I remember riding into Fort Worth as a kid from our sprawling home in Cleburne, pressing against the car window and marveling at the city’s scale. My gaze always settled on the brick patches near the Stockyards, then farther west on Camp Bowie Boulevard. At the time, I thought it odd that these stretches hadn’t been replaced with a smooth blacktop. Now, returning years later, I can say I’m glad they haven’t. Those bricks carry history beneath every tire, every footstep.
That military camp looms large in the boulevard’s story. In 1917, construction began on Camp Bowie, a tented training facility named after Texas Revolution hero James “Jim” Bowie. Spanning over 2,000 acres, it housed the 36th Division, whose soldiers lived side by side with Fort Worth residents. On April 11, 1918, the division marched through the city in what may have been Fort Worth’s largest public gathering — 225,000 people lining the streets to watch a four-hour procession. After months of training and deployment to France, the camp became a demobilization center, ultimately discharging more than 100,000 soldiers before closing in August 1919. Today, Veterans’ Memorial Park at Camp Bowie and Crestline Rd. commemorates those who trained there, planted by both local and international groups.
Even before the war, Fort Worth had begun building the infrastructure that would define its westward growth. Vitrified clay bricks — fired at high temperatures for durability and glazed to resist water — paved streets like Camp Bowie Blvd. These bricks weren’t just functional; they symbolized a city carving itself out “where the west begins.” Today, Camp Bowie Boulevard preserves that legacy: a corridor of red Thurber bricks whispering tales of soldiers, trolleys, and neighborhoods over a century old.
The boulevard was initially planned in the 1890s by the Chamberlin brothers — Alfred, Humphrey, and Frederic — with trolley tracks running down the center, linking the city to Lake Como and the surrounding suburbs. By the early 1900s, the street was platted and ready for growth, soon becoming a hub for families moving westward. After the war, middle- and upper-middle-class families filled the former military grounds with bungalows and English-cottage-style homes, and the boulevard became a lively commercial corridor. Landmarks like Arlington Heights Methodist Church, Connell Baptist Church, Fire Station No. 18, and Zeloski’s commercial row sprung up along the boulevard’s lines…