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Click here for a map of downtown Fort Worth | ||||||||||
click a thumbnail to view a photo Looking west across miles of open prairie land towards the 'skyline' of downtown Fort Worth.
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FORT WORTH METROPLEX RESTAURANTS | ||||||||||
The Tarrant County Courthouse building sticking up above the trees. Looking across the Trinity River at beautiful downtown Fort Worth, known far and wide for making cities near and far Green with Envy due to its total fabulousness. We are on the Trinity Trails in this photo. That is the Main Street Bridge on the left. | ||||||||||
Note: The Tandy Subway is no more. Replaced by the new Radio Shack Corporate Headquarters which is a beautiful cluster of new buildings that Radio Shack occupied for a short time before it was taken over by Tarrant County College. |
At a time not long ago Fort Worth had the world's shortest subway, a free ride via rickety rail through a tunnel into the now closed Tandy Center in downtown Fort Worth. A convenient, albeit slightly clunky mass transit system, sort of a very apt metaphor for the difference between Dallas and Fort Worth. Dallas has a modern high speed rail system called DART. Fort Worth does not have a high speed rail system. Well, there is the TRE (Trinity Railway Express) Train that runs between FW and Dallas a couple times a day. And there is public transit in the form of Molly the Trolley which runs from Downtown to the Cultural District to the Stockyards. |
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Here comes the former Tandy subway now. The entire
line was at least a mile long. Maybe two. Now relegated to
history. Maybe a Texas State Historical sign will soon mark the spot. |
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On the right in this photo we see a billboard all these years after its demise, touting the 'Free Subway' to Tandy Center. Neither of which is still in existence. We also see in this photo a view of the new Radio Shack Corporate Headquarters, the cluster of buildings for which the world's shortest subway was sacrificed and hundreds of citizens were forced out of their homes in yet one more incident of eminent domain abuse in Texas, the #1 worst example of such abuse until it was replaced at #1 by the Dallas Cowboys. Radio Shack, had to sell its corporate headquarters shortly after moving in. Radio Shack's corporate headquarters will soon become Tarrant County College's downtown Fort Worth campus. | ||||||||||
Another look at the new Radio Shack Headquarters before
it became Tarrant County College,
looking under the Main Street Bridge over the Trinity River---in the
background we can see the former Pier 1 Imports Corporate Headquarters.
Sadly, both businesses are having a hard time of it, laying off
people, closing stores and having to rent out space in their new
buildings to try and help the faltering bottom-line. Pier 1 even had
to turn off the beacon of light that made the building look so nice at
night.
Update: The light is back on at the former Pier 1 Imports building. The building has been bought and occupied by Chesapeake Energy |
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Looking at the former Pier One Corporate Headquarters
while standing on the campus of the new Radio Shack Corporate
Headquarters.
It seems sort of sad that in such a short time both Radio Shack and Pier One lost their new headquarters. Radio Shack the sadder of the two, due to so much lost due to its construction. Hundreds of people forced from their homes. Huge, convenient, free parking lots, gone. And the free subway that connected those parking lots to the heart of downtown, also gone. And now Radio Shack is gone. |
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click to view photos of downtown Fort Worth taken at noon on November 25th, the day after Thanksgiving, the busiest shopping day of the year.... |
This Sundance Square "Welcome to the Holidays!" sign says "the most exciting downtown in Texas is also the brightest." A few months ago a Texas magazine had an article that compared Texas downtowns and claimed Fort Worth's downtown was the most exciting. It is not known if the writer had been to San Antonio. The Fort Worth local press made a big deal about this 'exciting' description, including one editorial which declared Dallas was "green with envy". How a city can be green with envy was not explained. Nor was it explained how this conclusion was reached. We have long noted that downtown Fort Worth, to our eyes, does not seem all that exciting, at least compared to other downtowns we've visited. At times downtown Fort Worth appears virtually deserted. For example, on the busiest shopping day of the year, the day after Thanksgiving, downtown Fort Worth is not busy. Which is no surprise due to the fact that Fort Worth is the only American downtown in a city of over a half million which does not have a single department store. No Nordstroms, no Macys, no Neiman Marcus, not a single large store. | |||||||||
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A look at part of Fort Worth's new downtown, part tornado caused urban renewal, part corporate headquarter upgrades. Here we see the formerly tornado damaged Cash America building on the right. On the left the former Headquarters for Pier One Imports. And in the middle you can see the former tornado damaged Bank One building, no longer a bank with a restaurant at the top, it is now a condo residential tower. If we were able to see what is to the left of the Pier One building we would see the former headquarters of Radio Shack, that will soon be a college campus. |
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A closer look at the 'new' Cash America building on the left and Pier One Import's former corporate headquarters in the middle. | ||||||||||
The new Tower, formerly known as the Tin Can Tower and before that it was the Plywood Skyscraper and before that, before a tornado severely damaged it, the Tower was known as the Bank One Building. The Tower's major facelift has turned it, arguably, into Fort Worth's most attractive skyscraper, admittedly a narrow field of competition since Fort Worth has few skyscrapers. | ||||||||||
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Looking more like a prison than a place where one might want to schedule a large get together, the Fort Worth Convention Center sits secured behind a barbed wire fence. Very few conventions seem to take place in the Fort Worth Convention Center, which may be one reason why it took a long time, a lot of effort and a big subsidy from the city to get someone willing to build a Convention Center hotel. Meanwhile, up in Grapevine the Gaylord Texan Resort and Convention Center has plans to add a couple hundred more rooms. While across the street from the Gaylord Texan, Great Wolf Lodge will open in a few months with an indoor water park. The owners apparently felt the Grapevine market could support another large resort and did not need the town of Grapevine to subsidize the project. | ||||||||||
Here we see the view to the south of the Fort Worth Convention Center. This is Lancaster Avenue. Interstate 30 previously towered over Lancaster Avenue, but the freeway was re-located slightly to the south a few year's ago. Talk of re-developing Lancaster Avenue into something attractive so far has seen no results. Likely not a big selling point to bookers of conventions or hotel builders. | ||||||||||
A view of part of the re-built Interstate 30 intersection with Interstate 35W known as the Mixmaster, looking from the east side of the Fort Worth Convention Center across yet more barbed wire fencing. The Mixmaster took 11 years to build. Road construction seems to go slow in Texas. Other things seem to get built at hyperspeed, the new Dallas Cowboy Stadium, for example. | ||||||||||
This vehicle was seen driving by the Fort Worth Convention Center the same day the above three photos were taken. It somehow would have seemed more appropriate, maybe, if a Texas flagged had been waving, rather than the American flag. | ||||||||||
New Man in Fort Worth |
New in August of 2002, Briefcase Man made his appearance on the skyline of downtown Fort Worth. A more fitting symbol would seem to be Cowboy Man with cowboy hat and a lasso. But there have probably been a few men in downtown Fort Worth, over the years, carrying a briefcase, but likely far more sporting a swagger and wearing a Stetson. You can find Briefcase Man in Burnett Park, located at Lamar and 7th Street. |
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We're at Sundance Square now. And it's
lunch time, as we can see, with these ladies enjoying the ambience
with a little al fresco dining. Newcomers to Fort Worth may be
confused by Sundance Square, expecting some sort of downtown plaza
common to many large cities. However, Sundance Square basically is a
series of parking lots surrounded by a small downtown area with some
restaurants, stores (no large department store) and a performance
hall. |
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Butch and Sundance hooked up with Etta Place in Fort Worth at an Inn she operated in Hell's Half Acre. The word 'Inn' may be candy coating the actual nature of Etta's establishment. You can stay at a current version of Etta's Place. But Etta hasn't been seen for about 100 years. |
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The centerpiece of Sundance Square. A giant Longhorn mural celebrating Fort Worth and the Chisholm Trail. | ||||||||||
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Cows are sacred in India. Longhorns are similarly treated in Texas and no more so than in Fort Worth as you can see in this nicely done topiary. |
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There are some elements of current day Downtown Fort Worth which mirror the days of Hell's Half Acre. The consumption of libations being one. Here we see the daily re-supply by multiple vendors underway at one of the Sundance Square libation providers. |
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Speaking of libation suppliers. Here we see the Caravan of Dreams, formerly a big nightclub at Sundance Square, now taken over by the Reata Restaurant after the Fort Worth tornado turned its location into the World's Biggest Plywood Skyscraper. |
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Downtown Fort Worth is heavily policed, mostly on bikes, with a few horses. It is a very safe feeling downtown. |
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The Bass family, noted Fort Worth philanthropists, with a fortune based on many interests, with rumors of their wealthy start coming from the infamous Sam Bass Gang. Here we see the Bass Performance Hall, a place for symphonies, operas, plays and other such cultural activities. It is not known why this was built at Sundance Square and not in the Cultural District. |
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To be more like a native Texan this Downtown Fort Worth business can supply your most necessary accoutrement, that being a well-fitted cowboy hat. |
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Would you want to be a window washer on a high rise in a town with heavy winds and tornadoes? |
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At the end of Main Street opposite the Tarrant County Courthouse, first time visitors to Downtown Fort Worth may be startled to see what looks like a giant flying saucer blocking the way south. But, a UFO it is not. It is part of the Fort Worth Convention Center. |
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On the way to the Convention Center we pass this street preaching eccentric, screaming the gospel to an empty street. |
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Close-up the Convention Center doesn't look so much like a space vehicle. The Convention Center was part of a revitalization project to finally clean up the remnants of Hell's Half Acre. |
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Directly south of the Convention Center is what may be Downtown Fort Worth's most impressive attraction. The Water Gardens. Designed by Phillip Johnson, they've been used as scenery in movies, like Logan's Run. The Water Gardens is a large area with several fountains and pools of various sorts. The Water Gardens has undergone a safety upgrade after 4 visitors drowned in the pool you see here. It is now supposedly significantly safer. |
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Like a Mayan or Aztec Temple, this part of the Water Gardens gives a cliff-like view of the park to the above visitor. She did not appear to be suffering from acrophobia. |
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Let's go to the Stockyards and see some Cowboys and Longhorns... | ||||||||||
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