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When the burgeoning Texas and Pacific Railway Co. was designing its Dallas-Fort Worth line, it bypassed Johnson Station completely.
Determined, the store owners around the station — and some of the area residents — gathered their possessions and set up shop a few miles north. The new town was officially renamed Arlington in 1877, in honor of Confederate General Robert E. Lee, who was born in Arlington, Va.
The town of 275 residents would eventually grow into North Texas’ premier entertainment destination.
The mineral well
Since its founding, the city of Arlington has been shaped by available water. In 1892, The residents of the fledgling city placed their hopes on an artesian well at the intersection of Main and Center streets. During the digging process, The Dallas Morning News frequently reported the depth of the drill rig.
The well became a source of fascination for the people of Arlington. In 1893, the social column of The News reported Rebecca Rankin’s reading of an essay that imagined Arlington 50 years into the future. “Communication with Mars is established” and “women share public offices with men.” Arlington’s 10 million residents sip water from “an artesian well extending to the Indian Ocean.”
On Dec. 7, 1893 — more than a year after its inception — the well began flowing at a rate of 200 to 300 gallons per hour. The first pools that dried in the sun left behind crystals, which were then collected, packaged and marketed for their medicinal properties. They became known as “Arlington Crystals.”
The well would remain an Arlington landmark for decades and at one point even boasted an elaborate fountain replete with stone lionheads. The fountain was replaced by drinking fountains and covered by a wooden structure in 1924 before being deemed a traffic hazard and removed. The well was paved over in 1951, the year Arlington’s longest-serving mayor, Tom Vandergriff, took office.
The Vandergriff years (1951-77)
Tommy Joe Vandergriff never wanted to get into politics. The 25-year-old graduate of the University of Southern California had recently moved back to Arlington to help his father manage the family’s Chevrolet dealership. Vandergriff found himself compelled into the town’s mayoral race by a petition signed by more than 100 people. Vandergriff unseated B.C. Barnes by a vote of 613 to 329.
General Motors
After the election, the young mayor moved swiftly to secure 255 acres of land along Highway 80 between Grand Prairie and Arlington. The tract — unofficially valued at $500,000 — was sold to General Motors at an undisclosed price in August 1951.
The automaker announced it would use the site as a defense assembly plant that could easily shift to a manufacturing operation that would employ between 6,000 and 10,000 workers. The first car, a 4-door black Pontiac Chieftain, rolled off the assembly line in January 1954.
Today, GM Arlington employs around 4,500 hourly workers and — coming off of a recent labor dispute — has announced plans to move 300 of them to full time. Vandergriff, who died in 2010, told The News in a 2004 interview, “the plant certainly changed the course of Arlington’s future and, indeed, that of the entire region.”
Lake Arlington
In response to an extended drought in the early 1950s, Arlington announced plans to build a 2,100-acre lake along Village Creek to bolster the water supply to the city’s 11 existing wells.
The city began to acquire land for the proposed lake in 1954. The man-made lake was coined “Vandergriff’s Folly,” due to its immense cost, size and the mayor’s extensive involvement in the project.
The dam designed to hold water for the lake was closed up on March 31, 1957. As if by design, a cold front moved into the Dallas-Fort Worth area shortly after, bringing enough rain to fill the lake’s 15 billion-gallon capacity in a matter of days. The lake was dubbed “Miracle Lake” until its formal dedication on April 29, 1958, when it was officially named Lake Arlington.
Texas Rangers
Despite his early victories, Tom Vandergriff had so far fallen short of his ultimate dream of bringing a Major League Baseball team to Arlington. The mayor set his sights on the “financially plagued” Washington Senators. Accompanied by the mayors of Dallas and Fort Worth, Vandergriff traveled to Boston on Sept. 20, 1971, to make a final pitch to officials for the American League team. After hours of deliberation, a verdict was announced: The Senators would move to Arlington. Hundreds gathered at Dallas Love Field to welcome Vandergriff home as a hero.
Retirement, more or less
On Jan. 11, 1977 — after wrapping up a full city council agenda — Tom Vandergriff announced his retirement from office. He had served as Arlington’s mayor for 26 years. In that time, he had watched the city’s population swell 17-fold from 7,692 in 1950 to an estimated 133,000.
Vandergriff would go on to serve two years as U.S. House representative for Texas’ newly formed 26th District, and 16 years as county judge for Tarrant County. He retired in 2007.
Entertainment capital of North Texas
Six Flags Over Texas
In early 1960, the vice president of the Great Southwest Corp., C. W. Goyer, announced his company’s plans to build an amusement park in Arlington. The unnamed park would have the theme “Texas Under Six Flags,” a reference to the six nations that have governed the state. The corporation planned to spend $7 million to build the park. By the time it opened in 1961, the final cost for Six Flags Over Texas was closer to $10 million.
From the day it officially opened on Aug. 5, 1961, Six Flags has proved immensely popular. By July 1962, as many as 20,000 people a day were walking into a park originally built to host 25,000. Visitors were drawn by its traditional Wild West repertoire and modern attractions. Six Flags boasted performances, Civil War reenactments, and an overhead train that whisked visitors away on a bird’s eye tour of the sprawling complex.
While Six Flags still operates under the same theme, today’s park is barely recognizable from its early days. The park features characters from the Looney Tunes franchise, a Batman ride, and a massive wooden roller coaster named The Texas Giant. The success story of Six Flags is a stark contrast to its lesser-known aquatic neighbor, Seven Seas.
Seven Seas
Hoping to double up on the success of Six Flags, Arlington voters passed a $10 million bond package on May 12, 1970. The proposal provided $3 million for the expansion of Turnpike Stadium and $7 million for the construction of a marine park named Seven Seas.
The bond package passed easily with 75% of the vote. Vandergriff also supported the proposal along with the city council, which bought two-page newspaper ads and hailed it as a “vital step in the city’s progress.”
The step turned out to be closer to fatal. Construction of Seven Seas came in more than $2 million over budget and was plagued by delays and the collapse of the park’s operating company, Penn Central Railway.
After Seven Seas opened in 1972, it never turned a profit. Attendance was low and park maintenance was expensive. Faced with mounting debt, the city closed the park in 1976. An examination of city records by The News in 1983 showed that the complex had racked up $25.4 million in losses. After sitting unused for six years, the complex was torn down to make room for Arlington’s Sheraton Hotel.
AT&T Stadium
Not far from Six Flags lies a massive glass-walled monument to the Dallas Cowboys: AT&T Stadium.
In 2004, the Dallas Cowboys were mired in a months-long negotiation with Dallas over the franchise’s proposal to build a $654 million stadium in Fair Park. Those talks ultimately failed in June, and the team began to field offers from nearby cities.
The Arlington City Council jumped at the chance, and by Aug. 17 put together a referendum to build a stadium near Six Flags and Globe Life Park (then Ameriquest Field). Arlington’s contribution to the project would be capped at $325 million and the Cowboys would bear the remaining cost. Arlington voters approved the bond package on Nov. 2 by a margin of about 11,500 votes.
The provision regarding overrun costs turned out to be a boon for Arlington, as the final cost of the stadium was twice what had been originally proposed. The $1.3 billion AT&T Stadium is one of the most expensive football stadiums in the country. Today, it looks like the city’s investment is paying off. In 2017, Arlington saw around 5 million more visitors from outside the city than it did the year the stadium opened.
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