Facts About Butler Place

  • 42-acre public housing property with 412 aging units.
  • Opened in 1940 and expanded in the early 1960’s.
  • One of 52 Public Works Administration (WPA) projects for low-income housing under Franklin D. Roosevelt’s New Deal.
  • 17 acres are listed on the National Historic Register.
  • Butler Place was named for Henry H. Butler, a Civil War veteran and the first African American teacher in the Fort Worth school system. Read more about Butler’s history.
  • Historical components include a red brick building that served as the original African American high school in Fort Worth, and later as Carver-Hamilton Elementary. Fort Worth Housing Solutions is located in the building.
  • Through HUD’s Rental Assistance Demonstration program (RAD), Butler Place’s residents are gradually relocating to new homes in more than a dozen apartment communities across the city of Fort Worth. Learn more about RAD.
  • To date, 125 Butler households have relocated to nine apartment communities in FWHS’s portfolio.  A total of 166 households remain at Butler Place.  Another 49 households will relocate by the end of 2019. Relocations are expected to be complete by the end of 2020.
  • In 2015 the Urban Land Institute conducted an extensive study of the Butler property in a process that included interviews with dozens of stakeholders and numerous community meetings.
  • The ULI recommended establishing a Butler Advisory Committee (see below for list of members), and preserving some part of the historic property to respect the legacy of the African American community.
  • The ULI panel concluded that even with significant investment, the 412-unit Butler complex cannot be transformed into a viable, livable community due to the condition of the units and the freeway construction on all sides of the development that isolated the community. The panel proposed a “big idea” for connecting the property to the downtown through a massive investment of infrastructure, including decking over railroad tracks.

Butler Advisory Committee

A Butler Advisory Committee is providing input on the future uses of the Butler property, including strategies for preserving some of its history.  The committee first met in March 2016. Its members are:

  • Terri Attaway, Board of Commissioners Fort Worth Housing Solutions
  • Don Babers, urban development consultant
  • Sonya Barnette, Fort Worth Housing Solutions
  • Lillie Biggins, community leader
  • Art Cavasos, Fort Worth ISD
  • Fernando Costa, City of Fort Worth
  • Jack Clark, R.O. Realty
  • Brian Dennison, Fort Worth Housing Solutions
  • Yvonne Garcia, Fort Worth ISD
  • Kelly Allen Gray, City Councilmember, District 8
  • Randall Harwood, City of Fort Worth
  • Devoyd Jennings, Fort Worth Metropolitan Black Chamber of Commerce
  • Mary-Margaret Lemons, Fort Worth Housing Solutions
  • James Mallard, I.M. Terrell Alumni Association
  • Brenda Sanders-Wise, Tarrant County Black Historical and Genealogical Society
  • Sonia Singleton, City of Fort Worth
  • Robert Sturns, City of Fort Worth
  • Andy Taft, Downtown Fort Worth Inc.
  • Sarah Walker, Tarrant County Black Historical and Genealogical Society
  • Jimmy Walker, Tarrant County Black Historical and Genealogical Society
  • Beverly Washington, I.M. Terrell Alumni Association