Area covered by RNA

The area now known as Ridgmar lies about six miles west of the Fort Worth Central Business District, just to the west of Westover Hills and north of Ridglea North. It is included in three early surveys, the 1875 James F. Elliott survey, the 1873 Peterson Pate survey and the 1861 John Collett survey.

Some of the early land owners are familiar names in Fort Worth's history and in the development of Westover Hills. These include Amon G. Carter, W.R. Watt, William Bryce, W.W. Jones, J.F. Cook and Harold Johnson.

Amon G. Carter owned some land there in 1935 and later bought more land from W.R. Watt in 1945. William Bryce was an owner in 1926, W.W. Jones in 1919, J.F. Cook in 1917, and Harold V. Johnson in 1932. The Amon G. Carter Foundation sold a large portion of this 1200 acre "island" bounded by Hwy. 183 on the west, Roaring Springs Rd. on the east and what was to become I-30 on the south, to J. Marvin Leonard in 1956. Leonard built the Shady Oaks Country Club on the northern portion in late 1956 and 1957. The newer portion of Westover Hills developed on the eastern part and Ridgmar grew up on the rest, beginning development in 1957. The J.C. Penney Company bought some of the land in 1969, and Ridgmar Mall was built in 1974.

The residential part of Ridgmar began with construction on Dakar Rd., continuing on north on the alphabetically named streets. The deed restrictions were set to ensure quality construction, with building line set-backs up to 40 feet in many areas instead of the usual 25 feet. Wood shingle roofs were required until disastrous fires in other cities caused them to be less than desirable. Some of the streets have rear entry garages and size requirements as well.

During World War II, on this land that was unimproved at the time, anti-aircraft bunkers were built as protection for the "bomber plant", the popular name for Convair, later known as General Dynamics and now Lockheed-Martin. Those two or three nearly indestructible bunkers had to be broken up and removed for the building of houses to begin.