Olaf Growald
Her decade in office left a mark — now Betsy Price’s name marks a new Fort Worth landmark.
On Saturday, June 28, the city will cut the ribbon on the newly renamed Betsy Price Community Center, a sprawling public hub tucked into the fast-growing edge of northwest Fort Worth. It’s got the bones of a classic rec center — fitness room, basketball gym, after-school programs — but it’s also got public art, a culinary kitchen, Cricut classes, and a name that speaks to a decade of civic swagger.
Because if anyone knows how to make space for a community to grow, it’s the woman who did it for an entire city.
The building, formerly the Northwest Community Center, sits at 8375 Blue Mound Road near Fort Worth’s northern edge — close enough for easy trips downtown, yet far enough to feel like the city’s next frontier. It’s a smart place to put down roots. The grand opening, set for 10 a.m., promises to be more than a simple ribbon-cutting ceremony.
Speakers will include Price herself, along with current Mayor Mattie Parker, councilmembers Macy Hill and Alan Blaylock, and Park & Recreation Director Dave Lewis. After the speeches and scissors, guests can tour the facility and enjoy a family-friendly open house featuring food trucks, class demos, bounce houses, face painting, a DJ, and performances by Tarrant County College’s STEM truck and the Saginaw High Alumni Drumline.
City of Fort Worth
Inside, the center has just about everything short of a zip line:
Multiple meeting rooms
A culinary-style kitchen
A state-of-the-art fitness room and dedicated group fitness space
A full basketball gym
Programming kicks off immediately and includes tai chi, floorball, art classes, soccer skills, ballet/tap/tumbling, gardening, Cricut crafting, bingo, and a robust after-school program, according to the city’s website.
And then there’s the art.
As visitors step into the front lobby, they’ll find Open Plains, a kinetic public art piece by artist Matthew Mazzotta. Funded by the 2018 Bond Program, the installation blends whimsy and function — three stylized birds gently flap overhead, their motion powered by small fans. Below, a grassy berm made from artificial turf sits on a soft, sound-dampening substructure. It’s meant to be climbed on, sat on, or lounged upon — a literal green space inside a civic structure that doubles as both sculpture and seating.
It’s a fitting tribute in a building named for someone who spent a decade making Fort Worth more accessible, more active, and more future-focused.
The Betsy Price Community Center joins a small but meaningful list of community centers in Fort Worth named for individuals whose legacies shaped the city’s public life:
Atatiana Carr-Jefferson Community Center, located in Hillside, honors the young woman whose 2019 death at the hands of a former Fort Worth police officer sparked national outrage and local reform. It’s one of the city’s most peaceful spots, with an unbeatable view of downtown.
R.D. Evans Community Center, on the west side, commemorates the city’s second superintendent of recreation. Evans helped establish the city’s recreation infrastructure in the 1920s and ’30s. Today, his center pairs creative programs with outdoor access to trails, ponds, and a dog park.
Martin Luther King Jr. Community Center, currently in the planning phase for a major expansion, honors the civil rights icon with space for future programming, civic events, and an upcoming aquatics center.
Eugene McCray Community Center, in Stop Six is named for the All-American football player and civic leader who ensured his neighborhood got a center of its own. The facility includes a commercial kitchen and space for gatherings up to 120 people.
Andrew “Doc” Session Community Center, in the Riverside area, reflects the values of the educator and counselor who helped acquire the land it was built on. Today, it’s home to services from the Community Action Partners program.
In Fort Worth, names on buildings mean something. They’re not decorative. They’re declarative. And the newly named Betsy Price Community Center carries that tradition forward — not just as a nod to a former mayor, but as a gift to the residents she served.
