Historic Downtown Fort Worth Building Will Be Transformed Into New Library

Local community arts advocate and founder of the grassroots group Support Fort Worth Art, Wesley Kirk, has fond memories of Fort Worth’s now-shuttered central library. The space, which opened in 1978 at 500 W. 3rd Street, once stretched across two city blocks and served as the city’s cultural and educational anchor for decades.

“I used to go there all the time as a kid,” Kirk tells PaperCity Fort Worth. “I loved it. Even as an adult on the Near Southside, I’d go there to borrow movies and see what new books they had.”

The city sold that building in 2023, citing structural and functionality issues, which left Fort Worth without the kind of central library found in other major cities. One year ago, the city purchased the former home of the Center for Transforming Lives at 512 W. 4th Street. The 31,500-square-foot, six-story Georgian Revival structure is being developed as the Downtown Library. Now, city leaders are asking for input from locals on which services they want to see the Downtown Library offer.

“I was glad to see that they bought the old Center for Transforming Lives building, but that still leaves us without a central library,” Kirk says. “I hope the focus will be on creating third spaces for the community with meeting spaces, makerspaces, art spaces, gathering spaces, and safe spaces in general.”

Reimagining a 1928 Landmark for Today

The city’s plan for 512 W. 4th Street calls for a phased renovation of the historic building — originally built in 1928 as the Elks Lodge. Designed by Wyatt C. Hedrick, the Downtown landmark features “a front portico with gray Vermont marble stairs supported by Tuscan columns, nonfunctional cast stone balconies at the third and fifth floors, and large doors opening onto the roof of the porch from the second-floor ballroom,” according to this LanCarte Commercial listing.

Phase one of development, estimated at $6.5 million, will focus on the basement, main entry, and first floor. Later stages will transform the former residential floors into spaces whose uses will be guided by community feedback and library leadership.

When asked how 512 W. 4th Street compares to the old Central Library, a spokesperson for the Fort Worth Public Library told us the new spot’s 30,000-plus square feet of space aligns with the level of use the Central Library saw after COVID.

“As to the services and accessibility, that will be determined with community input from our upcoming outreach sessions,” we were told. Those sessions, “meetings with civic organizations and community surveys will help our design/build team as well as library leadership determine how this location will serve the community in the future.”

To capture public feedback, the city has scheduled two listening sessions in September. The first will be held on Thursday, September 4, from 6 pm to 8 pm at First United Methodist Church, followed by a second session on Saturday, September 13, from 10 am to noon at Broadway Baptist Church. A community briefing summarizing the findings will be presented in late September at City Hall.

Libraries as Civic and Creative Centers

Kirk says discussions about the Downtown Library come at a time when there is a serious shortage of community spaces in general and especially for the arts within Fort Worth. With Arts Fort Worth leasing part of the first floor at 512 W. 4th Street, he sees an opportunity for activation of the building through pop-up art shows and other artist-led initiatives.

“Artists are very creative,” Kirk adds. “They can throw together an awesome show for one night only and do that in an area where they can talk about community art spaces and what needs to happen.”

The loss of the Fort Worth Community Arts Center due to unaddressed repairs has only heightened the need for venues where artists can gather, showcase work, and connect with the public. Kirk believes the interim library site could help fill that void, even temporarily, and demonstrate how civic spaces can nurture creativity as well as learning.

“There are needs in the city that for-profit entities aren’t motivated to do,” he says, “And there are things that nonprofits are too stretched thin to do. Having a city-owned public space accessible to all is so vital for a well-functioning city. A central library should be a point of pride for any city.”

Until renovations at the Downtown Library are complete, locals in the central Fort Worth area can make use of the Express Library, a temporary branch inside City Hall at 200 Texas Street. Opened in March 2024, the branch lets patrons borrow a small selection of books and access the full library catalog online. The city also operates multiple library locations throughout Fort Worth.