Blue Mound, TX (Tarrant County)

Blue Mound is on Farm Road 156 eight miles north of Fort Worth in north central Tarrant County. In 1920 John Kennedy, an immigrant from Scotland, established Globe Laboratories, Incorporated, to produce serum to immunize cattle against black leg. In 1933 he purchased several hundred acres near the intersection of Blue Mound and Watauga roads in order to expand his serum business and to begin a new operation, the Globe Aircraft Company. Over the next decade a settlement grew up around the Kennedy businesses and was called Blue Mound because of its proximity to the hill of the same name. During the 1950s Bell Helicopter used the Kennedy facility to develop its new helicopters. In 1960, however, Bell left the facility, and the Kennedy building has remained vacant ever since. Blue Mound, however, survived and incorporated in 1960. The population steadily increased thereafter, surpassing 2,000 in the mid-1970s. During the 1980s the town became a bedroom community for residents employed in Fort Worth or at Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport. In 1990 the population was 2,133, and in 2000 it was 2,388.