A local historic district is an entire area or group of historic structures 50 years old or older deemed significant to the city\u2019s cultural fabric that are protected by public review, according to the Texas Historical Commission. The process involves documenting the area\u2019s history, defining boundaries, establishing design guidelines, gaining majority homeowner support and receiving approval through agencies such as the Texas Historical Commission.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Known for its midcentury modern and ranch-style homes, large mature trees and \u201cW\u201d-named streets, the Wedgwood neighborhood was developed in the post-war era of Fort Worth. Located near Interstate 20 and the Chisholm Trail Parkway, the neighborhood has a quiet, family-friendly suburban feel along with easy access to downtown and Texas Christian University and was advertised as such by the original developers.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The area the association proposes for the historic district includes about 2,200 lots along with commercial and public areas. That area is bounded by Granbury Road, I-20, Vega Court and Alta Mesa Boulevard. Other areas of Wedgwood might be added later, but this older area of the development made sense for the initial project, said Nicole Westhoff, president of Wedgwood Historical Association.\u00a0<\/p>\n
She sees the area becoming a historic district as a tribute to an area of the city that has been key to the character of Fort Worth.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cThis midcentury architecture is really woven into the fabric of Fort Worth\u2019s cultural identity,\u201d she said. \u201cIn the post-war, Cold War world, Fort Worth really stepped up and there was a major boom because of all these jobs. We\u2019re a city of heroes and many of those people lived and some still live here in Wedgwood.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Westhoff said Wedgwood developed when government-supported home loans were first made available to working-class residents, meaning they could afford larger houses than they could in the past. Many of these people were moving to the city after growing up on farms and in small towns.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cThis was the first time that Americans were introduced to the home loan,\u201d Westhoff said. \u201cBefore that, they didn\u2019t have buying power. So houses go from these small, little 1930s, 1940s homes to this midcentury era where you can come and customize them as much as you want.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
While almost every home in Wedgwood is a ranch house, they are all customized in some way, she said.<\/p>\n
Those \u201cW\u201d street names
\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/fortworthreport.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/0424-Wedgwood-MC-05-scaled-1.jpg\")
Wedgwood home in Fort Worth on April 24, 2026. (Maria Crane | Fort Worth Report\/CatchLight)<\/p>\n
One characteristic of Wedgwood is that most of the streets begin with the letter \u201cW.\u201d That has caused more than a bit of confusion particularly to residents unfamiliar with the area.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Wedgwood Historical Association board member Heather Todd said Wedgwood Land Co. was formed in 1954 by E.L. Baker Sr., Irwin Krauss and S.G. Payte. The three men gradually developed all of Wedgwood over the next two decades.<\/p>\n
Todd cites a sales brochure from 1954 that alludes to the quality of fine china and porcelain maker Wedgwood, a British firm that dates back to 1759. Todd said that by giving almost every street in Wedgwood a \u201cW\u201d name the developers felt they were giving every homeowner \u201ca piece of Wedgwood.\u201d<\/p>\n
In the book, \u201cWho Was Hulen?\u201d by Werner Magnus, the author said the Wedgwood developers were \u201clooking for a name that indicated value and dignity.\u201d He also said in the book that the Fort Worth Fire Department eventually asked the developers to discontinue this naming practice because it became difficult to find a location when they received an emergency call.\u00a0<\/p>\n
If Wedgwood does receive the destination, it will provide some federal protections for the area, Westhoff said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cSo the federal government cannot come in and tear down our neighborhood for a new freeway or something,\u201d she said. \u201cAnd if commercial developers want to come in and restore the commercial corridors, they get incredible tax incentives.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Other areas of Fort Worth, though smaller than the Wedgwood proposed area, already have the historic district designation, such as Elizabeth Boulevard, the Fairmount area and the Stockyards.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Westhoff said the organization gets many questions about what a historic district designation would mean for homeowners in the area.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cThey want to know what kind of rules and regulations this would bring, and there are none,\u201d she said. \u201cIt\u2019s literally an honorary badge. There are no rules or restrictions on homeowners. You can tear your house down, but please don\u2019t. You can paint your brick, but please don\u2019t.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
The Wedgwood Historical Association will be working with Austin-based HHM & Associates and, they hope, TCU students, on the study. They worked with both on the initial work to apply for the grant, Westhoff said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The grant is a matching grant program, so the association will be fundraising, said Heather Todd, a board member of the Wedgwood Historical Association.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cWe will still need to raise $8,000 to $10,000 over the course of the project,\u201d she said. \u201cWe are applying for some other smaller grants in the meantime and will be launching a big sponsorship drive soon.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
The city of Fort Worth acted as the sponsor of the organization\u2019s grant application.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is a huge win for Wedgwood to preserve the character of the neighborhood and showcase the homes. This grant is a product of the hard work the Wedgwood Historical Association has put in over many years. Partners like the WHA are an important part of the factory of our city,\u201d said council member Elizabeth Beck, who represents the area.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Bob Francis is business editor at the Fort Worth Report. Contact him at bob.francis@fortworthreport.org<\/a>.\u00a0 This <a target=”_blank” href=”https:\/\/fortworthreport.org\/2026\/05\/03\/midcentury-built-wedgwood-could-become-historic-district\/”>article<\/a> first appeared on <a target=”_blank” href=”https:\/\/fortworthreport.org”>Fort Worth Report<\/a> and is republished here under a <a target=”_blank” href=”https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by-nd\/4.0\/”>Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License<\/a>.<img src=”https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/fortworthreport.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/04\/cropped-favicon.png?resize=150%2C150&quality=80&ssl=1″ style=”width:1em;height:1em;margin-left:10px;”><\/p>\n <img id=”republication-tracker-tool-source” src=”https:\/\/fortworthreport.org\/?republication-pixel=true&post=522285&ga4=2820184429″ style=”width:1px;height:1px;”><script> PARSELY = { autotrack: false, onload: function() { PARSELY.beacon.trackPageView({ url: “https:\/\/fortworthreport.org\/2026\/05\/03\/midcentury-built-wedgwood-could-become-historic-district\/”, urlref: window.location.href }); } } <\/script> <script id=”parsely-cfg” src=”\/\/cdn.parsely.com\/keys\/fortworthreport.org\/p.js”><\/script><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"by Bob Francis, Fort Worth Report May 3, 2026 Wedgwood, the southwest Fort Worth master-planned neighborhood developed between…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":771327,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5138],"tags":[5229,2513,7371,7372,10204,358,49449,3187,67,586,132,5230,68,2969],"class_list":{"0":"post-771326","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-fort-worth","8":"tag-america","9":"tag-architecture","10":"tag-fort-worth","11":"tag-fortworth","12":"tag-residential-real-estate","13":"tag-texas","14":"tag-texas-historical-commission","15":"tag-tx","16":"tag-united-states","17":"tag-united-states-of-america","18":"tag-unitedstates","19":"tag-unitedstatesofamerica","20":"tag-us","21":"tag-usa"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/116513149319113216","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/771326","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=771326"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/771326\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/771327"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=771326"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=771326"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=771326"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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