activities, community cleanups, and voter registration drives and to deter younger generations from crime. By 1996 a branch of the Boys and Girls Club of Greater Fort Worth was opened at Butler Place. The following year the Fort Worth Public Library opened a satellite library—Butler Outreach Library Division—in the housing complex.

In 2000 the FWHA approved a plan to sell Ripley Arnold and conduct major renovations at Butler Place and Hunter Plaza apartments. In 2011 Butler Place was added to the National Register of Historic Places. That same year the city of Fort Worth requested additional capital from HUD to fund a public housing rehabilitation program, but in 2014 the FWHA determined that closing Butler Place and relocating residents would be a better use of HUD’s funding. In 2015 the FWHA sought approval for HUD’s Rental Assistance Demonstration (RAD) program, which allowed the housing authority to pursue new funding and financing options for the redevelopment of Butler Place. In 2016 the Butler Advisory Committee was formed to help develop plans for the property’s future use. A chief concern of the redevelopment was guaranteeing that Butler Place’s historic elements were preserved. Between 2018 and 2020 the FWHA relocated Butler Place residents to mixed-income properties throughout the city. The housing project was left vacant after eighty years of use.

As of 2024, although numerous proposals for repurposing the property had been put forward, including the construction of an outdoor amphitheater and an African American museum and cultural center, no projects could begin until HUD’s declaration of trust, which legally binds the property to be operated as a public housing entity, was lifted.