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HISTORY
Monticello is located two miles
west of the Fort Worth Central Business District and was included
in the 1854 Joseph W. Conner Survey. It was called "the
subdivision with a personality" when development began in
1928.
Wm. J. Bailey owned the land
in 1901. He formed the Monticello Land Co. in 1928, and was assisted
by V. P. Guthrie, the developer of the Park Hill neighborhood
on the southwest side of Fort Worth, Guthrie served as secretary
and treasurer of the Monticello Land Company, and Howard W. Peak
was director of sales. Bailey first opened up 125 acres for development
with five to six hundred home sites, several parks and smaller
"breathing spots." The Elk's Club Lodge on White Settlement
Road was formerly the Wm. J. Bailey mansion. The Lodge has now
been demolished.
The neighborhood included 160
acres, and homesites were required to be 50 to 150 feet wide,
more than 100 feet deep and constructed of brick, stone, stucco
or a combination of any of the three. Hare & Hare, a Kansas
City landscape firm, drew plans for the area with the assistance
of Fort Worth appraiser Brooks Baker.
One of the first home owners
in Monticello was Mrs. Ola Rizer who bought a total of four lots
for $3,750.
The Wm. E. Harmon Foundation
donated $2,000 for playground equipment which was placed on the
land the Monticello Land Co. had designated and donated as a
city park. The park is now named Harmon Park.
During World War I, Camp Bowie
was the training area for the 36th Division of the Texas-Oklahoma
National Guards. Most of the camp was in the present day Arlington
Heights area, but the infantry division was in what is now Monticello.
The northern boundary of Monticello
is White Settlement Road, which began as the east-west stage
road between Fort Worth and Yuma, Arizona in the 1850's. The
Butterfield Stage departed every day from the front door of the
El Paso Hotel in downtown Fort Worth to proceed the 1,560 miles
to Yuma.
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