Fort Worth Recreation Building
Fort Worth, Tarrant County
Constructed in 1927 and located just south of downtown, the centrally-located Fort Worth Recreation Building was the city’s first public multi-purpose facility designed to meet the recreational needs of residents, particularly its youth, as well as the general public’s need for a venue for community events. The building also served as the headquarters of the City’s Recreation Department until 1956 and then served as the offices of the department’s Athletic Division until 1982. The proeprty was listed in the National Register of Historic Places under Criterion A at the local level of significance in the area of Entertainment/Recreation, as a manifestation of the City of Fort Worth’s response to the growth of the Progressive era’s Recreation Movement during the early decades of the twentieth century. The construction of the Fort Worth Recreation Building was a direct outgrowth of the Progressive era’s Recreation Movement of the late-nineteenth and early-twentieth centuries. This movement was largely concerned with providing structured recreational opportunities for the country’s youth and, to a lesser extent, the creation of an adequate environment for the working class’s leisure-time activities.
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