The names of streets often reflect a sort of passing history. Think of such names as a remembrance of persons of such importance that their identities become transportation road marks worthy of Google searches, map designations and – sometimes – long and anguished Planning and Zoning sessions sorting out land use development along their route.
More often than not, the streets survive far longer than their namesakes.
Consider just one such example: Bowen Road. Its namesake, “Arlington Journal” newspaper publisher “Col.” William Abraham Bowen, hit it lucky with his road. Bowen Road passes through a long section of Arlington, plus the entire north-to-south eastern boundaries of both Pantego and Dalworthington Gardens. Though it dead-ends today at Sublett Road, the City’s master plan calls for it to eventually be expanded ever further southward.
Bowen founded the Arlington Printing Company in 1908 and also served as publisher/editor of the “Arlington Journal” until 1921. His very first column prophetically anointing Arlington to be “the best city for homes and education and small factories in North Texas.” Though his 13-year tenure was short and he died at age 65 in 1921, he influenced the transition of Grubb’s Vocational School to become part of Texas A&M (now the UT System today), persuaded voters to ditch their septic tanks in favor of the city’s first sewage treatment system, and advocated for the creation of a decorative fountain for Arlington’s mineral well and the re-establishment of the chamber of commerce. Bowen Road was named for him after his death. The colonel would have liked that.
This article was written by Arlington author and historian O.K. Carter, who previously served on the Landmark Preservation Commission, and includes information from the Texas State Historical Association.
