The historic building at 8th Avenue and Magnolia, known as the Brace Building, is scheduled to come down to make way for a single-story Comerica bank building. The Brace Building’s impending demise is an unfortunate example of what I believe is needless demolition.
I’ve heard before that the Brace Building is not savable, but then, the same thing was said about the east downtown Knights of Pythias Hall. It is my belief that the building is in fact not too far gone to save - rather, its new owners do not want to make the effort.
It has been brought to my attention from sources close to the situation that a meeting was set up around a month ago between Historic Fort Worth, Fort Worth South, Inc., the City of Fort Worth Planning Department, a local developer with experience in historic building rehabs, and the vice president of real estate for Comerica Bank. The groups made various points to Comerica, such as:
- Magnolia Avenue has a long history of public/private investment.
- Magnolia Avenue is becoming an artistic, offbeat, “indie spirit” destination and that the street’s historic buildings are a key part of that sort of redevelopment.
- Magnolia Avenue has a perfect example of a bank that made a historic building work well for its needs - Fort Worth National in the historic Modern Drug Village mixed-use structure at Hemphill & Magnolia.
- The largest Local Historic District and National Register Historic District in the entire city, the Fairmount Southside Historic District, is adjacent to the site, and the residents and businesspeople of Fairmount, who are potential Comerica customers, expect strong historic preservation efforts.
A couple of weeks after the meeting, Comerica declared that their “numbers did not work” with the historic structure and that it would be demolished. The new Comerica building will be a single story building with no possibility of mixed-use either now or in the future, and that single story design also reduces the building’s urban space definition. And of course, it will erase a historic structure’s influence on a significant corner (the only historic structure at the 8th Avenue & Magnolia intersection).
Because the Brace Building carries no historic designations of any kind, there is no recourse at this point beyond contacting Comerica and urging them to reconsider (Comerica’s Central time zone phone number is 1-800-925-2160, and they have a web contact form here).
Without a stronger preservation effort, unfortunate losses to urban Fort Worth’s historic fabric will continue as central city neighborhoods redevelop.
FYI for those who call the 1-800 number…
I thought it’d be better to talk to a human being versus filling out a form, so I called the 1-800 number. After being put on hold for a good 10-15 minutes I finally talked to a girl who just seemed flustered by me. Ater trying to explain to her why I was calling, she put me on hold for another 5 minutes, then transferred me to a tellers phone at an I-20 branch!! Obviously, the teller had no clue what I was talking about and apologized profusely, but said she had no clue who I should talk to!!
So the better bet would probably be to go ahead and just let them know how you feel via the online form.
Also, their online form only allows comments of 750 characters or less (and I think that includes spaces). So you have to be really brief.
No doubt the demise of an old building will bring sadness to the area and with the non-descript Comerica bank building that will not add any color or favor to this unique area of Fort Worth will eventually do harm. The biggest gripe I have is the over abundance of street corner banks has really taken its curse on Fort Worth. It seems that Fort Worth is plagued with different periods of construction from banks, savings and loans, and gasoline stations. Eventually they become eyesores and are torn down and the neighborhood is left with an ugly vacant block.
Banks are the new pharmacy.
Comerica appears to be the new leader in developing seriously ugly branch buildings. Each one I’ve seen sports the unfortunate combination of red brick and white limestone.
It is a shame they are bringing this building down for I’ve always wanted to see something come of it ever since I was a little child. I’m sure they have sufficient funds to restore the building and put their bank branch at the lower level of the building. It would be more appropriate for the area due to the fact a one-use building in such an atmosphere is out of place.
Protest, put up sighns, lay infont of the bulldozers.
Tada!
Sad story, hope we can pull it of