PHOTOS: 1972 destruction of 18-story Worth Hotel & theater in downtown Fort Worth
Matt Leclercq
On a misty Sunday morning in October 1972, a “spectacular” rumble brought down a 45-year-old Fort Worth landmark. When a mighty dust cloud cleared away, the 18-story Worth Hotel was gone.
“It looked like slow motion,” said one of the 4,500 people who watched the demolition, as reported in the Star-Telegram.
The 300-room hotel opened Sept. 24, 1927, on the corner of West Seventh and Taylor streets, the block that’s home to the Fort Worth Club. The tower was developed by Houston businessman Jesse Jones, designed by Wyatt C. Hedrick and Alfred C. Finn, and built by Fort Worth Properties Co. for $2.5 million.
The hotel was pet-friendly and even had a kennel on the roof.
The Worth, which was considered modern with private bathrooms and circulating ice water, also had the Worth Theater. The movie and live performance venue had an elegant Egyptian interior motif and 2,800 seats, the Star-Telegram has reported.
The hotel and theater closed in 1971 and was demolished a year later to make way for a parking garage and expansion of the Fort Worth Club.
On the day of the implosion, some in the crowd were nostalgic. The Star-Telegram reported: “One oldster in the group recalled a time when the Worth Hotel site was an open field used by crowds to hear the play-by-play of the Fort Worth Cats baseball games as announced from a window in the neighboring Star-Telegram building.”
These photos from the Star-Telegram show the implosion on Oct. 29, 1972.
MORE: Check out other historic photo galleries from the Star-Telegram archives here, including these: