{{Short description|Exhibition in Fort Worth, in Texas, US}} {{Use American English|date=September 2025}} right|upright|thumb|Texas Spring Palace promotional poster The '''Texas Spring Palace''' was a regional agricultural and immigration exposition in Fort Worth designed to attract settlers and investors to Texas. Built in 1889 and lasting only two seasons, the fair's main structure was destroyed in a massive fire the following year and never rebuilt.
== Building ==
=== Development === The brainchild of Robert A. Cameron, an employee of the Fort Worth & Denver Railway, the Texas Spring Palace was a large-scale structure and fairground, which like various “crop palaces” and ice palaces across North America was inspired by London's Crystal Palace<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.birdseyeviews.org/zoom.php?city=Fort%20Worth&year=1891|title=Fort Worth in 1891|website=Texas Bird's-Eye Views|access-date=2018-01-26}}</ref> and Paris' Exposition Universelle.<ref name=":0">{{Cite book|title=Lost Fort Worth|author=Nichols, Mike|isbn=9781626192355|location=Charleston, SC|oclc=863044212|year = 2014}}</ref> Built at the same time as the Eiffel Tower, the Texas Spring Palace was typical of a period of monumental structures, grand expositions, and spectacle.<ref name=":1">{{Cite journal|last=Levy|first=Max|date=April 1989|title=The Texas Spring Palace|url=http://maxlevyarchitect.com/articles/texasspring.html|journal=Domain}}</ref>
=== Construction === A number of local railroad companies co-sponsored the Texas Spring Palace to boost tourism, investment, and immigration to Texas.<ref name=":2">{{Cite web|url=https://tshaonline.org/handbook/online/articles/lkt06|title=Texas Spring Palace|website=Handbook of Texas Online|access-date=2018-01-26|date=2010-06-15}}</ref> The three-block-wide showcase building was designed by Arthur Albert Messer (1863-1934)<ref name=":0" /> of Fort Worth architecture firm Armstrong & Messer<ref name=":3">{{Cite book|title=Palaces on the prairie|last=L.)|first=Evans, Rod (Rod|date=2009|publisher=North Dakota Institute for Regional Studies, North Dakota State University|others=North Dakota Institute for Regional Studies.|isbn=9780911042719|location=[Fargo, N.D.]|oclc=495547853}}</ref> and featured eight towers and a massive dome.<ref name=":0" /> The exterior shell of the all-wood structure was built by the City of Fort Worth near the current location of the main Fort Worth post office on Lancaster Avenue, just south of downtown. The structure was built at a cost of $35,000 in just 31 days.<ref name=":4">{{Cite web|url=http://www.fwpublicart.org/nu_site/page.php/id/conservation|title=Conservation|website=Fort Worth Public Art|access-date=2018-01-26}}</ref> The building's center dome was the second-largest in the nation, behind only the dome of the U.S. Capitol building; the interior featured an exhibit hall, a log cabin, a tipi, a prairie dog town, a man-made cave, and a fountain stocked with fish and waterfowl.<ref name=":0" /> Exhibits, such as working silkworms and Sam Houston's cane, were provided by “every willing Texas town, organization, and company,” and the interiors were decorated by women's clubs.
The building's exterior was liberally decorated with crop art made from a wide variety of Texas agricultural products, including wheat, corn, millet, cotton, grasses, mosses, cacti, coal, animal hides, seashells, cattle horns and skulls, and even a taxidermy steer. Grains of Texas corn and oats were embedded in the tar roof instead of the usual gravel.<ref name=":1" /> The building was expanded to double its original size for the 1890 season.<ref name=":3" />
=== Fire === A flash fire of unknown origin erupted on the night of May 30, 1890, with over 5,000 visitors in the building attending one of the nightly balls held at the Texas Spring Palace.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://fortworthtexas.gov/flashback/2013/06/fort-worth-flashback-visitors-waltzed-across-texas-at-spring-palace-galas/|title=Fort Worth Flashback: Visitors Waltzed Across Texas and Spring Palace Galas|website=City of Fort Worth|access-date=2018-01-26}}</ref> The wooden structure, covered in dried agricultural products that had already weathered more than a year of extreme Texas weather, was leveled in less than 15 minutes, and no part of the building could be saved.<ref name=":0" /> The fire and destruction of the Texas Spring Palace was front-page news nationwide. Remarkably, only one life was lost in the blaze.<ref name=":1" /> Al Hayne, a 40-year-old Fort Worth civil engineer originally from London, died of injuries he sustained while saving women and children from the massive fire. A monument was erected in honor of Hayne in 1893.<ref name=":4" /> Ada Large, a local 15-year-old, was also awarded a medal by the City of Fort Worth for her role in helping others out of the burning structure.<ref name=":2" />
== Legacy == thumb|upright|Postcard of the Al S. Hayne Memorial Fountain, 1910
Though it only lasted for two seasons, the Texas Spring Palace was ultimately a success for Fort Worth and the state of Texas; the event received national exposure in major cities, it brought businesses and investment to Fort Worth, and thousands of visitors learned about everything Texas had to offer. Visitors came from every state, plus England, Scotland, Iceland, Belgium, Canada, and Mexico. Nearly a third of all visitors came from outside of Texas. Another outcome of the Texas Spring Palace disaster was the formation of a professional fire department in 1893; Fort Worth only had a volunteer fire department until the Texas Spring Palace fire made obvious the need for full-time firefighting.
Although Fort Worth leaders fully intended to rebuild the Texas Spring Palace, plans were eventually scrapped after a decade of struggling to get the project off the ground. The Fort Worth Stock Show and the State Fair of Texas ultimately grew to include many of the popular components of the Texas Spring Palace.<ref name=":2" />
Today, only a few reminders of the Texas Spring Palace remain in Fort Worth. A painting of the building by a San Antonio artist is on view in the Tarrant County Courthouse,<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.fwweekly.com/2009/04/29/out-of-the-fire/|title=Out of the Fire|website=FW Weekly|access-date=2018-01-26|date=2009-04-29}}</ref> and Al Hayne's tombstone can be seen at Oakwood Cemetery just north of downtown Fort Worth. The most well-known relic of the Texas Spring Palace is the Al Hayne Monument, which is part of the city's public art collection. Dedicated in 1893 by the Fort Worth Park League,<ref name=":6">{{Cite web|url=http://fortworthtexas.gov/flashback/2011/09/fort-worth-flashback-restored-monument-honored-for-preservation-excellence/|title=Fort Worth Flashback: Restored monument honored for preservation excellence|website=City of Fort Worth|access-date=2018-01-26}}</ref> the memorial was originally designed by local architecture firm Messer, Sanguinet, and Messer to be used as a fountain for watering horses. The construction of a new train station and related improvements required the monument to be moved and rebuilt in 1934. It now features a bronze bust of Hayne by Fort Worth artist Evaline Sellors atop a base of stone quarried in nearby Granbury, Texas.<ref name=":4" /> The monument is now located in a small park called the Haynes Memorial Triangle at the intersection of Lancaster Avenue and Main Street at the south end of downtown Fort Worth, close to the former site of the Texas Spring Palace.<ref name=":6" />
==References== {{Reflist}}
==External links== * [http://www.fortworthtexasarchives.org/digital/collection/p16084coll15/search Texas Spring Palace Collection], Fort Worth Library Digital Archives
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Category:Fairgrounds in the United States Category:Event venues in Texas Category:Burned buildings and structures in the United States Category:Buildings and structures in Fort Worth, Texas