DUANE
Duane's take
Here's my telling of what the official marker has to say about Camp Bowie Boulevard. Now, some streets just carry traffic. But some streets carry history — and this one's been haulin' it since 1917.
Back then, what you know today as Camp Bowie Boulevard went by a different name entirely: Arlington Heights Boulevard. And it wasn't just any road. It was the main artery running straight through Camp Bowie, a World War I training center right here in Tarrant County.
Picture it — 1917, 1918 — narrow strips of asphalt paving flanked streetcar tracks that ran the full length of the avenue. Soldiers coming and going, the whole machinery of a nation at war moving along that road. Then the war ended.
The training center faded. But the street? The street stayed.
In 1919, they renamed it Camp Bowie Boulevard — a way of keeping something of that history alive in the name itself. And the story didn't stop there. Come 1927 and 1928, like many of the major thoroughfares in Fort Worth, this boulevard got paved with Thurber bricks.
Durable Thurber bricks, the marker says — and it means it. Those bricks weren't laid to last a season; they were laid to last. Today, Camp Bowie Boulevard stands as a reminder of Fort Worth's heritage and a source of pride to the people who live and work along it.
From a World War I artery to a brick-laid boulevard — some roads, friend, just refuse to be forgotten.
What the marker says
In 1917-18, this roadway was the main artery through Camp Bowie, a World War I training center. Narrow strips of asphalt paving flanked streetcar tracks that ran the length of the avenue, then called Arlington Heights Boulevard. After the war, business and residential development spread into this area. In 1919 the street was renamed Camp Bowie Boulevard. In 1927-28, like many of the major thoroughfares in Ft. Worth, it was paved with durable Thurber bricks. Today this street is a reminder of Ft. Worth's heritage and a source of pride to area residents. (1979)