ThinkDenton
A Collection of Denton-centric News and Happenings
and replace it with a parking lot
Tear this whole thing down
No one make a sound
Building brand new towns, more brand new towns…
:: Robert Gomez, “Brand New Towns”
This picture of my daughter Rosemary sitting among the flowers on the Denton courthouse lawn was taken about a year ago. Had the “progressives” of 50 years ago had their way, that magnificent structure would be gone and this town gathering point would now be home to a parking lot.
Can you imagine it? You better… Denton’s beauty and historic charm are fragile and in need of continual defense. We all saw it happen on Fry Street, folks in the Bell Avenue Historic Conservation District fought it last year, the West Oak Historic District is fighting it right now… powerful and influential people with little interest beyond their own ability to make a buck on a piece of land are always here making a case for Denton’s need to “modernize”. The scars of this are evident: there isn’t an historic street in town that doesn’t contain the remnants of past myopic city planning decisions, all justified in the sacred names of property rights and progress.
In the coming days, thinkdenton.com will take a look at our current situation. Have we learned the lessons of our own history or do we continue to hear language eerily similar to this Editorial posted in the Denton Record Chronicle on June 29, 1956?
at 5:07 am
That’s crazy. I’d hope at this point (50+ years later), we can all see the “value” of the courthouse and such historic features of Denton.
Of course, we need to be vigilant – Fry St. is still fresh in our minds. Rayzor Ranch is a eye-sore. 2499 is coming too!
at 2:56 am
[...] see a shocking example of how fragile Denton’s historic character is, take a look at this. [...]
at 12:19 am
[...] of the market to guide the growth and development of our city. That invisible hand once wanted to tear down the courthouse, it destroyed the soul of the last interesting edge of the UNT campus, and it tears down beautiful [...]
at 1:10 pm
Amazing find!
I can remember a time when I was very young (I’m only 34!) that anything “old timey” was looked at as dirty, stodgy, and expensive to repair, and was bound to be replaced by a box-like structure with plate-glass windows. Think of the Carroll Courts Building compared to the Courthouse-on-the-Square, and that’s what the people of the ’50s through the ’80s thought “the future” would look like.
In those decades, our civilization was too busy discovering mass communication and transportation to focus in on the little things, such as architectural details and historic preservation. This kind of thinking led to the development of parking garages and indoor malls — putting practicality over aesthetics.
Thank God that today, amid greater prosperity, a gradual shunning of collectivist political philosophy, and a revival in architectural standards, we’re returning to an appreciation of our old buildings and the detail and hard work that went into making them accomodating places which increase our quality of life.
at 12:07 pm
[...] and enhance place. The same rules should apply here in Denton. As we once endeavored to bulldoze the historic downtown courthouse to build a parking lot, we now gravitate to it as a public space. We preserved the courthouse, [...]
Leave a Reply