Marker placed on Tarrant Co. Courthouse grounds near TCU’s 1910 location
In the late 1870s, Fort Worth’s Hell’s Half Acre had too much rowdy action going on downtown for a Christian school. So the Fort Worth Board of Trade (now the Fort Worth Chamber) teamed with a landowner and Christian churches to bring the school that had become Texas Christian University back here in 1910.
TCU didn’t promise to stay more than 10 years. But 100 years later, the university celebrates a “Century of Partnership” with Fort Worth with a year-long series of events.
In the first public event, the Chamber and TCU team up again with the dedication of a Heritage Trails historical marker sponsored by TCU, Monday, August 30 at 10 a.m. on the east lawn of the Tarrant County Courthouse at the corner of Commerce and Weatherford Streets, near the site where TCU leased space in 1910.
“TCU and the City of Fort Worth have enjoyed a mutually-beneficial relationship for the past 100 years,” said TCU Chancellor Victor J. Boschini, Jr. “Through this relationship, TCU has been able to grow and evolve into the world-class, values-centered University it is today. It is hard to imagine TCU without Fort Worth.”
“Partnership is the perfect word” to describe the relationship of the Chamber of Commerce and TCU, said Mac McLain, chairman of the Fort Worth Chamber Foundation, which funds the Heritage Trails project. “With the Foundation’s focus on education – from early childhood to post-secondary studies – it’s fitting that a Heritage Trails marker chronicles a piece of Fort Worth’s long-time support of higher education.”
Bill Thornton, president and CEO of the Fort Worth Chamber, echoed that. “Companies are looking for intellectual capital when they consider investing in or relocating to Fort Worth, and TCU’s rich history and prestige bring positive attention to our area’s strength in higher education.”
After beginning in Thorp Spring, Texas, in 1873, TCU moved to Waco, Texas. A fire destroyed the Waco campus in 1910, leading the University to seek other locations. After receiving proposals for multiple Texas cities, TCU selected Fort Worth based on its generous offer from civic leaders. The University spent a year in a series of rented buildings in downtown Fort Worth until moving to its present location in 1911. TCU will celebrate this return and partnership with the city of Fort Worth over the next year through a series of events and activities.
In about six months, the TCU marker will be mounted on granite and positioned at a two-foot slant in the same location.
For more information on the Century of Partnership, visit www.worthcelebrating.tcu.edu. For information about Heritage Trails, visit www.fortworthheritagetrails.com.
What the Heritage Trails marker says
Texas Christian University and Fort Worth’s partnership dates to 1910, although the connection began in 1869 when Ida, Addison and Randolph Clark established TCU’s forerunner academy in the area known as Hell’s Half Acre. The rowdiness of the area persuaded the Clarks to relocate their school to the country.
So began the moves and changes that led TCU to Thorp Spring, Waco and back to Fort Worth in 1910, after fire destroyed the main building on the Waco campus.
The Fort Worth Board of Trade, an antecedent of the Chamber of Commerce, the Fairmount Land Company and the city’s Christian Churches offered 50 acres, $200,000 and promises of utilities and a street car line, outbidding Waco and Dallas.
Until facilities were constructed on “the Hill” – site of the present campus – in 1911, TCU leased space downtown in Ingram Flats, a series of two-story brick buildings at Weatherford and Commerce Streets.
Background on Heritage Trails
Twenty-three bronze sidewalk markers, concentrated on Main Street from Heritage Park to the Water Gardens, tell the story of Fort Worth’s history, people, places and events. A seven-foot-tall, powder-coated steel kiosk at the corner of Main and Second Streets serves as a downtown directory and provides Heritage Trails guide maps.
A joint project of the Fort Worth Chamber Foundation, Fort Worth Convention and Visitors Bureau, and Downtown Fort Worth, Inc., Heritage Trails plaques educate and entertain residents and visitors who are intrigued with Fort Worth’s history and western heritage. The markers bear a signature cubistic longhorn design from 1936 by Evaline Sellors, a sepia-toned screened illustration, and a brief historical narrative. Each four-foot-tall, freestanding marker is sponsored by a local business or organization.
In 2002, Heritage Trails project was launched as the legendary Sleeping Panther sculpture by Deran Wright was installed on the lawn of the Tarrant Co. Administration Building, recalling the 1873 Dallas Herald column citing Fort Worth was such a quiet town that a panther was seen sleeping on Main Street.
