Source: Lisa Helbing / https://www.flickr.com/photos/12896641@N08/3763622043/ - Polytechnic Post Office 1910s
Eastside History: Polytechnic Heights and Texas Wesleyan University
Polytechnic Heights - a historic neighborhood and university community
1849 the Loving's and then the Ayreses settled on Sycamore Creek, followed by Roger Tandy and Arch Hall of Kentucky who settled on land grants.
The town grew up around a mill and with a makeshift track to cross the Syncamore Creek, the T&P railroad was able to reach the area in 1876.
Tandy and Vickery families worked together to establish a streeetcar and tracks with a stop at "Poly."
A single building that once housed the Post Office, the city hall, and a fire station can still be found on Vaughn Boulevard.
The mill burned down in 1893, but the college lives on. In 1921, the town voted 7 to 1 to be annexed by the City of Fort Worth.
Links
Fort Worth Report - Where I live: Polytechnic Heights is a historical neighborhood, university community (interview with longtime local and community advocate, Reba Henry)
Kinfolk House - Polytechnic HeightsCommunity History
Hometown by Handlebar - Eastside History Part 1 - Poly
Hometown by Handlebar - Eastside History Part 2 - Poly annex
Source: Kinfolk House - https://www.kinfolkhouse.org/community
Texas Wesleyan University
Early settlers of the community, A.S. Hall, W.D. Hall and George Tandy donated land for a college, which after 1890 would become Polytechnic College - translates to "many arts and sciences."
The Southern Methodist Episcopal Church announced plans to establish a college "'75 feet above Fort Worth'—the moral high ground—and two miles from the temptations of Hell’s Half Acre."
They would later go on to develop Polytechnic College into Woman’s College for Southern Methodism, which would become Texas Woman’s College in 1914, then Texas Wesleyan College in 1935 converting from an all women's college to co-ed, and in 1989 it became what we now know as Texas Wesleyan University.
Links
Texas Wesleyan University
Texas Wesleyan University History
Hometown by Handlebar - So That’s Why That Avenue Is Called “College”