Parks

Seminary Hills Neighborhood Park

Dedication

1968

Size

6.18 acres

Additional amenities

Basketball court
Benches
Parking lot
Playground area
Shelter
Stand-alone swing
Tables
Trail
Trash receptacle

Fun facts

In 1968, Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary sold 6.18 acres of land located a few blocks south of the school to the city City for use as parkland. It was mostly used as a neighborhood park until 2000 when the City Council approved leasing the park to the Fort Worth ISD for the construction of an elementary school. Seminary Hills Elementary School, adjacent to the park has participated in the REAL School Gardens program. The program is a unique outdoor classrooms designed to provide hands-on, experiential learning opportunities for elementary-aged children. This real-world learning can be integrated into all academic subject areas and has been shown to benefit children by boosting academic achievement, nurturing healthy lifestyles, cultivating life skills and promoting environmental stewardship.

Recreation

The park has a 0.15 ADA cement loop trail that connects the playground, pavilion and basketball court to the elementary school parking lot.

History

The district purchased five adjacent houses to expand the campus. The Seminary Hills Park Elementary School was constructed shortly after the lease was approved. In 2005, the Fort Worth ISD donated $15,000 for playground improvements that provided for the joint use of the property as a public school/neighborhood park. The park also has picnic facilities. Through the assistance of the Marilyn Brachman Hoffman Foundation, Seminary Hills Park received eight large trees in 2023 for shading walking paths and the playground. It was one of four parks selected for shade trees based on census-level income statistics and a tree need assessment conducted by the Park & Recreation Department’s Forestry Service Section.

Geology

The majority of the park lies within the Pawpaw, Weno Limestone and Denton Clay geologic formations. Pawpaw is a calcareous ledge-forming marl interbedded with limestone and clay. The easternmost portion lies within the Grayson Marl and Main Street Limestone of the Cretaceous Period. Grayson Marl consists of greenish-gray thinly interbedded limestone with nodular bits of shale, sand and fossiliferous material. The Main Street Limestone is hard, thin interbedded gray and white layers.

Soils

The soils at the park are predominately Slidell series, which is a calcareous clay soil. Upland from the riparian influence lies Sanger series soils which consists of very deep, well drained, very slowly permeable soils that formed in ancient clayey marine sediments.

Ecology

A wooded stream runs to the north of the park and continues on into nearby Greenbriar Park. The park is maintained through frequent mowing. Nearby iNaturalist observations identify some common native plant and animal species including eastern cottontail, Mississippi kite, and upright prairie coneflower.

View animal, plant and insect species observed at Seminary Hills Park and make some of your own observations through iNaturalist. See link under the "Related information" Section.

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