Ft. Worth exhibit shows 19th century Clarendon

FORT WORTH – From the close of the Civil War until shortly after the turn of the 20th century, a number of artists traveled throughout the United States to create maplike scenes of each state’s burgeoning settlements, towns, and cities – including Clarendon, Texas.

These highly detailed and oversized lithographic prints, created by the artists as if seen from high above, came to be known as “bird’s-eye views.” Today, the ones that have survived over the years are remarkable objects for all of the information they contain, and the Texas views offer a fascinating chronicle of one of the greatest periods of urban growth in the state’s history.

From February 18 to May 28, 2006, the Amon Carter Museum presents “Patterns of Progress: Bird’s-Eye Views of Texas,” an exhibition of more than 60 views of cities ranging from Austin, Childress, Denison and El Paso to Sherman, Texarkana, Victoria, and Wichita Falls. In many cases the prints are at least three feet wide, and their detail is surprisingly accurate.

The maps will be displayed in alphabetical order so that visitors can easily find the view of a particular city. The cities of Austin, Dallas, Denison, Fort Worth, Gainesville, Galveston, Greenville, Houston, New Braunfels, San Antonio and Waco each have as many as three or four views published on different dates.

The image of Clarendon comes just three years after the town moved from its original location along the Salt Fork of the Red River to its new site along the Ft. Worth & Denver rail line.

Thaddeus M. Fowler, a native of Pennsylvania who drew the Clarendon map, made 16 views in Texas and more than 400 nationally, making him the most prolific of the city-view artists.

Looking from the north, slight changes in elevation as the land rises to the south and west are apparent on the map, and well-defined gullies twist and turn through town. The Donley County Courthouse dominates the area, with the Methodist Episcopal Church, the M. E. Church, South, and the public school all nearby.

The courthouse, with its turrets and a corner tower, might not have been complete when Fowler was here, but it would have been far enough along that he would have had a good idea of its appearance. Architects even examined Fowler’s work prior to the restoration of the courthouse in 2003.

The bank building on Kearney Street seems to dominate downtown, just as the FW&DC roundhouse does on the east side of town. Both landmarks have long since disappeared.

The cluster of small homes along Front Street near the roundhouse probably housed railroad workers, and the large two-story frame structure at the corner of Kearney Street directly across from the railroad depot was probably the Windsor Hotel, which burned to the ground in 1892.

The Museum is open Tuesday, Wednesday, Friday, and Saturday from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., on Thursday from 10 a.m. to 8 p.m., and on Sunday from noon to 5 p.m.

Exhibition admission is free for museum members, $6 for adults and $4 for seniors and college students. Youths age 18 and under get in free.