Southside in Fort Worth is located south of Interstate 30 and north of Interstate 20, with Highway 35 running west along the length of the neighborhood. In the area, you can find plenty of shopping opportunities, dining options, and a charming, historical setting.

Fort Worth's Southside is also home to Hell's Half Acre, a precinct whose name stems from the lawlessness in the community after the Civil War. Although, there were several areas in Texas bearing the name Hell’s Half Acre, the most notable one was in Fort Worth.

Browse homes for sale in Southside.

A Historical Setting

Exterior view of Southside Preservation Hall in Fort Worth, Texas
Southside has a charming, historical setting.

One of the most notable sites in the neighborhood is the Log Cabin Village, a living history museum with buildings that date back to the 1800s, making them the oldest structures in Tarrant County. In the village itself, you can experience activities of the time such as candle-making and blacksmithing.

A large painted mural in Sundance Square pays respect to the Chisholm Trail cattle drives that occurred from 1867 to 1875. But the charms of Fort Worth’s Southside aren’t exclusively found in its history, but how they seamlessly marry their storied past with a promising future.

Old Meets New

Salmon sushi nigiri on a black plate with chopsticks
Standouts along Magnolia Avenue include Shinjuki Station.

The Southside neighborhood is where you’ll find historic buildings hosting businesses just a few years old and where classic diners rub elbows with high-concept restaurants. It wasn’t always this way though: Fort Worth’s Southside is a case study of a historic Old West city with deep roots in manufacturing being the victim of an exodus to the suburbs that befell many major American cities.

In the 1980s, however, a man named David Motheral turned it all around. After being turned down for a loan multiple times (banks were rightfully wary of investing in a neighborhood where nobody lived), B J Keefers Restaurant opened in 1983, jumpstarting the Southside’s renaissance.

Since then, the Southside has seen over 100 businesses open in the neighborhood, supporting a growing population. What was once a relatively deserted neighborhood is now the second-largest employer in Tarrant County. Magnolia Avenue, the street the banks once refused to invest in, is now known as one of the city’s “restaurant rows.” Standouts along Magnolia Avenue include Tokyo train station-influenced Shinjuki Station and the elegant Ellerbe Fine Foods.

Home Style and Prices

A house undergoing restoration on a street off Magnolia Avenue in the Southside neighborhood of Fort Worth, Texas
The median home price in this neighborhood is $200k.

And now the neighborhood is seeing the kind of renovation efforts that much of the Dallas–Fort Worth area has enjoyed for years. Southside has many Craftsman-style homes with large front porches and expansive yards. Overhanging rafters and beams are a signature aspect of the homes here, with the Craftsman homes showcasing shingle siding with details usually made out of stone.

There are also Colonial Revival-style (essentially a mixture of American-style homes) are scattered throughout the neighborhood. Think of gabled, gambrel, and hipped roofs. The Colonial Revival-style adapts well to remodeling. This style of home has a symmetrical facade, although the interior of the home may be different.

The median home price in this neighborhood is $200k, offering a more affordable housing market than other neighborhoods in the larger Dallas-Fort Worth metropolitan area. Current homes for sale range from the low $100s to the low $500s with mostly single-family homes on the market.