Wednesday, October 26, 2011

The New Isis Theater In The Fort Worth Stockyards Is Still Not New After All These Years

Fort Worth Stockyard's Totally Tacky Isis Eyesore
I remember my first daylight visit to the Fort Worth Stockyards, back late in the last century, being appalled to see a rundown eyesore in a tourist attraction that is a National Historic District.

That rundown eyesore was (and is) the New Isis Theater.

I did not understand, back then, and now, why the City of Fort Worth would allow this boarded up building to detract from what I think is the best thing Fort Worth has going for it.

Early in this century on my Eyes on Texas website I made a webpage I thought amusing, at the time, titled "Totally Tacky Texas."

On that Totally Tacky Texas webpage I included the New Isis Theater among things I found tacky in Texas.

Then on June 7, 2007 a guy named Robert emailed me with the following...

Dear Durango Texas,

As an FYI - The New Isis Theater is currently in the architectural phase of renovation. This will probably take 3-4 months and the renovation approximately 14-16 months. Hopefully we can achieve a look which will remove us from your expertly crafted list of Stockyard buildings in need of repair. You could be very helpful in this process by informing your web viewers that the original seats from the inside of the theater are available for those who would like to purchase a piece of history. These will need to be replaced because of they are only 16 1/2 inches wide compared to modern theater seats at 21". (a testament to the decline of our culinary tastes over the last 70+ years.)

Regards,
Robert
The New Isis Theater

Robert and I exchanged several emails. It was clear to me that Robert really was hoping to revive the New Isis Theater. But there were a lot of hurdles to jump over.

Apparently those hurdles proved to be too much, because the New Isis Theater, on October 26, 2011, looks as forlorn and forsaken as the first time I saw it way back in the last century.

No comments: