DUANE
Duane's take
Here's my telling of what the official marker has to say about the Fairmount-Southside Historic District in Tarrant County. Now settle in, because this is a story about how a city decides to grow — and where it decides to go. Fort Worth was incorporated in 1873, and right from the start, people were playing the long game.
The railroad hadn't even arrived yet, but speculators were already buying and selling land, betting that when those iron rails finally came through, the whole economy would shift. And they were right. The railroad arrived in 1876, and Fort Worth started moving.
It moved south. Developers began planning the additions that would eventually make up what we now call the Fairmount-Southside Historic District, and they were at it from 1883 all the way through 1907. Twenty-two separate additions, laid out piece by piece, like a quilt being stitched together over a quarter century.
The largest single piece of that quilt was the Fairmount Addition, platted in 1890, which takes up much of the western half of the district. Now, when all this was happenin', the land down here was sitting on the southernmost edge of Fort Worth. The very edge of the map.
But not for long. Middle-income workers were pourin' into Fort Worth for employment of every kind, and they needed somewhere to live. So they came south.
The district grew fast in those formative years, and the homes that went up reflect that — wood-framed single-family cottages, bungalows, two-story foursquare homes, spread across nearly 375 acres in about a hundred square blocks, more than 1,200 contributing structures in all. To put a finer point on it, that is a neighborhood. Within the first two decades of the twentieth century, streetcar lines were running down the major thoroughfares — College Avenue, Fairmount Avenue — carrying railroad employees, doctors, lawyers, salesmen, and merchants back and forth between the Southside and wherever their work took them.
Now here's the thing that makes this district worth stopping for. The homes themselves tell a story in stone and wood and shingle. The earliest ones came in Queen Anne style — all that ornament, all that flair.
And by the time the district was filling out, the dominant style had shifted all the way to Craftsman. That arc, from Queen Anne to Craftsman, right there in one neighborhood, is nothing less than the evolution of domestic architecture in early twentieth century suburban America, written out across about a hundred square blocks just two miles south of downtown Fort Worth. The speculators bet on the railroad, the railroad won, and the people who came after built themselves something that's still standing.
What the marker says
The Fairmount-Southside Historic District is a predominately residential area in the center of Fort Worth's Historic Southside. Located approximately two miles south of present-day downtown, the district is comprised of 22 separate additions containing more than 1,200 contributing residences, commercial buildings and other structures. It emcompasses nearly 375 acres in about 100 square blocks. Most residences were built as wood-framed single-family cottages, bungalows and two-story foursquare homes. Fort Worth was incorporated in 1873 in anticipation of the first railroad, which came through in 1876. Speculators bought and sold land they believed would turn the most profit if Fort Worth's economy was bolstered by the railroad. During the post-railroad boom, the city began to quickly expand south. Developers planned the additions that now comprise the Fairmount-Southside Historic District during the years 1883-1907. The largest was the Fairmount Addition, platted in 1890, which encompasses much of the western half of the district. When developed, the land on which the Fairmount-Southside Historic District now rests was on the southernmost edge of the city. The district grew rapidly in its formative years, as many middle-income workers moved to Fort Worth for various employment opportunities. Within the first two decades of the 20th Century, streetcar lines ran down major district thoroughfares, including College and Fairmount Avenues, carrying railroad employees, doctors, lawyers, salesmen and merchants to and from their homes built on the Southside to their areas of employment. Beginning with Queen Anne and ending in the Craftsman style, the homes built by the original residents now showcase the evolution of domestic architecture of early 20th Century suburban America (2016)