Is your Fort Worth home a historic landmark? Here’s how you can find out
Find Out, Fort Worth: The Star-Telegram answers your questions. Our mission is to help you navigate life in Tarrant County. If you have questions you’d like us to consider, submit them through this form.
Since it was originally settled in 1849, Fort Worth has grown from an army outpost to the twelfth largest city in the United States.
Fort Worth is home to several historic neighborhoods, with some homes listed on the National Register of Historic Places. Homes in neighborhoods like the Fairmount-Southside Historic District have become popular places to live in recent years.
One Star-Telegram reader asked how they can find more information on their home. Here’s what our Find Out, Fort Worth team found.
Q: “How can I find out more details about my historical home and its inhabitants?”
If you own an older home in Fort Worth and want to learn more about its history, the first step is figuring out whether it has a historic landmark designation.
If a home is registered on the National Register of Historic Places list, it can be found in the National Park Service database. Homes registered as a historic Texas landmark can be found on the Texas Historical Commission website and historic Fort Worth homes and districts can be found using Fort Worth’s zoning and annexation map.
Using the Fort Worth zoning and annexation map, residents can search their address under the “I want to” search tab and select “Historic Districts” and “Historic Designations” under the map layers.
If your home is not registered, there are some guidelines the structure will have to meet in order to qualify for a historic landmark designation:
- Age: The property must be at least 50 years old
- Integrity: The physical characteristics that existed during its period of significance must still be intact
- Significance: The property has to have either local, state or national significance associated with important events or people, its architecture or design, or its potential to yield archaeological information
If your home meets the designation criteria, you can request a determination of eligibility to the Texas Historical Commission. It takes commission staff about 30 days to review submissions.
Once a submission is deemed eligible, a draft nomination can be made and is reviewed and edited by the commission in about 60 days. When the nomination is ready, it is placed on the State Board of Review agenda to be presented before a final submission can be sent to the National Park Service.
