Melissa Clay finds herself in shock when driving around the Arlington Entertainment District.
“Arlington is not as big as Dallas, but this is where all of the action is at,” Clay said.
Last year, she moved to Dallas after two years of living by Arlington’s Six Flags Over Texas. Clay hasn’t returned to the area until this one reason: the National Medal of Honor Museum.
The over 100,000-square-foot museum, located at 1861 AT&T Way, opened to the public this week after three years of construction. The museum is the latest component to the growth of the Entertainment District, which houses multiple stadiums, museums and amusement parks, and is expected to strengthen the area’s tourism and businesses.
The city saw almost 16 million visitors in 2023, who contributed $2.8 billion in spending, according to the Arlington Convention and Visitors Bureau.
The National Medal of Honor Museum is expected to add anywhere between 600,000 to a million visitors annually, said Michael Jacobson, president and CEO of the Greater Arlington Chamber of Commerce.
Jacobson doesn’t have the exact numbers on the museum’s economic impact, but he can estimate.
If a visitor stays an extra day in Arlington to see the museum and spends around $250, multiplied by 16 million visitors, that number will show the power of getting people to stay, he said.
“The National Medal of Honor Museum changes the game in the Entertainment District,” Jacobson said.
Four exhibitions are happening simultaneously at the nearby Arlington Museum of Art to serve audiences of all ages.
Less than half a mile away, the Texas Rangers are gearing up for their home opening game at Globe Life Field, which can host around 40,000 spectators.
Loews Hotels, a New York company, has opened two hotels in the area within a three-minute walking distance of each other.
AT&T Stadium, home of the Dallas Cowboys, hosts events and concerts during the offseason. Choctaw Stadium is home to two sports teams: the North Texas Soccer Club and the United Football League’s Arlington Renegades, which both play this spring.
While these happenings would appear unrelated, they all reflect a vision — one that would bring more foot traffic to the Arlington Entertainment District.
“This area has just erupted,” Arlington resident Jane Morrow Wright said.
Morrow Wright moved to Arlington when she was 5 and the city might not have even had 25,000 people. After years of moving around, she relocated back to Arlington 11 years ago. She’s not going anywhere anymore, she said. She’s home.
“It’s so fun to come to the ball games and to go to the art museum now down here. Arlington has been smart about what they’ve done,” she said.
Jacobson said that about 40 Arlington business leaders are going through leadership training focusing on the values of the National Medal of Honor.
“The National Medal of Honor Foundation and Museum have a great respect and value for Arlington and the community that has welcomed them, and they go out of their way to make sure that Arlington remains connected in everything that they do,” he said.
Hurst, Texas, resident Beverly Ihnfeldt, who attended the museum’s grand opening event, still remembered the Arlington of the mid-’70s, when she and her roommate lived across from what is now AT&T Stadium.
None of the development was here.
“It was just houses and pastures and stuff, and it’s just like, ‘Oh my gosh, how much they can cram in,’” Ihnfeldt said.
She’s happy about the changes.
“Anytime we keep having growth, it’s a good thing,” she said.
Jacobson feels conflicted about the conversation surrounding the museum’s economic impact.
He understands its power in generating money. He has thought about the brand value as nationwide eyes point toward Arlington.
He just doesn’t want people to forget about the museum’s larger meaning.
“The economic impact of the National Medal of Honor Museum wasn’t, in my mind, a key part of the equation,” Jacobson said. “This is about capturing the values of the recipients and celebrating those attributes like integrity and valor and courage, and educating the public on those values in action and trying to inspire people to do bigger and better things.”
Donations covered most of the cost of building the National Medal of Honor Museum.
The institution has received funding from several high-profile donors, including a $20 million donation from Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones in 2021 and $30 million from Kenneth Griffin, the billionaire head of the hedge fund company Citadel, in 2023.
“Anyone who is successful in business has at times stood on the shoulders of others,” Jones said in a 2021 press release. “Never in my life have I had the opportunity to stand beside those who have given so much for the defense of freedom and our way of life. Medal of Honor recipients represent the very best of America and the values to which all heroes aspire. Supporting this project is a privilege.”
Britton Cunningham Merritt, Greater Arlington Chamber of Commerce vice president of Marketing and Communications, said the museum is different from FIFA games or the college football national championship that will take place in the area.
Unlike those events that come into existing spaces, the Arlington community has watched the National Medal of Honor Museum go from the site selection to the finalized construction, Cunningham Merritt said.
“We’ve had five years to really take it in and see that this would come to fruition,” she said.
Clay, a Dallas resident, had to mentally prepare herself for the museum’s opening.
Last January, Clay’s husband, who served in the U.S. Army, died at Texas Health Arlington Memorial Hospital. The city affected her heavily enough that her psychiatrist suggested she move somewhere else.
She left for Dallas that April and didn’t come back until now, Clay said.
Memories flooded back to her as she sat at Mark Holtz Lake to watch the museum’s grand opening. She wore his picture on a necklace. She remembered the Rangers and Cowboys games they went to together. From their house, they once were able to see the museum’s construction.
She may move back to Arlington after all, she said.
@DangHLe
