Fraternity’s plan sees rundown school as spark for historically Black area of Fort Worth

Trash, bicycle parts and discarded clothing are strewn around the old R. Vickery School on East Vickery Boulevard. Its windows have been broken, walls painted with graffiti, and the black residue of multiple fires stains portions of the brick exterior. “No Trespassing” is spray painted in orange on its boarded-up doors.

The building, southeast of downtown Fort Worth, is neglected like much of the neighborhood around it, but an African-American fraternity wants to revitalize the abandoned school to make it an economic catalyst for the Southside community, which has a rich history as a center for Black-owned businesses.

The Beta Tau Lambda chapter of the Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity Inc. is in the final stages of purchasing the property from the city, and it will be turned into a “resource for the community,” Roderick Miles, a board member of the Beta Tau Lambda chapter, proudly says.

“I think it’s a renaissance for Black people to be able to lift up that culture, that history, and all of the offerings that community has to provide to the city of Fort Worth and Tarrant County,” Miles said. “We see that, and we want to be a part of that because our organization has just as much history and connection to the Fort Worth community in Tarrant County as all of these other neighborhoods do. We want to partner with them, and we want to lift that up and bring about that renaissance.”

The Beta Tau Lambda chapter provides community service and encourages civic engagement through college scholarships, programs to get young men into college, voter education programs, and political forums.

The chapter’s work focuses on helping communities like those in the 76104 area ZIP code, where the Vickery school property is located. The population of the ZIP code is about 38% Black and 43% Hispanic and has the lowest life expectancy in the state, according to a study by UT Southwestern Medical Center in 2019. Residents in the ZIP code struggle with access to health care, a lack of transportation, and access to healthy food, among other things.

History of the R. Vickery School

The school was built in 1910 by Richard Vickery, a real estate developer who owned most of the land in the predominantly white Glenwood neighborhood, which borders Historic Southside. The two-story building had multiple classrooms, an auditorium, and a cafeteria. An additional wing and one-story metal building were added years later.

The school was shut down in 1985 and later had multiple uses, including as a nightclub that closed in 2004. It was then used by a photo ID and laminating service until the city of Fort Worth seized the property in 2007 in a tax foreclosure. It has since been abandoned and was a homeless camp for some time. Firefighters have responded to half a dozen fires at there this year.

The fraternity was searching for a building to conduct services such as its Alpha Academy mentoring program for fifth- to twelfth-graders and its Alpha Beautillion, a college preparation program for graduating seniors.

Conversations about the fraternity acquiring the R. Vickery School property started in 2020.

These problems do not deter the fraternity.

The Livingston Community Development Foundation is the fraternity’s 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization, which focuses on community and economic development and acquiring property that would benefit not only the chapter but the community. The foundation is named after late Alpha Phi Alpha member Russell Livingston, who was an educator in the Fort Worth community for many years.

Rebuilding an historic Black business community

Miles and Glen Harmon are a part of the Livingston Community Development Foundation. They want to help rebuild the proud history of the Southside community, which was home to people like William “Gooseneck Bill” McDonald, the first Black millionaire in Texas, and I.M. Terrell High School, once the only high school for Black students in segregated Fort Worth. Southside was once a thriving Black business community with jazz clubs and locally owned Black businesses and grocery stores.

Other developments, resources, and nonprofit organizations are also working in Southside to bring back the glory of the neighborhood. Examples include the planned Juneteenth Museum, the Southside Community Garden, which plants backyard gardens for residents needing access to healthy produce, BRAVE/R Together, which is dedicated to fighting racial and systemic injustices.

“We feel like everything in between is going to fill in and develop because there’s going to be resources all over the South Side for the residents and constituents,” Harmon said.

The fraternity plans to use the school to house not only its programs, but several other initiatives and nonprofit organizations. Other tenants could include a workforce development program that will partner with Workforce Solutions for Tarrant County, a public health clinic, an immunization clinic, an event space, and work spaces for small businesses and individuals. There are also plans to have a commercial kitchen for cooking classes and for caterers for those using the event space.

Alpha Phi Alpha also wants to offer other programs for school aged children, such as a beauty shop camp, theater camps, and a program for children who do not have steady meals at home.

Plans for renovation

On June 27, the city voted to sell the property to the fraternity $91, 248.65. The fraternity is finalizing arrangements to officially buy the property. The estimated price of renovating the building will be around $12 million. The fraternity plans to hold fundraising events and find help from donors to cover the renovation expenses.

The next step is to have conversations with members of the community to greater assess how they would like to see the property used.

Adrian Gray is president of Beta Tau Lambda chapter of the Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity Inc. He attended Greater St. Stephen Missionary Baptist Church, near the school, when he was younger. The image of the school, the neighborhood and its history, along with the pride of Southside residents, are ingrained in his memories.

Gray and his fraternity want to help change the trajectory of deterioration around the school. He emphasized that no single organization has a solution for the community. Collaboration with other organizations is vital for the development of the community at large, he said.

“We are excited to be at this point after many months. However, we understand it in some ways to be just the beginning of the overall process,” he said. “And it will take time to see this building come fully to fruition, but Alpha Phi Alpha Inc. is built upon service and advocacy for our community and being able to have this building in place in the community in desperate need and to speak to those needs through our programming and resources that will be provided out of this building make us extremely hopeful for the future.”