DUANE
Duane's take
Here's how the official marker tells it, and I'll give it to you straight with a little Texas flavor on top. The Texas and Pacific Railroad came stretching its iron arms all the way into Fort Worth back in 1876, and when it arrived, the city sat up and took notice. That line proved vital — the marker's word, vital — to the economic growth of the whole city.
Railroads and boomtowns, friend, they have a way of finding each other. Now, fast forward to 1931. Company officials, led by President John L.
Lancaster, decided Fort Worth deserved something worthy of all that commerce and momentum, and so they had this Passenger Terminal Building constructed. They handed the design work to a man named Wyatt C. Hedrick, and Hedrick knew exactly what the moment called for.
What he gave them was a prime example of the Art Deco style — all that bold geometry and upward ambition frozen in stone and steel. Hedrick lived from 1888 to 1964, long enough to see what he'd built become a landmark. And for a good stretch of years, this terminal hummed.
Trains coming and going, passengers pouring through, the whole grand business of a city connecting itself to everywhere else. But here's where the story gets quiet. Sometime in the 1950s, rail traffic began to decline.
Slowly at first, the way things always go — you don't notice the tide pulling out until the shore starts looking different. And then came the day when the tide went out for good. March 22, 1967.
The last Texas and Pacific passenger train to the city stopped right here. One final arrival. And then, nothing.
That terminal, built with such confidence in 1931, stood as a monument to both the height of something and the end of it — which, if you think about it, is exactly what Art Deco always was.
What the marker says
A line of the Texas & Pacific Railroad was extended to Fort Worth in 1876 and proved vital to the economic growth of the City. Company officials, led by the President John L. Lancaster, had this Passenger Terminal Building constructed in 1931. Designed by Wyatt C. Hedrick (1888-1964), it is a good example of the Art Deco style. Rail traffic began to decline during the 1950s and the last T&P passenger train to the city stopped here on March 22, 1967.