Fostepco was the name of the partnership between the developers Foster and Stevens who platted the addition and started the community around 1910.
Having adequate transportation was necessary to assure the success of any new community and Fostepco Heights Street Railway was built to connect with Northern Texas Traction Company's line at North Main and Exchange Avenue at the Stockyards.
A 1930 map of Fort Worth gives the following directions to get to Fostepco Heights, "Board the Rosen Heights or Stockyards streetcar northbound at any street intersection on Main Street, and transfer to Fostepco Heights streetcar at North Main and 25th Street."
The car line went north on Main and turned east on 29th Street. It went east along the south side of 29th, crossing the SantaFe's and the Rock Island's railroad tracks and turned north on Farmer Avenue (now Elm Street.) Then it continued north to 35th Street.
Mr. Fred Daniels was a motorman for the streetcar company and lived on Elm Street. His children and I went to Diamond Hill School. His son and I graduated in 1942.
In those days, the motormen would stop in front of your house to pick you up or let you off. They knew most of their riders.
Mr. Daniels had an arrangement with his company so that on the last run at night, he would drive the streetcar to the very end of the line. Then, he would bring it back down the street and park it in front of his house for the night. In the morning, the process was reversed.
The hill was very steep where the streetcar turned to go north on Elm Street. Sometimes as a prank, kids would rub the rails with bread wrappers from "Tastee" or "Mrs. Baird's" bread. The paraffin on the wrappers would lubricate the rail so the streetcar's wheels would slip and spin, to the consternation of the motorman and passengers.
I was born in a house at 2810 North Main, on the corner where the cars turned to go down the side of 29th Street. There was only a picket fence and a sidewalk separating our yard from the track.
Once when I was very small, the car turned the corner and stopped very abruptly. I ran over and peered through the fence to see what had happened. Mr. Daniels had had to stop the car and clear a pile of bricks off the track, that some older kids had placed there.
Times do change. Today there is a Kentucky Fried Chicken place where our house used to be. When I go there and eat in the southwest corner, I'm sitting where the bedroom was I was born in.
Winston is a lifelong railroad enthuaiast. He is a member of the Tinity Valley Railroad Club, Pantherville Railroad Association and a charter member of the North Fort Worth Historical Society. He and his wife are volunteer guides at the Stockyards Musueum located in the Historical Livestock Exchange Building.