Featured Apartment:
Dallas-Fort Worth - Newly renovated one bedroom unit near Downtown
Fort Worth that has a great layout for roommates who need their privacy but also need a
one-bedroom sized rent. Studio apartments, lofts, and efficiency
apartments also available.
View More Listings -->
Fort Worth Information
Fort Worth is the fifth-largest city in the state of Texas and the
19th-largest in the United States. The city is also large in geographic area as
it covers almost 300 square miles and is the county seat of Tarrant County—the
18th most populous county in the country.
As of the 2000 U.S. Census, Fort Worth population was 534,694 (though a 2005
Census estimate placed the population at 624,067). The city is the
second-largest cultural and economic center of the Dallas–Fort Worth–Arlington
metropolitan area (colloquially referred to as Dallas/Fort Worth Metroplex), the
fifth-largest metropolitan area in the U.S. with a population of 5.7 million in
12 counties.
Fort Worth was founded as a military camp in 1849, named after General William
Jenkins Worth. Today, the city is portrayed as more old-fashioned and laid-back
than its neighbor, Dallas. Known as "Cowtown" for its rough-and-rowdy roots,
Fort Worth still celebrates its colorful Western heritage today and bills itself
as "Where the West begins."
In 1849, during the closure of the Mexican-American War, Major Ripley Arnold
established a fort, named in honor of General William Jenkins Worth near a high
bluff where the West Fork and Clear Fork of the Trinity River merge together.
The fort was flooded the first year and was moved to the top of the bluff where
the courthouse sits now. The fort was established to protect 19th century
settlers from Indian attacks. It grew into a bustling town when it became a stop
along the legendary Chisholm Trail, the dusty path where millions of cattle were
driven North to market. Fort Worth became the center of the cattle drives, and
later, the ranching industry. The heyday of the cattle drives was the wild era
of "Hell's Half Acre," an area of town filled with gambling parlors, saloons and
dance halls. In 1876, the Texas & Pacific Railway connected to Fort Worth and
transformed the Fort Worth Stockyards into a premier livestock center. When oil
began to gush in West Texas, Fort Worth was at the center of the wheeling and
dealing. In 2000, a tornado of F-3 classification smashed through downtown,
tearing many buildings, including the Bank One tower, into shreds and scrap
metal. The Bank One tower has been renovated and sold, most of which sold as
condominiums.
Districts
Sundance Square
Sundance Square - Fort Worth's downtown has the Sundance Square, named
after the infamous Sundance Kid. The Sundance Square is a 16 block entertainment
center for the city. The Square has buildings with tall windows, as well as
brick-paved streets and sidewalks, and landscaping that many consider to be very
delightful. Many restaurants, nightclubs, boutiques, museums, live theatres, and
art galleries are in the Square.
Fort Worth Water Gardens - A 4.3 acre/1.74 ha contemporary park that features
three unique pools of water offering a calming and cooling oasis for downtown
patrons.
Fort Worth Convention Center - Includes a 11,200 seat multi-purpose arena.
Bass Performance Hall - Bass Hall is the permanent home to the Fort Worth
Symphony Orchestra, Texas Ballet Theater, Fort Worth Opera, and the Van Cliburn
International Piano Competition and Cliburn Concerts.
Fort Worth Stockyards Historic District
The stockyards offer a taste of the old west and the Chisholm Trail at the
site of the historic cattle drives and rail access. The District is filled with
restaurants, clubs, gift shops and attractions such as daily longhorn cattle
drives through the streets, historic reenactments, the Texas Cowboy Hall of Fame
and Billy Bob's, the world's largest country and western music venue.
Cultural district
The Modern (formerly the Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth), founded in 1892,
is the oldest art museum in Texas. Its permanent collection consists of some
2,600 works of post-war art. In 2002, the museum moved into a new home designed
by Japanese architect Tadao Ando.
The Kimbell Art Museum houses works from antiquity to the 20th century. Artists
represented in its holdings include Caravaggio, Fra Angelico, Picasso, Matisse,
Cezanne, El Greco, and Rembrandt. The museum's home was designed by American
architect Louis Kahn.
The Amon Carter Museum focuses on 19th and 20th century American artists. It
houses an extensive collection of works by Western artists Frederic Remington
and Charles M. Russell, as well as an impressive collection of 30,000
exhibition-quality photographs. It also includes works by Alexander Calder,
Thomas Cole, Stuart Davis, Thomas Eakins, Winslow Homer, Georgia O'Keeffe, John
Singer Sargent, and Alfred Stieglitz. American architect Philip Johnson designed
the museum's home, including its expansion.
The National Cowgirl Museum and Hall of Fame is the only museum in the world
that is solely dedicated to honoring women of the American West who have
demonstrated extraordinary courage and pioneer spirit in their trail blazing
efforts.
The Fort Worth Museum of Science and History - One of the largest Science and
History Museums in the Southwest. It includes the Noble Planetarium and the Omni
Theater.
Will Rogers Memorial Center - a multi-purpose entertainment complex and
world-class equestrian center housed under 45 acres of roof spread over 85 acres
in the heart of the Fort Worth Cultural District. Each year approximately
800,000 people attend the three week event known as the Southwestern Exposition
and Livestock Show, formerly called the Fort Worth Fat Stock Show and Rodeo.
Casa Manana - The nation's first theater designed for musicals "in the round."
Parks district
Fort Worth Zoo - Ranked one of the top 10 best zoos in the United States.
Fort Worth Botanic Garden - The oldest botanic garden in Texas, with 21
specialty gardens and over 2,500 species of plants. Log Cabin Village - A
collection of authentic Texas log cabins dating from the 1850s.
East Fort Worth
In more recent years, east Fort Worth has been referred to as "Funkytown"
rather than "Cowtown," mainly by urbanites. In the last two decades of the 20th
century, when the Blood and Crip gangs started migrating from California, east
Fort Worth was often referred to as "Murder Worth" or "Little Chicago", as
hundreds of bodies started showing up with insufficient amounts of evidence
required to bring those responsible to justice, thus increasing the murder rate.
East Fort Worth has since then changed, as the size and skill of the police
force has rapidly increased.
Uptown / Trinity
The Tarrant Regional Water District, City of Fort Worth, Tarrant County,
Streams & Valleys Inc, and U.S. Army Corps of Engineers are cooperating in an
effort to develop an area north of "downtown" as "uptown" along the Trinity
River. This plan promotes a large mixed use development adjacent to the central
city area of Fort Worth, with a goal to prevent urban sprawl by promoting the
growth of a healthy, vibrant urban core. The Trinity River Vision lays the
groundwork to enable Fort Worth's central business district to double in size
over the next 40 years.
Some Things to Consider When Looking for a Place...
When searching for a new apartment make sure to take your time to think
through what are the most important things to you in an apartment and plan your
search based on those priorities. Here are some things to consider when planning
your move:
1. Consider the areas where you would like to live
* What is the crime rate?
* If you have children - what rating does the local school system have?
* Is there area convenient shopping, health and recreation services in the area?
2. Make a list of your housing priorities
* Do you have pets?
* Do you need parking?
* Do you need to be on the ground floor?
* What amenities are important to you - swimming pool, fitness room, in unit
laundry?
3. Evaluate the building
* What is the condition of the unit and building?
* Are the grounds maintained?
* Are windows, steps, and railings in good condition?
* View the property at night. Is it safe and well lit?
4. The security of the property
* Are there security service? When is the guard on duty?
* Does the building have controlled access?
* Does each unit have secure door and window locks?
5. Talk to the neighbors
* Ask other residents whether they are satisfied with the building.
6. Amenities
* Who is allowed to use the amenities?
* When are they open?
* Are the fees charged to use those facilities included in rent?
7. Ask about Utilities
* Does the owner or tenant pay the utility bills?
* Are any utilities included with monthly rent?
* Do units have separate thermostats to control heat and air conditioning?
8. Review the lease
* How much notice must you give before moving out?
* Can the rent be increased? If so, by how much and how often?
* Are pets allowed?
* What is the security deposit and cleaning costs upon move out?
* What is the responsibility of tenants for damage to property?
* Is there a penalty for breaking a lease?
9. Information too bring to a lease signing
* Credit Report
* Pay stubs/tax returns
* Reference
* Application
More Apartment Information
An apartment (or flat in Britain and most other Commonwealth countries) is a
self-contained housing unit that occupies only part of a building. Apartments
may be owned (by an owner-occupier) or rented (by tenants).
Some apartment-dwellers own their apartments, either as co-ops, in which the
residents own shares of a corporation that owns the building or development; or
in condominiums, whose residents own their apartments and share ownership of the
public spaces. Most apartments are in buildings designed for the purpose, but
large older houses are sometimes divided into apartments. The word apartment
connotes a residential unit or section in a building. Apartment building owners,
lessors, or managers often use the more general word units to refer to
apartments. Units can be used to refer to rental business suites as well as
residential apartments. When there is no tenant occupying an apartment, the
lessor is said to have a vacancy. For apartment lessors, each vacancy represents
a loss of income from rent-paying tenants for the time the apartment is vacant
(i.e., unoccupied). Lessors' objectives are often to minimize the vacancy rate
for their units. The owner of the apartment typically transfers possession to
the occupant by giving him/her the key to the apartment entrance door and any
other keys need to live there, such as a common key to the building or any other
common areas, and an individual unit mailbox key. When the occupant move out,
these keys should typically be returned to the owner.
Apartments can be classified into several types. Studio, efficiency, bed-sit, or
bachelor apartments tend to be the smallest apartments with the cheapest rents
in a given area. These kinds of apartment usually consist mainly of a large room
which is the living, dining, and bedroom combined. There are usually kitchen
facilities as part of this central room, but the bathroom is its own smaller
separate room. Moving up from the efficiencies are one-bedroom apartments where
one bedroom is a separate room from the rest of the apartment. Then there are
two-bedroom, three-bedroom, etc. apartments. Small apartments often have only
one entrance/exit. Large apartments often have two entrances/exits, perhaps a
door in the front and another in the back. Depending on the building design, the
entrance/exit doors may be directly to the outside or to a common area inside,
such as a hallway. Depending on location, apartments may be available for rent
furnished with furniture or unfurnished into which a tenant usually moves in
with his/her own furniture. Permanent carpeting is often included in an
apartment.
Laundry facilities are usually kept in a separate area accessible to all the
tenants in the building. Depending on when the building was built and the design
of the building, utilities such as water, heating, and electric may be common
for all the apartments in the building or separate for each apartment and billed
separately to each tenant (however, many areas in the US have ruled it illegal
to split a water bill among all the tenants, especially if a pool is on the
premises). Outlets for connection to telephones are typically included in
apartments. Telephone service is optional and is practically always billed
separately from the rent payments. Cable television and similar amenities are
extra also. Parking space, air conditioner, and extra storage space may or may
not be included with an apartment. Rental leases often limit the maximum number
of people who can reside in each apartment. On or around the ground floor of the
apartment building, a series of mailboxes are typically kept in a location
accessible to the public and, thus, to the letter-carrier too. Every unit
typically gets its own mailbox with individual keys to it. Some very large
apartment buildings with a full-time staff may take mail from the mailman and
provide mail-sorting service. Near the mailboxes or some other location
accessible by outsiders, there may be a buzzer (equivalent to a doorbell) for
each individual unit. In smaller apartment buildings such as two- or
three-flats, or even four-flats, garbage is often disposed of in trash
containers similar to those used at houses. In larger buildings, garbage is
often collected in a common trash bin or dumpster. For cleanliness or minimizing
noise, many lessors will place restrictions on tenants regarding keeping pets in
an apartment.
In some parts of the world, the word apartment is used generally to refer to a
new purpose-built self-contained residential unit in a building, whereas the
word flat means a converted self-contained unit in an older building. An
industrial, warehouse, or commercial space converted to an apartment is commonly
called a loft.
When part of a house is converted for the ostensible use of a landlord's family
member, the unit may be known as an in-law apartment or granny flat, though
these (sometimes illegally) created units are often occupied by ordinary renters
rather than family members. In Canada these suites are commonly located in the
basements of houses and are therefore normally called basement suites.
Staying in privately owned apartments rather than in a hotel is quickly becoming
popular with travelers.