Jul 6, 2010 5

Fort Worth’s Remaining Single-Screen Theaters

By: Kevin Buchanan

The Ridglea
Year Built:  1950
Status:  In use, endangered by demolition
Location:  6025 Camp Bowie – Ridglea Urban Village

The Ridglea is one of the only remaining single-screen theaters still in use in Fort Worth for entertainment purposes.  It hosts live music.  Currently, the Ridglea is threatened with near-total demolition for a Bank of America drive-through bank branch.  Posts on the Ridglea’s current saga:  here, here, here, and here.

The Bowie
Year Built:  1940
Status:  In use
Location:  3859 Camp Bowie

The Bowie is currently housing a Frost Bank branch.  The building was kept mostly intact in its conversion to a bank.

The Berry
Year Built:  Unknown, presumed 1920s-1930s
Status:  Vacant
Location:  3021 Hemphill – Hemphill/Berry Urban Village

The Berry, at Hemphill & Berry, has been vacant for some time and looks rather run-down.  The neon sign is still in place, but the marquee appears to have been lost when Hemphill was last widened.

The Grand
Year Built:  Unknown, presumed 1910s-1930s
Status:  Appears vacant
Location:  1100 Fabons – near Evans & Rosedale Urban Village

The Grand was most recently in use as a church.  It appears to be vacant now.  The sign and marquee are still intact.  The last church to occupy the building added large concrete blocks to its street facade for some reason.

The New Isis
Year Built:  1935
Status:  Vacant
Location:  2401 N. Main – Stockyards

The New Isis is a 1930s renovation of the Isis Theater from the 19teens.  The sign and marquee are intact.  Signage on the marquee has promised “The New New Isis” is “coming soon” for years, but the building doesn’t appear to be in active restoration.

The Azle
Year Built:  1941
Status:  Vacant
Location:  2206 Azle

The Azle has been vacant for some time.  The sign and a marquee are intact.  It appears to have had its formerly colorful appearance painted white some time ago.

The Rose Marine
Year Built:  1918
Status:  In use
Location:  1440 N. Main – Historic Marine (formerly Mercado) Urban Village

The Rose Marine is certainly the most well-cared-for of the old theaters in Fort Worth.  It is currently a performing arts venue.

The Poly
Year Built:  1941?
Status:  Vacant
Location:  3001 Vaughn

The Poly’s signage and marquee are partially intact.  The building was a church at some point in the past after it stopped being a theater, but appears to have been vacant for some time now.

The Hollywood
Year Built:  1929-1930
Status:  Building in use, theater vacant
Location:  410 W. 7th – Downtown Fort Worth

The Hollywood sits entombed in the Electric Building in Downtown Fort Worth, the last of the old 7th Street “Show Row” theaters even partially intact.  The theater lobby on 7th Street is mostly intact and serves as office space.  The theater itself is vacant and sealed up in the building, but the lobby areas past the main lobby and the theater from the balcony level up are all reasonably intact.  The lower level of the theater was converted to parking for the Electric Building apartments.  See our old walkthrough of the Hollywood’s remains.

Unknown
Year Built:  Unknown
Status:  Vacant
Location:  Evans & Terrell – Evans & Rosedale Urban Village

This structure isn’t obviously identified as a theater, but it strongly resembles one (its form is very similar to the Grand a few blocks away).  Not sure of this one’s name or history.  The building is currently vacant.

Photo not yet available

Unknown
Year Built:  Unknown
Status:  In use as church
Location:  Sylvania near Race – near Six Points Urban Village

This building is potentially an old single-screen theater.  It resembles one in form, but we have no information about its history.  It is currently a church.

These are all the remaining single-screen theaters that we’re aware of.  Of them, only two are in active use as entertainment venues, and one of those is threatened with demolition.  One is in use as a bank and one as a church.  The rest are vacant.

Jun 24, 2009 6

Finally Revealed: New Mixed-Use Along Race Street

By: Kevin Buchanan

We haven’t heard a peep about the mysterious new building rising next to Fuzzy’s Taco Shop on Race Street (technically, the new building is on Blandin just off Race), and even now as it nears completion there has been pretty much no indication of what the building is for. There have been no signs, no announcements (that we’ve seen), no nothing as to what the new three-story pink building was all about.

Finally, we’ve figured it out, thanks to a perusal of building permits. The building is being developed by (as far as we can tell) Race Street Properties, who have been involved with a number of other projects along the street, such as Fuzzy’s and the historic McAdams Building at Race & Belknap that houses Mamma Mia. According to building permits, the building is a mixed-use structure featuring office space and either two or three residential units. From looking at the building, it appears to feature fairly large rooftop decks on the upper levels.

The pink stucco & tile roof, combined with the palm tree landscaping, certainly fits in with the sort of South Beach Miami feel that many of the Race Street developments have gone for. If we can find out more about the building, we’ll update more – perhaps we can even take a tour of the finished development.

Jan 31, 2008 Comments Off

Urban Race Street – Site Plan and Renderings

By: Kevin Buchanan

More details have started to emerge on the Urban Race Street development, the green development planned for the Six Points neighborhood just east of downtown. I’ve now gotten ahold of some more renderings, and a site plan. Click for a bigger view:

There’s a bit more surface parking than I like to see, but at least it’s confined to two interior spots. The rest of the development seems spot-on, and I’m particularly happy to see a plaza as part of the design, surrounded by offices, lofts, and retail. The lofts seem to be focused towards Race Street. What’s also interesting is that there will be a market on the Belknap frontage, which should be an awesome addition to the neighborhood.

Here’s a rendering of one of the office buildings, and a couple of the market:

More to come, I’m sure. I’m looking forward to seeing more from this project.

Jan 15, 2008 Comments Off

Urban Race Street – Major New Green Development

By: Kevin Buchanan

Word has reached us today (thanks, Chuck!) of a major new development being planned for Race Street, the redeveloping street in the Six Points urban village just east of downtown. Dubbed Urban Race Street, the development will be a four-acre mixed-use development incorporating eight existing buildings and new multi-floor construction, all with a “beyond code” environmentally friendly bent.

The development will incorporate such green building processes as cool green roofs, outdoor living spaces, native landscaping, low VOC interior finishes, high seer HVAC, permeable hard surfaces, recycling and reuse of materials, shared parking, down lighting, and energy efficient lighting and appliances. The development will feature 120,000 square feet of retail, Class A office space, and loft residences.

I’ve gotten ahold of a few renderings:

This looks like a big step forward for the Six Points village, and I’m very curious to see some more details. I’ll be looking into this and reporting more in the future. The development has something of a teaser web site at urbanracestreetfortworth.com.

Jul 6, 2007 Comments Off

Five New Restaurants for Race Street urban village

By: Kevin Buchanan

Paul Willis, leader of such fine Panther City institutions as Margie’s Italian Kitchen and Fuzzy’s Taco Shop, is teaming up with developer Justin McWilliams to bring five more new restaurants to Race Street, the new urban village that has long been something of a diamond in the rough and is now starting to see some life brought back to it.

There’s recently been a second Fuzzy’s open on Race Street, and now to be joining it are five restaurants that sound like they will all be great additions to the neighborhood. At Race and Retta, a steakhouse will be going in to a renovated house on the corner and should be open by fall. At the next corner, a historic building will be renovated into a restaurant featuring billiards and a rooftop deck. Across Race will then be a Cuban/Miami Beach themed restaurant in a historic post office building. Next door will be an Asian fusion restaurant offering up sushi, Japanese, Thai, and Korean dishes. Finally, near the Race/Belknap intersection, there’ll be a Hawaiian barbecue place.

These sound like great additions, and we look forward to trying them all (particularly the Asian fusion place – yum). We’ll keep you updated on the progress of the Race Street Village as things keep moving. For more details on these new restaurants, check out Sandra Baker’s Star-Telegram article.

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