West is Among the Best for Culture and Shopping-and-Dining Delights
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by Michael H. Price
“Happy to follow the bumpy brick road,” reads a newspaper headline from 1981 — a lasting assertion that Camp Bowie Boulevard’s historic brick pavement must endure, and never mind the occasional traffic-engineering idea of modernizing the pathway with concrete and asphalt. Now as then, seekers of entertainment, adventure, and dining experiences remain “happy to follow the bumpy brick road,” as a principal gateway to Fort Worth’s west side and its many commercial and civic offshoots. The attractions range from a burgeoning West 7th Street district to a broadening cultural and historical district – connecting southward with University Park Village, westward with the Chapel Hill shopping-andentertainment development, and branching out further with new moviegoing venues, boutique eateries, and varied opportunities for strolling and sightseeing amid architectural innovations on a comfortably human scale. Pioneering publisher and civic booster Amon Carter characterized Fort Worth as “where the West begins.” And for locals and visitors alike, the west side marks the beginning of that beginning: The West hardly could have picked a keener starting point than Fort Worth. Prominent among the newer landmarks is Dickies Arena, a versatile 14,000-seat showplace named after the Fort Worthbased manufacturer of workplace clothing. Located at 1911 Montgomery Street within the Will Rogers Memorial Center, Dickies Arena complements and expands the scope of the adjacent Will Rogers Complex, providing a new home for the Fort Worth Stock Show Rodeo. And Fort Worth, in turn, hardly could have picked a site more right for its burgeoning west side Cultural District. Rippling with heavy-duty commercial, artistic, and residential growth since the dawn of the 21st cen6
KEY MAGAZINE
September 2021
tury, the west side overall has seen its very skyline change with the transformation of a busy West 7th Street into a streamlined conduit connecting the downtown area’s Sundance Square development with the Cultural District. Heading west (naturally) from downtown Fort Worth, one finds the Cultural District radiating from the intersection where Seventh Street crosses University Drive and, in the process, morphs into the historic, brickpaved Camp Bowie Boulevard. Visitors in search of western-style discoveries — from plain-and-fancy dining, to fine art and varied entertainment — will find such delights in volume on the west side. Cultural attractions, restaurants, mainstream and special-interest shopping, and lavish natural gardens flourish as a reminder of how Fort Worth has built upon its frontier origins. Several of the world’s finer museums, playhouses and galleries anchor a vast Cultural District. The hand-laid red-brick pavement of Camp Bowie Boulevard is an attraction in itself, lined with an ever-expanding array of art galleries, stage-and-screen auditoriums, boutiques, scholarly museums, restaurants and lounges, and shopping malls. One long-standing favorite, Domain XCIV, 3100 W. 7th Street, originated in 1994 along Camp Bowie Boulevard. Persistent growth has led to a 6,500-square-foot showcase, combining fine furniture and vintage European treasures and accessories. Collections include Theodore Alexander, Wesley Hall, and Guild Master. Domain XCIV has long supplied anchorage for the villagewithin-a-city developments of the West 7th Street area. A newly settled popular attraction, the Grand Berry Theatre at 2712 Weisenberger Drive, emerges as a showplace for independent and art-house motion pictures, complementing the mainstream Hollywood movies at Movie Tavern West 7th and
