As Historic Fort Worth often does, I thought I’d post my own list of some structures in urban Fort Worth that I feel are most endangered and worthy of preservation. I will try to not have too much overlap between the HFW list and mine, but some is inevitable. Here we go, in no particular order:
Building at the corner of 8th Avenue and Magnolia
Year built: Unknown
There’s not really a lot of information about this little building that I could find - I wasn’t even able to locate it on Fort Worth Architecture. It has been vacant for as long as I’ve know about it. I’ll guess it’s likely from the 19teens or 1920s. The building has been boarded up for some time and parts of it (such as the roof over a balcony on 8th Avenue) are collapsing.
The fate of the building is not known at this point.
Fort Worth Star-Telegram Classifieds Building
Year built: Approx. early/mid 1960s
The Star-Telegram Classifieds Building (originally built as the home of Tarrant Savings) has few friends, and that’s a shame. It’s pretty much the only example of Googie-infused International Style architecture in downtown. Unfortunately, it’s been badly neglected over the years - it used to have translucent blue panels between the “fins” that stick out from the upper floors, for one example. Its windows have been covered with ugly mirror tint (always a bad move on an International Style building, in my opinion). It’s filthy. If it were to be restored, I think it would be an extremely cool slice of Jet Age futurism. I can picture some slick mid-century modern style lofts in this building.
The building’s fate is uncertain - it was recently bought by the Fort Worth Club, and there are threats that it’ll be demolished for a parking lot (ick!).
Heritage Park
Year built: 1976
I’ve written about the uncertainty about Heritage Park’s future before, so its inclusion here should be no surprise. Lawrence Halprin’s intimate, meditative park space on the bluff looking over the Trinity needs a lot of TLC, but it also has a lot of potential. It’s one of the few bits of 1970s architecture that I don’t find repulsive. The city has been strangely quiet about the park since its closure.
The park’s fate is uncertain - it is currently fenced off and closed.
Church & House at Hemphill & Broadway
Year built: Unknown (likely 19teens/1920s)
This little church and the house next door aren’t in great shape, and were recently up for sale. The buildings apparently were purchased, and now a demolition request sign has appeared in front of the house. It would be a shame to lose either building, but let’s hope this demolition request is for just the house and the church will be redeveloped.
The fate of the two buildings is unknown.
Texas & Pacific Warehouse
Year built: 1931
This massive Art Deco structure has been vacant for a long time - even the occasional haunted houses and paintball games that happened there from time to time have long since moved on. The only building of the monumental Texas & Pacific Station/Post Office/Warehouse development from the ’30s on Lancaster to be vacant, the T&P Warehouse has enormous potential. The city has been pushing the owner, a lady from Dallas, for a long time to redevelop the building as loft apartments over ground-level retail, but nothing yet has come about. Meanwhile, the building sits neglected. Until recently, it apparently even had standing water in the basement, but crews were seen pumping the water out not long after the building was put on Historic Fort Worth’s list of most endangered buildings.
The building’s fate, unfortunately, is unknown. It’s a protected landmark, but the long-awaited redevelopment plans have never come about despite the city’s offers of money and assistance.
It looks like that church on Hemphill has a Texas Historical Marker. Doesn’t this preclude demolition?
Depends. Not all markers indicate actual protection. It’s possible (I haven’t seen a map of actual preservation designations for the Near Southside). What would matter more is if the building has one of Fort Worth’s designations - Demolition Delay, Historic & Cultural Landmark, or Highly Significant Endangered (the latter two of which are the only two with any real protection - Demolition Delay is barely a Band-Aid).
@ Darin - that’s a Texas Historic Commission “Recorded Texas Historic Landmark” plaque. The State cannot prohibit demolition; however it looks like this site has a local city “demolition delay” designation too, meaning the demolition could be delayed (but ultimately not prohibited). It received it’s state plaque in 1984.
Description from the THC Atlas:
The Swedish Evangelical Lutheran Church of Gustavus Adolphus Synod was organized in 1905 to serve Swedish settlers in the City of Fort Worth. In 1912 the congregation, which later became known as Grace Lutheran, constructed this sanctuary and held worship services here until it moved to another site in 1957. The Lombard Romanesque style building features fine brickwork in the tower and over the arches.
Why on Earth would they need to demolish that church? There is plenty of empty lots in near southside! Heck, just look across the street.
On another note, Kevin do you know who owns the building on 8th and Magnolia?
The redevelopment of the T & P warehouse faces a number of significant challenges. I was involved in some studies for an earlier potential buyer and I can share some impressions.
Facades:
The building has three major facade variations. On the east, it was configured for offices. This portion can readily be adapted to residential (or office). The central section was the warehouse, and the windows are quite small and located approx. 6′ above the floor so that crates could be pushed against the wall without blocking light and air. The western portion was added later as refrigerated storage and has no windows.
The walls are solid masonry and are approx. 16″ thick. In order to make the building habitable (and meet building code for residences) the openings will have to be significantly enlarged and/or newly created, a very costly undertaking.
Structure:
The structure is quite stout, not surprising given the intened purpose. The concrete slabs are about 18″ thick, so cutting through them is feasible but again costly. The large mushroom columns are beautiful but relatively closely spaced, limiting some planning options as well.
Floor sizes:
The building is really deep. This is a significant problem for residential since you have such small windows and the ceilings aren’t very tall. Inevitably you end up with long dark spaces, which is not a positive feature in a loft. Yes, you could cut an atrium through the building but this type of structure is not amenable to such modifications without a significant amount of re-working.
Historic Tax Credits:
The historic tax credits have not been “harvested” and would be essential to help defray the cost of an adaptive re-use. However, they come with strings- the work must (rightly so) meet standards that ensure the historic integrity is maintained. So the facade changes, which really are needed for about any use other than storage, become a very delicate balacing act. Any addition of windows sufficient to make the project marketable will change the character, although in theory this could be done in a sensitive manner that would meet with Texas Historical Commission approval.
Size:
This is a big building. With retail at the base it would still yield around 300 residential units. Given other projects downtown that is a lot of lofts for the market to absorb at one time. Yes, we need more residential downtown, but financing (especially today) is another obstacle.
It is indeed one of FW’s architectural gems. But as it sits year after year in a porous condition it becomes an even bigger undertaking to restore. And even in the best of times it represents a daunting challenge…
@ Trevor
Looks like it may be bad news. It was owned by a “Magnolia Avenue LP” until very recently; now it’s owned by Comerica Bank. The address is 1560 W Magnolia Avenue; and according to the appraisal district it was built in 1915.
Also, re: the Church on Hemphill. It looks like it’s on the HCLC October agenda for demolition. http://fortworthgov.granicus.com/AgendaViewer.php?view_id=2&event_id=8
Funny… I was just admiring the building off 8th and Magnolia this afternoon. What a great location for something useful someday.
Wasn’t it “Fort Worth Brush Co” or some such at one time?