This post is an idea that came to me after having observed someone inquiring about an old building in Southside, though not knowing anything about its history or ownership. I wanted to culminate what research skills I have acquired (and I use the term skills lightly), so that you fellow stewards of Fort Worth history might benefit what I've learned. If you have tips to share of your own, by all means please add them!
How to quickly gather more information about an old building or site in Fort Worth:
It is worth mentioning first that Fort Worth benefits tremendously from a great organization such as Historic Fort Worth. They have a great deal of information, including a survey of data and photographs of the Southside, with more neighborhoods to be added. Visit their site, and register (for free!) to access the survey. Very nice photos of the sites could quickly help you to identify your mystery building. Of course John maintains an excellent encyclopedia of Fort Worth architecture here on the Fort Worth Architecture site, so make sure to take advantage of his site.
1) Locate the property address.
The address is usually the best way to locate more information on a property. Otherwise you do not have much criteria to search the Internet, library, or other sources. Google Maps can help you narrow down the address to at least the block-range. Make sure to have the streets labeled, and you will find the street name and block range listed. Here is our example "mystery house."
To locate the exact address may take a little more painstaking of an effort, bear with me. Most cities will have an "interactive map" section on their website, where you can browse comprehensive plans or locate zoning information for a property. Fort Worth is one of those cities. If you visit their interactive map, you can navigate down to the individual property record. Click the "+" sign, then click the area on the map to zoom in to it. Click the "i" button and click on the property record to bring up basic information, including the property address. Ta-da!
It is also worth mentioning that Fort Worth's city zoning map will tell you if the site has a local historic designation (Demolition Delay, Historic and Cultural Landmark, Highly Significant and Endangered). If it is zoned historic, the city will have record of the building (including photos and survey forms) at city hall. Pay them a visit or give them a phone call for more info.
2) Check the THC Atlas of Historic Sites.
The Texas Historic Commission maintains a very useful interactive database of all the National Register or Recorded Texas Historic Landmark sites, as well as those sites that were only surveyed but not designated. Follow this link to browse their database, where you can search by County, Keywords, Address, or Name of the site: http://atlas.thc.state.tx.us/
HINT: If you are unsure of the exact address, be less specific. For example, when searching by address you can search for our mystery house on Penn Street by simply entering "Penn" in the Street field, and "Fort Worth" under the City field. Likewise, you could just type in Fort Worth to search for all records in the city.
3) Check the National Register of Historic Places.
While fewer properties are listed on the National Register of Historic Places than will be listed on the THC or local city designations, they offer one of the easiest tools for locating National Register sites in your area. Simply download a free copy of Google Earth, then download the Google Earth layers for your region of the U.S. from here: http://www.nr.nps.gov/NRISGEO
The "layers" file will identify every site that has a National Register designation by a little dot on the globe. You can click the dot to find out what the building's historic name is, as well as when it was designated, and other useful information.
If you do not feel like downloading Google Earth, you may also try searching the NRIS (National Register Information Systems) database, though I will attest it is not nearly as easy or fun
http://www.nr.nps.gov/Tips on searching the NRIS found here: http://www.nps.gov/h...search/nris.htm
That's it for now, as more comes to mind I will make sure to add it here.
So did you figure out what the "mystery house" is?
