Nephew Joey In Mount Vernon's Lincoln Theater Leads To Texas Theater Eyesores

Incoming this morning, via email, from Spencer Jack's dad, my nephew Joey's big brother, Jason.

Message in email...

In case you no longer subscribe to the Skagit Valley Herald, I’ll share a photo which featured in today’s newspaper.

Well, I am a couple thousand miles distant from the Skagit Valley, and so a delivery subscription with the Skagit Valley's newspaper is not doable.

Hence I had not seen this photo of Spencer Jack's Uncle Joey climbing amongst the rafters in Mount Vernon's Lincoln Theater.

Joey is an electrician doing electrical stuff for Mount Vernon's Dimensional Communications.

I last saw Joey in October of 2015 in Grapevine, Texas. Joey was in Dallas installing some electrical stuff at an Expedia extension office.

I can not remember the precise details, but at some point in time in the last century I found myself sort of in the same location we see Joey, high above the Lincoln Theater seats below.

Seeing this photo of Joey in the Lincoln Theater got me thinking, yet again, about the profound differences between the towns I was familiar with up North and West, and the towns I have become familiar in the South.

In the South the legit concept of using eminent domain to take property for the public good is often abused. Maybe the concept is misunderstood.

Up North and West if a property owner's property falls into a state of dis-repair, as in becomes an abandoned eyesore, a city will take action to fix the problem, enabled and empowered by city ordinance designed to prevent such.

For the public good.

Mount Vernon, in its theater heyday, had three downtown movie theaters, the Lincoln, Lido and Lyric, if I am remembering the Lincoln's fellow theater's names correctly.

Again, if I am remembering correctly, the Lyric long ago was re-purposed with a new non-theater purpose. The Lido, at the north end of downtown, continued in some sort of theater form, I think. The Lincoln, at the south end of downtown, was restored to its heyday glory and received National Historic Site status of some sort.

Meanwhile, ever since I first saw it way back late in the previous century, in the Fort Worth Stockyards zone, there has been an abandoned eyesore theater, the New Isis Theater, with its marquee always announcing a revival which never comes.

Whoever owns the New Isis Theater property is not told by the city to clean up the mess. The mess just lingers, year after year, decade after decade, mucking up the visual appeal of Fort Worth's only tourist attraction.

I don't know why such is allowed in towns in Texas, in towns which will abuse eminent domain to take a person's property, but not to take abandoned eyesore property. This phenomenon has not only been seen in the Texas town of Fort Worth.

My eyes have seen abandoned property eyesores in many Texas towns. And in Oklahoma, now that you are causing me to think about it.

In the current Texas town in which I am habitating, Wichita Falls, there are multiple instances of abandoned buildings of the eyesore sort which would not be allowed in other locations in America.

Soon after my arrival in Wichita Falls I blogged about some of these instances in Hoagie Jackson Leads Me To Tour Eastside Wichita Falls Eyesore Infestation. How many years, or decades, are such things allowed to linger in decay mode in this part of the country?

Such is yet one more question to which I've never found an answer...

In Texas Trying To Fix Fort Worth's Blighted New Isis Theater Eyesore

A day or two or three ago potential U.S. Representative, Elsie Hotpepper, messaged me regarding that which you see here, an article in the Fort Worth Star-Telegram about A drama teacher’s dream: Restoring this 1930s Fort Worth movie theater.

I had already seen this article and had already screen capped that which you see here, intending to blog about it, but then forgot about it til reminded by the aforementioned future U.S. Representative, Elsie Hotpepper.

I was not long in Texas when I was first appalled by Fort Worth's New Isis Theater, appalled because it appeared to be an abandoned eyesore blighting the good looks of what I then (and still do) think is Fort Worth's only actual tourist attraction, the Fort Worth Stockyards.

That was almost 20 years ago I first saw the blighted New Isis Theater eyesore. Soon thereafter I began my Eyes on Texas website. At that point in time I was still trying to come to terms with the culture shock of adjusting to Texas, after having spent my entire life in a more modern, progressive part of America, where something like the New Isis Theater would not be allowed to fester in such a sad state of decrepitude in such a location.

Early on in my Eyes on Texas webpage writing my take on what I was describing might seem a bit more harsh than my 2017 version of describing that which appalls me, because, like I already said, I was still trying to adjust to the culture shock.

Most of what is on the Eyes on Texas website predates when I began doing the blogging thing, hence some of the dates referenced on those webpages are from way back early in this century.

During that early in this century time frame I made a webpage documenting some of the tacky things I was seeing, calling that webpage Texas Tacky, if I remember correctly.

The Texas Tacky webpage has a section devoted to the New Isis Theater tacky eyesore. That generated some interesting feedback relevant to this latest iteration of a well meaning person trying to restore that long abandoned theater.

That is a screen cap of part of the Texas Tacky webpage's New Isis Theater section you see here. I will copy some of the text. You may find the message I received over a decade ago about an effort to restore the theater to be interesting...

THE FORT WORTH STOCKYARDS

This example of Texas Tacky is in Fort Worth's Stockyards. There is an abandoned theater on Main Street in the heart of the Stockyard's 'Historical District' called, ironically, the 'New Isis'. This theater appears to have long been abandoned, broken windows covered with plywood as per the Fort Worth standard for abandoned buildings. To add to the tackiness semi-current messages are put on the marquee. On one side the sign says 'Welcome to the Historic Fort Worth Stockyards', while the other side announces 'Christmas in the Stockyards', which would be fine, except this sign still says this, on the first day of spring, 2002, well after Christmas. It is difficult to understand how a major city would allow such an eyesore to exist in the heart of its main claim to tourist fame. Particularly an eyesore with such renovation possibilities. Where is the civic pride? Perhaps a city government group could be sent to other towns to see how they manage to fix such problems. Any of the tourist towns in Washington state would suffice, or any of the tourist towns on Highway 49 in California. Or any of the tourist towns in Colorado, Utah, Arizona or New Mexico. Or just stay in Texas and find out how the town of Archer City managed to renovate their town's famous theater.

UPDATE: In fall of 2005 the reader board on the ISIS was changed to indicate the eyesore was going to be re-modeled. The re-modeling does not appear to be underway.

UPDATE 2:  June 7, 2007 we received the following email:

From: Robert Adams
To: feedback
Sent: Thursday, June 07, 2007 10:40 PM
Subject: The New Isis Theater

Dear Tacky 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@thenewisistheater.com

___________________

So, I hope this teacher has a lot of luck with this latest attempt to restore this long abandoned embarrassing eyesore blight on Fort Worth's only actual tourist attraction. But, if Vegas is taking bets I would not put any money on it happening, anymore than Mineral Wells' Baker Hotel getting renovated.

The Baker Hotel eyesore also seems to regularly re-surface as a renovation project which goes nowhere. I have also received multiple communications about such over the years. At one point I got to take a tour of the Baker Hotel.

The Baker Hotel is a bit more impressive than the New Isis Theater, renovation possibility-wise, but I really do not expect either to have a Grand Re-Opening in my lifetime...

The Fort Worth Way vs. Adrian Murray vs. New Isis Theater vs. Heritage Park

I have had a lot aggravating me of late. Which has me tardy in verbalizing my aggravation about some aggravating aggravations.

I think it was the Friday before last Friday I was driving along listening to right wing radio, the Chris Salcedo Show on WBAP, to be precise, when I listened to Salcedo hear a man's aggravating tale of the City of Fort Worth being totally insensitive and ham handed in the way city officials dealt with the man in the aftermath of suffering one of the worst things that can happen to someone.

Having ones home seriously damaged by fire.

Later that day Elsie Hotpepper asked me if I'd heard about Adrian. I said I'd heard no news about Adrian. Elsie then told me Adrian's house caught fire and that I would not believe the stupid thing the city did to Adrian that has Adrian in full on attack mode.

I then realized it was Adrian I had listened to on the Chris Salcedo Show.

Adrian Murray is a well known Fort Worth businessman and politician. Adrian ran for the TRWD Board a couple election cycles ago. It was at that point in time I met Adrian Murray. He impressed me. Even though we differ extremely in the political viewpoint area.

You can read what the City of Fort Worth did to Adrian, which totally aggravated him, via the Star-Telegraph in The Fort Worth Way vs. Adrian Murray.

Fort Worth city officials quickly realized they did not want to tangle with the wrath of Adrian Murray. You can read about that in An Update from Adrian Murray.

Now, among the many reasons the bad behavior of Fort Worth city officials puzzled me is this. Within days of someone suffering their home being consumed by flames the City of Fort Worth sends a home owner an insensitive letter, threatening legal action and possible criminal charges if the home owner does not present the city, within a very short time frame, a plan for the repair of the damaged home.

Meanwhile, ever since I have been in Texas I have been appalled at an eyesore the City of Fort Worth allows to fester in the Fort Worth Stockyards National Historical District.

That eyesore I refer to is the long abandoned, boarded up New Isis Theater.

I have blogged about this eyesore multiple times, with the most recent blogging Look Inside Fort Worth Stockyards Renovated New Isis Theater.

That photo you see at the top is a look inside the New Isis Theater.

Why has the city not issued the owner of this Isis mess an order to fix it or face criminal charges?

Has the City of Fort Worth sent a letter to the City of Fort Worth demanding that the city fix the boarded up eyesore known as Heritage Park, located at the north end of Fort Worth's downtown?

Why would the city so aggressively go after a homeowner fire victim whilst ignoring much more public, long standing rundown eyesores?

Like I said, aggravating. And appalling....

Look Inside Fort Worth Stockyards Renovated New Isis Theater

This morning Elsie Hotpepper directed me to that which you see here, on Facebook, photos of "An abandoned theater in the Stockyards of Fort Worth built in 1930s and forgotten since 1988."

The theater being talked about is the New Isis Theater, with its reader board, for years, promising the New New Isis would be opening soon, ever since I first saw this eyesore soon upon my arrival in Texas, late in the previous century.

I have mentioned this Stockyards eyesore many times, in various venues, over the years, including multiple mentions on this blog you are looking at right now, for example...

The Fort Worth Stockyards New Isis Theater Travesty & The Baker Hotel In Mineral Wells Travesty

and

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

The blog post about the New Isis Theater still not being new, after years of claiming it would be re-opening soon, included the following interesting information from a guy named Robert....

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

The blog post which let us know the New Isis Theater renovation would be completed in 14 - 16 months was from way back in October of 2011.

Did J.D. Granger and America's Biggest Boondoggle take over the New Isis Theater renovation? Is that why in 2016 the New Isis Theater looks like that which you see below?

The above photo is what the interior of the renovated New Isis Theater looks like in 2016. This is one of the photos in the Jonny Goodday Facebook post which Elsie Hotpepper directed me to.

How did this theater get in such bad shape? Why is this boarded up eyesore allowed to continue blighting Fort Worth's best tourist attraction, the Stockyards, decade after decade?

Apparently A New Version Of The New ISIS Is Threatening To Come Soon To Fort Worth

In the past week or two direct threats to America  have been made by the idiotic barbaric miscreants who have co-opted the relatively sane religion of Islam, whilst Blitzkrieging across Iraq, delusionally thinking they are establishing a medieval caliphate while brutalizing an already brutalized Iraqi population with the worst brutality yet, far out-doing anything of which Saddam Hussein was ever accused.

Or did I miss, among the bogus Bush claims, such as the claim Saddam was hiding weapons of mass destruction, that Saddam also had the heads of little kids chopped off to be displayed in Iraqi city parks?

I know I am totally ignorant about all things political, particularly anything going on anywhere else in the world, but I know I could more willingly get behind the idea of sending in American troops to save little kids from barbaric head chopping monsters than I could get behind the idea of sending in the American troops to rid Iraq of imaginary weapons of mass destruction.

I digress.

So, the leader of the band of barbarians that was calling itself ISIS, before shortening the name to IS, threatened that the barbarians would be visiting America soon, places like New York City and Washington, D. C.

No mention has been made, that I know of, by the barbaric leader of the ISIS barbarians, of a threat to come wreak their warped, sicko brand of havoc on Fort Worth.

However,  today I saw evidence that maybe the ISIS barbarians are much more long term planners of murderous mayhem than anyone has credited them with being.

And that Fort Worth is a target.

How else can one explain the existence of a building in the Fort Worth Stockyards called the New ISIS Theater?

With the New ISIS Theater's billboard threatening, in very fractured English, "COIG ON THE NEW EW ISIS".

Which I translate to be saying, "COMING SOON THE NEW NEW ISIS".

So, the new ISIS is coming soon to Fort Worth? That should put Fort Worth on the national and international radar screen for the first time in its history.

But, I don't think this will likely make other towns, far and wide, green with envy.....

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.

The Fort Worth Stockyards New Isis Theater Travesty & The Baker Hotel In Mineral Wells Travesty

That is the New Isis Theater on Main Street in the Fort Worth Stockyards National Historic District.

I was appalled at this Isis Eyesore the first time I saw it, over a decade ago. I wondered then why the city code people did not make the owner fix it up. As in put windows in the boarded over windows. And a few other cosmetic fixes.

This was to be one of my early lessons in how things operate different in Texas than what I was used to.

Years passed, I started my Eyes on Texas website. On that website there is a page, long neglected, that I called Texas Tacky, basically chronicling examples of things I came across, in Texas, that seemed tacky to me.

On June 7, 2007 I got an email from Robert Adams telling me the New Isis Theater was currently being renovated, with the renovation to be completed in 14-16 months. You can go to the Texas Tacky link and read Robert's email. It's an amusing one, due to the seat info about Big Texans.

This morning I got email from Lauren regarding the New Isis Theater.

Lauren said...

"Wanting info on the Isis theater? Any new info? That email was in 2007....just in case "Robert" lost track of time, it's 2010....few months my a$$... "

It has been a few months since I last eye-witnessed the fact that the New Isis is an even bigger eyesore than when I first lay my sore eyes on it, over 10 years ago.

I wonder how many raids the Fort Worth Gestapo Stormtroopers have made on the New Isis Theater? Yes, I know, it is not nearly as bad a bad thing in public view as Steve Doeung's Protest Art that has earned him 3 citations from the FW Gestapo, with fines attached.

And in another email about another eyesore, a really cool looking eyesore, that is not in Fort Worth, that being the Baker Hotel in Mineral Wells. When I first saw the Baker Hotel it was one of the strangest things I'd ever come across. This enormous building in this small, sort of run-down town.

It was not as easy to find info on the Internet a decade ago, as it is now. I don't know if Google had yet been invented. For a long time my webpage about the Baker Hotel Googled #1 because there was so little info about it. Now you can find a lot of Baker Hotel info on the Internet.

The Baker Hotel came to my attention this morning due to an email from Connie. I'll copy the email below in case anyone other there has a suggestion for Connie.

To Whom It May Concern:

I have several old pictures of the Baker Hotel and several pieces of China that has the Baker Hotel Logo on it. I don't really know who to contact about these items. Could someone help me? And if you are interested in the items, please contact me.

Thank you,

Connie Harrington
Phone # 918-422-5406