63 replies to this topic

[Austin55]

(A similar thread May have existed before, if anyone knows where please link as my search turned up empty)

A thread dedicated to buildings which don't get enough love and attention. Share your under-appreciated favorites from around Fort Worth
 

I'll start with the old Texas State Teachers Association Building at 410 E. Weatherford St. It's a bit tucked away in an unassuming corner of downtown and easy to miss as you drive quickly down the busy street, but there's a rather stately and beautiful old structure behind those big live oaks. It reminds me of some of the state offices that surround the Capital building in Austin, which should not be surprising given it's original usage. Photos by John from the buildings Fort Worth Architecture page.

[John T Roberts]

Austin, you forgot to mention the architect.  It was Fort Worth's own, Wiley G. Clarkson. (The Sinclair Building, First Methodist Church, Northside High School, etc.)

[UncaMikey]

Glad you posted this, I've often admired this building, it's one of my very favorites in FW. I've always thought it was very Palladian. I visited the Vicenza area some years ago and admired many of Palladio's buildings there.

 

Does anyone have photos of the interior? Is there anything special about the inside?

[Austin55]

The Babcock Co building on Florence is another I've always liked and known nothing about. It's fairly rare to see such a southwestern styled building around but it's quite stylish. I wish there was a little more of this around.

https://www.google.c...!7i13312!8i6656

[Austin55]

I'll nominate the entire SWBTS campus. It's honestly really pretty and there are some super cool old buildings and some of the newer ones have many interesting elements too. 

[John T Roberts]

Here's a link to the Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary page on the main site.  Below is a photograph of the B.H. Carroll Memorial Building.  It was constructed in two phases.  The central section with the dome, shown here, was designed by Wyatt C. Hedrick.  The east and west wings were designed by Easterwood & Easterwood.

 

 

This goes to show you how many photographs I have taken of buildings around this city, yet I don't have pages for them on the website.  This is Fort Worth Hall, the first building built on the campus in 1910, on the northwest corner.  The SWBTS Campus actually is older than TCU by one year.  The interesting thing is that in 1910 it was much further out of Downtown than TCU.  Fort Worth Hall was designed by Sanguinet & Staats, who also did the Master Plan for the campus.

fortworthhall1 by jtrobert, on Flickr

 

Barnard Hall was built in 1915 on the southeast corner and it was also designed by Sanguinet & Staats.

barnardhall by jtrobert, on Flickr

 

Cowden Hall was built in 1926 on the northeast corner, and it is one of the few buildings in the city that are credited to the interim architectural firm of Sanguinet, Staats, & Hedrick.

cowdenhall by jtrobert, on Flickr

 

MacGorman Chapel and Performing Arts Center

macgorman-day by jtrobert, on Flickr

[Stadtplan]

Great photos, John!

[Doohickie]

MacGorman Chapel and Performing Arts Center

macgorman-day by jtrobert, on Flickr

I remember when that was built; not that long ago.

[John T Roberts]

Believe it or not, the MacGorman Chapel is 10 years old.  It opened in 2011.  This is almost becoming a SWBTS thread!

[John T Roberts]

Here's a shot that I took tonight of the MacGorman Chapel with its illumination.

macgorman-night by jtrobert, on Flickr

[Austin55]

Macgorman is not as nice as some of the older buildings on campus, IMO.

[John T Roberts]

Austin, it is a newer building, and the older buildings have class.  Let's see some more overlooked and under-appreciated buildings.

[Stadtplan]

Chùa Hương Đạo Vipassana Bhavana Center - 4717 E Rosedale St, Fort Worth, TX 76105

(Across Rosedale from the 76112 Post Office at Edgewood Terrace)

 

http://chuahuongdao.org/

https://goo.gl/maps/Mn2iPt2mRxsKuEVaA

 

(Photos courtesy of GoogleMaps):

 

 

 

[Austin55]

Excellent answer!

[Austin55]

Happy State Bank

 

[Stadtplan]

National Farm Life 6001 Bridge St, Fort Worth, TX 76112.  I've always appreciated the site and placement of this office building on the site, overlooking the city.  However, now surrounded by apartments, it still is a bit mysterious and has a throwback yesteryear vibe, with very much a "headquarters-ish" feel, like some insurance headquarters you would see in black and white in the back of a magazine where you could mail in a self-addressed stamped envelope for information about their policies starting at $1.99/month or something insane.

 

(Photos courtesy of google maps)

 

 

[gdvanc]

That building always makes me think of Christmas from seeing it decorated with the red ribbon and bow. Do they still do that?

[Stadtplan]

That building always makes me think of Christmas from seeing it decorated with the red ribbon and bow. Do they still do that?

 

Oh, you mean this?  Whatever it takes to invoke the Christmas Spirit.  This was probably some executive's idea back in 1972 (while grabbing some martinis and a quick round of golf at Woodhaven Country Club during lunch) and it just sort of stuck with it ever year since then.  Now that thanksgiving is behind us, I would expect the grounds crew to break out the Christmas decorations any day now.  

 

Another strange observation, but I wonder if every window in this building has light-filtering drapes?  I wonder what the cost of upgrading those to a mecho-shade or some other more modern window treatment would entail?

 

[Austin55]

603 E Belknap, built 1948 per TAD. Screenshot from Google Streetview.


 
It used to have a different look but got a paint job and new landscaping around 2019. 



Personally I think it looked much better before.

[John T Roberts]

The building was built as the Haltom Jewelry Factory in 1948.  I'm trying to find the architect, but I'm not having much luck.

[Austin55]

The building was built as the Haltom Jewelry Factory in 1948.  I'm trying to find the architect, but I'm not having much luck.

Very interesting, I love the style. Do you know if the windows are original?

[RD Milhollin]

Wasn't there a big, multi-alarm fire here a few years back?

[John T Roberts]

RD, the mention of a fire does somewhat ring a bell.  I found a rendering of the building in the October 17, 1948 Fort Worth Star-Telegram.  In the rendering, the windows were the old fashioned metal factory type of windows with many panes in them.  The ones on the building today appear to dark bronze anodized aluminum frames.

[Austin55]

A convenient place to have a fire, being located across the street from station 1. 

John, are you able to share the rendering?

[John T Roberts]

There is a chance we are wrong about the location of the fire.  That's another thing to try to research.

 

The rendering is in the Fort Worth Star-Telegram archives from the Fort Worth Library.  I'm not sure about the copyrights on those articles.  This also would be another place to get the information on the fire, but looking through that many years of newspapers might be a challenge, even online.

[Austin55]

The YWLA Building is not on a main thuroughfare, a bit out of the way from the bulk of pedestrian activity in downtown, and too small to be in the skyline, but it is a gorgeous building. 

[John T Roberts]

Austin, I'm responding to verify that you have the correct building listed or pictured.  The building pictured was originally the Elk's Club, then later the YWCA (Young Women's Christian Association).  The current name is the Center for Transforming Lives.  You have labeled this as the YWLA, which would lead me to believe you could be referring to the Young Women's Leadership Academy for the FWISD, which is located at 8th and Jones, which was formerly the Nash Hardware Store and Warehouse.  Since the initials are only one letter off, I would assume that you meant the former YWCA, which is pictured.  It is a Wyatt C. Hedrick building, and landmarked at all three levels of designation.

[AndyN]

603 E Belknap, built 1948 per TAD. Screenshot from Google Streetview.

 

Holy cow. My house is blocks from this building. I've driven past it literally thousands of times on the west and south sides and I've never seen it before!

 

Several buildings on East Belknap and Weatherford are the same as I am focusing more intently on traffic than enjoying the streetscape.

[Stadtplan]

Chùa Hương Đạo Vipassana Bhavana Center - 4717 E Rosedale St, Fort Worth, TX 76105

(Across Rosedale from the 76112 Post Office at Edgewood Terrace)

 

http://chuahuongdao.org/

https://goo.gl/maps/Mn2iPt2mRxsKuEVaA

 

 

 

Zoning Change Request at Ancient Buddhist Temple: 13.8 Acres

Will be curious to find out what this includes.  ZC-22-080

 

https://accela.fortw...ShowInspection=

 

They own all of this property:

[RD Milhollin]

I wasn't sure where this was until I saw it was located quite close to the Ancient Family Dollar Store.

[elpingüino]

Chùa Hương Đạo Vipassana Bhavana Center - 4717 E Rosedale St, Fort Worth, TX 76105
(Across Rosedale from the 76112 Post Office at Edgewood Terrace)
 
http://chuahuongdao.org/
https://goo.gl/maps/Mn2iPt2mRxsKuEVaA
 
 

 
Zoning Change Request at Ancient Buddhist Temple: 13.8 Acres
Will be curious to find out what this includes.  ZC-22-080
 
https://accela.fortw...ShowInspection=
 
They own all of this property:

$100M sacred Buddhist site begins construction near Fort Worth Stop Six neighborhood

[Stadtplan]

Wow! That is big news.  Can't wait to find out more about this project.  

um, did I read that correctly.  $100M and 130-ft!!!

 

From the Temple's websit:

[Stadtplan]

Here's some shots I grabbed from a video on their facebook page of an amazing to-scale architectural model of the proposed site.  I'm still trying to wrap my head around the scale of this project.  

 

(This project is going to need it's own thread)

 

 

We would like to invite you all to our very first International Vesak Festival (the Buddha's birthday) and the historic event called Laying the Foundation Stone Ceremony for the construction of the “The Ancient Sacred Buddhist Scripture Stupas”.

This project is the construction of the Great Buddhist Site on the 14 acres of land behind the Main Hall of Huong Dao Temple, including 840 large and small Stupas storing all teachings of Buddha and His Holy Disciples as preserved in the Pali Tipitaka. The Tipitaka Scriptures in Romanized Pali and English Tipitaka will be engraved on stone slabs, while those in seven other different languages: English, Sri Lankan, Burmese, Thai, Cambodian, Laotian, and Vietnamese will be inscribed on bronze or gold stainless steel sheets. It’ll be great if you could join us on this special day of ours.

The grand ceremony will solemnly take place at Huong Dao Temple 4717 E Rosedale St, Fort Worth, TX 76105 at 1:00 PM, on Sunday, May 15th, 2022.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Austin55]

Whoa, thats wild looking. 

[Stadtplan]

Whoa, thats wild looking. 

 

People will be driving down the East Loop and all of a sudden looking across the horizon it's going to be like what in the world....

[Austin55]

What about underappreciated landscape architecture? The Skinny in the Near Southside is a very cool park, fun to explore and a great use of limited space. 

[Stadtplan]

Upcoming COFW Drainage Study filed for Chùa Hương Đạo Buddhist Temple - Mediation Center.  I'm guessing this is part of the larger $100M The Ancient Sacred Buddhist Scripture Stupas Project.  I'll post the study info once it goes live.  I'll try to swing by and see if I can see any progress onsite yet.

 

"Sacred Stone Brook Project"

4717 E ROSEDALE ST, Fort Worth TX 76105

[Dismuke]

National Farm Life 6001 Bridge St, Fort Worth, TX 76112.  I've always appreciated the site and placement of this office building on the site, overlooking the city.  However, now surrounded by apartments, it still is a bit mysterious and has a throwback yesteryear vibe, with very much a "headquarters-ish" feel, like some insurance headquarters you would see in black and white in the back of a magazine where you could mail in a self-addressed stamped envelope for information about their policies starting at $1.99/month or something insane.

 

I had to laugh when I read this because I have always had similar thoughts about the building.  For whatever reason, it has always made me think of my grandparents who lived in a ghost town in rural Kansas - a place where one must drive 45 miles or so to find the nearest fast food joint or Walmart.  For some reason, the building has always made me think of Kansas rather than being something one would expect to see in Fort Worth.  And, rather than the black and white magazine ads you imagined, I imagined a line drawing of the building in gold ink on some sort of red or blue plastic folder for policy documents to be stored in - either that, or appearing on a complimentary wall calendar sent out each year to policy holders.

And how they decorate the building at Christmas has also always struck me as something that people of my grandparents' age in that part of the country would have regarded as clever - and that a glossy, full-color card of the building all decked out was probably sent out every December to every policy holder with the company's holiday greetings.   

 

And I will admit that I think it is clever too despite having seen for many years at Christmas.  You have to admit - whoever came up with the idea definitely had imagination.

I am not a fan of that style of architecture.  But I do like that particular building.  Set off by itself in the middle of a sea of grass definitely enhances its look, verses how it would appear in the middle of a downtown or amidst suburban sprawl.  It is definitely one that I hope is preserved and remains intact.
 

[Dismuke]

Here is a nice Art Deco building at 1201 West Lancaster that I think is probably underappreciated both in terms of its architecture and for its historical significance.  The photo I am posting is from Google Maps Street View.

 

This building opened in 1939 as the studios of both radio station KFJZ and the Texas State Network, of which KFJZ was the flagship.

 

Both were owned by Elliott and Ruth Goggins Roosevelt. Elliott just so happened to be the son of Franklin and Eleanore Roosevelt.  In 1933, when his father was still settling into the presidency, Elliott caused a bit of media scandal after he had been invited in March to attend the Fort Worth Stock Show where he was introduced to Ruth Goggins. A few months later, in July, five days after he was granted a divorce from his first wife, Elliott and Ruth were married.

 

In 1938 Ruth purchased KFJZ for her husband who subsequently built up a successful Texas-wide radio network which is still in existence today.

 

Elliott and Ruth lived on a ranch near Benbrook that has long since been flooded by Lake Benbrook. Because Elliott lived in the area, Fort Worth enjoyed a number of presidential visits during FDR's terms - and more frequent visits by the First Lady. The Roosevelts divorced in 1944 and KFJZ was awarded to Ruth as part of the settlement. In 1945 she sold the station to Sid Richardson who had previously owned it when its call letters were KTAT and who had helped provide Elliott financing for expanding the Texas State Network.

 

When the studio at 1201 W. Lancaster opened it was only a one story building.  I am not sure at what point the second floor was added.  KFJZ occupied the building from 1939 until 1955 when it moved to a new facility that it shared with KFJZ-TV Channel 11 on West Freeway.

[John T Roberts]

I guess I should add this to the list of buildings that have had more floors added.  The building across the street to the east was also built as a one story building with the second floor added later.

 

As for its historical significance, it is not designated at any level by the City of Fort Worth.

[Stadtplan]

National Farm Life 6001 Bridge St, Fort Worth, TX 76112.  I've always appreciated the site and placement of this office building on the site, overlooking the city.  However, now surrounded by apartments, it still is a bit mysterious and has a throwback yesteryear vibe, with very much a "headquarters-ish" feel, like some insurance headquarters you would see in black and white in the back of a magazine where you could mail in a self-addressed stamped envelope for information about their policies starting at $1.99/month or something insane.

 
I had to laugh when I read this because I have always had similar thoughts about the building.  For whatever reason, it has always made me think of my grandparents who lived in a ghost town in rural Kansas - a place where one must drive 45 miles or so to find the nearest fast food joint or Walmart.  For some reason, the building has always made me think of Kansas rather than being something one would expect to see in Fort Worth.  And, rather than the black and white magazine ads you imagined, I imagined a line drawing of the building in gold ink on some sort of red or blue plastic folder for policy documents to be stored in - either that, or appearing on a complimentary wall calendar sent out each year to policy holders.

And how they decorate the building at Christmas has also always struck me as something that people of my grandparents' age in that part of the country would have regarded as clever - and that a glossy, full-color card of the building all decked out was probably sent out every December to every policy holder with the company's holiday greetings.   
 
And I will admit that I think it is clever too despite having seen for many years at Christmas.  You have to admit - whoever came up with the idea definitely had imagination.

I am not a fan of that style of architecture.  But I do like that particular building.  Set off by itself in the middle of a sea of grass definitely enhances its look, verses how it would appear in the middle of a downtown or amidst suburban sprawl.  It is definitely one that I hope is preserved and remains intact.
 

I love the illustration and building placement example Dismuke. I know exactly what you are referring to about imaging it on some grassy plain in no-where Kansas, you can probably see it 15 miles off in the distance outside of some medium or small town. I had in mind some place flat like outside of Omaha, NE. Back in college, we did a regional concert band tour and stopped there and my host home was an architect who had designed his own home in such a way that it only appeared as a simple garage and driveway from the street but when you entered the home, it was spectacularly unique with every detail unfolding before your eyes including a specially designed guest quarters in the lower half of the house with individual little guest bedrooms, was I think for his grown children and their friends to stay at in between college semesters.

Speaking of which, I drove through Kansas on the I-35 Turnpike a couple of weeks ago and every time we get to the Flint Hills, I am completely gobsmacked by the beauty of the un-disturbed landscspe.
https://en.m.wikiped...iki/Flint_Hills

[Stadtplan]

I did a quick drive-by photo of $100M "Dhammacetiya: The Ancient Sacred Buddhist Scripture Stupas Project" on Rosedale.  It appears they have a big party tent set-up there, could be leftover from the festivities for ground breaking or party of regular celebrations until things get started on the project.  

 

dhammacetiya : (nt.) a shrine in which sacred texts are enshrined.

 

 

 

 

[Austin55]

Holy Family Catholic Church
 

[Stadtplan]

yes.  that one caught my eye a few weeks ago.  very nice.  So what style of architecture would this be?  Reminds me of something you'd find on the campus of a liberal arts college in the midwest.

[John T Roberts]

I would call Holy Family, Modern Architecture. 

[Stadtplan]

Not in Fort Worth but nearby in Arlington:

Arlington Independent School District, Dan Dipert Career and Technical Center

https://www.architec...hnical-center_1

[Austin55]

The old Dr. Pepper Bottling Plant on Henderson. A full restoration would be fantastic!

 

From Byrne Construction: https://www.linkedin...14808120967169/

 

 

 

Today's #tbt looks at an early icon of Fort Worth Art Deco the Dr. Pepper Bottling Plant. When completed in 1938 this project was beautiful example of a modern industrial plant featuring a ziggurat tower with well known Dr. Pepper's "10, 2, 4" clock. Time hasn't been kind to this building as it has been remodeled by many different clients over the years filling in the large format windows and replacing period details with storefront. But we like to think someday it will be restored to its former glory.

[John T Roberts]

I would love to see this building restored and put back into use.  Maybe after The Harden is finished, someone will see the need.

[Stadtplan]

The old Dr. Pepper Bottling Plant on Henderson. A full restoration would be fantastic!

 

From Byrne Construction: https://www.linkedin...14808120967169/

 

 

 

Today's #tbt looks at an early icon of Fort Worth Art Deco the Dr. Pepper Bottling Plant. When completed in 1938 this project was beautiful example of a modern industrial plant featuring a ziggurat tower with well known Dr. Pepper's "10, 2, 4" clock. Time hasn't been kind to this building as it has been remodeled by many different clients over the years filling in the large format windows and replacing period details with storefront. But we like to think someday it will be restored to its former glory.

 

Thanks to an anonymous tip, there has been some recent property sale activity (as of 5/16/23) for 1401 Henderson to a "FWB HOLDINGS LLC."  This comes back to Fort Worth Birthing and Wellness Center.  Let's see what this holds as far as a potential renovation of this site.  I don't even think they need to get this rezoned if they're using it for another medical office do they?  I think birthing centers are normally beds, tubs, offices and exam rooms....don't ask how I know this.

[John T Roberts]

This is the photograph that is posted on the main website to show you how it currently appears.  The photograph is a few years old.