City leaders will vote next week on whether to rename White Settlement Road, a change proposed by a developer behind the new Westside Village project.

FORT WORTH, Texas — It’s a name that makes people stop and think: White Settlement Road.

It cuts across Fort Worth’s west side. But soon, it could have a new identity.

City leaders are expected to vote next week on whether to rename the 175-year-old road to Westside Drive, part of a new development called Westside Village.

Historians say the name traces back to a so-called “white settlement” that formed among Native villages, a history that some say still carries pain.

“For large portions of our community, it’s a very painful name,” said District 9 Councilmember Elizabeth Beck, who represents the area. “A name change is a name change. However we get there, is how we get there. It’s a double win for Fort Worth. We get to create a special place by creating a development on a boulevard that shares its name, but also by changing the name of a street people have called for so long to do so.”

Developers of the $1.7 billion Westside Village development initiated the process, Beck said. The developers have agreed to cover the roughly $26,000 cost of updating city maps and street signs from Henderson St. to University Dr. if the measure passes.

But the change isn’t without debate.

For Lily Mekeel and Dancing Iglesias, Native American sisters who own Flipstone Vintage and Thrift along White Settlement Road, the name has always prompted conversation and reflection.

“White Settlement Road is not palatable, but it makes people ask,” Mekeel said. 

Mekeel said she believes if the name were to change, it should be replaced with one that honors the Indigenous community. 

“The only way I’d want the name to be changed is if it actually honored Native people,” she said. “Otherwise, it just furthers the erasure of what happened here in Fort Worth to Native people.”

Her sister agrees the words hold weight, but for different reasons.

“I feel like the name itself provokes a lot of questions,” Iglesias said. “I know a lot of people feel the name should be changed because they think it somehow would right history, but to me, it won’t. It’ll just erase it. Westside Drive just tells me they want it to be more palatable for businesses and for money.”

The proposed name change has surfaced multiple times over the years, most recently in 2005 and 2019. Both times, public opposition kept the historic name in place.

Now, as the conversation resurfaces, it is reigniting questions about how Fort Worth acknowledges its past and who gets to define what is worth keeping.

The City Council is expected to take up the vote on October 21.