Tanglewood/TCU

The area that lies between I-30 and I-20 in near-southwest quadrant of Fort Worth is undoubtedly one of the city’s most beautiful. Beautiful old homes range in size, and the green spaces are nicely offset with development.

The TCU area is home to such neighborhoods as Colonial, Park Hill, University Place and Bluebonnet Hills. These neighborhoods enjoy some of the city’s most high-profile amenities, including the booming Texas Christian University, a repeated top-10-nationally-ranked Fort Worth Zoo, and the historic Colonial country club and golf course. Such amenities bring recognition and stable home values, family entertainment, green spaces, and numerous other benefits.

Neighborhood shopping and dining are also top-notch. The popular University Park Village is home to Fort Worth’s only Apple store and Anthropology, as well as locally-owned lunch spot McKinley’s Bakery and several other favorites. This development has recently been enhanced by the addition of West Bend across the road. This added a Tyler’s and several more boutiques and restaurants. Diners can enjoy the river at the popular food truck park or famous Woodshed Smokehouse.

A slower pace can also be found on Park Hill or Bluebonnet Circle. These two unique collections have a neighborhood vibe featuring local boutiques and Park Hill Café on, you guessed it, Park Hill, or local treats like Fred’s Burgers and a unique collection of bakeries on Bluebonnet Circle. Residents can also take in the college vibe at places like Dutch’s Burgers and the original Fuzzy’s Tacos.

Nearby, the Tanglewood neighborhood may have the most name recognition due to its exemplary namesake Tanglewood Elementary School, but neighboring Overton Park, Overton Woods, Westcliff and even River Hills enjoy many similar features. One of the most prominent is also one that serves as a connector between many of these neighbors. In one of the only places that the Trinity Trails deviates from the Trinity River, the trail runs between Fort Worth’s beautiful Foster Park and Overton Park. Much of it features another trail commodity: shade! Head toward the river, however, and it’s a quick path to the Clearfork Trailhead with an unmatched community vibe of free yoga classes, children’s activities and brunch at Press Café. Or you can take the car down Hulen to Clearfork instead and indulge in the city’s most upscale shopping.

More shopping can be had nearby at the coveted Trader Joe’s, local Calloway’s or miscellaneous necessities of Trinity Commons. Neighborhood favorites like Charleston’s make this feel like a tight-knit community and the independent Local Foods Kitchen makes for a great ladies lunch or convenient take- home meal. The food and shopping options are rounded out in the Westcliff neighborhood in an old- school shopping center complete with a small grocery store, hardware store, strip center necessities and resident BYOB-favorite Café Bella.

This neck of the woods enjoys an interesting combination of resources down Hulen Street through one of the city’s regional libraries, a variety of places of worship, Fort Worth Academy of Fine Arts (FWAFA) and the future site of a new Tanglewood Elementary relief campus. In fact, education is a high point here, with most of the area zoned for Tanglwood Elementary, McLean Middle School and Paschal High School, not to mention easy access to some of the city’s finest private school options.

A bit further west brings in neighborhoods like River Hills, which enjoys speedy access to aforementioned amenities, as well as quick access to Chisolm Trail Parkway. This quadrant of the city possesses unmatched access to highways and proximity to the business and medical districts. But it is truly the aesthetics that make this portion of the city so special. Enviable winding streets, beautiful tree lines, and an incredible variety of architecture. From colonial to ranch-style to new builds, the diversity of homes makes this near southwest quadrant of Fort Worth’s one of its finest.