Former FWISD historic school building in Fairmount seeks upgrades

Fort Worth ISD is looking to renovate the former De Zavala Elementary building.

Daggett Montessori is a kindergarten through eighth-grade school that moved into the De Zavala building in May. De Zavala was built in the early 1900s.

The case was introduced at the Historic and Cultural Landmarks Commission’s Oct. 12 meeting and proposed new windows, a new roof and two small additions to the Fairmount building.

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Barbara Crotty, of the Fairmount Neighborhood Association, said the group wants to be involved as FWISD renovates the building. 

“It’s a part of our history and I believe the only school in Fort Worth that’s actually located in both the Fort Worth Historic Cultural District and a national register historic district,” Crotty said. 

The Fairmount community wants to ensure that the restorations protect the original building and avoid minimal impact on the original building, Crotty said. 

FWISD sought approval from the commission to remove nonhistoric windows to install new ones. 

“We haven’t finalized that design, but the idea is the outside of the window will be aluminum finish for just durability and maintenance, and the inside will be a wood finish,” said Karl Crawley, a representative of FWISD. 

Commissioners pushed the case to November over a lack of details about the window renovations.

Maintaining historical buildings must come with a delicate, specific, thought-out approach, commission chair Rick Herring said.

“No slam at Fort Worth ISD, and I know staff will be monitoring this, but when the cleaning occurs, I’m not sure the school district always thinks they have to follow the rules,” he said. “So, that would be a concern of mine and I’m sure the Fairmount people will be all over that as well.” 

Fort Worth Historic and Cultural Landmarks Commission

Documenter: Kennedy Black

Date: Oct. 12, 2026

Learn more about this meeting by clicking here. For the agenda, click here. To watch a recording of the meeting, click here.

Kennedy Black is a member of the Fort Worth Report Documenters crew. If you believe anything in this account is inaccurate, please email us at [email protected] with “Correction Request” in the subject line.