Jump to content


Photo
- - - - -

Western Hills


  • Please log in to reply
12 replies to this topic

#1 gary

gary

    Newcomer

  • Members
  • Pip
  • 7 posts
  • Gender:Male
  • Location:Western Hills

Posted 27 July 2008 - 01:14 AM

Is there anyone who grew up in the Western Hills area? I grew up there in the 80s and 90s and I hate to see that area go downhill the way its has.

does any one have a clue what caused it?

I guess it was a long time coming, first businesses left Hwy 80 or Cherry Lane either for Ridgmar, Hulen or more specifically Westpoint. unsure.gif

i went over there the the first in a couple years and most of the apartments were almost deserted
anyone else have memories of Western Hills?

#2 cajunmike

cajunmike

    Senior Member

  • Members
  • PipPipPipPip
  • 263 posts
  • Gender:Male
  • Location:Coppell, Texas
  • Interests:Motorcycles, Golf, hunting, geneology

Posted 27 July 2008 - 06:43 AM

I don't know the exact reason the Western Hills area went down, but I do recall that in the early 90's things started to change of the westside when Carswell Air Force Base was shut down. There were many business owners who were forced to scale back or close and people moved.

In 1974 I was part of the manangment team that opened and ran the McDonald's at Hwy 80 & Las Vegas trail and did so for many years along with the other westside McDonald's . In the late 80's I purchased the Jack In The Box Resturaurants in West Fort Worth. Again with the closure of Carswell it took a toll on the westside. Recently I took a motorcycle ride from where I know live over to Fort Worth and drove down Las Vegas trail, it is kind of sad to see everything run down and shops closed. For your sake I will say that in the those early days, we had a good group of young poeple who attended Western Hills High School working for us whild in high school.
Mike

#3 EwingFTW

EwingFTW

    Member

  • Members
  • PipPipPip
  • 102 posts
  • Gender:Male
  • Location:Fort Worth, Texas

Posted 27 July 2008 - 09:54 AM

We lived in Western Hills from 1958 to 1968. We lived in the 3200 block of Phoenix.

It was a great area. Our kids went to Waverly Park and my wife served as PTA president one year.

Some of the neighbors included John Denver's parents, the Deutchendorffs (sp?). The father was stationed at Carswell; Al and Toy Komatsu, the architect; The Buckleys with their daughter, singer and actress Betty Lynn, her brother Norman, a Hollywood film director and the twins, Pat and Mike, local engineers; George Dolan, Star-Telegram columnist; the owner of The Cellar; and probably others I can't think of at the moment.

There were some four-legged residents that stayed at our house from time to time: all potential members of the Fort Worth Police K-9s which began in 1962.

#4 RD Milhollin

RD Milhollin

    Member

  • Members
  • PipPipPipPipPipPipPip
  • 2,945 posts
  • Gender:Male
  • Location:Las Vegas, NV

Posted 27 July 2008 - 10:03 AM

QUOTE (EwingFTW @ Jul 27 2008, 09:54 AM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>
Some of the neighbors included John Denver's parents, the Deutchendorffs (sp?). The father was stationed at Carswell; Al and Toy Komatsu, the architect; The Buckleys with their daughter, singer and actor Betty Lynn, her brother Norman, a Hollywood film director and the twins, Pat and Mike, local engineers; John Dolan, Star-Telegram columnist; the owner of The Cellar; and probably others I can't think of at the moment.


Did you mean George Dolan? He was a S-T columnist, and noted author and humorist. Great reading still!

#5 EwingFTW

EwingFTW

    Member

  • Members
  • PipPipPip
  • 102 posts
  • Gender:Male
  • Location:Fort Worth, Texas

Posted 28 July 2008 - 02:32 PM

QUOTE (Prairie Pup @ Jul 27 2008, 11:03 AM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>
QUOTE (EwingFTW @ Jul 27 2008, 09:54 AM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>
Some of the neighbors included John Denver's parents, the Deutchendorffs (sp?). The father was stationed at Carswell; Al and Toy Komatsu, the architect; The Buckleys with their daughter, singer and actor Betty Lynn, her brother Norman, a Hollywood film director and the twins, Pat and Mike, local engineers; John Dolan, Star-Telegram columnist; the owner of The Cellar; and probably others I can't think of at the moment.


Did you mean George Dolan? He was a S-T columnist, and noted author and humorist. Great reading still!



Yes, it was George Dolan. My son had a Fort Worth Press route at one time and George was nice enough to subscribe. George always jokingly acused him of throwing the paper on the roof and said he would leave his payment up there too.



#6 gary

gary

    Newcomer

  • Members
  • Pip
  • 7 posts
  • Gender:Male
  • Location:Western Hills

Posted 29 July 2008 - 11:06 PM

QUOTE (EwingFTW @ Jul 28 2008, 03:32 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>
QUOTE (Prairie Pup @ Jul 27 2008, 11:03 AM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>
QUOTE (EwingFTW @ Jul 27 2008, 09:54 AM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>
Some of the neighbors included John Denver's parents, the Deutchendorffs (sp?). The father was stationed at Carswell; Al and Toy Komatsu, the architect; The Buckleys with their daughter, singer and actor Betty Lynn, her brother Norman, a Hollywood film director and the twins, Pat and Mike, local engineers; John Dolan, Star-Telegram columnist; the owner of The Cellar; and probably others I can't think of at the moment.


Did you mean George Dolan? He was a S-T columnist, and noted author and humorist. Great reading still!



Yes, it was George Dolan. My son had a Fort Worth Press route at one time and George was nice enough to subscribe. George always jokingly acused him of throwing the paper on the roof and said he would leave his payment up there too.


I didn't realize it until I left for a few years but the decline would have had to start around 1993 or 1994.

I can think of a long list of businesses that closed or moved

Winn Dixie (moved then closed)
Town and Country Drug (closed)
The grocery store at South Normandale and Las Vegas Trail (closed)
gas station at Hwy80 and Portales (closed)
Westridge (moved)
Texaco at corner of las vegas Trail and Hwy 80 (closed)
Susie B's (closed)
Dairy Queen (closed)
Pizza Hut (moved)
Western Auto (closed)
Taco Bell (moved)
Ridglea Bowl (closed)
Motts (closed)
Radio Shack (closed)
Wolfe Nursary (closed)
Red Lobster(closed)
House of Wong (fire)
Hubba Hubba's (closed)
Sonic (moved)
Crows grocery on las vegas trail (moved)
7-11 and Chief Auto Parts Las Vegas trail (closed)
7-11 on Calmont (closed)
Target on Cherry Lane (moved)
Pets Mart (moved)
JoAnn Fabric (moved)
just to name a few and two strip bars and about four shady looking motels


#7 gary

gary

    Newcomer

  • Members
  • Pip
  • 7 posts
  • Gender:Male
  • Location:Western Hills

Posted 29 July 2008 - 11:22 PM

QUOTE (cajunmike @ Jul 27 2008, 07:43 AM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>
I don't know the exact reason the Western Hills area went down, but I do recall that in the early 90's things started to change of the westside when Carswell Air Force Base was shut down. There were many business owners who were forced to scale back or close and people moved.

In 1974 I was part of the manangment team that opened and ran the McDonald's at Hwy 80 & Las Vegas trail and did so for many years along with the other westside McDonald's . In the late 80's I purchased the Jack In The Box Resturaurants in West Fort Worth. Again with the closure of Carswell it took a toll on the westside. Recently I took a motorcycle ride from where I know live over to Fort Worth and drove down Las Vegas trail, it is kind of sad to see everything run down and shops closed. For your sake I will say that in the those early days, we had a good group of young poeple who attended Western Hills High School working for us whild in high school.

Well I'll say it wasn't a disaster when I lived there. WHHS is still good overcrowded but what FW school isn't? There needs to be something around that school for the students to do at lunch time so they'll stay out of trouble.
1974 that was 10 years before my family moved to Fort Worth my dad worked at General Dynamics, we lived down the street from that Mc Donalds from 1987-1997.
I had my first job at the Sack n Save on Hwy 80 I heard it used to be a Safeway.

I noticed a lot of the apartments such as the Warren apartments are being used by families w/mulitple children that wasn't its intended use was it?

what other businesses and store do you remember that used to be along Hwy 80? just for my own curiosity I'm kinda' a history buff.

#8 gary

gary

    Newcomer

  • Members
  • Pip
  • 7 posts
  • Gender:Male
  • Location:Western Hills

Posted 29 July 2008 - 11:27 PM

QUOTE (EwingFTW @ Jul 27 2008, 10:54 AM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>
We lived in Western Hills from 1958 to 1968. We lived in the 3200 block of Phoenix.

It was a great area. Our kids went to Waverly Park and my wife served as PTA president one year.

Some of the neighbors included John Denver's parents, the Deutchendorffs (sp?). The father was stationed at Carswell; Al and Toy Komatsu, the architect; The Buckleys with their daughter, singer and actress Betty Lynn, her brother Norman, a Hollywood film director and the twins, Pat and Mike, local engineers; George Dolan, Star-Telegram columnist; the owner of The Cellar; and probably others I can't think of at the moment.

There were some four-legged residents that stayed at our house from time to time: all potential members of the Fort Worth Police K-9s which began in 1962.

really I didn't realize Western Hills was that old, when was it founded? But I went to Wesrern Hills Elementary though its certainly changed a lot

#9 mnmassie

mnmassie

    Member

  • Members
  • PipPipPip
  • 60 posts
  • Gender:Female
  • Location:West Side,76107

Posted 30 July 2008 - 03:55 PM

QUOTE (gary @ Jul 30 2008, 12:06 AM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>
QUOTE (EwingFTW @ Jul 28 2008, 03:32 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>
QUOTE (Prairie Pup @ Jul 27 2008, 11:03 AM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>
QUOTE (EwingFTW @ Jul 27 2008, 09:54 AM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>
Some of the neighbors included John Denver's parents, the Deutchendorffs (sp?). The father was stationed at Carswell; Al and Toy Komatsu, the architect; The Buckleys with their daughter, singer and actor Betty Lynn, her brother Norman, a Hollywood film director and the twins, Pat and Mike, local engineers; John Dolan, Star-Telegram columnist; the owner of The Cellar; and probably others I can't think of at the moment.


Did you mean George Dolan? He was a S-T columnist, and noted author and humorist. Great reading still!



Yes, it was George Dolan. My son had a Fort Worth Press route at one time and George was nice enough to subscribe. George always jokingly acused him of throwing the paper on the roof and said he would leave his payment up there too.


I didn't realize it until I left for a few years but the decline would have had to start around 1993 or 1994.

I can think of a long list of businesses that closed or moved

Winn Dixie (moved then closed)
Town and Country Drug (closed)
The grocery store at South Normandale and Las Vegas Trail (closed)
gas station at Hwy80 and Portales (closed)
Westridge (moved)
Texaco at corner of las vegas Trail and Hwy 80 (closed)
Susie B's (closed)
Dairy Queen (closed)
Pizza Hut (moved)
Western Auto (closed)
Taco Bell (moved)
Ridglea Bowl (closed)
Motts (closed)
Radio Shack (closed)
Wolfe Nursary (closed)
Red Lobster(closed)
House of Wong (fire)
Hubba Hubba's (closed)
Sonic (moved)
Crows grocery on las vegas trail (moved)
7-11 and Chief Auto Parts Las Vegas trail (closed)
7-11 on Calmont (closed)
Target on Cherry Lane (moved)
Pets Mart (moved)
JoAnn Fabric (moved)
just to name a few and two strip bars and about four shady looking motels



Everything began to shut down or move when Carswell closed. Between that and regular layoffs at GD (if it was still GD at the time, don't remember when they changed) the whole area lost a lot of people. Carswell becoming the Joint Reserve Base never really helped out.

#10 John T Roberts

John T Roberts

    Administrator

  • Admin
  • PipPipPipPipPipPipPip
  • 16,367 posts
  • Gender:Male
  • Location:South Fort Worth
  • Interests:Architecture, Photography, Bicycling, Historic Preservation

Posted 30 July 2008 - 07:45 PM

I think this is the reason that they rolled the old section of Hwy 80 into Historic Camp Bowie, Inc. By putting it into a development umbrella for the eastern section of the highway and renaming it Camp Bowie Blvd. West, it could only benefit from the branding.

#11 RD Milhollin

RD Milhollin

    Member

  • Members
  • PipPipPipPipPipPipPip
  • 2,945 posts
  • Gender:Male
  • Location:Las Vegas, NV

Posted 08 October 2017 - 10:09 AM

Serious problems afoot at the Knights Inn Hotel on Las Vegas Trail south of I-30. 

 

The Star-Telegram has an article about the trouble there but you have to look it up, firewall...

 

Lots of chronic poverty, chronic unemployment, drug abuse and all that goes with it. It looks as if the city has a multi-agency in place to address the immediate issues at the hotel, but I wonder if there are other agencies, public and private, that are involved in addressing the root issues in the neighborhood. While the code and compliance issues at the hotel sound pretty bad, and no doubt are due in part to poor management by the owners, they are visible symptoms of deeper problems faced by the people who live in the community. How is the school district involved? The closest city recreation and community is RD Evans on the other side of Alta Mere, several miles away. Job training, employment counseling, sports opportunities, after-school programs, etc. would seem to be severely needed in this area. Surely all the construction slated to happen just to the west of this area with the Walsh (Ranch) projects could provide opportunities for job training and employment for people in this area looking for opportunities.

 

There was a series of S-T articles about the plight of the greater Las Vegas Trail area that can be accessed by a search for "Las Vegas Trail" at the S-T home page.



#12 panthercity

panthercity

    Senior Member

  • Members
  • PipPipPipPip
  • 312 posts
  • Gender:Male
  • Location:Fort Worth

Posted 08 October 2017 - 03:53 PM

I think you may have posted the wrong link by accident. Looks to be the Dickies Arena article.

#13 RD Milhollin

RD Milhollin

    Member

  • Members
  • PipPipPipPipPipPipPip
  • 2,945 posts
  • Gender:Male
  • Location:Las Vegas, NV

Posted 10 October 2017 - 11:09 PM

S-T Editorial addressing the issues surrounding Knights Inn on Las Vegas Trail; a list of previous S-T articles about this area is attached to it:

 

http://www.star-tele...e178148666.html






0 user(s) are reading this topic

0 members, 0 guests, 0 anonymous users