White Settlement Road may get a new name when Fort Worth City Council members vote Oct. 21 on a proposed change, city officials told the Fort Worth Report.
The city staff-led proposal includes renaming “a significant portion” of the road, which spans from downtown through the western edge of Fort Worth that borders the city of White Settlement. If approved, the new name would be Westside Drive.
Native American advocates have long pushed for the once prairie-lined road stretching west to be renamed because of its ties to Fort Worth’s history of pushing Native Americans out of the region.
Now, White Settlement Road cuts through Westside Village, a planned 37-acre upscale development set to break ground next year that includes a mix of office and retail space, plus a luxury hotel and apartments.
“As part of major developments, it’s not unusual to see name changes to really create that place — that’s exactly what you see happening here in the renaming of White Settlement Road,” council member Elizabeth Beck said. Her district includes downtown and a portion of White Settlement Road, plus the West 7th entertainment district and the Near Southside.
Council member Macy Hill, whose district includes a portion of the road and the majority of Fort Worth neighborhoods bordering the city of White Settlement, did not return a request for comment.
The proposed name originated from Westside Village’s developers, who would cover the roughly $26,000 in related costs for the change, Beck said.
The $1.7 billion Westside Village project, which includes the site of Fort Worth ISD’s former administration building, is headed by FW Westside RE Investors, a partnership between Fort Worth-based private investment firm Keystone and Dallas-based real estate developer Larkspur Capital. A spokesperson for the company did not return a request for comment.
After saying she was open to a discussion about changing White Settlement Road’s name after taking office in 2021, Mayor Mattie Parker said in 2023 that the issue was “not a chief focus” of her office. She did not return a request for comment.
Fort Worth city officials have renamed other roads to accommodate or mark development, such as the former Pier 1 headquarters conversion to new City Hall. Council members approved renaming a portion of the road outside that building from Energy Way to Fort Worth Trail.
If approved, the proposal would rename a roughly mile-long portion of White Settlement Road that stretches from the roundabout intersection of North Henderson Street and Jacksboro Highway in downtown to University Drive.
A White Settlement Road street sign pictured Oct. 14, 2025, in Fort Worth. (Cecilia Lenzen | Fort Worth Report)
Changing the name would mark a step in “a really positive direction” for Fort Worth while aligning the area with the upcoming Westside Village, Beck said. She expects the development to serve as a “premiere destination spot” on the west side of the city once it’s completed in 2035.
“Renaming the street makes it that destination that we want it to be,” Beck said.
White Settlement Road’s name stems from nearly 200-year-old local history.
In 1841, Tarrant County’s namesake Gen. Edward H. Tarrant ordered the Texas militia to attack Native American settlements along Village Creek — a move historians describe as an attempt at expelling Native American peoples from the region.
The Comanche, Kickapoo, Caddo and other Native nations who lived throughout the area were forced to move farther west. The Army constructed a fort, dubbed Fort Worth, to protect white settlers moving into the area. White Settlement Road formed to connect that fort to the white homesteads toward the west.
The road was widened and paved in 1956 to streamline commerce and travel between Fort Worth and the town of White Settlement, now a city of about 18,000.
White Settlement Road, pictured at the intersection of Carroll Street on Oct. 14, stretches west from downtown Fort Worth. (Cecilia Lenzen | Fort Worth Report)
The upcoming vote to change the name comes four years after the council considered changing the name without taking a vote. In 2021, then-newly elected Parker and other council members told the Fort Worth Report it was time to reevaluate the road’s controversial name.
Parker said in 2023 that she was “open to the conversation about a community-driven renaming process” if constituents expressed that desire.
Later that year, local Native American advocates said they wanted to be part of a renaming process and use it as an opportunity to educate the public about the history of Native Americans in Fort Worth. City staff said then they were looking into how to involve the public in the process.
The new plan to change the name is more than a year in the making.
In August of last year, a city spokesperson said via email that city leadership was working on a name change proposal. Fort Worth city management and elected officials provided conflicting information or declined to comment when asked about the efforts over the year that followed.
In an internal email to city leadership last summer, then-city spokesperson Reyne Telles wrote that city officials were “working through the initial steps of the process” to change the road’s name, according to a copy of the email reviewed by the Fort Worth Report. At that time, no final decisions had been made or specific plans formed. By the new year, the proposal appeared to be scrapped once again.
“There is no project to rename White Settlement Road,” Assistant City Manager William Johnson told the Fort Worth Report in January. He did not return a request for comment.
Beck said procedural issues delayed the project from seeing the finish line until now. As it comes to a vote next week, she said she is carefully considering the road’s historical significance.
“It gives us the ability to address our members of our community that have for a long time said that the name of this road was painful,” Beck said. “We get to do two good things at once.”
If approved, only the portion of the road within Fort Worth city limits would have a new name. The portion of the road in White Settlement city limits would remain the same, unless that city’s leadership initiated a similar change.
In 2005, a proposed city charter amendment would have changed the city of White Settlement’s name to West Settlement. Voters overwhelmingly rejected the change.
This is a developing story and will be updated.
Cecilia Lenzen is a government accountability reporter for the Fort Worth Report. Contact her at cecilia.lenzen@fortworthreport.org.
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