Live in Near Southside
The streetcar-era district south of Interstate 30 that grew up around the county's big hospitals, where renters hold more than nine in ten occupied homes, the City's form-based code reviews what most lots may become, and FEMA maps no flood zone at all while the City's own flood maps reach almost a fifth of the ground.
Near Southside, Inc. calls this the city's first streetcar suburb, and it grew around the hospitals that came to it: All Saints in 1906, Cook Children's in 1918, Harris Methodist in 1930 and the county hospital, now JPS, in 1938. After the Second World War it emptied as the city moved outward, until a coalition of the City, the transit authority and the medical district commissioned a revitalization plan in 1995 and formed the organization that became Near Southside, Inc. This guide takes the area the City maps for that organization, about 1,400 acres between Interstate 30 and Allen Avenue, less the Fairmount historic district, which has its own guide: there the 2020 census counted 4,826 residents, 58% more than on the same ground in 2010, with renters in 93% of the occupied homes. Zillow put the typical home in ZIP code 76104, which holds nearly all of them and about 17,000 people besides, at $187,757 in August 2026, down 0.6% on the year.
A streetcar suburb that grew around the hospitals, now zoned by a form-based code
The area on the City of Fort Worth's NH Redevelopment Orgs layer for Near Southside, Inc. (OBJECTID 6442), about 1,399 acres, less the roughly 119 acres of it that fall inside the City's Fairmount historic district, which leaves about 1,280. Traced against the Census Bureau's road file: Interstate 30 and the Union Pacific tracks beside it on the north, from Forest Park Boulevard east past Main Street; Kentucky Avenue and then Evans Avenue on the east, just beyond Interstate 35W; East and West Allen Avenue on the south, from Evans Avenue west to 8th Avenue, with Fairmount's blocks south of Magnolia Avenue between 8th Avenue and Hemphill Street cut out; and on the west the rail line west of 8th Avenue, north to Rosedale Street and Forest Park Boulevard. About 3% of the residents live east of Interstate 35W. It is a redevelopment organization's filing, not a City district, though the City's Near Southside form-based zoning district, for which Near Southside, Inc. is the recognized organization, covers about 83% of it. All of it is in Tarrant County and Fort Worth ISD, and almost all of it in City Council District 9.
Near Southside, Inc. calls this the city's first streetcar suburb, and it grew around the hospitals that came to it: All Saints in 1906, Cook Children's in 1918, Methodist, now Harris Methodist, in 1930 and the county hospital, now JPS, in 1938. After the Second World War it emptied as the city moved outward, until the City, the transit authority and the medical district commissioned a revitalization plan in 1995 and formed the organization now called Near Southside, Inc. This guide takes the area the City maps for that organization, about 1,400 acres from Interstate 30 south to Allen Avenue and from the rail line west of 8th Avenue east to Evans Avenue, less the roughly 119 acres of it inside the Fairmount historic district, which has its own guide.
This is a district of renters and hospitals. The 2020 census counted 4,826 residents on those blocks, 58% more than on the same ground in 2010. Of the 2,622 homes occupied on census day, 2,429 were rented and 193 lived in by their owners, 7%; 385 more stood empty. Near Southside, Inc. counts about 30,000 jobs in what it calls the county's second largest employment center, with the county's five major hospitals at the heart of it: John Peter Smith, Harris Methodist, Cook Children's, All Saints and Medical City. JPS broke ground in April 2026 on a new hospital at South Main and Morphy streets, due in 2030.
The code decides what a lot may become. About 83% of the area is zoned for the City's Near Southside form-based district, enacted in January 2008 and revised in 2022. There, new building and any renovation that alters a building's exterior need a certificate of appropriateness: work that clearly meets the standards can be approved by City staff, and the rest goes to the Urban Design Commission, which meets on the third Thursday, after Near Southside, Inc.'s own design committee has reviewed it. Only 1.5% of the area is zoned for one-family houses. The tiny W. A. Powers Co. historic district is inside the line, and 84 parcels carry individual historic or demolition-delay overlays.
No price index follows this line. Zillow put the typical home in ZIP code 76104, which holds nearly every resident here and about 17,000 people besides, at $187,757 in August 2026, down 0.6% on the year, against the city's MLS median single-family sale of $327,000. The six taxing units add to 2.18908 per $100 for 2025, and no improvement district adds to them: a homestead at the ZIP figure owes about $2,280 a year, the same home without the exemption about $4,110. The arithmetic is on the Fort Worth page.
The flood risk is on the City's maps, not FEMA's. No creek crosses the area, the Clear Fork runs to the west, and FEMA's effective map puts none of it in the 1% annual chance zone. The City's own studies put 18.3% of it in a flood risk or high water area, with 440 residents on the blocks inside them, and since July 2024 the City regulates building in its flood risk areas. Eight producing gas wells stand on one pad at 580 East Rosedale Street, permitted from 2009 to 2013.
- Look up the lot's zoning: in an NS district, exterior work needs a certificate of appropriateness first
- Check the address on the City's flood risk and high water layers, not only FEMA's, and price a flood policy
- Ask Near Southside, Inc.'s design committee about any plan before it goes to the Urban Design Commission
- Note how far the house is from the gas pad on East Rosedale Street
- Run the address through Fort Worth ISD's school finder, since the district publishes no zone map
How the Near Southside got here
- 1906All Saints Hospital, now Baylor Scott & White All Saints Medical Center, is founded; it grows into the campus at the district's western edge.
- 1918Cook Children's is founded.
- 1930Methodist Hospital, now Texas Health Harris Methodist Hospital Fort Worth, opens.
- 1938The county hospital, now JPS Health Network's John Peter Smith Hospital, moves to the Near Southside.
- 1974Plaza Medical Center, now Medical City Fort Worth, opens just west of 8th Avenue.
- 1995After fifty years of decline, the City, the transit authority and the medical district commission Sasaki Associates' strategic plan, and Fort Worth South, Inc., later Near Southside, Inc., is formed to carry it out.
- 1997The City creates the Southside/Medical District tax increment district, TIF 4, which the organization administers for it.
- 2008In January the City Council enacts the Near Southside Development Standards and Guidelines, a form-based code; JPS opens its Patient Care Pavilion with the county's Level I trauma center.
- 2009The City permits the first of eight gas wells on the WESCO pad at 580 East Rosedale Street; the last are permitted in 2013.
- 2012UT Southwestern's Moncrief Cancer Institute opens at Magnolia and Jennings avenues in October.
- 2018The American Planning Association names Magnolia Avenue one of the Great Places in America.
- 2020The census counts 4,826 residents in the area outside Fairmount, 1,771 more than on the same ground in 2010.
- 2022The City adopts the current edition of the Near Southside Standards and Guidelines.
- 2026JPS breaks ground on 16 April on a new hospital at South Main and East Morphy streets, due in 2030; Fort Worth ISD closes De Zavala Elementary and sends its students to Lily B. Clayton and Daggett; Trinity Metro sets 29 October to break ground on a TEXRail station by All Saints.
A main street for a park, and the river parks to the west
The district's public room is Magnolia Avenue, which the American Planning Association named one of the Great Places in America in 2018, and which ArtsGoggle and Open Streets close to cars each year. Fairmount Park is just south in Fairmount. The large parks are west, on the Clear Fork: Forest Park, with the City's Forest Park Pool, Trinity Park and the Fort Worth Botanic Garden.
What the map does not show: how little open space is inside the line. The district's green is a few small parks and hospital grounds, and the river parks are a drive or a long walk away.
Elsewhere in Fort Worth, not Near Southside
25 places, with real drive times
Road-adjusted distance and drive time from the centre of the community to each destination, nearest first. Filter by category.
Showing 1–12 of 25 places, nearest first.
Method: distances are straight lines from the population center of the area's 2020 census blocks, on Hemphill Street, multiplied by a road factor, with a tiered speed model for the drive: honest ranges, not routed times.
Every gym within reach
The City's nearest community centers are Fire Station, just inside Fairmount, and Southside, east across Interstate 35W. The nearest YMCA is downtown on Lamar Street, with a year-round indoor pool, and the City's Forest Park Pool opens only in summer.
- Fire Station Community Center: about 1.4 km
- Amon G. Carter, Jr. Downtown YMCA, 512 Lamar Street: about 2.8 km, from 5:30 a.m. on weekdays
- Forest Park Pool, 2850 Park Place Avenue: about 4.5 km, $6 for adults
| Facility | What it is | Drive |
|---|---|---|
| Fire Station Community Center open | The City community center nearest the reference point on the City's layer, just inside the Fairmount historic district. | 4–6 min |
| Southside Community Center open | The City's Southside center, east across Interstate 35W, one of the 23 community centers on the City's list. | 4–7 min |
| Amon G. Carter, Jr. Downtown YMCA open | The nearest YMCA, at 512 Lamar Street downtown: a year-round indoor pool, whirlpool and sauna, a gymnasium, racquetball courts and free group classes, open from 5:30 a.m. on weekdays. | 5–8 min |
| Forest Park Pool open | One of the City's two public pools, at 2850 Park Place Avenue: open 9 June to 9 August 2026 from noon to 6 p.m., closed Mondays, $6 for adults and $5 for children. | 6–9 min |
| Trinity Trails at Forest Park open | The free option: the trails along the Clear Fork, reached through Forest Park southwest of the district. | 6–9 min |
The free option is the Trinity Trails along the Clear Fork, reached through Forest Park.
Zoned to Clayton, Daggett and Paschal at the reference point
Every block is in the Fort Worth Independent School District. Its 2026-27 finder gives the reference point on Hemphill Street Lily B. Clayton Elementary, rated B (86) for 2026, Daggett Middle, up from D (64) to C (75), and Paschal High, rated B (87). The district closed De Zavala Elementary at the end of 2025-26 and sent its students to Clayton and Daggett. Trimble Technical High School on West Cannon Street is inside the line, rated B (80), but it is not the zoned school for the point.
| School | Board | Note |
|---|---|---|
| Lily B. Clayton Elementary School | Fort Worth Independent School District | 2000 Park Place Avenue, southwest of the district, prekindergarten to grade 5. It is the elementary school Fort Worth ISD's 2026-27 finder returns for the reference point, on Hemphill Street; the district publishes no zone map, so no count of residents by zone exists and blocks elsewhere in the area, above all east of Main Street, may be zoned to another school. Fort Worth ISD closed De Zavala Elementary at the end of 2025-26 and sent its students to Lily B. Clayton and Daggett. Rated B, 86, for 2026 after B, 89; 34.9% of its students counted as economically disadvantaged. |
| Daggett Middle School | Fort Worth Independent School District | 1108 Carlock Street, in Fairmount, grades 6 to 8, the middle school the finder returns for the reference point. Rated C, 75, for 2026, up from D, 64, for 2025. |
| Paschal High School | Fort Worth Independent School District | 3001 Forest Park Boulevard, grades 9 to 12, the high school the finder returns for the reference point (it calls it RL Paschal HS). Rated B, 87, for 2026 after B, 80, for 2025; 56.1% of its students counted as economically disadvantaged. |
| Trimble Technical High School | Fort Worth Independent School District | 1003 West Cannon Street, inside the district, grades 9 to 12. The finder does not return it as the zoned high school for the reference point, so ask the district how places are given. Rated B, 80, for 2026 after B, 84, for 2025. |
Run your own address through the district's finder before you commit. Fort Worth ISD publishes no zone map, so these are the schools for one point, and a block east of Main Street may be zoned elsewhere.
Month by month, what living here looks like
Not a highlights reel: the actual annual rhythm, including the dates residents have to remember.
- The appraisal district values every property as of 1 January, and last year's bill is due by 31 January
- Highs near 14 °C and lows near 2 °C at Meacham, with about 11 nights at or below freezing on the 1991 to 2020 normal
- Penalty and interest start on unpaid tax bills on 1 February
- Highs near 16 °C and lows near 4 °C, with 61 mm of rain and about seven freezing nights
- Hail and tornado season begins; an F3 tornado struck downtown, just north, on the evening of 28 March 2000, and hail killed a man in north Fort Worth the same night
- Highs near 20 °C and lows near 8 °C, with 80 mm of rain
- Appraisal notices arrive in spring, on values the appraisal district sets for 1 January
- Highs near 24 °C and 78 mm of rain
- 15 May, or 30 days after the appraisal district mails its notice if that is later, is the deadline to protest a value
- 102 mm of rain, as in June; the storms that fill the City's flood risk areas rather than FEMA's come in spring and autumn
- Highs near 29 °C and lows near 17 °C
- Highs near 33 °C, with about 22 days reaching 32 °C (90 °F) on the normal
- Forest Park Pool opens for the season; in 2026 it ran from 9 June to 9 August
- Highs near 35 °C and lows near 24 °C, with about nine days reaching 38 °C (100 °F)
- Highs near 36 °C, about 11 days reaching 38 °C (100 °F) on the normal, and 57 mm of rain
- The six taxing units adopt their 2026 rates; this guide's arithmetic stays on 2025's, 2.18908 per $100 before exemptions
- Highs near 31 °C and lows near 20 °C
- ArtsGoggle fills 21 blocks of Magnolia Avenue from 8th Avenue to South Main Street, free, from noon to 10 p.m. on Saturday 24 October 2026, with more than 1,000 artists
- Trinity Metro plans to break ground on the Medical District TEXRail station on 29 October 2026
- 113 mm of rain at Meacham, the wettest month on the normal
- Highs near 19 °C and lows near 7 °C, with 64 mm of rain and the first freezing nights
- Highs near 14 °C and lows near 3 °C, with about nine nights at or below freezing on the normal
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About these photographs. Openly licensed images geotagged in or near Near Southside, found on Wikimedia Commons and served from there with full attribution. Inline photos elsewhere on the page may still come from the site's shared Fort Worth library.