Living in Overton Park, Fort Worth

The park and the trees

Overton Park is built along a city greenbelt of 48.68 acres.

48.68 acres

Overton Park today, from about twelve when it was deeded

1.76 miles

of multi-use trail, with a creek down the middle of it, draining to the Clear Fork of the Trinity

roughly 1,800

trees six inches caliper and larger counted along the corridor

40-inch

trunk diameter (caliper) on one bur oak, potentially over 130 years old

Our work here

Three Overton Park houses we have remodeled.

We have remodeled three houses here. Houses from this period tend to have their walls and primary suites in the same places, so we know what we will find when we open them up. We have also seen how the soil changes from one block to the next.

Whole home

A 1966 house with the walls opened up

We took out the walls between the rooms, and most of them turned out not to be holding anything up.

Primary bath

A larger primary bath, built inside the existing suite

We took the space for the new bath from a closet, a linen hall and a landing that were already part of the suite.

Bath and exterior

A secondary bath and a refreshed exterior

The secondary bath redone in walnut, brass and deep green glazed tile.

Questions people ask about Overton Park

Questions about remodeling, additions, schools and soil in Overton Park.

Is a house in Overton Park worth remodeling, or is the lot worth more than the house?

It depends on the house and the block, and we can price both before you decide. The lots here run about a third of an acre. Twelve of the 691 houses here record a build year of 2000 or later — the arithmetic is further up this page, and it is an appraisal record, not a permit record, so it is a proxy and not a count. It shows that few houses here have a recent build year. It cannot tell you about your block, so we price your house instead of assuming. We can price the remodel on a cost-plus basis, line by line, and our agents can tell you what the house is likely to bring as it stands and how buyers here have valued the change. We are a one-stop shop — designers, builders and a brokerage under one roof — so you get both numbers at the same time.

Do I need historic approval or design review to remodel here?

No. The City’s zoning map records no historic overlay anywhere in Overton Park, so there is no certificate of appropriateness step and no design review board. With no review board, the main check on how an addition looks is the street around it. Most houses here went up in the same building period at a similar size, so an addition that does not match will stand out. That makes the exterior design worth getting right, even though no board reviews it. Private deed restrictions are a separate matter from zoning and are worth confirming for your own block; we do not publish a description of them on this page, because nobody here has read the recorded instrument.

How much can I add on a lot this size?

More than most of Fort Worth allows on a typical lot, because the lots here run about a third of an acre. The exact number depends on your parcel. About two thirds of the neighborhood is zoned A-10 One-Family, which sets a 10,000 sq ft minimum lot, a 60 ft minimum width, 40% maximum lot coverage and a 25 ft front yard. Roughly a fifth is A-21 One-Family, where the minimum lot is 21,780 sq ft, the width 85 ft, the coverage 30% and the front yard 30 ft. Two houses a few doors apart can fall under different rules, and that changes how big a new wing or second story can be. On top of that, on a block face that is at least 40% built, Fort Worth measures your front yard against the neighboring houses rather than against the district minimum, up to a 50-foot maximum, so your required front yard may be deeper than the zoning table says. We look up the parcel before we draw anything.

What schools does an Overton Park address feed?

Overton Park Elementary (PK–5), then McLean 6th Grade Center (grade 6, and nothing else), then W. P. McLean Middle School (7–8), then R. L. Paschal High School (9–12). That covers every grade, pre-K through twelfth, from one address. We publish no rating for any of these campuses: no accountability grade with a named issuing body and a year was found. Boundaries also move, and the section above covers which campus zones this neighborhood — so check the district's own finder against your specific address before you write an offer.

What is the ground like here?

It varies from lot to lot. Sampled across the neighborhood the ground breaks into seven soil units — the reading at the center is a clay that both moves and sits on limestone within a foot or two, while most of the rest is a lower-movement profile. Two houses on the same street can sit on different soil, so a figure for the whole neighborhood cannot tell you what your foundation work will cost. We check the soil for your lot instead of assuming it matches the last job, and it is worth doing early if you are weighing a pool, an addition or anything that needs a new footing.

Where does the extra square footage for a primary suite come from?

Almost always from inside the footprint you already have. The median house here runs 2,967 sq ft and 1960s plans put nearly all of it into bedrooms. A typical suite of this era has a shallow closet, a linen hall and a bedroom next door that has become an office. Redesigning those rooms together is cheaper and faster than adding to the outside of the house, and it does not touch the roofline, the foundation or a single tree. These are slab-on-grade houses, so moving a drain means cutting into the concrete slab. That is normal work on houses of this age, and we include it in the schedule and the price.