Dallas developer wants to change the name of White Settlement Road
A Fort Worth street named for its connection between downtown and the city of White Settlement might by getting a branding update.
Dallas-based developer Larkspur Capital is requesting to change the name of a section of White Settlement Road between University Drive and Henderson Street, according to city documents.
The proposed new name, “Westside Drive,” would run in front of the company’s planned $1.7 billion mixed-use development “Westside Village” on the northeast corner of University Drive and White Settlement Road.
The Fort Worth City Council approved an agreement with the developer in June to contribute $125 million to help the project.
The developer submitted the requested name change in June and has been working with city staff to get it done, Fort Worth spokesperson Sana Syed said in an email to the Star-Telegram.
“The request for the name change is related to a major economic development mixed-use project planned just west of downtown Fort Worth,” she said.
Syed pointed out that these kinds of name changes are not unusual, citing the renaming of Fort Worth Trail in front of City Hall, the Clearfork Development, and the new Tarelton State Campus.
The request will go before the city council at the Oct. 21 meeting for approval, Syed said.
If approved, Larkspur Capital and its development partner Keystone Group would pay the city roughly $25,000 to replace street signs on the roughly one-mile stretch of road
This is not the first attempt to rename White Settlement Road.
Fort Worth Mayor Mattie Parker signaled a willingness to change the name in 2021 to coincide with the completion of the last of three Panther Island bridges.
“We can say ‘OK Fort Worth, what do we think is the best name for this thoroughfare?” Parker told the Star-Telegram at the time.
The push came amid concerns about the offensiveness of the name. White Settlement Road gets its name from the city of White Settlement, which during the mid-1800’s was surrounded by seven Native American villages, according to the White Settlement Historical Museum
The road was also the site of a series of high profile lynchings in the run-up to the Civil War.
However, the decision was put on hold in February 2023, and hasn’t been taken up since.
White Settlement tried to change its name in the mid-2000’s worried it would dissuade business development, however residents rejected the name change by a 9 to 1 margin in a 2005 city election.
This also wouldn’t be the first time the business community pushed for the renaming of a Fort Worth street with historical significance.
Commerce Street, which runs on the eastern edge of downtown, was renamed from Rusk Street in 1909 over the objections of prominent Fort Worth residents like E.B. Daggett, son of Ephraim Daggett, who is sometimes referred to as “the Father of Fort Worth.”
.jpg)