Historic Handley

Page from the 1959 annual

We invite you to the 12^th Anniversary celebration of the Historic Handley Street Fest & Car Show. Information will be coming about a number of the events of October 9, 2010. The festival will feature a full day of great family entertainment with a variety of events and attractions. Admission and parking is free. Bring the whole family and enjoy the friendly hometown hospitality that has always been a “Handley Tradition”.

We invite all familys,

friends and neighbors

to join us for the 9th annual

Historic Handley

Christmas Tree Lighting

on Saturday

November 27, 2010

at 6:00 PM

 at the gazebo on

Handley Dr.

Please check the

Greater

Meadowbrook

News

and the

Historic Handley

website for more

information on

the evening’s

festivities.

We are a group of dedicated citizens working to improve our neighborhood and protect our history.

We are improving the area as we can through money earned from the annual Street Festival that we have on the second Saturday in October. It runs from 10:30 AM to 10:30 PM.

Visit Old Towne Handley at:  www.oldtownehandley.org

Handley (Fort Worth)

A line of businesses in what once was the downtown area of Handley, Texas

 Some of this information is from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

Handley was established in North Texas in 1876 and named after retired Confederate Major James Madison Handley of Georgia. He settled on land which he created as a plantation just seven miles from the center of Fort Worth.

Brief history

When Major Handley arrived, he settled on land that was included in the Sara Gray Jennings Survey of 1856. According to the Fort Worth Gazette newspaper of 1888, the most that could be said for the area was that it was good for hunting foxes. By 1901 Handley had 12 houses and 80 residents.

Handley as a town began to grow when the Northern Texas Traction Company bought land in the southern part of the community where it developed a holiday resort called Lake Erie. The company developed its lake and added a roller skate rink, a dance hall, restaurant and rides on a pier above the water.

 Interurban

In 1902 the Northern Texas Traction Company linked the city of Dallas to the east and the city of Fort Worth to the west with its own electric interurban streetcar line. In 1905 the street cars were moving at 8 mph, but by 1923 the speed had picked up to 65 mph.

 Annexed by Fort Worth

In 1946 the city of Fort Worth annexed Handley as a community and its independence came to an end. In that year it had 510 school students and a total population of around 1,000. Fort Worth had a population of well over 100,000 residents.

 Today

After years of neglect, a small neighborhood association has now revived Handley. Its once famous Lake Erie is gone having been absorbed by the northern part of Lake Arlington, the street cars and their rail lines disappeared long ago and the Traction company power station is now operated by Exelon Power.

The Historic Handley Neighborhood Association was formed in 1998 when a group of citizens and business owners lead by Doris Harrison joined together to improve Handley. The HHNA meets once a month on the second Monday. The meetings are from 6:30 PM to 8:00 PM and are held in the Fellowship Hall of the Handley United Methodist Church.

The Historic Handley Development Corporation was formed in 1999 to help with the development and preservation of Handley. The HHDC puts on the Handley Festival each year on the second Saturday of October from 10:30 AM to 10:30 PM. The proceeds of the festival goes to fund projects to help beautify and preserve Handley.

Handley also has a “Citizens on Patrol” group. The Handley COPs meet the third Monday each month. This group has been active since 1992 when a group of Handley's citizens joined others from Fort Worth to be trained by the Police Dept. These people act as extra "eyes and ears" for the Police Dept.

It’s one and two story frame homes are engulfed in trees that populate the neighborhood formed by Meadowbrook Drive to the north, Cooks Lane to the east, East Rosedale to the south and Weiler Street to the west.