One of Fort Worth’s oldest Black communities continues to wait for promised park
AI-generated summary reviewed by our newsroom.
- Park construction in historic Mosier Valley delayed 10 months to October 2025.
- Delays stem from city bundling projects and engineering issues at a paired site.
- Park plans include playground, artwork, and historical commemoration features.
Construction of a park in one of the oldest Black communities in Fort Worth has been delayed at least 10 months.
Councilwoman Deborah Peoples held a town hall meeting last month for residents of Mosier Valley to discuss Mosier Valley Park and other community issues. Construction of a park on the site of a former segregated Black school in the community has been discussed for more than 10 years.
Mosier Valley, located northeast of downtown Fort Worth off of West Euless Boulevard and south of Euless, is a freedmen settlement, built by formerly enslaved people after the Civil War. The park would be built where Mosier Valley School was located.
Construction on the park was originally planned to begin in January, but it has not begun. Along with questions about the park, residents raised concerns about a bridge that has caused accidents and the need for more speed bumps to slow down traffic in the community.
Peoples said she has spoken with the city’s Parks and Recreation Department to identify the park as a priority. She emphasized the importance of the park but also said she wants to make sure the community’s people get the attention they deserve.
“I want to make sure that we are getting things done here in Mosier Valley, I do not want you to feel neglected,” Peoples said at the meeting.
The budget for the park stands at $905,000, which comes from the allocation of $750,000 from the 2022 bond package and additional funds from park dedication fees, which will be used for the park master plan. The plan includes a playground, a loop trail through the park, and additional parking spaces.
The delay in construction relates to the city’s decision to bundle projects to attract competitive bids from better contractors. One park project paired with Mosier Valley had an unforeseen engineering issue, and another park was added to the project package, adding two months to the schedule, according to Joel McElhany, Fort Worth’s assistant director of parks planning and resource management.
The projected start of construction for Mosier Valley Park is now set for October, with completion in May 2026.
“We are really excited about the project,” McElhany said. “We understand the neighborhood concerns. They want the work done, they have kids that are looking for a place to play. And we totally get that and appreciate it. We want to get this work done as well.”
Plans for the park include artwork commemorating the history of Mosier Valley and the school. Currently, the site has a wall with three holes, which has confused residents. Artwork commemorating the history of Mosier Valley and the school is planned for the space. A 2017 placeholder sketch by the city’s design consultant shows an image of Ollie Park Sr. and his wife, the couple who donated the land for school, hanging on the wall along with a description of the art.
A spokesperson from Arts Fort Worth, which manages the public art in the city, said in a statement to the Star-Telegram that the park is not currently in the group’s Annual Work Plan but there is a budget of $80,000 for the project. Arts Fort Worth will work with Peoples to direct how “to prioritize the project, and it may be included again as soon as the 2026 Annual Work Plan,” the statement said.
Diana Medrano, a resident of Mosier Valley since 2012, said she was relieved Peoples came to visit. Medrano says her neighborhood feels neglected due to its distance from downtown and a lack of nearby resources.
Medrano has other concerns about the neighborhood, including the mixture of agricultural, residential and industrial zoning, illegal dumping, and abandoned dogs. She plans to form a neighborhood association to improve the communication between residents and the city.
“I am really just trying to figure out how we’re going to balance, having participation that’s small for our particular areas, but something that also takes care of Mosier Valley as a whole,” Medrano said.
Mosier Valley was founded in 1870 by Robert and Dilsie Johnson and 10 other emancipated slave families. It reached its peak population in the early 20th century as the population grew to 300. The schoolhouse, Mosier Valley School, was established in 1924. In 1949, it became part of the Euless school district.
In 1950, Mosier Valley parents, with the help of the NAACP, blocked the Euless superintendent’s plan to bus students in the neighborhood to Fort Worth with an opinion from a federal judge that declared Mosier Valley students had the right to be educated and equally funded as their white counterparts in the district.
Segregation laws prevented Black students from integrating into Euless schools in 1950. The Hurst-Euless-Bedford school district was integrated in 1968, 10 years after it formed, and the Mosier Valley school was closed. The Texas Historical Commission placed a historical marker at the site. Fort Worth annexed Mosier Valley in 1963, but residents did not receive street lights, garbage collection or water and sewer lines until the late 1990s.
In February 2014, the city acquired four acres of the old school site from the Hurst-Euless-Bedford school district to create Mosier Valley Park. In December 2017, it acquired an additional acre.
The first phase, completed in May 2019, included a parking lot, walkways and construction of a concrete cap on what was the school’s foundation that will be used for a plaza.
