Garden of Eden in Fort Worth, TX

Garden of Eden is a historically Black community in Fort Worth, TX, settled by freed slaves from Kentucky and Tennessee around 1860. The town was made up of 54 households along the Trinity River. Today the community has a population of 20, descendants of the original settlers.

The Garden of Eden had suffered through hard times until the neighborhood association was developed in 2004. Since then the area has been designated a historic neighborhood. Garden of Eden received the 2004 Neighborhood of the Year Award.

A cookbook, Recipes from Out to the House, contains a history of the community. In 2008, the city of Fort Worth began adding water and sewer lines to the church; other properties rely on septic tanks.

For more see J. Milligan, "Historically black neighborhood reclaiming paradise," Fort Worth Star-Telegram, 3/10/2008, Domestic News section; and Drew Sanders, The Garden of Eden: The Story of a Freedmen's Community in Texas, TCU Press, 2015 (includes illustrations, photgraphs, and maps).