Crestwood Place Apartments, R.I.P.

Kevin, you ruined my morning.

Fort Worthology reports that the Crestwood Place Apartments on White Settlement Road will be demolished to make way for single-family homes. That was my first apartment in Fort Worth, to the left of the door on the right in that picture. When I lived there, it was still very much like it was when it was built in the 1940s. Some of my neighbors were original residents. Boy, I loved that place. I hate to see it go. Just another example of a change not-for-the-better in Fort Worth.

UPDATE: I really didn't get in all I wanted to say about my old apartment. My wife and I have talked a lot about the old place. I lived there when we first met. The first time I kissed her was on the lawn in front of that door on the right. For both of us, the Crestwood Place Apartments are special because that's where we were when we fell in love.

We both held the same thought in our minds -- this was the place we would go back to if everything went to hell. This was basecamp. This would be the place where we would go where everything would always be OK. Other things could come and go, but we would always have each other and we would always have that place to go back to. Stupid thought, maybe, but a critical part of the mythology that holds two people together.

The other night, I saw a documentary about Tony Bennett and someone asked him about the success of his song, "I Left My Heart in San Francisco." He explained that the reason that song is so beloved is that it really isn't about San Francisco, it's about wherever your heart is. San Francisco can be anywhere. Paris, Manhattan or an old apartment on White Settlement Road in Fort Worth, Texas.

I guess the Crestwood Place Apartments is San Francisco to us. A little bit of our hearts will always be there, and a little bit of that place will always be in our hearts. They can build million-dollar homes on that land, but they will be unable to build a more beautiful building to me.