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HomeMy WebLinkAboutCelebrating 150 years Euless - from Grange Hall to Texas Star{fl h kk C 9 Celebrating Euless Mayors 1950-1951 R. Warren Fuller 1951-1953 Horner H. Fuller 1953-1955 Joe Umphress 1955-1957 Jimmy C. Payton 1957-1961 Ernest Millican, Jr. 1961-1963 J. S. Anderson 1963-1969 William G. Fuller 1969-1975 Albert C. Krause 1975-1993 Harold D. Samuels 1993-present Mary Lib Saleh Euless Police Chiefs 1957-1974 W. M., Sustaire 1974-1977 Harold Smith 1977-1987 Johnnie Wilson 1987-1993 K. B. Fuller 1993-1999 Gary McKamie 2000-present Leonard Carinack 1 5� I Euless City Managers 1963-1964 W. F. Condron 1964-1967 Lee Cowell 1967-1974 C. J. Griggs 1975-1989 W. M. Sustaire 1989-1999 Torn Hart 1999-present Joe C. Hennig Euless Fire Chiefs 1956-1961 Albert Tillery 1961-1973 Jack Hauger 1973-1976 Jack Livingston 1976-1985 John Scott 1985-1994 Randy Byers 1994-present Lee Koontz from Grange Hall to ss ............... Texas Star Euless 50th Anniversary Commemorative Publication 1953-2003 May 2003 City of Euless, Texas Euless — Celebrating 150 Years Credits Euless' 50th Anniversary Commemorative Publication Compiled and Designed by Lori De La Cruz Communications/Marketing Manager City Manager's Office The City of Euless would like to thank the following for their assistance in bringing the history of Euless to life in this book: Mayor Mary Lib Saleh Euless City Council Euless City Manager's Office Euless City Secretary's Office Euless Fire Department Euless Historical Preservation Committee Euless Parks and Community Services Department Euless Police Department Euless Public Library Evelyn Whitener Himes Gary McKamie George N. Green, author of Hurst, Euless and Bedford: Heart of the Metroplex, An Illustrated History Jimmy Payton Bill & Boyce Byers Mosier Valley Historical Preservation Teresa Sustaire Alexander Troy Fuller Vada Johnson Weldon G. Cannon Willie Mae McCormick Euless — Celebrating 150 Years Preface `u from Mayor Mary Lib Saleh w � Dear Citizens, The City Council and the City Staff proudly present Euless... from Grange Hall to Texas Star as our commemorative book for the 50th Anniversary of Incorporation. We were incorporated in 1953, but this book goes back much further to tell you about our history. For without a past, there is no future. And, we have a lot to tell you about our city of Euless. This beautiful and informative book has been put together for you by our talented Lori De La Cruz, a city of Euless staff member. Many of our citizens have shared their memories — both fact and fiction — as well as prized photographs for this book. We thank you! As you read through the early history of our city and then note the rapid progress during the past fifty years, you can see why we are celebrating our 50th Year of Incorporation all year long. We have so much to be proud of, including the bravery of our early settlers and the leadership of our later citizens. The early days of Euless were much like any other small Texas town, struggling to survive against the unfriendly Indians, cold harsh winters and hot dry summers. Sometimes a disease could wipe out an entire community and the weather played a big part in staying alive. As we progressed from the small settlement without a name to the village, then to the town and now to City of Euless, you will meet those hardy settlers and leaders who have contributed to the great city we live in today. The younger Euless had its struggles as we do today in a city of almost 50,000. But weathering the difficulties of the past gives us the strength for future greatness. Today we are a city of many beautiful parks, an outstanding library, generous city services, protective services from our police and fire, good responsible city government and city staff and the best volunteers anywhere. Our accolades are many and well deserved. As you read through this beautiful and informative book my wish is that you, too, will appreciate all those who have gone before us. And, that we may add to their many accomplishments. Enjoy! Carl Tyson Mayor Pro Tem Place 1 Bob Edwards Place 3 Leon Hogg Place 2 Charlie Miller Place 4 Glenn Porterfield Veva Lou Massey Place 5 Place 6 Euless — Celebrating 150 Years Contents Exploration and Settlement 2 Elisha Adam Euless 7 Early Years 9 1950s 20 1960s 26 1970s 29 1980s 36 1990s 39 2000-2003 54 Euless Facts 60 Euless — Celebrating 150 Years Arch and Della Cannon's home place, located at present-day 610 South Main St., shows barns and outbuildings, circa 1920s. Photo by Winnie Day Cannon. Copyright by Weldon G. Cannon. 1 Euless - Celebrating 150 Years - Exploration and Settlement Early Years (1830s — 1 a4os) This photo of restored Fort Parker (Fort Parker State Park, Mexia, TX) is used here because there is no known picture of Bird's Fort — the wooden structure disappeared 150 years ago. This blockhouse and surrounding pickets are typical of frontier outposts built in the 1830s and 1840s, and close to early descriptions of Bird's Fort. From Hurst, Euless, and Bedford: Heart of the Metroplex, An Illustrated History by George N. Green. The first known Anglo-American expedition into present Tarrant County occurred in 1838, when some ninety Northeast Texas frontiersmen waged a punitive raid against Indians who had attacked their homes in Fannin County. Led by Captains Robert Sloan and Nathaniel Journey, they overran a small village and killed several Indians in the vicinity of present-day southern Euless, probably at the present site of the Arlington landfill. A Texas Historical Marker just south of Euless on State Highway 157 notes the event. After clashes on Village Creek in present Arlington in the spring of 1841, Captain Jonathan Bird, an Alabama veteran of the Texas Revolution and a resident of Bowie County, asked Texas Militia General Edward H. Tarrant if he (Bird) could establish an outpost on the Trinity River. Tarrant agreed. The fort would form the nucleus of a civilian colony and furnish protection against hostile Indians. Most Caddos and Wichitas migrated to the west and north, opening up the Trinity basin for tentative settlement. With about thirty-five volunteer Rangers, Bird chose a site inside the curve of a crescent -shaped lake (later names Lake Euless - Celebrating 150 Years - Exploration and Settlement Calloway) on the north side of the Trinity River, one-half mile south of the present intersection of Calloway Cemetery Road and South Main, south of the present Euless city limits. They erected a tall blockhouse and several cabins, three of which were enclosed in a stockade. The country was regarded as having great potential, one prospective settler remarking, "...it is the best range country I ever saw to raise stock...." But the Indians had burned off all the grass in the surrounding country and no game was to be found; all supplies had to be hauled from present Bonham at Bird's expense. The Rangers and several families who had joined the encampment were soon destitute of provisions and during one week had nothing to eat; they were saved by eating some discarded calves' bones, which they boiled. One settler, hunting for bears, was ambushed and killed by Indians. The first recorded Anglo occupation of present Tarrant County lasted only three months. The people had been confident that they would receive free land under the Republic's Military Road Act, but it was superseded by the 1841 Peters Colony contract and ensuing legislation that extended colony land south to include the area of the fort. The settlers were so informed in February 1842. Bird wrote his congressman, "...my little band was refused protection by the agent of the colony, therefore with great dissatisfaction, and aggravated mortification, the fort was vacated." According to General Tarrant, the fort was "in the limits granted to Browning and others." Bird's Fort In an effort to attract settlers to the region and to provide protection from Indian raids, Gen. Edward H. Tarrant of the Republic of Texas Militia authorized Jonathan Bird to establish a settlement and military post in the area. Bird's Fort, built near a crescent -shaped lake one mile east of Texas Star in 1841, was the first attempt at Anglo-American colonization in present Tarrant County. The settlers, from the Red River area, suffered from hunger and Indian problems and soon returned home or joined other settlements. About the same time, negotiations began at the fort between Republic of Texas officials Gen. Tarrant and Gen. George W. Terrell and the leaders of nine Indian tribes. The meetings ended on September 29, 1843, with the signing of the Bird's Fort Treaty. Terms of the agreement called for an end to existing conflicts and the establishment of a line separating Indian lands from territory open for colonization. 3 Euless - Celebrating 150 Years - Exploration and Settlement Sam Houston (1793-1863) "The Raven" 4 Downstream about twenty-two miles to the east, John Neely Bryan, a young Tennessean, had been recruiting settlers for his new village since 1840 and had helped build Bird's Fort. He revisited the fort at about the time of the Peters Colony news — possibly it was Bryan who brought the word — and invited the remaining survivors to move to the fertile lands near him. Disenchanted by the malarial conditions and thoroughly discouraged by the Peters Colony encroachment, some followed Byran while others returned to their homes in East Texas. Since the Peters Colony also included Bryan's area, following him did not necessarily resolve problems in claiming land. Those who agreed to settle near Bryan's homestead reputedly asked him to name their place; Bryan may have named it for a friend named Dallas. Another of several versions, however, credits a refugee from the fort — Captain Mabel Gilbert's wife, Charity — with the naming of the settlement. Bird's Fort remained in sporadic service for about ten years. Meanwhile, the financially desperate Republic of Texas promoted the policy of robbery. President Sam Houston and the Texas Congress authorized Jacob Snively to lead an expedition northward and seize Mexican freight trains as they passed along the Santa Fe Trail to and from Missouri, across territory claimed by Texas. Snively and seventy-six men ran head-on into a 200-man U.S. Calvary force, which disarmed the Texans and forced their humiliating retreat to Bird's Fort. There they disbanded on August 6, 1843. That same month President Houston journeyed to Bird's Fort to attempt a council of peace, under the full moon, with all the Texas tribes. The northern club Euless - Celebrating 150 Years - Exploration and Settlement frontier, he thought, "bled at every pore with Indian depredations and treachery." Arrayed in a purple velvet suit, with a huge Bowie knife thrust in his belt, Houston promised the chiefs of the ten tribes represented that an inviolate treaty line should be drawn with trading houses (including one near the confluence of the Clear Fork and the West Fork of the Trinity) established along it. He waited impatiently for the Comanches, while one British adventurer noted in his diary, "After spending several days at the swampy fort, Houston withdrew in a rage to the higher ground at Grapevine Springs. There he fretted for almost a month before returning to Washington on the Brazos." Houston left George Terrell and General Tarrant to conclude negotiations as soon as the Comanches arrived. Finally on September 29, 1843, the Bird's Fort Treaty line was agreed to, extending from the hunting grounds north of the West Fork of the Trinity to present Menard and San Antonio. The irate Comanches never appeared, but placing their marks on the document were the chiefs of the Caddo, Tawakoni, Waco and seven other tribes. Most of the Indians in North Texas remained northwest of the treaty line, so the upper Trinity became peaceful and the farming -ranching frontier was thrust westward in the 1840s. A Texas Historical Marker, just south of Euless on State Highway 157, commemorates the site of the fort, which has now been virtually surrounded by sand and gravel excavation. J Euless - Celebrating 150 Years - Exploration and Settlement A sometimes volatile and often contradictory man, Sam Houston played a crucial role in the founding of Texas. Houston was born into a military family in Virginia in 1793. His father, an army major who had served in the Revolutionary War, died when Sam was fourteen. His mother took their family to eastern Tennessee, where Houston spent much of his later childhood in the company of Cherokee Indians, coming to know their language and customs well. In his late teens, Houston was adopted by Cherokee Chief Oo-loo-te-ka who christened him, "The Raven." The name was a revered one, with associations in Cherokee mythology. His involvement in the War of 1812 launched Houston's political career. He served under Andrew Jackson in the campaign against the Creek Indians, allies of the British. After the war, Jackson was instrumental in securing Houston a position as an Indian agent to the Cherokee. Houston also began to study law and was soon elected the district attorney in Nashville, Tennessee. In 1823, he was elected to Congress and reelected in 1825. In 1827 he won the governorship. Two years later, . in the midst of his re-election campaign, Houston and his new wife, Eliza Allen, separated. Rumors of infidelity and alcoholism swirled around him and in April 1829 he moved to Indian 6 Sam Houston - "The Raven" (1793-1863) lands in Arkansas. This portion of Houston's life is poorly documented, but it appears that for a time he had a Cherokee wife, Tiana Rogers, ran a trading post, and drank so heavily that he was widely known to the Cherokee as "big drunk." Nonetheless, he made yearly trips to Washington, D.C., for business relating to Indian affairs. By 1833 Houston was living in Texas for at least part of the year, and seems to have established a permanent residence in Nacogdoches, near the Louisiana border, by 1835. With the outbreak of the Texas Revolution, Houston was quickly elevated to the command of the ragtag Texas Army. Keenly aware that he was heavily outnumbered, he kept up a retreat from the Mexican army for over a month, despite the icondemnation of his supposed comrades and allegations of drunkenness. Finally, when the Mexican general Santa Anna split his forces in April, Houston ordered the attack at San Jacinto that gained Texas its independence. The newly independent Lone Star Republic made Houston its first President in 1836, and he filled the office again in 1841, after an interim term by Mirabeau B. Lamar. As President, he secured United States recognition of Texas and stabilized the republic's finances. When Texas gained statehood in 1836, Houston continued his political career as a United States Senator, serving from 1846 to 1860. In Washington, his apparent fondness for alcohol, women and brawling again provoked sharp controversy and added new chapters to his legend. In politics, he was an enthusiastic supporter of the Mexican -American War, although disappointed that it did not end in the annexation of Mexico. A slaveholder himself and an outspoken opponent of abolition, he nonetheless voted consistently against the expansion of slavery into new territories and was a vehement opponent of secession. These views made Houston unpopular with the Texas legislature, but in 1859, as he was about to leave the Senate, he was once more elected governor and he used the office to continue his campaign against secession. In 1861, when Texas voted to separate from the Union, Houston still held out, arguing that Texas apart from the United States was an independent republic. As chief executive of the republic, he refused to swear allegiance to the Confederacy, and as a result he was removed from office. Houston died on his farm in Huntsville, Texas, in 1863. From Public Broadcasting System's "New Perspectives on the West" and "The Raven" by Marquis James. Eul Euless — Celebrating 150 Years — Elisha Adam Euless Elisha Adam Euless Euless, Texas 1895 E. A. Euless — Among the leading representative citizens of Tarrant County few are more widely known or more prominent than E. A. Euless, the popular and efficient Sheriff of this county. Mr. Euless was born in Bedford County, Tennessee, on the 26th day of September, 1848; his father, Martin Euless, was also born in that county, in October 1818; and his grandfather, Adam Euless, was a native of Tennessee. So, it will be seen that the Euless family was one of the pioneers of that state. Martin Euless married Casandra A. Bobo, a daughter of Elisha Bobo, who was a native of South Carolina and was a Tennessee pioneer. Sheriff Euless received a moderate school education by attending the school of his neighborhood, Upon reaching his majority he decided to come to the Southwest, and he was soon thereafter a citizen of Tarrant County, where he has since resided. He fist located at Grapevine, but a short time afterward made a permanent location at a point a few miles distant from Grapevine, naming his place "Euless." Here he engaged in farming and running a cotton gin, at which he continued uninterrupted and successfully until 1892. Politically Mr. Euless has been a Democrat ever since his twenty-first birthday, and has held his shoulder to the wheel of Democracy from year to Elisha Adam Euless Photo courtesy Euless Historical Preservation Committee. 7 Euless — Celebrating 150 Years — Elisha Adam Euless year, never faltering, always with enthusiasm and determination. His first vote for President of the United States was cast in 1872 for Horace Greeley. His first public office was that of Constable of Precinct No. 3, of Tarrant County, to which he was elected in 1876. In 1880 he was an unsuccessful candidate for the nomination for Sheriff, but his defeat did not dampen his enthusiasm or deter him from working for the election of his successful opponent. In 1892 he again became a candidate for the nomination for Sheriff, and this time he was successful, defeating three strong competitors. His election followed by a handsome majority of 934. So satisfactory was his administration of the affairs of the chief peace office of the county, and so well did he demonstrate his peculiar fitness and ability for the position, that in 1894 he was re -nominated by his party with practically no opposition, and elected by the majority of 800, after one of the hardest fought campaigns in the history of the county. In the discharge of his official duties Sheriff Euless has won the respect and esteem of the public in general. His one aim has been to do his duty alike by friend and foe, and in so doing he has won the friendship and well -wishes of the people of Tarrant County, Sheriff Euless' career in Texas has been both an honorable and successful one, and he has made his way up from the bottom by his own efforts and exertions. When he came to Texas his possessions amounted to a draft for $200. This he sold for seventy-five cents on the dollar, and with this he began the struggle for life in this new country. How he has succeeded in acquiring a competency and in earning honor at the hands of his fellow citizens, every one knows. Mr. Euless is a member of the Grapevine Lodge, No. 288, of Fort Worth Chapter and Fort Worth Commandery, No. 19, of the Masonic fraternity, and of Red Cross Lodge, Knights of Pythias, and of the A. H. of H. Mr. Euless was married in Tarrant County, Texas, on July G, 1870, to Miss Julia Trigg, the daughter of William Trigg, deceased, of Bedford County Tennessee. Four children have been born to their union, as follows: Martin, Suma, Edgar and Cassie. Mr. and Mrs. Euless are members of the Presbyterian Church. From the Lone Star State, Published 1895 Euless — Celebrating 150 Years — Early Years Early Years (1840s — 1940s) Excerpts from Hurst, Euless, and Bedford: Heart of the Metroplex, An Illustrated History by George N. Green Nobody can identify with certainty the first permanent settler in Tarrant County. Within the present county, somewhere along the Trinity around 1843, two Arkansas trappers, Edward S. Terrell and John P. Lusk, attempted to establish a log cabin trading post. Indians seized them and held them captive for almost a year. They left the state and returned in 1849. By 1845 farmers were settling along creeks in the northeastern area of the country. Several families, notably the Crowleys, located near the juncture of the Little Bear and Big Bear Creeks on property now owned by the Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport. Their spokesman was Isham Crowley (1798-1878) from Virginia by way of Alabama and Missouri. He and his large family settled on a Peters Colony survey of 640 acres. The creek was supposedly named for another early settler Daniel Barcroft. "Bear" was generally pronounced "bar" by Southerners at that time and perhaps his name was associated with "Dan'l killed a bar." Among the first permanent settlers in present Euless were Alexander Dobkins and his wife Mary, who left Tennessee with their children and came to Texas in 1852. Ensconced in 200 acres within the bounds of the present D/FW Airport, near the confluence of Big Bear and Little Bear Creeks, Dobkins helped organize the Bear Creek Baptist Church in 1853 and Center Spring Baptist in Birdville in 1856. The Bear Creek congregation first met in the home of Isham and Elizabeth Medlin Crowley (1799-1878), whose family constituted seven of the nine charter members; Mr. and Mrs. Dobkins were the other two. Dobkins was ordained by the church in October of 1855 and apparently served as its pastor for more than a year. Crowley donated five acres for the Bear Creek Cemetery in the 1850s, located on the east side of the Highway 3 60 access, part of old Minter's Chapel Road, a third of a mile north of the Harwood intersection. In 1857 the Crowley and Dobkins clans and new neighbors, such as the Lee Borah and Joseph Jones families, were allowed to establish a U.S. Post Office, which they named Estill's Station. Jefferson Estill (1820-1855) and Benjamin Crowley (1827-1904) were the first two postmasters, 1857-1860), and were succeeded by Dobkins in 1860. Education in Texas was largely consigned to local, private initiative before and during the Civil War. In 1860 Ben Crowley donated land for a church and school, and a building was erected in the vicinity of 9 Euless — Celebrating 150 Years Early Years the cemetery. The Tarrant County School Census of 1854 reveals thirty-five pupils in the Bear Creek School; a Mr. Houge was the teacher until 1869. Just south of the present Euless city limits is the Calloway Cemetery, on the 12600 block of Calloway Cemetery Road between State Highway 157 and South Main Street. Probably functioning as a burial ground since the 1860s, it is the final resting place for many of the successful farmers, businessmen, and community leaders — especially those, such as the Calloway family, that emigrated to the area from Bedford, Franklin and Coffee County, Tennessee. Over three miles to the east, the Euless community never blossomed like Bedford, but continued to attract settlers. In March 1879, Elisha Adam and Judy purchased a tract of land south of Bear Creek and built a new home and a cotton gin in the area of present Main and Euless Junior High School. In April 1879, Euless petitioned the Tarrant County Commissioners Court to create a road from Bedford, about three miles west of his land, to the Dallas County line at Bear Creek. He requested that the road pass by the "Grange Hall," which was now on his property. The court ordered the road established and appointed a jury, including Euless, to lay it out. A Grange Hall usually served as a rural community center. While the grange, a local unit of a national farmers organization, used the hall for their official meetings, the building was open for social gatherings. The Grange Hall on the Euless property served as the location for a m Elisha Adam and Judy Ann Trigg Euless Photo courtesy Euless Historical Preservation Committee. community school, probably sponsored by the local grange. In later years, the ramshackle building shook and rattled every time the wind blew. When that happened, concerned parents would take their children home. The Grange Hall was torn down in the early 1900s. After his settlement there, the community thrived. Local farmers decided to honor the popular young man whose arrival and whose gin seemed to coincide with the end of the hard times. They named their community for him. There was a good water well at the gin that was available to all. A few businesses, such as the T. A. Fuller Blacksmith Shop, clustered around the gin. Cyrus Snow opened a grocery store on the present site of the First United Methodist Church, 106 North Main, and he became the first postmaster in 1886. Mail came from Eagle Ford at Dallas and was delivered by horse and buggy to Grapevine, Minter's Chapel, Sewers, Estelle and Euless. John Evans took over the store and postmastership, 1892-1901. Adam Euless continued farming until he was again lured into politics. In 1892 he defeated three contenders in a landslide election for county sheriff, and was reelected in 1894. Euless moved to Fort Worth when he was elected and was the first sheriff to occupy an office in the newly constructed county courthouse. After two terms, health problems persuaded Euless to retire from law enforcement and politics. Shortly afterward, a stroke left him paralyzed and forced him to sell his farm and gin. The gin soon closed. In 1911 a second stroke claimed his life, and he was buried in Fort Worth's Oakwood Cemetery. In 1884, John Huffman moved from Bedford County, Tennessee, to a farm in an area where Euless - Celebrating 150 Years - Early Years Standing by his old log barn, Joe E. Whitener, his daughter Della Whitener Cannon and his granddaughter, Eula Cannon Martin. Photo courtesy Euless Historical Preservation Committee. the First United Methodist Church of Euless now stands. In 1896 he donated the land in the present 100 block of North Main to the church, across the road from the hall that they had shared with the Presbyterians, now the site of a Mobile gas station. A one -room frame building was erected. Years later Huffman recalled the hour and a half long "hell n Euless — Celebrating 150 Years — Early Years Pl1otD of first school built in Euless on south side of present East Euless Blvd. between South Main St. and Cullum Dr. Photo taken in 1907 or 1908. Teacher Alfred Whitener, the man on the far left, was the son of Joe E. Whitener. Photo courtesy Euless Historical Preservation Committee. fire and damnation sermons" and shouting converts. The revivals drew huge crowds in a nearby brush arbor. Members of the congregation were tried in church for moral offenses and were expected to openly repent. Joe Whitener, who had immigrated from Tennessee in 1881, was a trustee of the Euless School (the old community hall) in 1897, when he persuaded his old friend John W. Calhoun to assume the job of schoolmaster for $50 a month, twice his Tennessee teacher's salary. The Euless School had fifty students in 1896 and either forty or seventy-one in 1897, depending on which list one accepts. A new one -room, frame schoolhouse was constructed on the present southeast corner of South Main and Highway 10. Calhoun taught for two years, handling grammar and algebra among other subjects, while also sweeping the floors, making the fires and maintaining the building and equipment. His students' ages ranged from six to nineteen. Meanwhile, in the county line village of Euless, at the eastern end of a course following present Bedford Road, Murphy Drive and Huffman (roughly), there was more orientation toward Dallas than in other Tarrant Thomas W. Fuller County communities. Groups of farmers would trek to Dallas to buy supplies, sell a few bales of cotton and other crops and evidently, beginning in the summer of 1910, gather the mail. They traveled together since it required several men to push and pull loaded wagons across the streams. Or some of them, such as John Whitener, Jim Fuller, or Walter McCormick, might go in for a few days just to sell butter, eggs, tomatoes, okra, cantaloupes and watermelons in the Dallas farmers' market, where the products fetched the best prices in the area. The first post office in Euless, in 1886, was mistakenly named "Euless" due to the misreading of the handwritten application. When Thomas W. Fuller became the postmaster in 1901, the mail service was located in the postal section of a grocery store. The grocery store was located at the present day northwest corner of South Main St. and Euless Blvd. The post office was closed in 1910 and the service was moved to Arlington. Euless — Celebrating 150 Years — Early Years Tarrant Depot was built south of Euless in 1903 when the Rock Island Railroad connected Dallas and Fort Worth. Photo by Winnie Day Cannon, circa 1920. Copyright by Weldon G. Cannon. Euless almost became extinct in 1903 when the Rock Island Railroad built a railway station south of Euless in an area that was platted as "Candon." The railroad intended for Candon to become a big metropolis area. When the United States Postal Service denied Candon's application for a post office, the railroad changed the town's name to Tarrant and it grew rapidly. . However, with the growing popularity of cars, Tarrant began to fade away and Euless began to recover. 13 Euless — Celebrating 150 Years — Early Years In 1926, Homer Fuller opened what soon became the social center of the community — a 12' x 14' store — at what is presently the southeast corner of South Main St. and Euless Blvd. Shortly after the Fuller's Grocery opened, the Tennessee Dairy receiving plant was built across the intersection where McDonald's is today. In approximately 1927, Warren Fuller joined his brother, Homer, at the family grocery which became Fuller Brothers Grocery and Feed. The brothers ran the store for 29 years, remodeling it three times. Although Texas Power and Light brought electricity to Euless in 1929 — more than 43 years after electricity was available in Fort Worth — the Great Depression took its toll on the Euless population. Warren Fuller recalled that for a nickel you could buy two loaves of Mrs. Baird's bread or a quart of milk, but nickels were hard to come by. Dairy hands, for instance, milked cows about eight hours a day, beginning at 2 a.m. and received $3 a week. There were no more than 100 people living in Euless in 1930 and maybe a few more in 1940. After World War II, there were approximately 300 people in Euless. Euless — Celebrating 150 Years — Early Years The major north -south artery, the Arlington - Grapevine Highway — present-day Industrial Blvd. — was asphalted in 1937. The old iron bridge that spanned the Trinity River since 1889 was either moved or the metal was used to build the bridge that spanned Little Bear Creek on North Main St. The bridge was moved again in 1975 to South Euless Park. The east -west artery, State Highway 15, was constructed in 1939. In the early 1940s it was renumbered 183. It is currently Hwy. 10. In 1941, a plane headed for Amon Carter Field crash- landed in Roy Cannon's peach orchard (see photo below). The photo on the right shows the intersection of Euless Blvd. and South Main St. from the east as the plane was being towed to Amon Carter Field. In 1941, a plane crash-landed in Roy Cannon's peach orchard. Ross Cannon is on the left and Weldon Cannon is on the right. Photo by Winnie Day Cannon, 1941. Copyright by Weldon G. Cannon. The plane that crash-landed in Roy Cannon's peach orchard was towed east on Euless Blvd. to Amon Carter Field. Photo by Winnie Day Cannon, 1941. Copyright by Weldon G. Cannon. 15 Euless — Celebrating 1.50 Years — Early Years This was the first house built in Mosier Valley — a log cabin built by Robert and Delsie. The land was a wedding gift from the Lee family, who Delsie worked for. This was the birthplace of Vada Johnson's father. Robert and Delsie are Johnson's great-grandparents. Photo courtesy Vada Johnson. According to George Green in Hurst, Euless and Bedford: Heart of the Metroplex, An Illustrated History, in August t949, without consulting anyone in Mosier Valley, Euless School Superintendent O. B. Powell contracted for the transfer of forty-six black students (including twelve from Hurst) to three "colored" schools in Fort Worth. Several other Tarrant County towns already followed the practice. Powell believed that busing would be cheaper than maintaining the black school in the long run and that Fort Worth schools would provide far better educational advantages than the tattered Mosier Valley facility. But in October the parents of fourteen school children living in Mosier Valley filed suit in U.S. District Court to enjoin the Euless school district from requiring black students to attend Fort Worth schools while schools for whites were maintained in Euless. The people of Mosier Valley boycotted the bus that was provided for the thirty- two mile round trip and set up a private school in their Baptist Church. Powell angrily charged that agitation by the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People led to the filing of the suit, which was true enough. His additional claim that, "The Euless — Celebrating 150 Years — Early Years Negro people out there hardly know what the whole thing is about" was wishful thinking. Over one hundred supportive Mosier Valley folks filled the courtroom for the opening -day testimony. Horace Coffee and Willie Parker, among other long-time residents of the community, testified that they had met in August and agreed not to allow their school children to be bused out of the district. In June 1950, Judge Joe Dooley observed that the Fort Worth courses for "Negroes" were probably better than those in the Euless School for whites, but he ruled that Texas statutes expressly provided that students have the right to . be educated in their own district and that a district's schools were supposed to be funded on an equal and impartial basis. He noted that $55,000 in public bond proceeds had recently been spent on the white school compared to about $1,500 for the Mosier Valley school. Texas — with 1,100 districts that bused blacks to other districts — seemingly faced a new financial burden unless the decision could be successfully appealed. Powell warned that "Euless couldn't fight the battle for Texas and the South by itself." There was talk in the village that Euless or its school district might be annexed by Fort Worth, but Powell and the village school board called for the passage of a $25,000 bond issue dedicated mostly to the black school. On the eve of the election, with a few repairs having begun at the school, the facility was vandalized. Powell personally urged blacks to vote in the August bond election, which about sixteen did, but a white backlash defeated the bond 101 to 57. Suddenly on the morning of September 4, 1950, thirty-five black grade -school students, their parents and NAACP spokesmen entered the Euless School shortly after 8 a.m. and demanded enrollment along with white pupils. Word quickly spread throughout town and a resentful crowd of some 150 white residents, a few of whom were apparently armed, gathered outside on the school grounds during the two hours in which Powell addressed the black delegation in Euless High School, circa 1941. Bill Byers is on the left and Louise Cannon Griffith is on the right. Photo by Winnie Day Cannon. Copyright by Weldon G. Cannon. 17 Euless — Celebrating 150 Years — Early Years Mosier Valley School, circa 1950. Photo courtesy Mosier Valley Historical Preservation. W] the school auditorium. Outside there were angry denunciations of the blacks, but the only violence was directed toward the media. A Fort Worth Press photographer was hit in the face and his camera seized, a black photographer was relieved of his camera and the WBAP-TV reporter was warned to turn his television camera off. Powell consulted the hastily assembled school board, then informed the black delegation that he had to enforce the state segregation law. The blacks quietly filed out of the school amidst jeers and enrolled at Mosier Valley. Repairs then began in earnest at the black school — lights, water and butane gas were provided, desks and paint added and new outdoor toilets dug. Meanwhile, the NAACP backed away from the Euless case and in July 1951, the U.S. 5th Circuit Court of Appeals reversed Dooley's decision. A new brick school was completed in 1953 in Euless — Celebrating 150 Years — Early Years Mosier Valley (Mosier Valley was growing in the early 1950s. Black workers were attracted to construction jobs at Amon Carter Field and the Bell Helicopter plant. The population may have numbered 300.) The civil rights activity in Euless was part of a series of incidents and cases in the 1940s and 1950s that culminated in the Brown ruling by the U.S. Supreme Court in 1954, ordering the desegregation of the nation's public schools with all deliberate speed. Most Texas districts resisted for years. The first integrated classes in the merged HEB district began in the summer of 1965 with a federal Head Start program. In the spring of 1968 the federal government threatened to cut off aid to the HEB school district unless the Mosier Valley facility was closed or integrated. It closed. 24 y ,t»F f 1�•",t.l�.R'4M{`l' y ?� i},'f 3 ,a 04- �t S a "Downtown" Euless, Ross Cannon's Euless Nursery in foreground. The street is West Euless Blvd. extending to the west. This photo was taken looking to the northeast from the airline beacon tower that was located at present-day Alexander Lane and Martha St. Photo circa 1951. Photo by Weldon G. Cannon. Copyright by Weldon G. Cannon. 19 Euless — Celebrating 150 Years — 1950s 1950s el�e- Euless voted -"two.': weeks °.,ago .SatumO to. incorporate: ' ,by . a 4&18 count. Only ,10 of; thq ,:79. qualified voters 'failed',.t4' 4mark llallots:.. . , .Frank 'F.. Tipps, Euless real es- tate man, one ­of. the sponsors of incorporation; said the -communi• ty.wanted• to incorporate, so water cbuid: be provided, "Although our city limits,touch :Fort. Worth` on; the South;- at.: the Tipeline..Road; we did .not` fear anriezation 1'Fort' Worths:•We`,want: water and`we' are ',already talking to a Fort Worth water company about.it," he said., In the early 1950s, Euless had a more pressing problem — most of the water wells were too shallow and had too much iron. And people who wanted to build homes couldn't secure FHA loans unless there was a water system, which required incorporation. Warren Fuller served as ex-officio mayor while initiating proceedings for incorporation and a water supply in 1950. Then he was elected the first mayor when the village incorporated, apparently in April 1950. Euless barely scraped up the requisite 110 water tie-ins for every domicile and store in town and obtained a water supply several weeks ahead of Hurst. Homer Fuller succeeded his brother as mayor in the summer of 1951. Signers of petition to incorporate, dated August 28, 1950; filed with Tarrant County Commissioners' Court, August 30, 1950. E. V. Anderson M. W. Birch Mrs. Ross Cannon H. H. Fuller Mrs. R. W. Fuller R. W. Fuller Mrs. Raymond Fuller Troy M. Fuller E. E Graham Mrs. E. E Graham J. A. Horton Mrs. J. A. Horton Ernest Millican Mrs. S. W. Mills S. W. Mills Mrs. Robert L. Nail Robt. L. Nail Marjorie Neely Mrs. Nannie Powell O. B. Powell Fort Worth Star -Telegram Election held September 23, 1950. October 6, 1950 Results: 48 for incorporation and 19 against incorporation. Signers of petition to disincorporate, no date; filed with Tarrant County Commissioners' Court, December 10, 1952. Ernest Allman Mrs. O. I. Longfellow Mrs. Minnie Allman O. J. Longfellow O. L. Anders Mrs. C. A. Lucas Mrs. O. L. Anders Ernest Millican Mrs. Mozelle Anders Mrs. Ernest Millican M. S. Anders Ernest Millican, Jr. Thelma Anders Mrs. Ernest Millican, Jr. Mrs. M. W. Birch Mrs. S. W. Mills M. W. Birch S. W. Mills Fred B. Dickey Andy J. Morelock Mrs. Fred B. Dickey Mrs. Andy J. Morelock J. R. Duckett James A. Puckett L. H. Fuller Madie Lou Puckett Mrs. L. H. Fuller Mrs. Alton R. Ray W. H. Fuller M. W. Simmons Margarete Oleghorn J. H. Sutton T. C. Oleghorn J. R. Sutton Ruby Marie Horton Mrs. J. H. Sutton H. M. Huffman Mrs. W. O. Taylor Allen L. King W. O. Taylor Mrs. Allen L. King J. H. Whitener 011ie Lambert Election held January 3, 1953. Results: 43 for disincorporation and 39 against disincorporation. Euless - Celebrating 150 Years - 1950s Some time in late 1952, some residents were sufficiently irate over water and sewer taxes that the town narrowly voted to disincorporate. FORT WORTH STAR-TZLTGRAM County Examines Petition To Disincorporale Euless The county tax office was checking late Tuesday on the validity of signatures on a peti- tion filed by Euless residents seeking disincorporation of the city. The petition, signed by 47 per- sons, was filed in the office of County Judge Gus Brown earlier. County Assessor -Collector Stew- art must determine whether the signatures are those of qualified property owners before an elec- tion can be ordered. S. W. Mills, defeated for alder- man in April, circulated the pe- tition for disincorporation. He also was one of the persons who circulated a petition to ineor- porate in 1950. The city was •incorporated Sept. 23, 1950, after a special elec- tion. The action was not ap- proved until Nov. 13, 1952, when the results of the election were presented to Commissioners Court. Mills contends that residents of Euless are not receiving serv- ices in proportion to taxes paid. A city official said that while very little in services has been offered the residents, plans for the future call for an expanded municipal program including a new fire truck, a fire house and police protection. "We had hoped some day to build a city hall and operate like a city should be operated," he re- ported. Other city officials said disin• corporation will mean the loss of the present municipal tax of 75 cents per $100 valuation. 21 Euless — Celebrating 150 Years — 1950s Several dissidents were carved out of the city limits along the southern boundary line in west Euless and three months later, the villagers voted again to incorporate on February 21, 1953. Thursday Mordinl;, February 3, 1953, gule'ss Residents Petition Judge for An other, Election The on -and -off incorporation is- the January election. aue at Euless was 'on again Wed Wednesday's petition was head nesday as a petition bearing 46 ed by the name of James • A n.:euckett. The names on. the' p`eti names and requesting an election tion must be checked by the on the question was filed with county clerk's office before Judgc County Judge Gus Brown. Brown can call an election. Residents of Euless voted last month to disincorporate the city government. Euless was incorporated Sept. 23, 1950 after a special election. The action was not approved un- til Nov 13, 1952 when the elec- tion results were presented to .Commissioners Court.., On Dec. 2 a petition was filed with Judge Brown asking that he call an election for dissolution of the city government. Residents voted 43 to 39 for dissolution in 22 Signers of petition to incorporate, dated February 3, 1953; filed with Tarrant County Commissioners' Court, February 6, 1953. G. L. Anders Le Verne Horton Mrs. G. L. Anders Allen L. King M. L. Anders Mrs. Allen L. King Mrs. M. L. Anders Mrs. O. I. Longfellow E. V. Anders O. J. Longfellow Mrs. E. V. Anders E. H. Massey Mrs. Lena Arnett Mrs. E. H. Massey (Marjorie) Arnett J. B. McGinnis Anna Burnett Mrs. J. B. McGinnis Mrs. Ross Cannon Ernest Millican Ross Cannon Mrs. Ernest Millican Joe Edwards Ernest Millican, Jr. Mrs. Johnnie Edwards Mrs. Ernest Millican, Jr. Edith Fuller Mrs. Robt. L. Nail H. H. Fuller Robert L. Nail Jessie Fuller Mrs. A. M. Payton Raymond Fuller James A. Puckett R. W. Fuller Madie Lou Puckett Fred E. Gray Mrs. Alton R. Ray Mrs. Fred E. Gray Reta Jean Ray J. W. Griffith A. E. Tillery Mrs. J. W. Griffith Mrs. A. E. Tillery C. A. Harton Election held February 21, 1953. Results: 59 for incorporation and 27 against incorporation. Names listed in red appeared on both this petition and the one to disincorporate three months earlier. Euless — Celebrating 150 Years — 195Os In 1953, Euless benefitted from the openings of Bell Helicopter in Hurst and Amon Carter Field in Fort Worth. FM 157 (Industrial Blvd.) and old 183 (now Hwy. 10) were paved in 1953. A police department was created in 1957 with W. M. "Blackie" Sustaire as the first chief and first employee of the City of Euless. He operated out of the fire station/city hall building on Euless Blvd. which was in the same location as the current Fire Station #3. Sustaire f 1 I- I- d. Euless' first fire station was built in 1956 and it also served as the first City Hall. o ten s ept y t e ra to Photo courtesy Euless Fire Department. on a cot in the station so he could respond to emergencies. Also in 1957, the Western Hills Inn was built near the intersection of 157 and old 183. It housed the Chamber of Commerce from 1958 to 1980. The American Airlines stewardess college, the first such institution of its kind in the country, was built on the western edge of Amon Carter Field. The million dollar installation was dedicated in November 1957 by then Speaker of the House, Sam Rayburn. W. M. `Blackie" Sustaire was Euless' first chief of police and first employee of the City of Euless. Photo courtesy Teresa Sustaire Alexander. 23 Euless — Celebrating 150 Years — 1950 Euless Baptist Church was located near what is now the 100 block of North Main St. Photo circa 1920. Photo by Winnie Day Cannon. Copyright by Weldon G. Cannon. 24 Some businesses vanished or had to change their operations because of growth. Improved highways forced local dairies to compete with some that were farther away. And many local dairies were on leased land, which were sold out from under them by developers. Tennessee Dairies in downtown Euless, which had been instrumental in bringing electricity to the city in 1929, closed in the mid-1950s. Outlying dairies, e.g., those north of Euless owned by John and Joe Fitch and by Leo Savage and one east of town owned by Clark Smith, lasted through the 1970s and early 1980s before development caught up with them. James P. Jones, who settled in Euless in. 1957 and became the only veterinarian in HEB at the time, recollects that some Ai, 15 percent of his initial business was handling dairy cows and farm horses. EULESS' That segment of his enterprise shrank to CITY LIMIT virtually nothing by the end of the 1970s. EST. POP. 2 0 2 5 According to George Green, Warren Fuller had abandoned his general store in 1958 and was dabbling in real estate when Dallas developer Carr r: Collins stopped by his office during a thunderstorm. Collins wanted to see some pieces of land immediately. The two looked at innumerable tracts that people wanted to sell, amounting to about 600 acres at about $1,500 an acre. Once back at Fuller's office, Collins ;. hadn't reacted to Fuller's salesmanship, Keith Richards, son of Harold and Dorothy Richards. Photo courtesy City of Euless Archives. but the Dallas magnate suddenly blurted, "I got things to do. I'll take it." A bit confused, Fuller asked, "What piece do you want?" Collins retorted, "All of it — fix up the papers," and walked out the door. "It was close to a million dollar deal," Fuller remembers, "and it was the start of Euless." This was the Midway Park development north and west of the old First Baptist Church. Collins built twenty-five or thirty homes, offered a special deal on radio and TV one Sunday and sold them all in a single afternoon. They sold for less than $7,500 each, with monthly payments less than $65. Herman Smith was another real estate entrepreneur who invested heavily and eventually developed the 500-home Wilshire subdivision in southeast Euless in the 1960s. The first of the Sotogrande luxury apartments on West Euless Blvd. were built in 1969. Euless - Celebrating 150 Years - 195Os Site of present Euless municipal complex and post office on barren hill, top center, looking northwest from airline beacon tower at present-day Alexander Ln. and Martha St. West Euless Blvd. is in foreground. Photo circa 1951. Photo by Weldon G. Cannon. Copyright by Weldon G. Cannon. �e Fyp �rF �,.:4� j..t �•n A:� E-, 4f a2•f �4 hyy .aYL: vial. ..iW. •l.- �. Y� > i i f' ..:�F _ ,t Y ��. P '<j.4 f•. {. f ':,q:fec a �`... �i< % �%i�! ''�.� \;. yY' k & -.:r,.— t.., ...�.. - k.ii:, t. F ..F _ •�. ^f Ya <,W';(t t x'�i` Y J. l ..t '�` .�J<..... e - �, }- �r: z.., - � q. ._ . ,.- k „`• z, r - ^-t. :ti' . " - E ,.rtr' i yEuless - Celebrating 150 Years - 1960s 1 The first Euless Public Library was built in 1961. Photo courtesy Euless Public Library. Euless Fire Department's rescue truck, circa 1960s. Photo courtesy Euless Fire Department. 26 1960s In 1962, Mayor J. S. Anderson and the City Council adopted a home rule charter which was approved by the voters, 128 to Inside the first Euless 38. Euless also built its very first public Public Library. library, in the same location it is now.. In Photo courtesy 1964, the first bond election for city Euless Public Library. improvements put more than $3 million into streets, drainage, parks and a city hall/community center (completed at 201 N. Ector Dr. in 1966). The center housed the police department and the library. In 1964, the public library moved into more updated facilities before being relocated to the municipal complex in 1967. In Hurst, Euless, Bedford: Heart of the Metroplex, An Illustrated History, George Green writes that in July 1966, Bedford resident W. R. Petty, minister of the Church of Christ in Euless, secured 162 signatures on another petition — to abolish Bedford and have it annexed by Euless. Angry Bedford councilmen refused to call an election on various pretexts. But in October, Judge Jordan, arbitrating his fourth Bedford dispute within a year, ordered the town to hold a merger election. Euless also set an election. The Bedford councilmen appealed and drug out the case until the spring of 1967, but lost again. When amalgamation was discussed in 1966, realtor Herman Smith, former mayor of Hurst, observed that the merger of all three towns might be necessary. As primarily residential communities, they might have to economize — by avoiding duplication of city departments — "in order not to tax our residents right out of existence." Smith also noted that a merged HEB would give it a more important voice in the Dallas/Fort Worth region and would allow the area to plan more effectively for future expansion. Bedford Mayor William Wolf also believed that Hurst, Euless and Bedford were destined to become one large community anyway and that the merger made good economic sense for all three. Euless Mayor Fuller was not ready to take on Hurst, but he and Wolf took the lead in the Euless -Bedford merger drive. By the spring of 1967, the specific arguments for merger in Bedford were that residents would receive a water and sewer system (already owned by Euless), a new complex of municipal buildings and various city services that were deficient in Bedford. The town proponents of merger, led by Mayor Wolf and former mayor E. C. Hardisty, also argued that Bedford's property tax rate of 600 per $100 valuation could not pay for the development of the city. When the $4 million bonds approved in 1966 were sold, taxes would have to rise to at least 900 or up to $1.40 to retire the bonds. The Euless rate of 770 per $100 . valuation, after being extended to the combined city, would probably survive for four or five years without additional tax cost to the citizens of either area. The opposition's arguments were that taxes would rise immediately more than 28 percent, that they were retroactive to January 1 and that each Bedford resident would be burdened with an average $1,420 share of Euless' $9.5 million debt. Moreover, Euless would apparently dominate Bedford on the Euless — Celebrating 150 Years — 1960s Bicylists, left to right, Carol Noonan, Anne Band, Carol English and Ruth Ford rest during a bicycle trek to Grapevine with a Euless exercise class in 1966. Trinity High School First Baptist Church of Euless Photo courtesy City of Euless Archives. Intersection of Airport Freeway and Industrial Blvd. First Baptist- Church of Euless and Trinity.High School are, at top right. Photo circa 1970. Trinity High School openedin 1968 -with approximately 1,200 students. Photo by Weldon G. Cannon. Copyright by Weldon G. Cannon. 27 Euless — Celebrating 150 Years — 1960s The Community Building at Euless' new municipal complex opened in 1966. Photos courtesy City of Euless Archives. city council by five to two, assuming that Euless actually agreed to enlarge its council from five members to seven. Bedford, it was pointed out, was debt -free and had the lowest taxes in the area. Don Brown and the Bedford Homeowners Association, with the assistance of a public relations firm, packaged and distributed its message more widely and effectively than proponents of merger. Euless, as the dominant partner, was not caught up in the merger issue. The election hinged on the opposition's economic arguments, which persuaded a crucial number of relatively recent arrivals in Bedford to keep the town intact. In a record 60 percent turnout of the registered voters, Bedford rejected the merger 975 to 422 on June 24, 1967. In a 16 percent turnout, Euless approved it, 211 to 133. But amalgamation required the approval of both towns. In the mid-1960s, Euless defined itself by building a municipal complex on the SH 183 frontage road at Ector Dr. The Community Building and City & Police Offices opened in 1966. In 1967, the Public Library relocated to the municipal complex, in what is presently Building C, which was its third location. After the construction. of the town's municipal complex and the purchase of the water and sewer system in the mid-1960s, the anticipated completion of Airport Freeway and the regional airport next door forecast the next key developments. The freeway would put Dallas within easy commuting distance and the airport would open the Metroplex to world commerce. Euless - Celebrating 150 Years — 1970s 1970s In 1970, the leveling of the old Euless Elementary School on South Main St., parts of which dated back to 1913, symbolized the arrival of a new era. Even before airport construction was announced in 1972, speculators anticipated a surge in homebuilding and in commercial and industrial development and they quickly drove land prices out of reach. Also slowed by the high inflation of the early 1970s, Euless' growth suddenly ceased. Only four multi -family building permits were granted in 1972 and none in 1973. Only two single-family building permits were issued in 1974. Another problem was that the northeast portion of town, containing most of the undeveloped land, had no major thoroughfare. When Harold Samuels became mayor in 1975, he noted that one key to more commercial and industrial development would be the extension of SH 360 north of Airport Freeway. Samuels lobbied for thirteen years before the state highway department approved the construction in 1988. In 1973, Euless elected its first female councilperson, Willie Mae McCormick. She went on to become Mayor Pro Tem and served in that capacity until 1985. She and her husband, Walter McCormick, moved to Euless in 1948. They lived in the house that Walter McCormick's father had built in 1900 at the present-day southeast corner of N. Main St. and Mid -Cities Blvd. Mayor Harold Samuels. Photo courtesy The H•E•B Gazette. (/ to r) Willie Mae McCormick, Mayor Pro Tem of Euless, and Charles Bresett, Director of Public Works in Carrollton, participate in a discussion of rural water supply needs at the October 4 meeting of COGs Water Resources Council. Willie Mae McCormick, left, was the first female councilperson in Euless. Photo courtesy City of Euless Archives. 29 Euless — Celebrating 150 Years — 1970s It all started in 1962, when the Civil Aeronautics Board (CAB) issued an order instigating an investigation of airline service to Dallas' Love Field and Fort Worth's Greater Southwesst International Airport. According to a September 23, 1973 article in the Fort Worth Star -Telegram, after the study's completion in 1964, CAB Administrative Law Judge Ross Newmann ordered a new facility be built to serve the two cities. That order started the ball rolling which culminated in the Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport. Thousands turned out for the dedication ceremonies in September of 1973. Former Treasury Secretary John Connally, who was commissioner general of ceremonies, praised the leaders of Fort Worth and Dallas for having the "extraordinary vision to build this great airport which will ensure that this region will prosper." President Richard Nixon, in a message delivered by presidential counselor Anne Armstrong, said the airport is "proof once again that when Texans put their minds to it, the sky is the limit." Senator Lloyd Bentsen rocked the area with laughter when he commented, "This airport is larger than Manhattan Island and 10 times as functional." He said the facility has "done away with the 10-mile hike and 400-yard dash from ticket counter to plane" typical of many airports. A newspaper article published on September 23, 1973, qualified some airport facts by stating, "These facts refer only to the four -terminal complex opening this year, not the 13-terminal airport planned for the year 2000." DFW Airport's fifth terminal, International Terminal D, is scheduled to open in 2005. Just to put things in perspective: In 1973, the airport cost $700 million to build. From 2000 to 2005, DFW's Capital Development Program will invest $5 billion into the airport's infrastructure over a five- year time period. Euless — Celebrating 150 Years — 1970s John Connally presided over DFW Airport's dedication ceremony on Saturday, September 22, 1973. Photo by Ron Heflin, Fort Worth Star -Telegram photographer 31 Euless — Celebrating 150 Years — 1970s At the presentation of a $50 savings bond each, were from left, Bart Burnett, executive director of the Hurst -Euless -Bedford Chamber of Commerce; Terry Cunningham, president of the Jaycees; Lynda Foster, emblem winner; Regina Thompson, slogan winner; W. G. `Buddy" Ragley, president of the First National Bank of Euless; and Mrs. W. M. McCormick, Euless City Council member. Photo courtesy Euless Historical Preservation Committee. In February 1974, the HEB Hospital Authority Board approved a 99-year lease of the northeast Tarrant County facility to the HEB Hospital Corporation, a subsidiary of Harris Hospital. Authority Board President Blease Tibbets pointed to financial woes as the reason for the move and noted that the new entity would assume all debts and the complete administration of the HEB Hospital. In April of that same year, Euless dry forces submitted a petition calling for a local option election for off premise consumption and the sale of mixed drinks in places where food is served. Madrin Huffman, a deputy in the county clerk's office, commented that Euless leaders had submitted a petition as part of a campaign to overturn results of the last July 10 election which permitted sale of beer and mixed drinks in the city. The campaign did not succeed. Times had been tumultuous since incorporation eleven years earlier, and the Euless Jaycees organization felt that Euless had an identity crisis, so they held a contest. They asked citizens to enter their ideas for slogans and insignias. According to Fort Worth Star -Telegram metro reporter Jim W. Jones. "Some years ago Euless had a slogan that was printed on a weekly newspaper in the town. The slogan, which has a familiar sound, tagged Euless as a place "Where the Best Begins." In January 1975, "Euless My Choice, Our Opportunity" was selected as the winning slogan submitted by Regina Thompson. The winning logo depicting the initial "E" between the skylines of Dallas and Fort Worth was submitted by Lynda Foster. 1 32 Euless — Celebrating 150 years — 1970s In October of 1974, time was running out for the old North Main Street bridge in Euless. Demolition of the iron bridge, built in 1889 in Ohio by the King Iron Bridge Company, was two to four weeks away. A number of Euless ciizens were involved in a last-ditch effort to save the bridge and move it to South Euless Park. The old iron bridge was once the bridge across the Trinity River on the Euless -Arlington Road, now S.H. 157. It was moved to North Main St. in 1929. Aging timbers in the floor decking and erosion of the abutments of the bridge, as well as its single lane, made it dangerous for modern day traffic. Originally, the City of Euless planned to save the bridge, but finally decided it didn't have the $18,000 estimated as required to take the bridge apart, move it to South Euless Park for rebuilding, built a temporary foundation and replace the deteriorating timber decking. The Euless Bicentennial Steering Committee placed the bridge on its list of Bicentennial projects which were approved by the city. In an effort to find a way to save the bridge, the Bicentennial committee joined with members of a "Save the Bridge" committee led by Charles Hunt, chairman of the Euless Park and Recreation Board. The latter committee had been working for more than two years prior to save the bridge. On October 22, 1974, their tenacity paid off when Realtor Warren Fuller, who had become involved in the battle of the bridge only the afternoon before, announced to the council that Tarrant County Commissioner Dick Euless residents Charles Hunt, Willie Mae McCormick and Carolyn Griffin, from left, were active in the fight to save the Old Iron Bridge on N. Main St. Photo courtesy Euless Historical Preservation Committee. 33 Euless — Celebrating 150 Years — 1970s The Old Iron Bridge over Little Bear Creek in north Euless. Photo courtesy Euless Historical Preservaton Committee. Lewis had agreed to help with funds for the bridge. "The county will help in rebuilding the new bridge, and I hope some of that money, $25,000, will be set aside to save the old bridge," Lewis told the Mid -Cities Daily News. At the Euless council meeting, Mayor Pete Krause, who had a big smile on his face, said that the city would go ahead with its plans as soon as it received a firm commitment from Commissioner Lewis. That commitment was received the next morning. After the county budget is approved, the Euless mayor said, the county could reimburse the city. The finale to the "Save the Bridge" campaign was swift. Warren Fuller, the first mayor of Euless, became involved in the project the afternoon before the council meeting when the age of the bridge was questioned. Earl Johnson, a retired builder who was Precinct 3 County Commissioner in the 1950s, said he helped build the bridge about 1932. His father's Tarrant County Construction built the bridge to replace an older one to the west of it over Little Bear Creek. Although he said it was probably "the last bridge of its kind," Johnson questioned whether the bridge was actually 85 years old. Warren Fuller stated the bridge was definitely the old bridge that once spanned the Trinity River on the Arlington -Grapevine Road (S.H. 157). A member of an early Euless family, Fuller backed up his claim by an exaggeration, "After all, I've lived here 103 years!" 34 Euless — Celebrating 150 Years — 1970s The property by the North Main bridge originally was a farm that belonged to Warren Fuller's brother, Andrew Fuller. In 1959, Charles Hunt and Harold Copher, a Euless councilperson at the time, bought the property from Andrew Fuller. Hunt and Copher found two iron plaques with the King Iron Bridge Company name on them in the corn crib of an old log barn on the property. King Iron Bridge Company had made the bridge in Ohio in 1889. Copher mounted one plaque on the outside of his house and gave the other to the Fuller family. The Monday afternoon before the council meeting, Fuller and Hunt checked county records and verified that the steel came from the Trinity River bridge. Hunt said the plans for the bridge gave orders to pick up the steel for the Little Bear Creek bridge at the Trinity River location. Telephone lines in Euless hummed that evening as Hunt and Fuller contacted city and county authorities about the bridge. Fuller made an appointment with Dick Lewis to meet him at the bridge the next day to see if the county could move it. . The next morning, Lewis and Fuller walked out on the little iron bridge that shook on its deteriorating foundations whenever cars passed over it. After looking it over, Lewis said the county didn't have the necessary equipment to move the bridge. However, he agreed to not only help financially to move the old bridge but also to aid substantially in building the new one. The bridge was moved in 1975 to South Euless Park where it was restored. It was rededicated on October 8, 1993. The Old Iron Bridge Rededication Ceremony. Photo courtesy City of Euless Archives. 35 Euless — Celebrating 150 Years — 1980s Keith Richards, son of Harold and Dorothy Richards. Photo courtesy City of Euless Archives. W 9gOs By 1980, the population of Euless had increased by 24 percent over the past decade to 23,987. Over the next twenty-three years, Euless would grow by leaps and bounds, not only with growth in population, but also with new parks, new community centers and new r athletic facilities. r In Hurst, Euless, Bedford: Heart of the Metroplex, An Illustrated History, George Greene writes that, the Beautify Julia Wakely holds the Euless Everyday Committee, formed in governor's Keep Texas 1981, won the governor's "Keep Texas Beautiful Award the Beautify Beautiful" Award in 1982 and 1986. Euless Everyday Committee The park system expanded from nine to earned in both 1982 and 1986. fourteen facilties and so many trees were Photo courtesy City of Euless Archives. planted and transplanted that the city purchased a hydraulic tree spade. As institutions and traditions such as the old Settlers' picnic and the Fuller Brothers grocery die off, new ones are born. In 1982, area disc jockey Terry Dorsey developed his comic notion that Hiney Wine was brewed in Euless at a site behind the library and marketed in a flip -top can. For those who went in search of the ficticious winery found a police station there instead. Crude Hiney Winery stories were syndicated in scores of radio stations across the country. Euless — Celebrating 150 Years — 198Os Prominent citizens such as Mayor Harold Samuels and Reverend Jimmy Draper were not amused, and although it appeared that the yarn had faded away in the 1990s, Hiney Wine was resurrected in 2001 with the development of a Web site, fan club and merchandise. Then, in 1985, the Ruth Millican Recreation Center was dedicated to Euless pioneer and wife of former Euless mayor Ernest Millican, Jr., — Ruth Fuller Millican. Millican attended the Euless School on South Main Street when it opened in 1913. Years after her graduation, she managed the school's new cafeteria — a convenience she and her peers did not enjoy. The Ruth Millican Recreation Center has become a multi -use facilility. It hosts dances, receptions, plays and several senior citizens' functions. It can also be rented by the public for Ruth Millican, center, at the dedication special events. of Euless' newest recreation center that In 1989, Euless officials continued to bears her name. Also pictured are Bob expand recreation opportunities by opening a Pippin, left, and Ron Sternfels, right. state-of-the-art recreation facility at 300 W. Photo courtesy City of Euless Archives. Midway Dr. The new recreation center featured a fitness center, basketball courts, indoor track, two racquetball courts, snack bar, games, a dance studio and classrooms for recreation activities such as cooking, art, gymnastics and computer classes for all ages — from preschool to senior citizens. In 1989, Euless added another annual feature to its schedule. The "How to Grow Your Lawn and Garden Show" premiered in the community center at the Lynn Shackelford, left and Jay Heilman, right, unveil the plaque at Midway Recreation Center's dedication ceremonies. Park Board members Leon Hogg, left, and Marland Ernest, right, are seated on the dias. Photo courtesy City of Euless Archives. 37 Euless — Celebrating 150 Years — 1980 Municipal Complex. According to Councilperson Leon Hogg, about two hundred people attended the first one -day event. Renamed Arbor Daze in 1992 it illustrated Euless' commitment to planting trees. Originally held at the Municipal Complex, it was relocated to the Midway Recreation Center for a few years before it moved back to the Municipal Complex. Arbor Daze is currently held at the much larger site at SH 183 and SH 360. In 1991, the event drew about 10,000 people. Carnival elements were introduced in 1994 and the attendance grew to more than 80,000. By 2002, the attendance had reached an estimated 200,000. In 2000, Arbor Daze was recognized as the official Arbor Day event by the National Arbor Day Foundation. Arbor Daze has also earned recognition as the best Arbor Day celebration in the nation by receiving the National Arbor Day Foundation's Celebration Award in both 1993 and 2001. Euless is the only city in the nation to earn this recognition twice. Mayor Mary Lib Saleh accepts the National Arbor Day Foundation's Celebration Award on April 25, 2002, for a second time in eight years. Photo courtesy City of Euless Archives. Euless — Celebrating 150 Years — 1990s 1990S In 1991, the city's Parks and Leisure Board broke ground for the Villages of Bear Creek Park, featuring an educational trail identifying nearly 500 species of plant life native to Texas, thanks to $370,000 worth of land donation by Sunbelt Savings, a grant of more than $531,000 from the state's Land and Water Conservation Fund and approval from Texas Department of Parks and Wildlife officials. Rick Herold, Euless community services director, said, "We felt we had an area of land that we thought we could develop further. It's a great piece of land. We want to preserve this kind of area with native Texas foliage because it's becoming a dwindling thing." In addition, the only cost to the city would be approximately $70,000 in labor. Amenities include five soccer fields, an amphitheater, rental pavilions and a softball field. But the focal point of the park is the Texas Outdoor Education Trail, a series of rest stops that allow people to listen to recorded information about various aspects of Texas nature and geography. "We feel that the education trail will be of major significance," Herold said. "People will be able to rent a tape recorder from us to learn about the different species, or they can have a volunteer take them through the trail." A.spokesman for the Parks and Wildlife Department said the project survived a very competitive process for receiving a grant. Parks and Leisure Services Board and City Council members participate in the Villages of Bear Creek Park groundbreaking ceremonies. From left: Jerry Robinson, Helen Lightbody, Leon Hogg, Peter Staks, Councilmember Bobby Baker, Councilmember Mary Lib Saleh, Mayor Harold Samuels, Richard McNeese, Bonnie O'Brien and Councilmember Frank Douglas. Photo courtesy City of Euless Archives. 39 Euless — Celebrating 150 Years — 1990s But even though Euless' recreation and leisure activities were growing, Euless' commercial growth has been limited, in part because only a short portion of Airport Freeway is within its city limits. And several acres of prime real estate along it are taken up by non -taxpaying entities — Trinity High School, the First Baptist Church and the city's municipal complex. Moreover, a part of the city's economic development is out of its hands. One-third of Euless — 2,825 acres — lies within the airport's boundaries. This includes the east side of S.H. 360. A second negative feature of the airport's location was that the upsurging land values it triggered, as well as the presence of a plethora of small land owners, discouraged hotel building. Hotels seeking sites near the airport settled in Irving, near the airport's north entrance. A third effect of the airport became evident in 1988 with the airport's announced decision to alter its master plan, by adding two runways and a westside terminal to its present facilities. It sparked the formation of an active homeowner's group who was outraged by the prospective noise pollution. According to George Greene, misunderstandings with the airport date back many years to when Paul Spain, at Villages of Bear Creek, announced that airplane noise was going to decrease in the future. Meanwhile, airport deputy executive director Jack Downey announced that the noise would increase, that development was coming too close to the airport and that future political and legal problems were being created. Euless' industrial zoning along the edge of the airport has been replaced by apartment zoning. M Euless - Celebrating 150 Years — 1990s What no one expected was that the airport might change its master plan and argue that expansion was urgently needed to ensure the safety of millions of passengers. The loss of some 850 homes, valued at approximately $100 million risked lowering property values in bordering areas and cause a diminution in tax strength across the city. Other residents faced the possibility of having to make up lost tax revenue from homes depreciated or taken by expansion. The D/FW Airport Board, through its staff, tentatively offered only $25 to $35 million for buyouts in Euless and the city filed suit in 1991 to halt the expansion. And the airport debate continued. In October 1991 the 162nd State District Court Judge, Bill Rhea, ruled in favor of Euless, Grapevine and Irving. The judge held that the cities did not have to allow the expansion, since they controlled zoning within their boundaries. Legal battling continued and upon convening in January 1993, the state legislature was faced with airport lobbying on behalf of a bill that would give the facility control over land use. Otherwise — as noted by former state representative Charles Evans, an airport lobbyist — American and Delta might have to reroute flights to other cities, wreaking a negative impact on business and industry all over Texas. By the early 1990s, nearly two-thirds of all Texas' air cargo was shipped through DFW Airport. While some legislators were wary of trampling on the home rule rights of cities, the lure of an alleged $3.5 billion construction project, 31,000 jobs and a $30 billion stimulus to the overall economy in the next twenty years proved to be overwhelming. The new 1993 law appeared to give D/FW Airport the authority to build two new runways, so Euless decided to make peace with the airport. The result of five years of negotiating with Dallas, Fort Worth and the D/FW Airport Board led to the adoption of an interlocal agreement in 1998 that allowed for revenue sharing between Euless, Dallas and Fort Worth. Euless — Celebrating 150 Years — 199Os R. Warren Fuller, Euless' first mayor. Photo courtesy Troy Fuller. Beginning in 2000, Euless began to reap the rewards of its dedication to finding an amicable solution to the loss of revenues from property within the airport's boundaries. Each year, Euless receives $778,133 of "base year revenues" which represents the amount of all ad valorem tax revenues for real and personal property, sales and use tax, mixed beverage tax and other revenues plus the amount of all municipal court revenues including fines, fees and court costs resulting from citiations written on the airport's property, excluding fees and costs collected as required by state law. Additionally, Euless receives annual "increased revenues" which represent one-third of any additional monies collected over and above the base year revenues. According to Mayor Mary Lib Saleh, approximately $1.25 million of the revenue sharing monies received each year go into the city's General Fund. The remaining monies go into funds used for capital improvement projects such as buildings, roads and other types of infrastructure. Council designated projects are also funded with these monies. Because of Euless' innovative approach and ability to enter into a lucrative revenue sharing agreement, the North Central Texas Council of Governments awarded Euless with its Regional Cooperation Award in 1998. In March of 1992, R. Warren Fuller, former mayor, farmer, automobile assembly linesman, grocer and real estate developer, celebrated his 90th birthday at the First United Methodist Church. Fuller's father, James Riley Fuller, traveled by covered wagon to Euless in the late 1800s and bought 160 acres of farmland in the vicinity of what is now Harwood Road and Main Street. His father soon married Fannie Blessing. Warren was the eighth of ten children born to that union. His mother died when he was four and he was reared by his stepmother, Nancy Wiser Fuller. - Euless - Celebrating 150 Years - 199Os The Euless of Fuller's boyhood memory was quite different from the recently released 1990 U.S. Census report. "There were no gravel roads when I was young," he said. "I lived a mile from the school. It was about two blocks from 183 (now Hwy. 10) and Main Street. We didn't have a bridge. If it rained, we couldn't get to school because the water would be up." Fuller became the city's first mayor after it incorporated in 1951, he said. However, his first term in the city of about 450 people just lasted a year. "We were trying to get a water and sewer system in. They `disincorporated' because they didn't want any debt. We asked for another election and immediately put it [incorporation] back into force." Then Homer Fuller became the mayor and Euless got the water and sewer system. The year 1993 was a pivotal year for the city. The half -cent sales tax was approved by voters, enabling the city to offer incentives for economic development. Direct results of this additional revenue was the revitalization of Euless Town Center at SH 183 and SH 157, the new Euless Public Library at the municipal complex and the Parks at Texas Star project. Also in 1993, citizens voted to increase the City Council from five to seven . members with the mayor being able to cast a vote. Few other cities allow the mayor to vote except in the event of a tie. And, for the first time in Northeast Tarrant County, a female mayor was elected — Mary Lib Saleh. Mayor Saleh remains one of the few female mayors in the area. Under Mayor Saleh's direction, the city formed an art committee that has overseen the placement of public art throughout the city. The first bronze statue, "Rapture of the Human Spirit," is in the garden at the library's entrance. "It was Just Yesterday" is also located at the library's entrance. Both of these sculptures were given to the city by the Library Foundation, which was formed in 1993. Today, the city has eight bronze sculptures. Mary Lib Saleh has served as Euless Mayor since 1993. Euless — Celebrating 150 Years — 1990s The Fuller House at 201 Cullum Dr. Photo courtesy Euless Historical Preservation Committee Archives. 44 In addition to its new arts program, the Euless Historical Preservation Committee was also established in 1993, with the support of the city, to collect records and photographs and preserve the city's history. Their very first project. was monumental. Built in 1932, Euless' first brick home was saved from being razed after the newly formed commission collected $17,000 to move the house from its original location, on the southeast corner of South Main St. and Euless Blvd., to its new location next to the Ruth Millican Recreation Center on Cullum Dr. The structure, built by grocer Homer Fuller, was donated to the city by Saebit Baptist Church, which recently sold some of the property on which the house sat to Taco Bell for a new restaurant. Bill Byers of Euless Lumber Co., who was in charge of most of the construction on the home, said Girl Scout and Boy Scout troops volunteered to clean the brick removed from the house before it was moved. Once at its new site, the home had to be re -bricked, have new plumbing and electricity installed and had to undergo extensive work to the floors and walls. Landscaping was also added. When the home opened in January 1999, it was as Euless' official museum. The free museum documents the history of Euless through period furniture, artifacts, photographs, papers and books. The Fuller House could also be reserved for small parties. Iva Fuller Nail grew up in the original Fuller House and was married to Robert Nail, Euless' postmaster, in front of the parlor fireplace in 1952. On. their 50th wedding anniversary, the Nails renewed their vows in front of that same fireplace in the newly renovated house. On their 50th wedding anniversary, Robert and Iva Fuller Nail renewed their vows as they stood in the same place they were married fifty years before. Photo courtesy Dallas Morning News photographer Randy Eli Grothe. Euless — Celebrating 150 Years — 199Os But another Euless historical landmark was not so lucky. The time -ravaged Western Hills Inn just west of FM 157 on Euless Blvd. had not fared well over the years. An article by Monica S. Skaggs in the Fort Worth Star -Telegram states, "The fashionable, hip haunt of Elvis and other celebrities looking to get away from Dallas to the tiny, secluded hamlet in Euless in the 1960s and 1970s" had fallen on hard times. "It's a disgrace the way it is now. It's really in sad shape," said Bill Byers, owner of Euless Lumber Co. and a lifelong Euless resident. "There used to be a lot going on up there. In those days, they had about the only swimming pool in town." The 140-room hotel, which featured one -day laundry and valet service, beauty and barber shops and free limousines to and from Greater Southwest International Airport (just south of today's Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport), had been a vacant eyesore for years. The eight -acre site is no longer the exclusive getaway for the rich and famous in Dallas. Gone are the flashy, finned Cadillacs. No longer is there a fountain -adorned lagoon populated by smiling, tanned guests. The same goes for the Caribe Club, whose slick brochures touted it as a tropical setting able to "make you think you're in another world." Ditto the enormous ballroom, which opened in 1964 with murals depicting spring, summer, fall and winter. The ballroom seated up to 1,000 and was used for everything from banquets to wedding receptions and proms. The hotel lost customers in the late 1970s and 1980s after the new Airport Freeway drew traffic away from Texas 10. The hotel closed in November 1989. A fire in June 1990 caused about $50,000 damage to the inn's two- story annex building. Another fire raced through the inn's nightclub in December 1991, causing another $50,000 damage. Vandals stripped the hotel of televisions, furniture and copper plumbing since its closure. Although city officials tried to encourage buyers and developers from around the world to make something — anything — of the asbestos -riddled white elephant, it was finally demolished in 1998. Euless' new Police & Courts Facility was later built on the property. Euless Police and Fire Associations held their annual awards banquet at Western Hills Inn in the 1970s. Photo courtesy Gary McKamie. Euless — Celebrating 150 Years — 199Os Softball World at Texas Star. Euless began its drive to become the amateur athletics capital of the nation in 1996 when Fort Worth and Euless shifted their city limits to allow Euless to have 158 acres that were across the Fort Worth line, allowing all of Euless' new 285-acre Parks at Texas Star golf and athletic complex to be in Euless. Euless bought the 158 undeveloped Fort Worth acres between Texas 10 and Mosier Valley Road in 1995. "It was important for both cities," said Mayor Mary Lib Saleh. "We're much closer and can provide fire and police service. We hope to have lots of people down there and need to be able to provide services." Construction of the golf course began in November 1995 and was expected to be completed in the spring of 1997. The overall complex was planned to include a $4 million 18-hole golf course, baseball and softball fields, an amphitheater and a 12,000 square foot conference center. The very next month, in February of 1996, Euless paid $1.4 million to add Softball World — with its four lighted ballfields, concession stand and pro shop — to the Parks at Texas Star, the athletic complex that had been under Photo courtesy Softball World at Texas Star. CoristrUCtiori for a1mOSt four months. When City Manager Tom Hart announced the purchase on February 27, 1996, he said that the 13-acre Softball World would continue to host regional and national softball tournaments, provide an additional place for Euless residents to play and serve as an economic catalyst for the area. The city bought Softball World, which was renamed Softball World at Texas 46 AA Star, from a group of private inveestors through the sale of revenue bonds. In a Dallas Morning News story, Lyle said that the complex generates several hundred thousand dollars a year in economic impact for Euless. For instance, in 1994, the ballpark hosted a tournament that included 86 teams from 22 states. "While those teams were here for that one weekend, the city estimates the players spent $350,000 in Euless," Lyle said. In 1997, "that same tournament is going to have 150 teams participating." The softball park fits "hand in glove" as parks board chairman Leon Hogg put it, with the city's plans for the adjacent Parks at Texas Star. City leaders tout that $10 million project, expected to be partially complete in 1997, as a spark that could ignite economic development in southeast Euless. By April 1996, the Texas Star Golf Course looked more like a war zone than a lush, 18-hole course. But, according to course architect Keith Foster, "This golf course will be recognized throughout the country. In April of 1998, after one year of being open, I think we will be talking about how great Texas Star is and will be hearing about its accolades." Euless - Celebrating 150 Years — 199Os Texas Star's #3 hole, under construction. RA Photo courtesy City of Euless Archives. 47 Euless — Celebrating 150 Years — 1990s Rick Herold, director of Euless' Parks and Community Services Department, prepares to hit a tee ball at the groundbreaking ceremonies for the Parks at Texas Star athletic complex. Photo courtesy City of Euless Archives. In designing the course, Foster said that he tried to use the land's natural terrain and features, a philosophy he used in creating two nationlly renowed courses — The Quarry in San Antonio and Sunridge Canyon in Scottsdale, Arizona. Since construction began six months earlier, crews had removed about 200,000 cubic yards of dirt — about 200,000 to 300,000 cubic yards less than average — and do not expect to disturb much more. The Parks at Texas Star athletic complex moved closer to reality in July 1996 when the City Council approved spending $4.8 million to build the first phase of the Parks at Texas Star. The project was paid for largely through a half -cent sales tax approved by voters in 1993 and bond sales. The Texas Parks and Wildlife Department contributed $500,000 through a grant. The golf course portion of the Parks at Texas Star opened to rave reviews in April 1997. Just as architect Keith Foster had foreseen, the Texas Star Golf Course would become known throughout the nation. In February 2000, Golfweek magazine named Texas Star the 14th best municipal course in the nation. As part of Euless' new image, in April 1997 the City Council passed a 120-day moratorium to halt new apartment applications until the city's standards could be upgraded. The updated standards were part of a four-year effort to clean up the city's apartment image. In 1992, officials approved an ordinance that set standards for maintenance of apartment units. The ordinance was the first of its kind in the area to take an aggressive stance toward rundown properties. Because of the proximity to Euless — Celebrating 150 Years — 199Os the D/FW Airport, one-half of Euless residents live in apartments. "The concerns we have are far more than a fresh coat of paint," said Assistant City Manager Joe Hennig in a Dallas Morning News story. "There are a couple of pockets in our city that need significant updates, and this is the tool that we use to enforce those upgrades." Hennig cited the Hwy. 10 corridor as an area with apartments that needed improvements. This area, he said, was once a major thoroughfare but has since become rundown. And the unveilings just kept coming as the fourth and the latest Euless Public Library opened in July 1996. Built near the site of the original library, the new 40,000 square foot facility had two computers, meeting space, state-of-the-art audio/visual equipment and an outdoor amphitheater. The library now boasts 30 computers for public use thanks to grant funding from the State Library. Euless' fourth and newest library, above, offers state-of- the-art amenities. Euless' second library, which was located on W. Euless Blvd., is pictured at left. Photos courtesy Euless Public Library. M Euless — Celebrating 150 Years — 1990s The entrance to the Texas Star Conference Centre and Raven's Grille. Photo courtesy John Johnson Golf Photography. In August 1997, Texas Star became not just golf clubs and putting greens. Southwestern cuisine and Texas -style ambiance could be found at Euless' new Conference Centre. The building has about 4,000 square feet of indoor rent space, plus the restaurant, The Raven's Grille, and a patio that overlooks the 18th fairway and the green of the Texas Star Golf Course. Traces of Texas history are everywhere. Silk replicas of Texas flags used throughout the years hang on the walls and the Texas Lone Star is on light fixtures in the meeting rooms. Plus, people can watch the sunset from rocking chairs on the back porch. "We want to attract the golfers in shorts, businesspeople and families," said Andrea Baxter, who, as project manager, helped create the building's decor. The $2.9 million conference centre project also features a golf shop and a restaurant. Later in the year, the Parks at Texas Star athletic complex opened its gates to visitors for the first time at its grand opening celebration. On November 8, 1997, former major-league player Ray Burris helped christen a youth complex in Euless that had enough modern trappings to be the envy of most high school and college programs. Burris, who learned how to play baseball in an Oklahoma cow pasture, said, "When you're using cow chips as bases, you really get an appreciation for the real things." "It's a beautiful field," Burris said, "It doesn't get any better. Young kids today have a real opportunity to be successful because of the fields they play on." Texas Star - home to a golf course course and conference centre that opened earlier in the year — also featured soccer and volleyball arenas, all equipped with stadium seating and a batting cage that offers twenty balls for $1 from pitching machines that can throw everything from a softball lob to a 70 mph fastball. But, according to an article in the Fort Worth Star -Telegram, the most awe-inspiring parts of the $4 million development are the four immaculately groomed baseball fields, each named for a famous major league park — Wrigley Field, Yankee Stadium, Royals Stadium and old Arlington Stadium. Kyle Abbot, who had pitched for the California Angels and the Philadelphia Phillies, was among the other current and former major league players on hand to speak about professional ballparks. He recounted what it felt like to walk into Yankee Stadium, known as The House that Babe Ruth Built. "The Legendary Ladies of Baseball," who were the inspiration for the movie A League of Their Own, also appeared at the grand opening ceremonies — Lefty Hohlmayer, Pepper Paire Davis, Marge Wenzell and Dottie Kamenshek. Euless — Celebrating 150 Years — 1990s An aerial view of the Parks at Texas Star. Photo courtesy City of Euless Archives. Euless — Celebrating 150 Years — 1990s Lumberman from Euless bids farewell Long before Airport Freeway severed Euless in half, Bill Byers was born in the basement of the biggest house in town. The house sat on what is now the freeway's eastbound lanes. His family had the only base- ment in the area, and folks came just to walk down the stairs and look around. The house was on a farm beside Farm Road 157 (Industrial Boulevard). Young Billy and his family used the road for farm to market, too. Every year, they took the back seat out of a 1937 Ford and loaded the car with can- taloupes for the drive to the Fort Worth market. Each night at the market, Bill slept in the car with the cantaloupes. What can- taloupes the family didn't sell, Bill cracked open and dug out seeds for the next year's crop. It seems a lifetime ago. Bill Byers is well-known in Euless. Byers Street, named after him, runs by his business, Euless Lumber Co. — the oldest surviv- ing business in town. . Byers, 71, has served on the Euless City Council and the Hurst -Euless -Bedford school board. He oversaw creation of the Euless city museum, part of his volunteer duties as co-chair- man of the Euless Historical 52 Lieber From Page 1 Preservation Committee. His specialty is saving old Ahings. But there are a couple of old things in Euless that he hasn't been able to save. The family farm is one. It closed in the early 1960s when Airport Freeway cut through. The other thing he can't save is his business. Euless Lumber Co. will close one week from today. Euless Lumber is one of the area's last old-fashioned, locally owned lumber and hardware businesses. Byers is a woodsman -who makes house calls. He often went to his customers' houses to show them how to remodel a bathroom or to build an extra room with the wood they bought from him. He even went to peo- ple's houses after they bought their wood from the superstores — the kind that put him out of business. "A lot of people call me on Sunday and tell me they need some wood," Byers says. "I say, `Crawl over the back fence, and This article by Dave Lieber of the Fort Worth Star -Telegram ran on June 12, 1998. Lieber NORTHEAST BE tell me what you got on Monday. And if you get caught by the police, tell them to call me.' "There's probably been a lot of people who have done that and never balled me," he says. When Byers lost the family farm 35 years ago, he replaced it with something new. He and his wife, Boyce, moved to a modern house in Trailwood, the beautiful- ly wooded subdivision he built with four friends. This time, however, Byers doesn't have anything to replace those 60 hours he has spent each week for four decades running his business. He nostalgically remembers how in 1944 he came upon Dave Hawes standing by a pile of lum- ber in the middle of the road. "What happened?" Byers asked. "Well, I unloaded these tim- bers and I need to get them out of the road," Hawes said. That was the start of a business relationship. Hawes hired Byers, first to move the timber, then to help him build the lumberyard, which supplied wood for con- struction of nearby Amon Carter Airfield. Byers later went to work at the lumberyard as an assistant man- ager. One day, Hawes pitched Byers the keys and said he was going on a cruise. Hawes never returned to run the store. Byers bought him out. The business is 54 years old, and Byers has run it for 42 years. (I But plans call for the lumber- yard and the hardware store to be torn down. A public auction of its contents is scheduled for the Sat- urday after the Fourth of July. Nobody knows what's coming after that. "It might be a fast-food restau- rant or something else," Byers says. " Is he sad? "Well," he answers with a sigh, "it's like when a good friend dies." The same goes for Euless. When the business closes in sev- en days and the woodsman who makes house calls goes into retirement; you can bet a stack of 2-by-4s that nothing similar will come along again. Dave Lieber's column appears Sundays, Tuesdays and Fridays (817)685-3830 d l ieber@ star-tel egra m.com r, Bill Byers, owner of the Euless Lumber Co. stands in his store's almost bare lumber bin. The Euless Lumber Co. closed in 1998 after 54 years of service. Photo courtesy Bill & Boyce Byers. Euless — Celebrating 150 Years — 199Os The Euless Lumber Co. opened in the 1940s and was Euless' oldest business when it closed in 1998. Photo courtesy Bill & Boyce Byers. 4 53 Euless - Celebrating 150 Years - 2000-2003 But when Euless lost one treasure with the closing of the Euless Lumber Co. in 1998, it gained a remarkable treasure two years later, in 2000, in the form of an 1850s era log cabin. Shirley Himes Melson had known for years that there was a hidden treasure inside the walls of the home she inherited from her father. But it wasn't until layers of siding, wallboard and paneling were pulled off that �@ Looking down the hallway from the original log house. A a3 facade was A Himes family gathering in front of the home of Emmitt & Myrtle Nobles Himes. added in the Back Row, L to R: Mildred Himes Thiede, Hattie Huffman Himes, Annie Himes early 1900s Morelock, Christine Himes Brooks, Geneve Fuller Himes, Evelyn Whitener Himes, when the Himes family Andrew Himes, Myrtle Nobles Himes, Myrtle Morelock McGinnis added onto Front Row, L to R: Lavoy Himes, Clarence Himes, Raymond Himes, Homer Lee the structure. McGinnis, George Emmitt Himes, Leon McGinnis Photo courtesy city Photo courtesy Evelyn Whitener Himes. of Euless Archives. 54 Euless — Celebrating 150 Years — 2000-2003 she was finally able to see the historic gift — a log house — her grandfather had told her stories about. The log house was thought to have been built in the mid- to late- 1800s, making it one of the oldest structures in Euless. Melson donated it to the city to preserve Euless' and her family's history. According to Bill Marquis, a craftsman hired by the city to reconstruct the log house in its new location, the concept of adding onto a log structure is normal, even if the generations of owners did take it to an extreme. As families would get bigger and more prosperous, they generally would add on, he said. Also, styles change and they would try and keep up with the neighbors. The original walls of the cabin were found under siding, sheet rock, paneling and seven layers of wallpaper. "These old walls will talk to you if you know how to listen," said Marquis. The cabin told him that the Himes family must have been frugal; they hadn't bought the siding necessary to block out cold air. He also said that the cabin was built around 1850. Some holes from long -missing pegs and the impractical height of one of the gun ports (in case of Indian attack) told Marquis where the stairs were to the sleeping loft. The port was more than four feet off the ground, so residents would have needed something to sit on to shoot comfortably. The other ports were all less than two feet from the floor. Top photo: In 2000, the Himes house was carefully deconstructed in order to salvage the original log house encased inside. Bottom photo: Once the log house was extracted from the larger structure, it was transported to Heritage Park at 201 Cullum Dr. Photos courtesy City of Euless Archives. 55 Euless — Celebrating 150 Years — 2000-200J The finished Himes Log Cabin was opened to the public at the first Heritage Park Christmas on December 9, 2000. Bill Marquis, left, and a Euless Historical Preservation Committee docent, right, are dressed in period clothing. Photo courtesy City of Euless Archives. A ribbon -cutting ceremony for the DFW Airport's Consolidated Car Rental Center was held on March 26, 2000. Pictured are, left to right, DFW Airport Executive Director, Jeff Fegan; Chairman of the Airport Board, Tom Dunning; and Euless Mayor Mary Lib Saleh. Photo courtesy City of Euless Archives. Marquis said that people were real short back then. The original door was only five feet, 2 inches tall. The ceiling was only about six feet tall. The city allotted the necessary $44,000 for moving and restoring the Himes family cabin. When it was finished, the cabin was furnished with period furniture and accessories. The Himes Log Cabin is open to the public the second Saturday of every month. Volunteers from the Euless Historical Preservation Committee are the docents for both the preserved structure and the Fuller House Museum also located in Heritage Park, just south of the Ruth Millican Recreation Center on Cullum Dr. Euless added two more feathers to its cap in with the opening of the Consolidated Car Rental Center at DFW Airport and the Dr Pepper StarCenter at the Parks of Texas Star, both in the spring of 2000. As part of the interlocal agreement signed in 1998, DFW Airport agreed to build the new Consolidated Car Rental Center within Euless' city limits on airport property. The two -hundred acre Rental Car Center consolidates ten rental car companies under one roof. Located near the airport's south entrance, the Rental Car Center offers covered parking for 5,000 rental cars and efficiently handles more than 1,100 rentals per hour. It also provides a new annual revenue stream of approximately $3.5 million. Euless — Celebrating 150 Years — 2000-2003 The construction -of-the�Pappe_ StarCenter-�ho Parh3 of T •rfao Star added a new dimension to the complex. Owned by the City of Euless, Dr Pepper leases, markets and maintains the facility. The 96,000 square foot facility features two ice hockey rinks, two multi -purpose rooms for meetings, birthday parties and other special functions, a climate -controlled viewing area overlooking both ice rinks, public locker rooms and a pro shop featuring Dallas Stars, Texas Rangers and Texas Star merchandise. While working to preserve its past, Euless is also busy making a new future. The City acquired the delapidated Western Hills Inn on Hwy. 10 in 1998 through tax foreclosure, demolished the building in the fall of that same year and immediately got started on a new $11 million Police and Courts Facility. In an article that appeared in the Winter 2001 Edition of Euless Today, Assistant Police Chief Bob Freeman wrote that "the new facility on Hwy. 10 is built for expansion. We will have a state-of-the-art jail facility, which affords not only nicer accommodations for detainees, but also safer environments for both detainees and employees. "We will have a training room that will allow us to provide in-service training which we currrently contract with other agencies for and we will again have a crime lab to process evidence." The court facilites are triple the size of the former space in Building B at the municipal complex on Ector Dr. The new facilities also include an attorney -client conference room. Previously, lawyers had to confer with their clients in the busy lobby that was also home for Human Resources and the Water Billing Office. Mayor Mary Lib Saleh, right, participates in the ribbon cutting ceremony of the Dr Pepper StarCenter in the spring of 2000. City Manager Joe Hennig is directly behind the Mayor and Randy Locey, Vice President of the Dr Pepper StarCenters, is at the far left. Photo courtesy City of Euless Archives. Mayor Pro Tem Carl Tyson, Councilmember Veva Lou Massey, Mayor Mary Lib Saleh, Councilmember Leon Hogg and Councilmember Glenn Porterfield perform the ribbon cutting for the new Police & Courts Facility in January 2002. Photo courtesy City of Euless Archives. 57 Euless - Celebrating 150 Years - 2000-2003 What's next for Euless? Building A at the municipal complex is being completely remodeled — inside and out. When it reopens in late 2003, it will be Euless' official "City Hall" and will house the new chamber for City Council meetings with stadium seating for 100, electronic voting capability and computer access for Council members. And best of all, the new front entrance will face Ector Dr. on the east side of the building and consist of a beautiful water feature in celebration of Euless' 50th Anniversary Celebration. Euless is also initiating a new signage program that will enhance the major entrances to our city. The first sign will be erected on S.H. 183 near the city's eastern border so that it will be visible to travelers headed west from Dallas. Through the years the city has updated most of the major thoroughfares and the reconstruction of Main Street is underway. The Pipeline Road widening project will begin in 2004. With the completion of these two roadway projects, all of Euless' major thoroughfares will have been upgraded. Together We Are Always Building a Better Tomorrow! Euless — Celebrating 150 Years — Facts City of Euless Facts Date of Incorporation: February 24, 1953 Date of Adoption of City Charter: July 21, 1962 Demographic Statistics Total Acres in the City 9,994 Within DFW 2,875 Outside DFW 7,169 Outside DFW Developed 5,308 Undeveloped 1,861 Inside DFW Developed 195 Undeveloped 2,630 Note: Of the land in DFW, approximately 600 to 900 acres are actually developable, due to topography and floodplain constraints. Population: 47,950 School Enrollment: 19,500 Income: Per Capita $23,762 Median Household $47,395 Unemployment Rate: 5.6% (statewide 6.2%) City Employees: 368 full time, 169 part time Fire Protection: Number of Stations Number of Certified Firefighters Police Protection: Number of Stations Number of Certified Officers Parks & Recreation: Number of Swimming Pools Number of Parks Athletic Fields Community Buildings Amphitheaters Golf Course Conference Centre 60 Residential Water & Sewer Rates per month Water Rate: $7.00 + $2.34 per thousand gals. Wastewater: $5.20 + 90% of metered water x $1.39 per thousand gals. Drainage Fee: $2.50 Recycling Fee: $1.66 per month (830 for citizens over 65) Garbage Fee: $6.92 per month No. Water Accounts: 11,626 (as of November 2002) No. Water Units Billed: 22,615 (as of November 2002) Property Tax Per $100 Valuation (Tax Year 2002) City of Euless 0.497254 HEB ISD 1.71190 Tarrant County College 0.139380 Tarrant County 0.272500 Hospital District 0.232400 Total 2.853434 Grapevine/Colleyville ISD 1.65979 3 Sales Tax Rate: 8.25% 58 includes the following approved by voters 1 Cent General Fund 1 1/2 Cent for Economic Development, Parks & Library 81 1/4 Cent for Crime Control & Prevention District 1/4 for Lowering Property Tax 3 16 (605 acres) 24 Operating Budget (Fiscal Year 2002-2003) 5 General Fund $22,232,176 2 Water & Sewer Fund $12,746,473 1 Other Funds $33,800,427 1 Total $68,779,076 ''#ii ,R . rig- •� t hl�iS�Sic 1 _ ^ac j . , L- �� ( ,�} i. C r r + r } i i ., �. rr- . tLtia _ } � .1s a_l �"'j ft'r � 71s� !) 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