FORT WORTH’S BEAUTIFUL FIRE: THE TEXAS SPRING PALACE

Illustration from Frank Leslie’s Illustrated Newspaper, 1890
Imagine driving past this on Lancaster Avenue.

Imagine driving past this on Lancaster Avenue.

In 1889, Fort Worth was no longer just another small outpost clinging to the edges of the frontier.

The city’s population had quickly grown to twenty-three thousand and gained “boomtown” status

thanks to eight railroads that brought tradesmen in from different states to do business at Fort Worth’s

many mills, tanneries, ironworks, and Fort Worth’s original stockyards, the Union Stockyards.

With a strengthening economy, streetcar lines also quickly expanded service across Fort Worth to

support the rising number of new settlers. Residents would hitch rides crosstown to the courthouse,

Fort Worth University, a freshly built opera house, countless neighborhood churches, seven schools and

newly opened saloons. The rickety streetcars would rattle their way up and down twenty-six miles of

newly developed streets, and like other up-and-coming cities, were a clear indicator of a promising new

(Cow)town.

Fort Worth had a lot to be proud of and was no longer seen as the rough-around-the-edges city at the

end of the Chisholm Trail. It was a city that demanded to be seen.

Fort Worth turned 40 that year and wanted to use the milestone birthday as an opportunity to promote

itself and show the world the sophisticated city it had become. To historic Fort Worth, this coming-of-

age celebration would be a success and put the bustling hub on the front pages of newspapers in other

cities for the first time ever; tragically for the wrong reason.

Two years prior, Robert A. Cameron, an immigration director for the Fort Worth and Denver Railroad

came up with an idea to keep Cowtown’s boom going.

Inspired by Toronto’s and Saint Paul’s Ice Palaces, and Sioux City’s Corn Palace, Cameron suggested the

construction of a magnificent exhibition of Fort Worth’s own. The primary purpose was to showcase

Texas agricultural products and allow visitors, potential investors, and immigrants to see all that Texas

had to offer under one roof. Cowtown’s trailblazers thought it was a brilliant idea. A company was

organized shortly thereafter and managed to raise $50,000 towards the construction of the project.

Captain B. B. Paddock, editor of the Fort Worth Gazette, led the initiative to publicize the event and

spearhead the venture.

The Gazette reported a sneak-peek about the fair in January, 1889: “A magnificent exhibition of what

Texas has and is.” The world’s fair-type expo was to be held in the spring, christening the name the

Texas Spring Palace.

Many areas of Fort Worth competed to host the exhibition but ultimately Paddock and his directors

chose for the Spring Palace to be adjacent to the tracks of the Texas & Pacific Railway as the official

location. The structure would go between Main and Jennings streets, near the present-day Texas and

Pacific Station.

With Spring fast approaching, promoters wasted no time or expense to advertise the palace in all parts

of the country. Committees traveled in “special vehicles” to Washington and Mexico City to hand deliver

VIP silver-bound invitations to Presidents Harrison and Diaz to attend the grand opening of the Spring

Palace.

Back in Fort Worth, plans called for a cross-shaped building of 60,000 square feet built entirely of timber

culled from groves of Texas. Numerous towers, spires and domes would surround the main two-story

facility – and with a workforce of 100 men, the palace was built in just 30 days.

Every inch of the exterior and interior was completely constructed of products from Texas “field, forest,

orchard and garden.” Festoons and mosaics were created from these dried out minerals and adorned

the walls of the structure. Fort Worth women did the decorating - weaving colorful patterns and

messages with wheat, corn, rye, grass, moss, cotton, and even cactus. Shelled cord and oats covered the

roofs of 12 towers. One tower was dedicated to Diaz; another to Harrison.

When completed, the Spring Palace looked like a mix between the state and national capitols and

something out of a fantasy world. The Art Nouveau style exterior was surrounded by arched doorways;

Pagoda-like towers had balconies that stood tall with flags atop its spires. The center of the main

building crowned a 155-foot Taj-mahal-style grand dome that featured a 42-star American flag.

“It was easily the most beautiful structure erected on earth” said Paddock.

Both presidents did not show, but the exposition went on without them, and on May 29th, 1889, The

Texas Spring Palace opened its gates. Many Texas counties participated by sponsoring sections of the

structure, including a tower dedicated to Dallas County and another tower to Hardeman County. Those with

the most extravagant decorations were awarded prizes. Guest were entertained by the Elgin Watch Factory

Band; political and religious speeches were scheduled along with sporting events. Exhibits included a prairie

dog village, cotton field simulation, a fishpond, and Sam Houston’s walking cane.

The first season of the Spring Palace exhibition ended on June 10th. It was considered a success despite

closing at a loss of $23,000 (close to $600,000 today). As the Fort Worth business community had

hoped, the Spring Palace helped put Cowtown on the map.

The second season opened on May 10, 1890, and would end with a three-week exhibition, closed by a

grand ball on May 30, 1890. A sense of Fort Worth pride surrounded the expo, and it would exceed

expectations of the year prior. Seven-thousand people, many from out of town (including nearby Dallas),

filled the palace on the evening of May 30. That night, at the conclusion of the regular evening concert,

the lower floor of the palace was being cleared for the ball. According to one witness, a boy stepped on

a match near the Gold Room on the second floor of the sprawling wooden building. The match head

ignited, and the flames caught on to nearby pampas grass covering a pillar.

It took 11 minutes for the structure to burn to the ground.

Only one life was lost that night. 41-year-old Alfred S. Hayne, an English-born civil engineer. Hayne

attended the gala that night and could have escaped, but opted to stay on the second floor, helping

women and children out of the growing inferno by lowering them to the ground with a rope. It is said

that Hayne tossed a woman out the window before leaping out himself. Spectators caught the falling

woman, but not Hayne, who fell straight to the ground. The grateful people of Fort Worth erected a

monument to Hayne, that to this day stands on Lancaster Avenue between Main and Houston streets.

Sadly, the Spring Palace has largely been forgotten.

WRITTEN BY MICHAEL GOVEA of FORT WORTH HISTORICAL, FEBRUARY 2021