Everything about Fort Worth Texas totally explained
Fort Worth is the fifth-largest city in the state of
Texas and the
eighteenth-largest city in the
United States The arrival of the railroad ushered in an era of astonishing growth for Fort Worth as migrants from the devastated war-torn South continued to swell the population and small, community factories and mills yielded to larger businesses. Newly dubbed the nickname, "Queen City of the Prairies", Fort Worth supplied a regional market via the growing transportation network.
Fort Worth became the westernmost railhead and a transit point for cattle shipment. With the city's main focus being on cattle and the railroads, local businessman, Louville Niles, formed the Fort Worth Stockyards Company in 1893. Shortly thereafter, the two biggest cattle slaughtering firms at the time, Armour and Swift, both established operations in the new stockyards.
With the boom times came some problems. Fort Worth had a knack for separating cattlemen from their money. Cowboys took full advantage of their last brush with civilization before the long drive on the Chisholm Trail from Fort Worth up North to Kansas. They stocked up on provisions from local merchants, visited the colorful saloons for a bit of gambling and carousing, then galloped Northward with their cattle and whoop it up again on their way back. The town soon became home to
Hell's Half Acre, the biggest collection of bars, dance halls and bawdy houses South of Dodge City, giving Fort Worth the nickname of "The Paris of the Plains."
Crime was rampant and certain sections of town were off-limits for proper citizens. Shootings, knifings, muggings and brawls became a nightly occurrence. Cowboys were joined by a motley assortment of buffalo hunters, gunmen, adventurers, and crooks. As the importance of Fort Worth as a crossroads and cowtown grew, so did Hell's Half Acre.
What was originally limited to the lower end of Rusk Street (renamed Commerce Street in 1917) spread out in all directions. By 1881 the Fort Worth Democrat was complaining Hell's Half Acre covered more like two-and-half acres.
The Acre grew until it sprawled across four of the city's main North-South thoroughfares. These boundaries, which were never formally recognized, represented the maximum area covered by the Acre, around 1900. Occasionally, the Acre was also referred to as "The bloody Third Ward" after it was designated one of the city's three political wards in 1876.
Long before the Acre reached its maximum boundaries, local citizens had become alarmed at the level of crime and violence in their city. In 1876 Timothy Isaiah (Longhair Jim) Courtright was elected City Marshal with a mandate to tame the Acre's wilder activities.
Courtright cracked down on violence and general rowdiness by sometimes putting as many as 30 people in jail on a Saturday night, but allowed the gamblers to operate unmolested. After receiving information that train and stagecoach robbers, such as the Sam Bass gang, were using the Acre as a hideout, local authorities intensified law-enforcement efforts. Yet certain businessmen placed a newspaper advertisement arguing that such legal restrictions in Hell's Half Acre would curtail the legitimate business activities there.
Despite this tolerance from business, however, the cowboys began to stay away, and the businesses began to suffer. City officials muted their stand against vice. Courtright lost support of the Fort Worth Democrat and consequently lost when he ran for reelection in 1879.
Throughout the 1880s and 1890s the Acre continued to attract gunmen, highway robbers, card sharps, con men, and shady ladies, who preyed on out-of-town and local sportsmen.
At one time or another reform-minded mayors like H. S. Broiles and crusading newspaper editors like B. B. Paddock declared war on the district but with no long-term results. The Acre meant income for the city (all of it illegal) and excitement for visitors. This could possibly be why the reputation of the Acre was sometimes exaggerated by raconteurs which longtime Fort Worth residents claimed the place was never as wild as its reputation.
Suicide was responsible for more deaths than murder, and the chief victims were prostitutes, not gunmen. However much its reputation was exaggerated, the real Acre was bad enough. The newspaper claimed "it was a slow night which didn't pan out a cutting or shooting scrape among its male denizens or a morphine experiment by some of its frisky females."
The loudest outcries during the periodic clean-up campaigns were against the dance halls, where men and women met, as opposed to the saloons or the gambling parlors, which were virtually all male.
A major reform campaign in the late 1880s was brought on by Mayor Broiles and County Attorney R. L. Carlock after two events. In the first of these, on
February 8,
1887, Luke Short and Jim Courtright had a shootout on Main Street that left Courtright dead and Short the "King of Fort Worth Gamblers."
Although the fight didn't occur in the Acre, it focused public attention on the city's underworld. A few weeks later a poor prostitute known only by the name of Sally was found murdered and nailed to an outhouse door in the Acre.
These two events, combined with the first prohibition campaign in Texas, helped to shut down the Acre's worst excesses in 1889. More than any other factor, urban growth began to improve the image of the Acre, as new businesses and homes moved into the South end of town.
Another change was the influx of black residents. Excluded from the business end of town and the nicer residential areas, Fort Worth's black citizens, who numbered some 7,000 out of a total population of 50,000 around 1900, settled into the south end of town. Though some joined in the profitable vice trade (to run, for instance, the Black Elephant Saloon), many others found legitimate work and bought homes.
A third change was in the popularity and profitability of the Acre, which was no longer attracting cowboys and out-of-town visitors. Its visible population was more likely to be derelicts, hoboes, and bums.
By 1900 most of the dance halls and gamblers were gone. Cheap variety shows and prostitution became the chief forms of entertainment. The Progressive era was similarly making its reformist mark felt in districts like the Acre all over the country.
In 1911 Rev. J. Frank Norris launched an offensive against racetrack gambling in the Baptist Standard and used the pulpit of the First Baptist Church to attack vice and prostitution. Norris used the Acre both to scourge the leadership of Fort Worth and to advance his own personal career. When he began to link certain Fort Worth businessmen with property in the Acre and announce their names from his pulpit, the battle heated up.
On
February 4,
1912, Norris's church was burned to the ground; that evening his enemies tossed a bundle of burning oiled rags onto his porch, but the fire was extinguished and caused minimal damage. A month later the arsonists succeeded in burning down the parsonage.
In a sensational trial lasting a month, Norris was charged with perjury and arson in connection with the two fires. He was acquitted, but his continued attacks on the Acre accomplished little until 1917. A new city administration and the federal government, which was eyeing Fort Worth as a potential site for a major military training camp, joined forces with the Baptist preacher to bring down the curtain on the Acre finally.
The police department compiled statistics showing that 50 percent of the violent crime in Fort Worth occurred in the Acre, a shocking confirmation of long-held suspicions. After Camp Bowie was located on the outskirts of Fort Worth in the summer of 1917, martial law was brought to bear against prostitutes and barkeepers of the Acre. Fines and stiff jail sentences curtailed their activities. By the time Norris held a mock funeral parade to "bury John Barleycorn" in 1919, the Acre had become a part of Fort Worth history. The name, nevertheless, continued to be used for three decades thereafter to refer to the depressed lower end of Fort Worth.
2000s
On March 28th 2000 at 6:15 PM, a
F3 tornado smashed through downtown, tearing many buildings into shreds and scrap metal. One of the hardest hit structures was Bank One Tower. The 'Plywood Skyscraper' and later 'Tin Can Tower' awaited demolition for several years, deemed as unsafe and too cost-prohibitive to revive. It has since been converted to upscale
condominiums and officially renamed 'The Tower'. It caused severe damage to one prominent 70s-era high-rise extensive enough to elicit rejected proposals for demolition.
When oil began to gush in West Texas, Fort Worth was at the center of the wheeling and dealing. In
July 2007, advances in horizontal drilling technology made vast natural gas reserves in the
Barnett Shale available directly under the city, helping many residents receive royalty checks for their mineral rights. Today the City of Fort Worth and many residents are dealing with the benefits and issues associated with the natural gas reserves under ground.
Fort Worth was the fastest growing large city in the United States from 2000-2006 and was voted one of "America’s Most Livable Communities."
Geography and Climate
Fort Worth is located in northern Texas and the
Southwest, and the
South portion of the United States. The DFW Metroplex is the hub of the
North Texas region. According to the
United States Census Bureau, the city has a total area of 298.9 square miles (774.1 km²). 292.5 square miles (757.7 km²) of it's land and 6.3 square miles (16.4 km²) of it (2.12%) is water.
A large storage dam was built in 1913 on the West Fork of the
Trinity River, 7
miles (10
km) from the city, with a storage capacity of 30 billion US gallons (110,000,000
m³) of water. The lake formed by this dam is known as
Lake Worth. The cost of the dam was nearly
US$1,500,000 - a handsome sum at the time.
Climate
Fort Worth has a
humid subtropical climate according to the
Köppen climate classification system. The hottest month of the year is July, when the average high temperature is 97 °F (36 °C), and overnight low temperatures average 72 °F (23 °C), giving an average temperature of 84 °F (29 °C). The coldest month of the year is January, when the average high temperature is 55 °F (13 °C), and low temperatures average 31 °F (-1 °C). The coldest temperature ever recorded in Fort Worth is -6 °F (-21 °C), on
December 24,
1989 Because of its position in North Texas, Fort Worth is very suspectible to supercells, which produces
tornadoes. (See recent history above.)
The average annual precipitation for Fort Worth is 34.01 inches (863.8 mm)
Demographics
Fort Worth's Population by year >
| Year |
Pop. |
| 1880 |
6,990 |
| 1890 |
23,076 |
| 1900 |
26,668 |
| 1910 |
73,312 |
| 1920 |
106,482 |
| 1930 |
163,447 |
| 1940 |
177,662 |
| 1950 |
278,778 |
| 1960 |
356,268 |
| 1970 |
393,476 |
| 1980 |
385,164 |
| 1990 |
447,619 |
| 2000 |
534,694 |
| 2006 |
653,320 |
| 2007 |
686,850 |
As of the
census of 2000, there were 534,694 people, 195,078 households, and 127,581 families residing in the city. The July 2004 census estimates have placed Fort Worth in the top 20 most populous cities (# 19) in the U.S. with the population at 604,538. Fort Worth is also in the top 5 cities with the largest numerical increase from
July 1,
2003 to
July 1,
2004 with 17,872 more people or a 3.1% increase. The
population density was 1,827.8 people per square mile (705.7/km²). There were 211,035 housing units at an average density of 721.4/sq mi (278.5/km²). The racial makeup of the city was 59.69%
White, 20.26%
Black or
African American, 0.59%
Native American, 2.64%
Asian, 0.06%
Pacific Islander, 14.05% from
other races, and 2.72% from two or more races. 29.81% of the population were
Hispanic or
Latino of any race.
There were 195,078 households out of which 34.7% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 45.8% were
married couples living together, 14.7% had a female householder with no husband present, and 34.6% are classified as non-families by the
United States Census Bureau.
Of 195,078 households, 9,599 are unmarried partner households: 8,202 heterosexual, 676 same-sex male, and 721 same-sex female households.
28.6% of all households were made up of individuals and 7.7% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.67 and the average family size was 3.33.
In the city the population was spread out with 28.3% under the age of 18, 11.3% from 18 to 24, 32.7% from 25 to 44, 18.2% from 45 to 64, and 9.6% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 31 years. For every 100 females there were 97.3 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 94.5 males.
The median income for a household in the city was $37,074, and the median income for a family was $42,939. Males had a median income of $31,663 versus $25,917 for females. The
per capita income for the city was $18,800. About 12.7% of families and 15.9% of the population were below the
poverty line, including 21.4% of those under age 18 and 11.7% of those age 65 or over.
Fort Worth stands as the ninth-safest U.S. city among those with a population over 500,000 in 2006.
Cityscape
List of neighborhoods in Fort Worth, Texas
Architecture
Downtown is mainly known for its
art deco style buildings. The
Tarrant County Courthouse was created in the American Beaux Arts Design, which was modled after the
Texas Capitol Building, and most buildings around
Sundance Square have preserved their early 20th century facades.
Downtown
Downtown Fort Worth.
- Sundance Square - Fort Worth's downtown has Sundance Square
, named after the infamous Sundance Kid. Sundance Square is a 16 block entertainment center for the city. The Square has buildings with tall windows, as well as brick-paved streets and sidewalks, and landscaping that many consider to be very delightful. Many restaurants, nightclubs, boutiques, museums, live theatres, cineplex movie theaters, and art galleries are in the Square.
- Fort Worth Water Gardens - A 4.3 acre/1.74 ha contemporary park, designed by architect Philip Johnson, that features three unique pools of water offering a calming and cooling oasis for downtown patrons. The gardens were used in the finale of the 1970s sci-fi film Logan's Run. (In mid-2004 the Water Gardens had to be closed due to a drowning. It has reopened after preventive measures have been installed.)
- Fort Worth Convention Center - Includes an 11,200 seat multi-purpose arena.
- Bass Performance Hall - Bass Hall is the permanent home to the Fort Worth Symphony Orchestra, Texas Ballet Theater, Fort Worth Opera, and the Van Cliburn International Piano Competition and Cliburn Concerts.
- Tarrant County Courthouse stands at the north end of Main Street. It has been remodeled over the years and the exterior was used frequently in Walker, Texas Ranger.
- Burnett Plaza is the tallest building between Dallas and Los Angeles, standing at 573 feet
- The Omni Fort Worth Hotel will be the first new downtown hotel construction in over 20 years. Its estimated height is around 547 ft. and 34 stories, making it the new second tallest building in Fort Worth.
- The Tower, formerly the Bank One Tower, was severely damaged in the March 28, 2000 tornado. It was converted into a residential tower in 2004. Before the redevelopment, The Tower was covered in plywood and metal panels, and considered to be demolished. The Tower now has a new facade and a new top feature that makes it the fourth tallest building in the city.
- City Center Development features two twin towers. One is the 38 story D.R. Horton Tower (1984), and the other is the 33 story Wells Fargo Tower (1982). From the top, they're shaped like pinwheels.
Fort Worth Stockyards Historic District
The
stockyards offer a taste of the old west and the
Chisholm Trail at the site of the historic cattle drives and rail access. The District is filled with restaurants, clubs, gift shops and attractions such as daily longhorn cattle drives through the streets, historic reenactments, the
Texas Cowboy Hall of Fame and
Billy Bob's, the world's largest country and western music venue.
Cultural district
The Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth, founded in 1892, is the oldest art museum in Texas. Its permanent collection consists of some 2,600 works of post-war art. In 2002, the museum moved into a new home designed by Japanese architect Tadao Ando.
The Kimbell Art Museum houses works from antiquity to the 20th century. Artists represented in its holdings include Caravaggio, Fra Angelico, Picasso, Vigée-Lebrun, Matisse, Cézanne, El Greco, and Rembrandt. The museum's home was designed by American architect Louis Kahn.
The Amon Carter Museum focuses on 19th and 20th century American artists. It houses an extensive collection of works by Western artists Frederic Remington and Charles M. Russell, as well as an impressive collection of 30,000 exhibition-quality photographs. It also includes works by Alexander Calder, Thomas Cole, Stuart Davis, Thomas Eakins, Winslow Homer, Georgia O'Keeffe, John Singer Sargent, and Alfred Stieglitz. American architect Philip Johnson designed the museum's home, including its expansion.
The National Cowgirl Museum and Hall of Fame is the only museum in the world that's solely dedicated to honoring women of the American West who have demonstrated extraordinary courage and pioneer spirit in their trail blazing efforts.
The Fort Worth Museum of Science and History - One of the largest Science and History Museums in the Southwest. It includes the Noble Planetarium and the Omni Theater.
Will Rogers Memorial Center - a multi-purpose entertainment complex and world-class equestrian center housed under 45 acres of roof spread over 85 acres in the heart of the Fort Worth Cultural District. Each year approximately 800,000 people attend the three week event known as the Southwestern Exposition and Livestock Show, formerly called the Fort Worth Stock Show & Rodeo.
Casa Mañana - The nation's first theater designed for musicals "in the round"
Parks district
Fort Worth Zoo - Ranked one of the top 10 best zoos in the United States by Family Fun magazine
Fort Worth Botanic Garden - The oldest botanic garden in Texas, with 21 specialty gardens and over 2,500 species of plants.
Fort Worth Japanese Garden
Log Cabin Village - A collection of authentic Texas log cabins dating from the 1850s.
Trinity Park - A large park along the Trinity River that includes part of the Trinity Trails system.
Texas Christian University
Texas Christian University - Fort Worth's most prominent university, founded in 1873 by Addison & Randolph Clark as "AddRan Male & Female College". It is the largest university affiliated with the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ), though the denomination doesn't own or operate the school, rather, the school-church partnership is based on a common heritage and shared values. The university became known as "Texas Christian University" in 1902 and was the first co-educational institution in the US's southwest region. The school now occupies approximately right in the heart of Fort Worth. Originally, only 50 acres of land were ceded to the Clark brothers; at the time, the land was dubbed "Hell's Half Acre" due to the red-light businesses that were predominant in the area. In 1895 the plot of land was given free of charge, along with $200,000, to entice the brothers to permanently settle their educational institution in Fort Worth. Over $1.5 million dollars are exclusively endowed each year to ensure the upkeep of the university, which sits as a pristine green/flowered landscape in the middle of the urban surroundings of Fort Worth.
Uptown / Trinity
The Tarrant Regional Water District, City of Fort Worth, Tarrant County, Streams & Valleys Inc, and U.S. Army Corps of Engineers are cooperating in an effort to develop an area north of "downtown" as "uptown" along the Trinity River. This plan promotes a large mixed use development adjacent to the central city area of Fort Worth, with a goal to prevent urban sprawl by promoting the growth of a healthy, vibrant urban core. The Trinity River Vision lays the groundwork to enable Fort Worth's central business district to double in size over the next 40 years. (External Link)
Other
The Tandy Center Subway, based in the Tandy Center (now known as City Place), operated in Fort Worth from 1963 to 2002. The 0.7 mile (1 km) long subway was the only privately operated subway in the United States.
La Gran Plaza de Fort Worth - is a repositioning of the original shopping mall in the area known more recently as Fort Worth Town Center (but was first dubbed 'Seminary South'). The Center was built on a dry lake bed on the South side of Downtown. La Gran Plaza is being designed in response to the changing demographics of the region. It provides for supermarkets, cinemas, and a Lienzo Charro, a Mexican Rodeo and Concert venue arena.
Trinity Trails - A network of over 35 miles (56 km) of pedestrian trails along the Trinity River.
United States Bureau of Engraving and Printing (BEP) - Federal Reserve notes (United States paper currency) are printed at the bureau's facilities in north Fort Worth.
United States Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) - Home to the US Army Engineer Fort Worth District District Office.
Naval Air Station Joint Reserve Base Fort Worth, formerly known as Carswell Air Force Base, a major military installation in west Fort Worth and a major contributor to the local economy.
Logan's Run, a 1976 science fiction film directed by Michael Anderson and starring Michael York was shot largely in Fort Worth, including locations such as the Fort Worth Water Gardens. The Water Gardens also appear in another science-fiction film of the period, The Lathe of Heaven (1980).
Culture
Politics
Cuisine
Arts
Sports and recreation
While much of Fort Worth's sports attention is focused on the Metroplex's professional sports teams, the city does have its own athletic identity. TCU competes in NCAA Division I Athletics, including the football team that's consistently ranked in the Top 25, the baseball team that has competeted in the last three NCAA Tournaments, and the women's basketball team that has competed in the last seven NCAA Tournaments. Texas Wesleyan University competes in the NAIA, and were the 2006 NAIA Div. I Men's Basketball champions and three-time National Collegiate Table Tennis Association (NCTTA) team champions (2004-2006). Fort Worth is also home to the NCAA football Bell Helicopter Armed Forces Bowl as well as four minor-league professional sports teams. One of which, the Fort Worth Cats, were reborn in 2001. The original Cats, who had discontinued in 1960 were a very popular minor league team in Fort Worth dating back to the 19th century (when they were called the Panthers).
Professional Sports Teams
| Club |
Sport |
Founded |
League |
Venue |
Fort Worth Cats
| Baseball |
2001 |
AAIPBL |
LaGrave Field |
Fort Worth Flyers
| Basketball |
|
