Fort Worth's first hundred years: 1849 - 1950In the late 1840s, well over 150 years ago, the grassy bluffs overlooking the twin forks of the Trinity River offered some shelter in a strategic location. But the Trinity River was subject to rise without warning. The river's valley, almost three miles wide in spots, offered mud, mosquitoes, and constant composting under the hot sun. The resulting abundance of grassy prairies, and cornucopia of wildflowers, became the expressways for bison, the coffee klatches of deer, the staging grounds for epic wars of evolution starring wolves, wild turkeys, coyotes, Comanches, Kiowas and Wichita Indians. This land would later-- around the 1870s- become part of the biggest domesticated animal migration in history-- but not before the mostly white settlers cleared the prairies and bluffs of the native Americans who did welcome them with open arms., shooing them across the clear fork of the Trinity River. This breed of pioneer replaced the bow and arrow with the gun, whether it was a Colt or a mountain howitzer. Western "civilization" started to make itself felt around 1841, when General Edward Tarrant led 69 mounted militia in an attack that cleared Indians out of the area between present-day Handley and Arlington. In 1844, an official order from the Texas Government reserved most of the nearby land for white settlers only. In 1845 two adventurers from Fort Smith, Arkansas reached Cold Springs, a grove near the West Fork of the Trinity. Edward Terrell and William Lusk, the first white civilians, later came upon a Comanche camp full of women and children. When the braves came back, Terrell and Lusk were detained. A group of Texas Rangers attacked the camp and liberated Terrell and Lusk. The U.S. Army, anxious to contain the Indians, built a log camp in 1849 on the natural defensive bluffs overlooking the Clear and West Forks, led by Colonel Ripley Arnold. Arnold was following the orders of General William Jenkins Worth, posthumously. Worth had died in May, and Arnold and his 2nd U.S. dragoons arrived at the present day spot of Fort Worth in June. So Arnold decided to name the post for General Worth. And it became Arnold's job to spread the word that the area was safe against Indians. In 1849, when Tarrant County was incorporated, Dallas had about 350 inhabitants and closer by, Birdville had about 50. Prior to Tarrant County, the only government claim on the land was the Peters Land Grant, made by the Republic of Texas in 1841, and administered through Cooke County. Under the Peters grant, settlers could homestead by cultivating at least 15 acres and building a house and living there for at least three years. By 1852-53, Camp Worth was abandoned by the military and the remaining supplies and facilities were taken over by civilian traders who created an ad hoc "Fort Town" and sold goods and provisions to travelers. About 50 people were living here and many more were passing through. Early names included merchants Henry Daggett, Julian Feild (also postmaster and builder of the first flour and corn mill, in 1856), and Jacob Samuels; hotelier and real estate mogul Ephraim Daggett; the town's first physician, Dr. Carroll M. Peak; and John Peter Smith, whose many contributions would earn him the sobriquet "Father of Fort Worth." As for many of Fort Worth's early settlers, you could call them determined. Although nearby Birdville won the first election for county seat in 1850, Fort Worth organizers had enough strength by 1856 to call a new election. Even then, Fort Worth won by only 13 votes, and legend has it most of the votes were bought with liquor stolen from Birdville. The ensuing riotous celebration went on for days. Fort Worth won another election for county seat in 1860, only to have its courthouse and all records burned to the ground. When war broke out between the United States, the city came to a standstill. After the Civil War, two big movements spurred Fort Worth's growth. One was the continued move westward of pioneers from the South, looking for opportunity. The other movement was of cattle northward to the railheads of Kansas from South Texas. Two of the trails passed through Fort Worth, the logical watering stop before the long haul up the Chisholm Trail, which started at the Red River north to Oklahoma. Fort Worth was inaugurated as a cowtown in 1866 by a herd of cattle driven along the eastern edge of what is now downtown, up Cold Springs Road along the Trinity, and north tracing the path of present-day Interstate 35W. By 1871, the lowing of Longhorns and the mooing of Hereford and Angus cows could be heard for miles. Not any more, but you still hear the nickname "Cowtown."
Western Heritage In 1872-3, railroad interests got together with the city fathers to promote settlement of the Southwest. Energetic, self-motivated people left Kansas and Missouri for brighter horizons. This boosted Fort Worth's population considerably. Then the New York financial house of Jay Cooke & Company collapsed. Reverberations were felt strongly in Fort Worth. The railroad would not come and hordes of the newest settlers left Fort Worth-- many of them moving to Dallas-- in what became known as the Panic of 1873. Having banished Indian tribes officially from the state, the Thirteenth Texas Legislature in 1873 passed an act authorizing the incorporation of the City of Fort Worth. Now it was time to get the railroad back. An enterprising editor, Captain Buckley B. Paddock with his newspaper the Fort Worth Democrat, printed and promoted a map outlining nine imaginary railroads entering Fort Worth. Dallasites referred to it derisively as the "tarantula" map. The name stuck, as did another nickname, "Panther City," which arose from a Dallas Times Herald editorialist's comment that Fort Worth was so quiet a panther was spotted sleeping quietly near the courthouse at high noon. Local men of substance, such as W. J. Boaz and Major Khleber Miller Van Zandt, put together a company to revitalize the track construction. The Panic of '73 had stopped construction at a point 25 miles to the east at Eagle Ford, near Dallas. The Fort Worth men subcontracted the road grading on speculation and made 10 percent when the railroad eventually got its backing returned and took over the laying of the track. They desperately and grandly fought the clock in the form of an imminently expiring land grant. Every able-bodied man in Tarrant county was drafted to finish the road-grading into Fort Worth before the crucial session of the Texas legislature was to expire. You can imagine what a tidy road-bed that was. The first Fort Worth-bound T&P train rolled up to Main and Lancaster just before noon on July 19, 1876. By the end of 1876, population was up to about 8,000. Hell's Half Acre, the saloon and vice district which arose in the area now encompassed by the Fort Worth Convention Center, offered wild and woolly entertainments which emptied the pockets of the cowboys passing through, and helped form the commercial backbone of a residential community. Occasional reform efforts would temporarily empty the streets of free-spending cowboys, trail drivers, and robbers, so a measure of moral tolerance and pragmatic law enforcement became the order of the day. With its sudden prosperity as a trading center, city fathers set themselves to creating infrastructure. The initiative of leaders such as merchant-turned-banker Major Van Zandt, and city father John Peter Smith, resulted in paved streets, new schools funded by property taxes, sanitary sewers, and even a pump station near the courthouse. Nevertheless, until about 1879, a common sight at the T&P yards was stacks of thousands of buffalo hides awaiting shipment, evidence of the wholesale slaughter of the huge bison herds that once roamed West Texas, and the firming of Fort Worth's roots in its North Central and West Texas landscape. During the 1870s two national banks were established, followed by a third in 1903. These three banks-- Fort Worth National, First National, and Continental National-- would together dictate many of the city's financial directions for the next hundred years, along with their account holders made wealthy by energy and real estate development. On a relentless march toward the end of the 19th century, Fort Worth became a crossroads. Not just one railroad, but a railroad hub. Not just a stage stop, but a stage terminal with three departures a week. Here, at the elegant three-story El Paso Hotel at 4th and Main (later location of the Westbrook Hotel), passengers signed on for a 17-day ride (later shortened to 14 days) to Fort Yuma, Arizona. They took a coach with six horses to Thorp Springs (near present-day Granbury), and then a surrey to Brownwood. At Brownwood the horses were changed for "broncos" all the way to Yuma. The Board of Trade, forerunner of the Fort Worth Chamber of Commerce, was formalized on May 31, 1882, consisting of veterans of the fight for the Texas & Pacific and Santa Fe railroads, business eminences and city fathers by any reckoning. Between 1880 and 1900, there were 16 directions by train out of Fort Worth, and the city's population more than tripled. More people were coming and going, and more people were staying. Fort Worth was now a huge wholesale center. The meat industry grew after The Chisholm Trail closed down in 1884-- the trail drives had lasted about nineteen years total-- but they become such a magnet for myth and legend that Fort Worth's "Cowtown" glory days began to be revived, revisited, and re-lived beginning the early 1980s. The Texas Brewing Company was built in 1890 on Jones St. between Ninth and Twelfth, and by the turn of the century, it was brewing enough beer to fill 3,000 freight cards a year, and making an annual payroll of $100,000. Hell's Half Acre was a notorious hideout for lawbreakers, and it was 1898 when Butch Cassidy, the Sundance Kid, and the Wild Bunch posed for the fateful picture that everyone knows today. By now, Fort Worth was gateway to the Panhandle, and along the tracks of the Fort Worth Denver City railroad, grain elevators and flour mills sprung up. A fabulous domed pavilion was built near the railroad station in 1889. The "Spring Palace" was built "to show the world we have the intelligence, energy, and enterprise to utilize our natural resources and that there is to be found in Texas quite as much culture and refinement as exists in other portions of the country." One year after it opened, a disastrous fire leveled the Texas Spring Palace during a performance of H.M.S. Pinafore by Gilbert and Sullivan. There was only one fatality, Alfred S. Hayne, who lost his life while saving others. Failure of the 1893 wheat crop precipitated a four-year depression which hurt many fledgling businesses, while trade in lumber, cotton and hides was nevertheless brisk. Manufacturing increased in importance; within the city limits were factories for baking powder, roofing, candy, brooms, mattresses, boxes, boots and shoes, not to mention ice, cigars and processing industries for iron and brass, tanning, wool scouring and wool pulling, and of course beef refrigeration. Fort Worth got its first telephone in 1881, and its streets were lit with lamps that burned gas made from McAlester, Oklahoma coal. Churches, banks and commercial buildings began to dot the landscape, and spectacular residences, reflecting the accumulated wealth of Fort Worth's earliest risk-takers, set the tone of residential neighborhoods such as Arlington Heights. There, on the banks of Lake Como, was built the Arlington Hotel with its own electric and water plant. The first streetcar line in the Southwest started up in 1889. And as train tracks moved inexorably westward, Fort Worth became a busy rail transfer point for passengers, cattle, animal hides, and other goods. Eventually the rails took over from the stage line. And eventually, some of the people who had planned to be only passing through, had settled down instead. Fort Worth entertained itself with home-grown opera, theater, music clubs, literary, theatrical and performing groups, military bands, and fraternal organizations. In 1892, Andrew Carnegie endowed $50,000 to build the first permanent Fort Worth public library. The landmark Tarrant County Courthouse was completed in 1896. ·Southwest Exposition and Livestock Show & Rodeo That same year, 1896, marked the first Southwestern Exposition and Livestock Show. Although Fort Worth had had a packing plant since 1890, Texas cattlemen were still shipping cattle north to Kansas City and St. Louis, and were among the many devastated by the financial Panic of 1893. So packing plant investors hired a public relations agent, Charles C. French, who got the idea of a "fat stock show" from Weatherford cattleman Charles MacFarland. With some of his rancher friends, MacFarland exhibited their cattle in March 1896 along Marine Creek, the morning after a miserable sleet and snowstorm. All routes to the show were mired in mud, but people made their way on horses and not a seat was vacant. No wagons could get through except one-- it was loaded with beer. The stock show has gone on every year since then with the exception of 1943. To this day, entries come from all the states with cattle-raising industries, and from dawn into the night, it's tough competition among the best of the cattle raisers, businessmen and students who display their best farm and ranch animals. A hundred years ago, Fort Worth had already been a military outpost, trading village, a ghost town, a scrappy stage and train stop, a cowboy mecca, and was already headed into a new millennium filled with youthful optimism. In its fiftieth year, 1899, Fort Worth had enjoyed a full generation of opportunity and leadership. It was no longer just a Cowtown. And it was about to become a whole lot more. Fort Worth: 1900-1910 As the century dawned, the city of Fort Worth gained mass and density. The population of 26,688 began to disperse to the near South Side, the North Side. and newly developed suburbs such as Arlington Heights. The North Side had begun to gain a distinct identity around 1888. The North Fort Worth Town Site Co. purchased 1,200 acres in 1902 and erected 1,040 homes. Sam Rosen promoted the suburb known as Rosen Heights, arranging for a street car to run between this enclave and downtown. As the years passed, the city of Fort Worth gradually moved outward, enveloping homes and businesses through annexation. A northern European architectural touch came to Fort Worth in the form of the 1901-built Knights of Pythias Castle Hall, erected to replace the original 1881 structure which had burned down. On October 17, 1901, the cornerstone was laid for the Carnegie Public Library, which opened with Mrs. Charles Scheuber as librarian for its 6,907 books. This was a long-hoped for accomplishment, since many of Fort Worth's avid readers had been passing books among themselves and longing for a central repository for printed materials. That same year, Fort Worth raised $100,000 to lure Swift & Co. and Armour to build packing houses on the North Side. This was the beginning of an important era for the city. By 1962, Armour alone had slaughtered 34 million cattle in Fort Worth. It didn't take long for their business to take off. By 1902 both Armour and Swift had their packing plants up and running. Fort Worth became the nation's fifth largest livestock market by 1904. Not counting the standard meat cuts, there were 2,000 different by-products, from canned and smoked meat and sausage to lard, shortening, and industrial products such as livestock and poultry feeds, fertilizers, glues, scraps, and even some pharmaceutical products. The hides went to leather manufacturers. In 1904 (two years after a new Rambler became Fort Worth's first car), businessman A.B. Wharton, son-in-law of cattleman W.T. Waggoner, financed and opened up the town's first automobile salesroom, rental agency and repair shop at 404 Houston St. He called it The Fort Worth Auto Livery. In short order, the city's car population would grow to 15, and the city set a speed limit of 10 mph. Who could have guessed what a threat to the railroads was posed by the appearance of these horseless carriages? As if to foresee the future, the imposing Texas & Pacific Station burned down that year. Imagine the sense of optimism and purpose which must have led to this flurry of earnest development in the new century. Fort Worth was on the go. President Theodore Roosevelt even stopped by for a look-see on April 8, 1905. It was the first visit of a sitting president. From the fearless outlaws and speculators, to the relentless civic organizers, Fort Worth was blessed with visionary and purposeful leaders. One man epitomized this group for practically half a century. Amon Carter, arrived in 1905 from San Francisco. By the next year, the city's population had increased to 40,000, and Carter was in a position to merge two newspapers and create the Fort Worth Star-Telegram. As a booster with a newspaper, Carter picked up where B. B. Paddock had left off and put Fort Worth on the national map. The name of Amon Carter would be uppermost in almost every story of Fort Worth's advancement during his lifetime. In 1907, architectural echoes of New York and Chicago came downtown in the form of the Flatiron Building at 100 Houston St. and West 9th. This early "skyscraper" combines architectural features of both the Renaissance Revival and the Prairie School. On the North Side, in 1907 the Stockyards Co. determined that an indoor facility was needed for the annual stock show. The Northside Coliseum was constructed in eighty-eight working days and held its grand opening in 1908. With an indoor judging arena for expanded commercial exhibits, and a carnival/midway area, the event broadened its appeal and also changed its name to National Feeders and Breeders Show. In 1909, the only paved streets were Main, Houston, Hemphill, Pennsylvania Ave., and County Courthouse Square. But those with a yen for speed and engines were happy to drive anywhere-- including through pastures. One enterprising motorist carried shears in his car to clear the barbed wire fences from his path. Since everyone wanted a car, Amon Carter began to advertise them in his newspaper. He ran a full page car ad for the Overland Co. of Dallas in 1909, and ever since, car dealers and newspapers fit together hand in glove. As the decade closed, The Fort Worth Zoological Park was established. J. Frank Norris came to town as the pulpit minister of the First Baptist Church. An April 3 fire, started by youngsters smoking cigarettes near the corner of Peter Smith and Jennings, and fanned by high winds, raked 14 blocks on the South Side, destroying hundreds of residences. Fort Worth got Forest Park-- and its first gas station. By 1909,1.2 million cattle and 870,000 hogs were processed here every year. The human population jumped too, almost by a factor of three. Fort Worth: 1910-1920 Between 1910 and 1920, Fort Worth's population growth slowed down a little, from 73,312 population in 1910, to 106,482 a decade hence. But the increase in hustle and bustle was exponential. For one thing, there were cars everywhere. One policeman had a 5-hp Indian motorcycle to chase down speeders. The fire chief got newfangled fire trucks. Some of the more cultural aspects of urban life began to find a place in Fort Worth. In 1910, two world class institutions established permanent homes. Texas Christian University was established upon the return to Fort Worth of Addison and Randolph Clark, TCU's founders, who established the college in Thorp Spring in 1873, moved it to Fort Worth, but left for Waco in 1896 because the students were too close to Hell's Half Acre. After the Waco campus burned down, Waco offered only $40,000 to rebuild, and Fort Worth offered a lot more-- $200,000 and 50 acres, including city utilities and a street car line. The deal turned out to be a well worth it. TCU became a valuable Fort Worth institution, and a suburb grew up around it, reaching Mistletoe Heights, another residential enclave which had begun to develop around 1890. Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary, the world's largest training ground for Southern Baptist ministers, also moved from Waco in 1910. Fifteen years later the Southern Baptist Convention gained control, and by 1980 it was the largest theological seminary in the world. Infrastructure, commerce and defense In July 1914, the $400,000 Paddock Viaduct linked downtown with the North Side. The local horse and mule markets were lively, as governments far and wide prepared for World War I. Amon Carter's newspaper had extended its reach outward to West Texas, and by 1916, had captured the title of Texas' largest newspaper at 66,000 circulation. Millions of dollars began to go into permanent improvements. One example was the purchase of 8,000 acres of land on the West Fork of the Trinity, where the city engineered a dam and created Lake Worth 5 miles northwest of Fort Worth, between 1913 and 1916. The city leased camp sites to individuals and clubs, and built a municipal bathing beach and bath house just east of the Nine Mile Bridge in 1917. The Chevrolet Motor Company opened an assembly plant on West Seventh St., opposite where Montgomery Ward used to be. For a brief period, cars and trucks were also built over on McCart St., at the Texas Motor Co.
Aviation, rodeo and oil
The late teens were banner years in many ways. The stock show added a Wild West show in 1916 and 1917, and in 1918 a prize purse of $3,000 was awarded competitively in the first-ever indoor rodeo. The annual event was now called the Southwestern Exposition and Fat Stock Show, and the concept of rodeo as we know it today had its birth. The rodeo was a success right out of the chute, and became the first to feature bull riding, and the first to be broadcast live over radio waves. In 1917, a severe drought in north-central Texas caused a disaster for crops and cattle, prompting speculators to raise money to drill for oil. When oil was discovered in 1917 one hundred miles to the west near Ranger, Texas, Fort Worth's economy was further transformed. Fort Worth became supplier to the oil wells, banker to the oil millionaires (Sid Richardson, Clint Murchison, and publisher Amon Carter), and less proudly, home to swindlers and sharpies peddling worthless stock in non-existent wells. Fort Worth's position as a hub for the railroads inspired more than 300 oil companies to set up shop here, supported by 50 oilfield supply outfits. Center of all this activity was the Westbrook Hotel. Oil prosperity spilled over the rest of the community-- causing Fort Worth to grow both up, with its multi-story skyline, and out-- beyond its urban boundaries in all directions. At the same time, the military profile in Fort Worth was colorful in its own right. Canada's Royal Flying Corps, staffed Hicks, Barron and Carruthers flying fields, which were established in 1916. The role of this Corps "was to train ten squadrons for the U.S. Signal Corps, comprising 300 pilots, 144 other flying officers, some 20 administrative and equipment officers, and approximately 2,000 mechanics. ...." Among the swaggering Canadians was a major celebrity, Captain Vernon Castle, who could often be spotted at the Westbrook Hotel. A noted English dancer, Castle with his dancing partner and wife Irene had originated the 'Castle Walk" and many other waltz variations which have had a lasting effect on the mating habits of Western civilization. At the outbreak of war, the Englishman Castle volunteered as a flier with the Royal Flying Corps. His flying career was cut short in a crash landing, while trying to avoid hitting another pilot who was stunting, on February 13, 1918. Another Fort Worth aviator got his name in the record books. Ormer Locklear was stationed at Barron Field near Everman in 1919. A known daredevil, he climbed out of the cockpit to fix a fuel leak once, making him the first "wing walker." He went on to a career in barnstorming, became known as The Demon of the Sky, and even took his wingwalking to Hollywood, where he was killed while filming such epics as the Great Air Robbery and Skywayman. The Royal Flying Corps were followed to Fort Worth by the Panther Division doughboys at Camp Bowie, an infantry training facility finished Dec. 2, 1917, to house 27,000 officers and men of the 36th (Panther) Division. This unit was created from combined National Guard units of Texas and Oklahoma. All told, 100,000 infantry soldiers learned weapons and practiced maneuvers at Camp Bowie, about six miles west of downtown. "The first firing of the big guns of the 36th Division took place on the new range about 15 miles west of Camp Bowie, January 30, 1918," reported a base newspaper. Relations between the town and the army camp were not always smooth, but Fort Worth recognized the value of giving a warm welcome to groups with money to spend, whether they were soldiers on weekend leave, travelers en route west, cowboys in from the range, oilfield hands and the host of businesses sprouting up. One of these was a small store opposite the courthouse on Houston St, started by Marvin and O.B. Leonard, which became Fort Worth's flagship department store for many decades. As 25,000 men of the 36th division marched down Main Street in 1918, Fort Worth was unusually conscious of its role in protecting and defending the freedom of future generations. In 1918 Ida Turner founded the Fort Worth Free Baby Hospital (later the Fort Worth Children's Hospital) with widespread community support. Fort Worth: The 1920s Suburbanization continued apace. Violence was still a feature of the north Texas landscape. In his book Fort Worth: The Civilized West, Caleb Pirtle tells of the International Butcher Workers strike, which a black man named Fred Rouse was hired to break up. According to Pirtle (p. 121)"Rouse--feeling courageous behind a gun--fired into a frustrated crowd that became an angry mob. The strikers broke from their picket line and charged Rouse, beating him severely, cracking his skull and leaving him for dead..." Rouse was taken to the hospital and five nights later, five masked men kidnapped him from the hospital and hung him on Samuels Ave. After the war was over, immigrants began to arrive from Czechoslovakia, Greece, Russia, and Poland, coming to Fort Worth in hopes of finding packing plant jobs. Allied businesses also began to spring up on the North Side. In Sept. 1922, A.M.. Pate and Carol Wollner founded Panther Oil and Grease Manufacturing Co., which later became Texas Refinery Corp. Fort Worth was just another corner of America where business was booming wildly. The Hotel Texas, still standing opposite the Convention Center, opened in 1921 after 800 FW residents put up the first $2 million for construction. By 1922, Fort Worth would have 22 refineries-- and also its first radio station. Amon Carter started WBAP and became first in the nation to broadcast regular reports from cotton and grain exchanges. Like cars, radio took hold in the public imagination. WBAP was followed by several other radio stations which opened in the 1920s-- notorious preacher J. Frank Norris established KFQB to spread the gospel, and several other local radio stations hit the airwaves for the first time in the 1920s. By now, Greater FW was 32 square miles, with a population of 150,000, including the 8 suburbs added on July 22, 1922, among them Riverside, Niles City and Arlington Heights. In an attempt to capture the spending money of motorists, the Fort Worth Tourist camp opened in a cedar grove adjoining Trinity Park, not far from the Chevrolet plant down the street. La Grave Field was completed in 1926. Its price tag was a hefty $160,000, making it a worthy successor to Panther Field for the Fort Worth Cats, who later became a AA farm team after W.W.II. Also after W.W.I, the U.S. spent $1 million on helium production at two experimental plants on the North Side. Two Navy dirigibles were seen parked there. This facility did not last long, and Fort Worth almost lost its edge in aviation entirely when in 1924, the Army Air Corps' Model Airways System, which included Barron Field in Everman, was eliminated. Fort Worth mayor H. C. Meacham did some vigorous campaigning, including finding land for an airfield and supplying some needed appurtenances. Fort Worth purchased 100 acres of land for $100, and the Army built Meacham Field. This airport, opened in 1925, would become the tenth busiest executive airport in the nation by 1962. On September 27, 1927, famed aviator Charles Lindbergh made a stop there, and Meacham Field was dedicated for regular airline service. Artistic vitality became a fixture of the landscape. Actress and dancer Ginger Rogers was growing up on the near South Side. Her home was the headquarters for the Cooper Street Gang, a neighborhood dance troupe, and in 1925 at the age of 14 she debuted as the leader of Ginger and Her Redheads. That same year she won a Charleston dance contest at the old Majestic Theatre and was soon dancing with vaudevillian Eddie Foy. The rest, as they say, is history. In 1925, Brooks Morris made his famous statement to Lela Rogers, society and amusement editor of The Fort Worth Record: "I'm not willing to raise my children in a city which doesn't have a symphony orchestra." The newly founded Fort Worth Symphony had its first concert in the auditorium of the First Baptist Church on Dec. 11, 1925. In 1927, the luxurious Worth Theater was built at 7th and Taylor streets, with its Egyptian Revival Style interior. The Hollywood, built in 1929, and the Worth both survived until the early 1970s-- the Worth closed in 1972 and the Hollywood closed in 1976. In 1928 Fort Worth was ready for the big time. It weighed in with a five year Work Program, an ambitious plan to build a big city with new infrastructure designed to attract industrial and retail growth. Results of the plan included the Texas & Pacific Passenger Terminal, the TCU Stadium, the Hollywood Theater, the Blackstone Hotel, and many other office buildings, churches, apartments, and other multistoried buildings. The modern skyscrapers downtown particularly showed FW's commitment to modern life. Out on Eagle Mountain Lake, The Fort Worth Boat Club was founded in 1929. The 22-story Blackstone Hotel opened to the public on October 10, 1929. Every one of the 300 rooms had a bath, ceiling fan, running ice water, and radio. As the twenties ended, Texas Christian won its first Southwest Conference football championship-- and the bustling city now had a population of 163,477. It was a decade of magnificent strides for the still-young Fort Worth.
1930-1940
The Depression slowed down development for a few years. In 1930 a thousand depositors demanded their cash from the First National Bank. Amon Carter managed to restore confidence, reversing the run on the bank by arranging for two orchestras to play music in the bank lobby while the depositors returned their money. The main competitor of First National Bank, the Fort Worth National Bank, was owed $350,000 by oilman Sid W. Richardson. Sid's income went from about $25,000 a month to not enough to pay the interest on his debt. The bank told him to "pay on your loan when you can." It was still the days when a handshake could be a man's bond. Business in Fort Worth typically followed this fashion. By 1933 the Depression had set in with a vengeance. Homeless people and transients were visible everywhere. At the same time, some building projects were still up and running. The U.S. Post Office at the southeast corner of Jennings and W. Lancaster was built, at a cost of $1,050,000. Before long, millions more were being spent in Fort Worth on New Deal programs which left dozens of infrastructure improvements, from buildings to botanical gardens. From 1933 to 1941 most construction took place under the auspices of the federal Public Works Administration. Among the Works Progress Administration (WPA) funded improvement projects were the Will Rogers Memorial, City-County Hospital, Elmwood Sanitarium, and Farrington Field. The auditorium, coliseum and tower of the Will Rogers Memorial Center were erected with federal funding contributing a large amount, thanks to Amon Carter's end run around interior secretary Harold Ickes, appealing directly to President Roosevelt. This historic facility would host war bond rallies, circuses, revivalists, boxing matches, and concerts. The 114-acre Botanic Garden is the oldest botanic garden in the state of Texas, with the rose gardens constructed in 1933 as the first public relief project in Tarrant County. The area now includes Rose Gardens, Japanese Garden, Fragrance Garden, Trial Garden, Perennial Garden, Fuller Garden, and a glass conservatory with waterfalls, ponds and pathways, containing exotic plants such as orchids, bromeliads, bird-of-paradise and tropical trees. To view the Fort Worth skyline of 1936 is to see the building boom of the1920s and 1930s in all its glory. Looking east on W. Seventh toward downtown reveals automobile row, a street lined with dealers of Hupmobile, Packard, Chevrolet and Ford. Car dealers were opening west of downtown and planting the seed for suburban expansion. Pent up demand from the depression years was being met by new car sales. In 1935 Kay and Velma Kimbell began to collect high-quality British paintings. Kimbell was a grain tycoon who later would leave his entire collection to the foundation which built the museum that bears his name. Education continued to raise its profile. Texas Wesleyan College was created by a merger of Polytechnic College and Texas Woman's College. Between 1934 and 1936, TCU won 29 victories, a Sugar Bowl crown and a Cotton Bowl victory, with the help of Slingin' Sammy Baugh. In his career with the Washington Redskins beginning in 1937, Baugh lasted 16 pro seasons, going on record as one of the greatest quarterbacks of all time with 22,085 passing yards and 187 touchdowns. In 1936, the new Isis Theater opened on the North Side, seating 920 movie fans at once. And Fort Worth held its own unofficial Texas Centennial exposition, hiring New York producer William Samuel Rosenberg-- known as Billy Rose-- to snub the official Dallas celebration. The driving force, as with many big ideas in Fort Worth, was Amon Carter, who raised a million dollars to put on a glitzy show. Ever showing his clout with the federal government, Carter raised a quarter million from the United States Centennial Commission. Billboards advertising the show in nine states read "Go Elsewhere for Education, Come to Fort Worth for Entertainment." The show was so successful, it continued in 1937, 38 and 39 as the "Frontier Fiesta" with stars of the time such as Eddie Cantor, Edgar Bergen and Ray Bolger. In 1938, Mrs. Baird's Bakery opened the most modern bread plant in America, formerly at 1701 Summit Ave. TCU became a national force in football from the mid-1930's on. Coach Leo "Dutch" Meyer had a passing game that utilized the considerable talents of Sammy Baugh, followed by Davey O'Brien, who led TCU to a 10-0 record in 1938, picking up All American honors along the way and winning both the Heisman and Maxwell Trophies. In 1933, the American Airways Headquarters Building and Hangar opened at North Meacham Field. This was a triumph for two reasons. First of all, American was moving its entire southern division from Dallas to Fort Worth, scoring points on the Fort Worth side of the rivalry. In addition, this move foreshadowed the eventual relocation of American Airlines from New York City to Fort Worth. Even in the early 1930s, American was already the most extensive airline system in the U.S. The airline remained at Meacham until moving to Greater Southwest International Airport in the mid 1950s. In the mid-thirties, Eagle Mountain Lake was completed (1934); President Franklin D. Roosevelt made the first of five presidential visits to Fort Worth (1936); and the S. H. Kress Building at 604 Main was finished (1936) at a cost of $450,000. Things were hopping and Fort Worth was beginning to feel as though it had a history. In fact, the culture of historic preservation took its first steps in 1936 with the remodeling of the Van Zandt Cottage, former home of city founder Major K.M. Van Zandt. The Trinity River Bridge was built in 1938 and serves today as a grand entrance into the Cultural District. 1940-1950 On April 17, 1941, ground was broken for the Consolidated-Vultee Aircraft Corp. plant designated to build the B-24 "Liberator" bomber aircraft. Fort Worth donated 526 acres to the U.S. Army for the purpose, and within a year planes were headed out of Fort Worth for war duty. Once again, Fort Worth aggressively sought this business. The city offered tax incentives, an eager work force, an existing seaplane base on Lake Worth, and the regular availability of American Airlines flights to accommodate executives. The mile and 29-foot long plant, now a Lockheed facility, was the world's largest aircraft factory and the first with a fully automated assembly line. The B-24 was followed in June 1948 by the B-36 bomber, and Carswell Air Force Base was built nearby to house the Eighth Air Force, designated to carry atomic weapons anywhere in the world where they were needed. In 1949 the B-50 bomber Lucky Lady II took the first nonstop flight around the world, 94 hours long. Defense facilities such as these, all across the land, provided an economic shot in the arm which lasted well into the 1940s and 1950s. In keeping with its livestock roots, Fort Worth was also the largest sheep market in the world during the World War II years, and the largest grain terminal in the south. In 1945, Robert Alexander and William Conner opened a small pharmacy in Fort Worth, forming the basis of Alcon Laboratories, with 2004 sales of $3.9 billion, and a diverse product line of ophthalmic pharmaceuticals, ophthalmic surgical equipment and devices, contact lens care products, and other consumer eye care products that treat diseases and conditions of the eye, sold in more than 180 countries. Today Alcon has more than 12,000 employees, 2,500 at Fort Worth headquarters. In 1946, Jesse Roach opened his landmark Cattleman's Restaurant on North Main. That same year, The Fort Worth Opera was founded, and it would present the likes of Beverly Sills, Placido Domino, John Alexander, Jerome Hines and many others. Also in 1946, the Texas Boys Choir was founded by George Bragg in Denton, who moved it to Fort Worth, its home today. As the forties came to a close, Fort Worth was still a major livestock center-- the legendary W. R. "Billy Bob" Watt took over the Southwestern Exposition and Livestock Show and built it to greater heights under his watch, which lasted until 1977. On November 4, 1947, Gen. Dwight Eisenhower unveiled Electra Waggoner Biggs' Will Rogers Statue on Amon Carter Square. More radio stations went on the year, and in 1948, The WBAP call letters were applied to the south's pioneering television station. The postwar years were times of
hard work leading to the prosperity of the 1950s. Fort Worth was now a mature
city with growing suburbs, active commercial life, and tremendous potential for
the future.
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