For decades, the historic red-brick Armour building at the east end of the Fort Worth Stockyards has stood as a mysterious-looking monument to an era long past.
It turns out that the inside of the old building holds a few mysteries, too.
U.S. Energy Development Corp ., the Arlington based firm that bought the property in 2022, has been extensively renovating and preserving the building to turn it into the company’s new headquarters. The three-story building is one of the only surviving structures from what was once a sprawling meatpacking operation, dating back to the early 1900s.
As construction crews worked, they uncovered an abandoned tunnel beneath the floor heading east from the building. It’s unclear exactly where the dark passage led, because workers quickly realized that the tunnel contained asbestos. Abatement of the toxic material was completed and the tunnel was collapsed, but it was just one surprise in store for crews as they bring new life to the familiar Stockyards landmark.