"There's, obviously, a life outside the Entertainment District: the nature, ecosystem, animals," Arlington artist Colton Canava told the Fort Worth Report in August, while he was painting the first of his anniversary murals along North Cooper Street.
His murals are one piece of what Arlington's 150th anniversary will leave behind. Most of that list sits in places residents pass on ordinary days, and most of it is funded the same way. In 2007 the city put its natural gas proceeds into a permanent endowment, and it spends only the earnings. A fund designed to pay out for generations is now paying for a time capsule that won't be opened until 2126.
Friday at Rotary Dream Park
The anniversary year officially wraps up tomorrow, Friday, Nov. 6, at 2 p.m. with the City of Arlington's 150th Anniversary Signature Tree Planting and Time Capsule Ceremony. A 95-gallon Chinquapin Oak goes into the west side of Rotary Dream Park on Texas Arbor Day. The city describes that spot as one of the gateways to Downtown, close to where Arlington began along the rail line in 1876. The time capsule holds items donated by local organizations to capture Arlington in 2026, and it is set to be opened in 2126 for the city's 250th anniversary.
- Where: Rotary Dream Park, 100 E. Front St.
- Admission: free and open to the public
- Parking: free along Front Street, in the 101 Center parking garage, and along Abram, Center and Mesquite streets
The oak caps a tree program the city started in February. The goal was 1,800 trees, about 150 a month, counting seedlings handed out to residents along with plantings in parks, public spaces and medians. Some of those trees are already in the ground. J.W. Dunlop Park, 1500 NW Green Oaks Blvd., got 17 new trees on Feb. 24, including Texas Redbud, Desert Willow, Brodie Juniper and Sweetgum. A March 27 planting near the "Heartfullness" sculpture at Dr. Robert Cluck Linear Park, 1600 E. Randol Mill Road, was a joint effort with FIFA and the North Texas FWC Organizing Committee.
The Account Behind the Oak
The city's announcement credits the Arlington Tomorrow Foundation for both the tree and the capsule. The foundation exists to make sure the proceeds from the city's natural gas drilling "continue to benefit Arlington and its residents for generations," according to the city's FY2025 annual financial report. The same report puts the endowment's corpus at $122 million and says the City Council serves as its board.
The setup is what keeps it going. On the foundation's own fact page, it describes itself as a permanent endowment that awards grants from investment earnings. The council created it in 2007, and the city stopped adding to the corpus in 2014 once its contributions reached $100 million. The principal stays put and the interest gets spent. Gas money banked almost two decades ago is how the city is covering a capsule meant to sit for another century.
The anniversary's share of that money is modest. A city staff report prepared for the Oct. 27, 2026 council meeting says the foundation gave $890,000 in 2026 for 150th anniversary public art and related programs. For comparison, the foundation approved more than $4.8 million in grants of all kinds in 2025.
Hotel guests cover much of the rest of the city's art. The same staff report on citywide art projects says the 2026 installations were funded "largely through Hotel Occupancy Tax (HOT) revenues and the Arlington Tomorrow Foundation." For FY2027, the city added $300,000 from HOT funds, bringing arts spending to the 15% share of municipal hotel tax revenue the state allows. The report projects that share at $1,658,409.
Here is where the anniversary pieces stand this week, according to that report:
| Piece | Where | Status in early November | Funded by |
|---|---|---|---|
| Signature oak and time capsule | Rotary Dream Park, Downtown | Ceremony Nov. 6 | Arlington Tomorrow Foundation |
| "Rooted in Nature" murals by Colton Canava | Lamar, Fielder and North Cooper streets | Blackland Prairie and Post Oak Savannah done; Cross Timbers begins in November | Arlington Tomorrow Foundation |
| "Touched by Time" by Justin Ginsberg | Founders Plaza at Levitt Pavilion | Installation expected in December 2026 | Arlington Tomorrow Foundation |
| Second Dream mural | International Corridor | Scheduled to be painted in November | Arlington Tomorrow Foundation |
| First Dream mural | Downtown | Painted in September | Communities Foundation of North Texas |
| "Heartfullness" | Dr. Robert Cluck Linear Park | Installed Feb. 5, 2026 | HOT and Convention & Events Services funds |
Walls on the Way to Work
Canava's three murals sit outside both Downtown and the Entertainment District. The city calls the series "Rooted in Nature," and each one shows a local ecosystem: Blackland Prairie, Post Oak Savannah and Cross Timbers. According to the staff report, the walls on Cooper Street and Fielder Road had years of graffiti before Canava painted over them.
The Fort Worth Report said the North Cooper wall was planned around the animals and ground-level plants of the Blackland Prairie, the ecological region that covers parts of east Tarrant County and Arlington. Canava told the outlet the project grew out of River Legacy Park and his own tree-filled yard. Council member Mauricio Galante, whose district includes the North Cooper mural, told the Report that the locations were chosen on purpose, with each mural at a gateway to a different part of town. "He doesn't overpower visually, and he doesn't overexpress the idea," Galante told the Fort Worth Report. "When you drive, it's not such a distraction."
Downtown's permanent anniversary piece is due next month. UTA art professor Justin Ginsberg designed "Touched by Time," which the Fort Worth Report described as a column of stacked glass paired with an interactive sundial. It is expected at Founders Plaza in December. A third piece, "Spirit Horse, Legacy," is a UTA Spirit Horse sculpture painted by a UTA student. It was planned for the Downtown Urban Union area to connect Downtown with campus.
A One-Mile Walk From the Oak to 1876
Friday's oak is going in just a few hundred yards from where the city started. The Arlington Historical Society timeline says the Texas & Pacific Railway put a stop halfway between Dallas and Fort Worth in 1876. The settlement that grew around it was called Hayterville, took the name Arlington in 1877 and incorporated in 1884.
In April, the Arlington Historical Society's Jason S. Sullivan wrote a one-mile Center Street walking tour for Downtown Arlington's 150th series. It works well before or after the ceremony:
- South Edge Original Town plaque, in the sidewalk near Center and South streets by First Baptist Church of Arlington, marking the town's southern boundary in 1876.
- Founders Plaza at Levitt Pavilion, with a Texas Historical Marker and bronze bust of Andrew Hayter, 1818 to 1900, and plaques for the Rose, Rankin, Cooper, Collins, Ditto and Rogers families.
- City Center Plaza's World War II Memorial, which honors Medal of Honor recipient Col. Neel E. Kearby. The Genealogy and Local History room is on the third floor of the George W. Hawkes Downtown Library next door.
- Mineral Well Public Plaza, whose fountain honors the city's old mineral well.
- Worthington Bank at 200 W. Main St., Arlington's first stand-alone post office, built in 1939.
- Gene Allen Park, with its tribute to sister city Bad Königshofen.
- The original freight depot platform, past the library across the tracks. The rails still run exactly where they were laid in 1876.
- Arlington Music Hall at 224 N. Center St., a 1950 movie theater now used for live music.
- The Bankhead Highway marker at Center and Division.
- The Vandergriff Building at 255 N. Center St., home to Vandergriff Chevrolet from 1937 to 1966. Lee and Sheri Hay's "Historic Arlington" mural is on its wall, next to a small replica of the mineral well.
The fountain at stop four doesn't sit on the real well. That well was drilled at Main and Center in the early 1890s and capped and paved over in 1951. Its spot is about 320 feet east of the plaza's clocktower and fountain.
Knapp Heritage Park is a short detour from the tracks at 201 W. Front St. Its cabins date to 1855 and 1863. The park is open weekend afternoons, and admission is free, with donations accepted.
The Anniversary Indoors
The Arlington Museum of Art, at 1200 Ballpark Way, is running "Arlington 150: Stories of a Legacy" through Feb. 28, 2027. The show was built with more than 75 organizations, businesses and individuals, and it includes material on Arlington Downs, Pantera and Village Creek. General admission is $10 and covers the exhibit. The museum is open Tuesday through Saturday from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. and Sunday from 1 to 5 p.m., and it is closed Mondays.
The library ran its own collection project this year. Arlington Public Library took family recipe submissions through Oct. 31 for a community cookbook, supported by the Arlington Genealogical Society. The library plans to compile the recipes into a book for display and checkout.
A few more dates from the city's Arlington 150 calendar and related announcements:
- Saturday, Nov. 7: Walktober kickoff at Centennial Park
- Wednesday, Nov. 11, 5:30 p.m.: the third annual Texas Veterans Day Parade in the Entertainment District, with a drone show and a military vehicle showcase
- Saturday, Dec. 12, 6 p.m.: the free Holiday Lights Parade on West Abram Street between Levitt Pavilion and Cooper Street, a few steps from Founders Plaza and the spot where "Touched by Time" is expected
With more than 500 homes sold across Arlington and the rest of DFW, we pay attention to the details that make a neighborhood feel like home. Those details include which walls got new paint this year and where the city's newest oak went in. If you're thinking about a move, or about how your Arlington home fits into what's changing around it, Rose Group Realty can walk through it with you. Schedule a free consultation.
