Run, don’t walk to Fort Worth’s downtown library. The city just set its final closing date
May 1,2023
See full Fort Worth Star-Telegram article by Harrison Mantas here.
If you want to visit Fort Worth’s Central Library downtown, you better hurry.
The nearly 50-year-old building at 500 W. Third St. will close its doors for good June 30, according to a report from the city of Fort Worth.
The downtown branch will stop hosting public programs, school field trips and processing passport applications on May 6.
Fort Worth sold the building to Dallas-based Dart Interests for $18 million in December 2022. The developer hasn’t said publicly what it plans to do with the building, but it is considering building two high-rise towers.
The city’s property management department is looking for a new location for a future downtown branch, but it will not be in the Dart Interests building, according to the city’s report.
The company has previous experience building mixed-use and residential towers in New York, Washington and Singer Island, Florida.
The city decided to sell the building after determining the 234,000 square foot branch was more space than was needed. The lower levels had been closed since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, according to library spokesperson Theresa Davis.
The books and artwork in the downtown branch will be sent to other locations.
The city is trying to salvage the commemorative bricks on the outside of the building that were used to fund its 1994 update. It set up a web page to get the contact information of people who purchased bricks and are interested in preserving them.
The “Bumpersaurus” art piece, a 12-foot dinosaur sculpture made of car parts and equipped with a slide, will be moved to the soon-to-be-opened Vivian J. Lincoln Library in Southwest Fort Worth. That branch is scheduled to open July 8.
Location Mentioned: Central Library