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HISTORY
Eastchase is a relatively new neighborhood lying
approximately ten miles east of the Fort Worth Central Business District and encompassing
two original surveys, the 1859 D.C. Harrison Survey and the 1861 Wm. Welch Survey. It is
bordered on the east and south by the Arlington City Limits, the west by Cooke's Lane and
the north by the extension of Meadowbrook and Eastchase Parkway.
The nearby Harrison Cemetery, located near the 8500 block
of Meadowbrook Drive, was bought in 1895 by R.A. Randol, who buried his first wife, Rhonda
Harrison there and his brother, John Randol, who died in a mill accident in 1894. There are
graves marked as early as 1871 in the Harrison Cemetery.
In 1856 Archibald Leonard built the first mill in Fort Worth.
It became a community center were news was exchanged and goods traded while waiting for grain
to be milled. This mill burned down in 1860, during a general unrest over abolition, but was
rebuilt in 1862. In 1872 it was bought by W.A. Randol and operated until 1922. It finally burned
down in 1933. The road past this mill became known as Randol Mill Road, one of the streets in the area.
C.A. Boaz and E.O. Boaz, descendants of early Birdville
settler Samuel Boaz, owned land in the area in the 1930's. In 1973, the Randolwood Investment
Company and Village Community Development Company began development. This community was named
Eastchase in 1984. Much of the development in the area has consisted of apartments and town homes.
In 1989, a single-family community called Hollow Hills began development in the area.
Another major thoroughfare running through Eastchase is Ederville
Road, which was named after the Eder family who owned a large amount of land west of the area.
Today the land which made up Ederville contains only a few old boarded up structures. The intersection
of Loop 820 and I-30 covers most of the former town, and the mineral wells have been capped. The only
thing left of Ederville is a street, which is not even located in what was Ederville.
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