The History of Ripley Arnold Housing Project in Fort Worth

The Ripley Arnold housing project was a low-rent, federally-subsidized apartment complex in downtown Fort Worth. The project opened in 1940 as one of the Public Works Administration’s fifty-two public housing projects built nationwide in response to the Great Depression. The project was named in honor of Maj. Ripley Allen Arnold, who established Fort Worth.

During the Great Depression, Fort Worth’s population growth outpaced new housing development while many residential areas deteriorated. In 1940 it was reported that 7,400 families lived in “blighted areas” that lacked proper infrastructure, including running water, ventilation, and sanitation. In 1938 a $2,231,000 contract between the U.S. Housing Authority and the newly-established Fort Worth Housing Authority (FWHA) was signed to fund a 252-unit lowing-income housing project for White families and a 250-unit project for Black families. The former became the Ripley Arnold housing project, and the Black housing became the Butler Place housing project. Ripley Arnold was located along the Trinity River on Belknap and Henderson streets.

Wiley G. Clarkson designed Ripley Arnold with assistance from notable Fort Worth architects, including Joseph R. Pelich; Preston M. Geren, Sr.; Elmer G. Withers; Wyatt C. Hedrick; and Hubert H. Crane. Ripley Arnold and Butler Place were designed using modernist principles that emphasized “form and function.” The results were red brick apartments in a “stripped or minimalist adaptation of the Colonial Revival style” that was popular in early twentieth-century architecture. Construction on Ripley Arnold’s thirty buildings began in 1939, and the first families moved into units in September 1940. Individual units contained three to five-and-a-half rooms, with rents ranging from $17.25 to $18.50 per month, slightly more expensive than those at Butler Place. To qualify, applying families were required to have a net income of less than five to six times the rent amount, depending on the family’s number of dependents. After its first year, Ripley Arnold housed 853 residents, while more than 500 remained on the waitlist. By that time, the living community had a prenatal clinic, a preschool center, Boy Scouts, and Camp Fire Girls clubs, and even a newspaper, the Ripley Arnold Citizen.

In the early 1940s, in anticipation of increased housing demands following the completion of the Consolidated Vultee Aircraft Corporation plant at Lake Worth, the FWHA sought to build a seventy-two-unit expansion at the Ripley Arnold site and a new housing project near the plant. The new project became Liberator Village, but the Ripley Arnold expansion, despite federal approval, was never undertaken. The FWHA gave preference to World War II service members and their families in housing at both Ripley Arnold and Butler Place. In 1944 the Fort Worth Star-Telegram noted that such families occupied more than 20 percent of the units at the two housing projects. Due to increased wages and higher costs of living, rent rates and the maximum income limits were raised several times throughout the 1940s to allow residents with higher incomes to continue living at Ripley Arnold and Butler Place. In 1949 the Star-Telegram noted that the two housing projects had “had a most salutary effect” on their respective areas and helped to “spur the rehabilitation of adjacent properties.” In 1962 a community center and twenty-eight additional units, twenty-four of which were designed for single residents over sixty-five years of age, were completed at Ripley Arnold.

Although segregated housing was prohibited by the Fair Housing Act of 1968, a 1984 report showed that most of Tarrant County’s public housing projects were either overwhelmingly White or overwhelmingly Black. Ripley Arnold alone was substantially desegregated. Its demographics were “41 percent black, 41 percent white and 18 percent Hispanic.” In 1980 Ripley Arnold underwent federally-funded renovations to provide updated heating systems and insulation, install new bathroom and kitchen appliances, and lay tiles to replace concrete floors, among other improvements. Despite the modifications, the complex was still considered a local “eyesore” by many. Moreover, Ripley Arnold became a hotspot for violent crime, gang activity, and drug abuse, which spurred pleas for heightened security and improved conditions. Anti-drug rallies were frequently organized at Ripley Arnold, and the neighborhood was a key target of Fort Worth’s Comprehensive Communities initiative, which increased policing in several high-crime areas. The KIDS Code: Blue program and the Dream Team, established in 1992 and 1993, respectively, worked to help at-risk youth in the area with educational and extracurricular programs. In 1996 a sports complex was constructed for the residents of the housing project. That year a pregnancy prevention program was started for Ripley Arnold adolescents.

Advancing plans for the redevelopment and sale of the Ripley Arnold property proved difficult. In 1982 intentions to acquire two blocks of the property were announced as part of a plan to build new county courts buildings downtown. However, city and county officials were forced to consider alternate locations after issues relating to the relocation of residents and the need for federal approval stymied the process. In 1999 FWHA officials hired a consulting firm to create a master redevelopment plan for the Ripley Arnold, Butler Place, and Hunter Plaza housing communities. The following year the FWHA decided that, with approval from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, the Ripley Arnold complex would be sold to finance the renovation of the other two public housing complexes.

In 2001 RadioShack Corporation agreed to purchase the twenty-four-acre Ripley Arnold property for $20 million to build its new corporate headquarters. Many of Ripley Arnold’s 521 residents, arguing that they had been given no assurances that they would be moved into quality housing and that they wanted the downtown housing modernized rather than be relocated, quickly moved to block the sale. Romona Utti, who became president of the Ripley Arnold Residents Association, led the community’s advocacy efforts. Claims of the historic significance of the housing units also complicated the sale. After much debate, the FWHA, HUD, and the Texas Historical Commission reached an agreement whereby the property would be sold. Conditions included requiring that the FWHA would develop mixed-income housing units; that residents would be given cash, legal assistance, and computers as part of the relocation process; that some residents would be relocated to refurbished historic buildings or historic neighborhoods throughout Fort Worth; that the Ripley Arnold site would be memorialized with a waterfront plaza; and that historic photos and documents of the housing project would be donated to the Fort Worth Public Library. Despite the concessions, some displaced residents remained critical of their lack of voice in the compromise.

In 2002 residents began moving out of Ripley Arnold. That same year the FWHA made plans to build Overton Park Townhomes, a 216-unit apartment complex in the Cityview area of southwest Fort Worth. Sixty-five units were set aside for displaced Ripley Arnold residents. The housing authority also purchased the Stonegate Villas complex near the Colonial Country Club with plans to set aside 20 percent of units for low-income residents. The decision drew the ire of local residents and sparked weeks of protest, public debate, and political scrutiny of city councilors as Hulen-area inhabitants complained that the sale would bring crime and lower property values in their neighborhood. Despite the pushback, the deal was finalized, and fifty-eight units were reserved for former Ripley Arnold occupants.

The Ripley Arnold housing project closed in October 2002 after sixty-two years of operation. The complex was demolished in 2003. A majority of those who were displaced were placed in temporary housing. Over the following years, the FWHA relocated former residents to the newly-constructed Sycamore Center Villas, the previously-federally-owned Cambridge Court Apartments, and the Spring Hill and Spring Glen apartment complexes in West Fort Worth. In 2008 the Tarrant County College District bought the RadioShack campus at the former Ripley Arnold site for use as its Trinity River Campus.