9 replies to this topic

[salvag]

Does anyone know what they are constructing at the corner of Camp Bowie & Westridge next to the Sonic? It’s where the old Ridglea Presbyterian Church was located. I’ve heard rumors of a QuikTrip, but I can’t find any confirmation.

[elpingüino]

Here's a thread: https://www.fortwort...?showtopic=6766

[steave]

Bumping this thread since its roughly the same location:

 

Does anyone know what used to be in the rear part of the Tom Thumb shopping center on Camp Bowie, behind the Goody Goody liquor? If you drive out the back way down Hilldale you'll go down a slope and realize that shopping center is actually a split level structure and in the rear there is another space that looks it is 2 stories. Currently appears to be unoccupied. Google Maps past street view doesn't go far back enough, its been vacant as long as street view has existed.

 

It looks like it could have been a movie theater, but I am not sure.

[RD Milhollin]

 

Does anyone know what used to be in the rear part of the Tom Thumb shopping center on Camp Bowie, behind the Goody Goody liquor? If you drive out the back way down Hilldale you'll go down a slope and realize that shopping center is actually a split level structure and in the rear there is another space that looks it is 2 stories. Currently appears to be unoccupied. Google Maps past street view doesn't go far back enough, its been vacant as long as street view has existed.

 

That might have been the location of the "I Gotcha" club, a bar/nightclub that was paired up with another similar establishment in the same building facing north ("The Speakeasy"?) One of the clubs was loud music with a constant (it seems...) happy hour and the other featured live rock music. I might be off in the location, it's been a few (well, 40) years... That building must have some really great insulation inside.

[steave]

That would make sense ^^^

 

I wonder if they actually built the building for it though or if it was meant to be something else.

[longhorn_1998]

If we are talking about the same place, the June 2011 street view shows Tuesday Morning in that spot.

[steave]

Tuesday Morning stores used to be in random short term locations though until just recently (and now they are bankrupt...). It had to be something else.

 

I wonder what year that shopping center was built? Just curious since I shop at that Tom Thumb regularly and its made me wonder.

 

If you look around the back in street view its interesting how some of the spaces have lower level loading docks and some sections have red-orange brick which is unpainted, you can tell most of the building was that color originally. The loading docks have those old fashioned lamps which would have had mercury vapor bulbs when new in them instead of more modern encased light fixtures. Then the Tom Thumb has concrete walls, so I wonder it was added on later. It really looks like shopping centers I've seen which can be dated to the 1960s which then is interesting because it could have been all sorts of things then. Given its proximity to the old Stripling and Cox that would have been on the other side of the street it could have been built around the same time.

[roverone]

Historic Aerials shows the building appeared sometime between 1956 and 1963 -- and at full size, although in 80's it looks like a roof line newly appeared segmenting the grocery store.

[steave]

Cool find, I forgot about that website.

 

So that would mean it was built around the same time as Wynnewood Village or Palm Center in Houston. It's easily one of the oldest modern shopping centers not just in Fort Worth but in state. And its down the street from one of the first automobile oriented shopping centers, Ridglea Village.

 

The Tom Thumb being from the 1980s tracks. It's interior doesn't match what really old grocery stores look like inside but its an earlier format than newer stores.

 

Those old aerials are trippy:

 

Where Sprouts is now was also some large shopping center that was an abandoned slab for a long time. What was that?

 

So there was a dingbat style apartment building where the McDonald's was.

 

Camp Bowie West overall kind of reminds me of Southern California.

 

It's also astounding how many apartments were destroyed to build that gas well and the wastewater pond on Bryant Irvin. I get that those gas wells pay $$$ and there is nothing the city could legally do because this is Texas, but I think in the future people will realize it was a mistake to put those things in cities. I'm willing to bet they'll find some new chemical hazard in the runoff pond and many lawsuits later, that will be a vacant lot forever. They also tore down a neat midcentury modern office building on I-30 to build one of those.

[RD Milhollin]

Bumping this thread since its roughly the same location:

 

Does anyone know what used to be in the rear part of the Tom Thumb shopping center on Camp Bowie, behind the Goody Goody liquor? If you drive out the back way down Hilldale you'll go down a slope and realize that shopping center is actually a split level structure and in the rear there is another space that looks it is 2 stories. Currently appears to be unoccupied. Google Maps past street view doesn't go far back enough, its been vacant as long as street view has existed.

 

It looks like it could have been a movie theater, but I am not sure.

 

 

 

 

Does anyone know what used to be in the rear part of the Tom Thumb shopping center on Camp Bowie, behind the Goody Goody liquor? If you drive out the back way down Hilldale you'll go down a slope and realize that shopping center is actually a split level structure and in the rear there is another space that looks it is 2 stories. Currently appears to be unoccupied. Google Maps past street view doesn't go far back enough, its been vacant as long as street view has existed.

 

That might have been the location of the "I Gotcha" club, a bar/nightclub that was paired up with another similar establishment in the same building facing north ("The Speakeasy"?) One of the clubs was loud music with a constant (it seems...) happy hour and the other featured live rock music. I might be off in the location, it's been a few (well, 40) years... That building must have some really great insulation inside.

 

Check out this FWF topic:

 

https://www.fortwort...?showtopic=3085