May 30, 20233 min read

Fort Worth, TX: Green Oaks Hotel

Address: 6901 West Freeway, Fort Worth, TX

Opened: 1965

Status: Demolished 2007, now North Z Boaz Park

Elvis Dates: 1974

I Visited On: February 25, 2023

My experience

The address I had was not much help for this place and articles from 2007 said a 3-story building and possibly another hotel were going to be built on the original lot of the Green Oaks Hotel, but my dad

and I couldn’t really find anything like that near the address; although the Green Oaks Hotel actually owned a rather decent section of land, a lot of which was just trees and small lakes and ponds, so it is possible they built the new buildings somewhere else on the large original property.

As far as where we think the hotel was located on the property, my dad and I went by his memory of the area during the time and found, what is now, North Z Boaz Park. I’ll be honest, the park is pretty sad looking—parks in North Central Texas usually are because all the grass is brown in the Great Plains. It looked like they were in the midst of installing a sprinkler system, but so far, all they had were pvc pipes on top of the brown grass and hardly any trees or bodies of water.

There is another option for the where the hotel once stood. There is currently a Hampton Inn & Suites on the other side of Calmont Ave. across from the park and right off the highway, and that could have also been where the hotel was.

Storytime

What I meant by us going by my dad’s memory to find the hotel’s previous location…

Although we live in Houston now, my family is from Fort Worth and my dad and I grew up there. He moved there when he was 3 in 1970, and we moved away when I was 6 in 2008. I spent 6 years around a decent amount of Elvis stuff and didn’t even know it!

My dad grew up in a house not too far from the Green Oaks Hotel, and in 1974, on one of the nights Elvis was performing at the Tarrant County Convention Center, my father and grandfather were driving by the hotel. My grandfather pointed to one of the second story windows that was all lit up and said, “I wonder if Elvis is staying there.” For 49 years, my dad thought he was pulling his leg, until 5 months ago, when I shared my research with him.

I like to think the room my grandfather pointed at was THE room, and Elvis was only a wall away.

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Fun Fact: My mom had her high school junior and senior prom there in the ballroom in 1989 and 1990.

History of the site

Opened in December 1965 by the brothers, Hank and Bill Green, the Tudor styled hotel was modeled after the famous Western Hills Hotel on Camp Bowie (also demolished). The 284-room motor hotel was very nice for the time and in a high end area in Fort Worth.

During its time, the hotel hosted a good number of famous names, including Elvis Presley, Tina Turner, and Bob Hope.

The hotel was demolished in 2007 and a 3-story office building and new hotel were being planned.

Videos of Elvis at the Green Oaks Hotel in 1974

I literally couldn't find any pictures of Elvis that I was 100% sure were taken at the hotel, but here is a Youtube video containing a few videos of Elvis and his crew at the hotel in '74.