Historic Fort Worth Adds To The List

Yesterday, we took our shots at the Startlegram for its lame election coverage and it had me thinking about Cowtown’s only daily. Most people have a love / hate relationship with their local paper: they love it when it coves something important to them and they hate it when it ignore something important to them or covers it badly. Today, it made amends (sort of) by highlighting on the business cover Historic Fort Worth adding a dozen properties to its list of Fort Worth’s Most Endangered Places.

It has been two years since the organization last released the list. The group is announcing its new list today in the hopes that steps can be taken to preserve the properties. The properties were nominated by the public and chosen by a committee at Historic Fort Worth, said Jerre Tracy, the group’s executive director. “You can never re-create them,” Tracy said. “Once they’re gone, they’re gone. It affects all of us.”

A couple of the places closest to my heart:

3000 University Drive (pictured above), better known as the drag by TCU.

The TXU power plant on North Main Street.

Cowtown’s remainging single-screen movie theaters: the Ridglea, New Isis, Berry and Azle theaters.

Chase Court, a planned residential subdivision comprising one block bisected from east to west by an esplanade drive with landscaped islands. It was laid out in 1906 and remains the earliest documented planned subdivision in the city. One of my wife’s co-workers lives here, and to say it is cool is an understatement.

Thanks to the S-T for giving serious play to this story. Saving these places makes our city a better place to live.