HISTORY
The area now known as Ridgmar
lies about six miles west of the Fort Worth Central Business
District, just to the west of Westover Hills and north of Ridglea
North. It is included in three early surveys, the 1875 James
F. Elliott survey, the 1873 Peterson Pate survey and the 1861
John Collett survey.
Some of the early land owners
are familiar names in Fort Worth's history and in the development
of Westover Hills. These include Amon G. Carter, W.R. Watt, William
Bryce, W.W. Jones, J.F. Cook and Harold Johnson.
Amon G. Carter owned some land
there in 1935 and later bought more land from W.R. Watt in 1945.
William Bryce was an owner in 1926, W.W. Jones in 1919, J.F.
Cook in 1917, and Harold V. Johnson in 1932. The Amon G. Carter
Foundation sold a large portion of this 1200 acre "island"
bounded by Hwy. 183 on the west, Roaring Springs Rd. on the east
and what was to become I-30 on the south, to J. Marvin Leonard
in 1956. Leonard built the Shady Oaks Country Club on the northern
portion in late 1956 and 1957. The newer portion of Westover
Hills developed on the eastern part and Ridgmar grew up on the
rest, beginning development in 1957. The J.C. Penney Company
bought some of the land in 1969, and Ridgmar Mall was built in
1974.
The residential part of Ridgmar
began with construction on Dakar Rd., continuing on north on
the alphabetically named streets. The deed restrictions were
set to ensure quality construction, with building line set-backs
up to 40 feet in many areas instead of the usual 25 feet. Wood
shingle roofs were required until disastrous fires in other cities
caused them to be less than desirable. Some of the streets have
rear entry garages and size requirements as well.
During World War II, on this
land that was unimproved at the time, anti-aircraft bunkers were
built as protection for the "bomber plant", the popular
name for Convair, later known as General Dynamics and now Lockheed-Martin.
Those two or three nearly indestructible bunkers had to be broken
up and removed for the building of houses to begin.
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