This Fort Worth neighborhood near TCU was once the suburbs, where homes had outhouses

Our Uniquely Fort Worth stories celebrate what we love most about Cowtown, its history & culture. Story suggestion? Editors@star-telegram.com.

When Texas Christian University moved from Waco to southwest Fort Worth in 1911, a new suburban addition sprang up nearby to serve the college community.

The addition was four miles from the city, a long commute with no paved roads and no streetcar service. The Fort Worth police did not even patrol there because it was outside city limits. For law enforcement, residents had to depend on the Tarrant County sheriff. But the future was bright.

The area around TCU was ripe for development. The rolling hills were elevated enough to get cooling western breezes, with good soil and a good water supply by tapping into the water table not far below. There was also talk that the Northern Texas Traction Co. would build a streetcar line out to the campus in the near future. What the area did not have were municipal utilities, which also stopped at the city limits.

The new subdivision between Forest Park Boulevard and the TCU campus was called University Place. Early on, there were just a handful of bungalow-style houses, separated by empty lots. In the next 12 years, however, TCU grew and so did the surrounding neighborhood. Real estate agents touted it as “one of Fort Worth’s most delightful suburbs.” All the houses in the beginning were custom-built, not thrown up by developers. When one occasionally came up for sale, it was typically very nice with features like a concrete foundation, porte-cochere, and even servants’ quarters.

But the houses weren’t cheap. In 1920, one real estate agent advertised a house for $6,800, “cash payment with terms,” which was beyond the means of most young home buyers.

As a residential suburb, University Place did not really take off until the Carb Land and Building Co. arrived in 1923. Carb had deep pockets. It was able to buy a parcel of land and pour money into construction and ads marketing it as a desirable subdivision. Its offices were downtown on the second floor of the venerable Wheat Building, an office space that had seen better days but was no store-front operation.

Carb carved its property up into 60-foot-by-90-foot lots, five to an acre. The lots could be purchased for $1,500 with a down payment of $100 and two to three years to pay off the balance.

Every lot had a 60-foot frontage on the street. Accessibility was another point that made the subdivision particularly attractive. By 1923, Forest Park (“Fort Worth’s most popular pleasure boulevard”) had been paved all the way from town with asphalt, and the promised streetcar line following the same route connected residents to the city. No lot was more than two blocks from the line. The subdivision’s streets were paved, and several already had sidewalks and streetlights put in.

By that time, the subdivision was inside the city limits, so every house would be connected to public utilities – telephone lines, gas, electricity, water and sewage. University Place homeowners would no longer have to be dependent on outhouses, well water, and kerosene lamps. Being inside the city limits also assured them of police and fire protection.

Just as important to potential buyers, University Place had “sensible restrictions insuring the class of neighbors you would want” living in your neighborhood. In reality, that meant Carb would not be selling to Black or Latino people or “mercantile interests.”

The final drawing card was the presence of the city’s first municipal golf course, which opened in 1923 just a few blocks from TCU. For the class of homeowner anticipated by Carb, a golf course within walking distance was the last word in luxury. As the only public course, golfers otherwise had to join one of the country clubs to play.

Fort Worth was booming with new additions at the time – Riverside, River Oaks, Arlington Heights, Mistletoe, Ryan, and Forest Park – but none could boast of the amenities of University Place: a university and golf course right next door in addition to reasonably priced lots. They were all part of the “Own Your Own Home” movement that swept the country, post-World War I.

The Carb Co. was a full-service real estate business that sold lots and constructed houses, too. In 1924, Carb Building Co. launched a “gigantic home building program” with 30 “beautiful bungalows” under construction, all of brick, tile or stucco; no wood-frame houses in University Place. Three floor plans were available, having either five or six rooms each. All house plans had deep porches because this was before air conditioning, and front porches were for socializing as well as staying cool during North Texas summers. They also had garages, a recent amenity in home-building, reflecting the coming of the Age of the Automobile.

The completion of the first 12 houses on Greene Avenue was the occasion for a “grand opening” of the subdivision. On Sunday, May 18, the company invited Fort Worth to come out between 2 and 9 p.m. to “inspect” the homes. In the next few weeks, nearly 6,000 people came to see Carb’s showplace. By year’s end, Carb had constructed and sold 45 houses, and it was just getting started.

Carb opened the second section of University Place in May 1925. It offered eight architectural “styles” and three floor plans. The company had also joined forces with Ellison Furniture and Carpet Co. to finish the interiors for buyers at a nice profit for both companies.

The suburb was a hothouse of intellectualism thanks to all the college faculty and administrators living there — and their wives. The latter did not consider themselves just housewives. The ladies wanted to socialize while also “contributing to the cultural and civic development of their community.” In 1925,they formed the University Place Study Group, holding their first meeting in Brite Chapel of TCU. They divided themselves into three “departments” according to each lady’s principal interest: art, music, or books. Each department had its own membership rolls and meeting dates and places.

All meetings were held in private homes in the early years, which severely limited how many members they could sign up. Within two years the total membership was up to 100 women and one “honorary” male, Prof. Samuel P. Ziegler of the TCU art department.

Over the next half century, the University Place book, art, and music clubs would keep culture and the arts alive in southwest Fort Worth. They gained some status by associating with the Federation of Fort Worth Women’s Clubs. Their regular monthly meetings eventually took a back seat to elaborate social events beginning with holding four “general meetings” every year.

It helped in growing their membership that their meetings and soirees were publicized in the Star-Telegram. They eventually had to find larger venues for their general meetings, like University Methodist Church and River Crest Country Club. They filled the calendar with “fall teas” and “guest day teas” and “Yule parties,” which were much more fun than book discussions and music recitals. The three divisions eventually merged their interests, and the “department” distinctions lost all meaning.

Today the “book department” is the only group still active, though counting only about 15 active members. In 1952, they planted a memorial tree in the middle of the Bluebonnet traffic circle, a stone’s throw from where they started. Fifty years later, they gathered at the same spot to replant their memorial tree. They have completely dropped the name “Study Club” in favor of “Book Club,” but they have no intention of hanging it up. University Place is still home, and books are what still brings them together after nearly 100 years.

Author-historian Richard Selcer is a Fort Worth native and proud graduate of Paschal High and TCU.