and first aid station . Facilities for services such as reproduction , accounting and secretarial were to be included as well . 33
The first building under construction was Club Southwest . It was designed to have a private club and a public restaurant , the Crossroads Restaurant , as well as conference and meeting space to serve the general public and tenants within the industrial district . Designed by O ’ Neil Ford , the building was notable for being the first in the nation to use a concrete hyperbolic paraboloid roof system . Located just north of the Turnpike and east of Watson Road ( Highway 360 ), the award winning building opened in March 1958 . By the end of 1960 , the following companies had facilities in the district or had announced intentions to locate there : Great Southwest Bowling Lanes ; Sargent-Sowell , a national manufacturer and distributor of street , rail and traffic signs , Rich Plan Corporation ; Imperial Sugar Company ; Boray Manufacturing Company , manufacturer of adhesives and coatings for industrial use ; Cummins Diesel Sales and Service ; U . S . Steel ; R . C . Can facility ; Felvey Container Corporation ; the Imperial Inn Motor Hotel ; and Ozalid Division of General Aniline and Film Corporation , manufacturer of machines for engineering , drafting and office copying . The Great Southwest Railroad , the first railroad to be chartered in the Southwest in 50 years , was inaugurated in May 1959 , connecting with the Texas & Pacific line in the southern part of the district and the Rock Island in the northern . 34
In June 1959 , it was announced that the GSC had purchased the 140-acre J . H . Watson estate located along the western boundary of the district and south of the DFW Turnpike . The site was for a multi-million dollar play land to be planned and built by the same firm that created Disneyland , Marco Engineering Company of Los Angeles . “ Texas Under Six Flags ,” later renamed Six Flags Over Texas , would contain six settings depicting Texas history under the Spanish , French , Mexican , Republic of Texas , Confederate and United States flags . Attractions included a Mexican restaurant , a mule merry-go-round , western saloon , stagecoach , Spanish mission , an aerial tram , and turnpike cars . The park was 20 percent completed at the end of 1960 and opened in 1961 . By 1964 , it had surpassed the Alamo as the state ’ s top tourist attraction . 35
The subject of water and its availability was an important one throughout the 1950s , especially as the city ’ s boundaries were stretched beyond its capacity to supply water . One means to overcome water shortages was to seek it from neighboring communities . In 1952 , Arlington requested water from Grapevine Lake . In 1954 , city officials began considering constructing a lake to serve Arlington ’ s water needs . As water consumption continued to grow that summer , residents were placed on an odd-even lawn watering schedule ( odd number addresses watered on odd numbered days , even on even ) and the municipal swimming pool was closed for a few days in an effort to conserve water . In September , voters approved a $ 6.5 million bond package that included construction of a lake three miles west of Arlington on Village Creek in the Trinity River basin . The City began acquiring land in early 1955 to build the proposed 2100 acre lake . Preliminary studies revealed that one road would have to be re-routed , 13 homes removed as well as a Fort Worth sewer line , electric and telephone lines and a Magnolia Petroleum Company oil pipeline . The size of the lake was doubled when Texas Electric Service Company agreed to join with the City in its construction . But before the lake could be put in service , the city still had to contend
33 “ An Industrial Heart for the Metroplex ,” Architectural Forum , June 1957 : 154-60 . 34 Arlington Journal , April 4 , 1957 , July 10 , 1958 , September 25 , 1958 , January 15 , 1959 , February 19 ,
1959 , May 28 , 1959 , February 4 , 1960 , March 10 , 1960 , April 28 , 1960 , July 14 , 1960 , October 27 , 1960 , and December 15 , 1960 . 35 Ibid ., June 18 , 1959 and December 15 , 1960 ; Ty Cashion , The New Frontier : A Contemporary History of
Fort Worth and Tarrant County ( San Antonio , Texas : Historical Publishing Network , 2006 ), 125 .
FINAL REPORT
ARLINGTON HISTORIC RESOURCES SURVEY UPDATE
SEPTEMBER 2007
18