July 13th - Last Day for the Hideaway?
by Kevin Buchanan
I’ve heard from a couple of different places now that July 13th is the “end of the road” for J & J’s Hideaway, the west side landmark bar that’s been keeping the locals watered since the ’80s. If you’re a fan, I’d suggest you get a good eyeful of the building’s Mike Brady chic design while you can, because the bulldozers are knocking at the door.
The Hideaway will be falling to Museum Place, the big mixed-use development that’s been slowly but surely working its way back from the big 7th/Camp Bowie/University/Bailey intersection. One building across from the Hideaway, 3300 West 7th, is nearly completed - a modestly-scaled three-story building featuring luxury condos on the upper two floors over a ground-floor retail space that will hold a 7-Eleven Corner Store, a new type of gas pump-less more-upscale neighborhood store 7-Eleven being developed by the company for a future when they won’t be able to sustain themselves on gas and cheap hot dogs anymore. Another building, the big One Museum Place, has topped out at the big intersection and is in its finishing stages. That building will be ground-floor retail, four floors of office space, and three floors of luxury condos. Edgewater Grill has been announced as one of that building’s retail tenants. Still another, a glass & metal triangle-shaped structure now going up at the big intersection on the former Texaco site, will be ground-level retail (I’ve heard rumors of a sushi place) with three floors of office space above it. The avant garde slanted south facade, I’m told, will reflect a view of the Modern back towards the big intersection.
The Hideaway will make way for another large mixed-use building, which will feature ground-level retail with upscale rental apartments above. Not only is the Hideaway going away, but the entirety of Darcy Street itself is going away - the new building will completely cover the current Darcy right-of-way, and the street will cease to exist in that part of the Cultural District.
Several surrounding buildings, such as the rather nasty strip mall that formerly held a Pro-Cuts, have already been demolished near the Hideaway, and the Hideaway’s demolition will be accompanied by the demolition of the old Post Office across the street. The USPS is moving to the big intersection between University and Bailey, into a new Post Office designed by ultramodern architectural firm Venturi, Scott-Brown, and Associates of Philadelphia. The new Post Office will face the big intersection with a wall of ceramic tiles painted with a mural of a huge thunderstorm crossing the prairie, and in front of that will have a public plaza centered around the soon-to-be-reinstalled steel poles bent by the 2000 tornado.
13 Comments, Comments or Pings
John-Laurent Tronche
Hey Kevin,
In case you never read it, here’s a story I wrote back in December about the Hideaway closing. At the time, they thought March 2008, but I’m glad it has made it this far.
http://www.fwbusinesspress.com/display.php?id=6761
Jun 26th, 2008
John MacFarlane
This is so sad. First it was the Wreck Room, now its J&J’s. What’s next, Fred’s. I sure as heck hope not ( I like my burgers and cold ass beer). I live in FW b/c it was cool and laid back. Now it’s becoming mini Dallas. Like the Railhead t-shirts say, “Life’s too short to live in Dallas”. Well, we all may be living in a Dallas look-alike in the not to distant future! The people who live off of W 7th already do.
Jun 26th, 2008
Jonathan
John MacFarlane:
The wreck room and J&J’s hideaway demolitions are due to the same project, so it’s not really ‘first this and then that’.
Fred’s is being accommodated in its current location.
If you read Kevin’s blog fortworthology.com on a regular basis you’d have heard all about it months ago.
I hope you can say more about Fort Worth than that it’s “not Dallas”, and I hope you have a better sense of community than the businesses we happen to be served by.
Jun 26th, 2008
2
John, the people on this site view this type of thing as progress. They get all sweaty in their pants at the thought of mixed-use developments and sushi.
Jun 26th, 2008
Kevin
Well, in my view mixed-use infill developments are progress. Getting people living in the central city in greater numbers in walkable, pedestrian-friendly environments, reducing dependency on the car, enabling more effective transit, giving people options other than suburban sprawl - all of that is a good thing, as far as I’m concerned.
As far as the tenants, what fills those spaces isn’t as important as the physical form of those spaces. Museum Place’s physical form will be very nice - if the retail tenants are too “Dallas,” well, they’ll likely change over the years.
I’m not sure why there’s any need for snippy little comments about “getting sweaty in the pants” over this sort of thing. Let’s keep this civil, mmkay?
Jun 26th, 2008
John MacFarlane
There’s “progress” the right way and the wrong way. I have lived here all my life and grew up and still live in the central city. Jonathan, I heard about all this development years ago. I believe in the central city and against urban sprawl. I know FW and love it. I believe in the redevelopment of old buildings, not tearing down cool, funky places just to build a homogeneous mixed use condo development by people who probably don’t live here (so the money goes elsewhere). In fact, I work in a building on Magnolia that was redeveloped and I support businesses that do it. Just look at the near South Side (Hospital District) as a model for re-development, not 7th.
Jun 26th, 2008
Kevin
John,
To be fair, at least one of the major players in Museum Place - the TownSite Co. - is run by a gentleman who lives near 7th Street. As a development, Museum Place is of very, very good urban design.
The development I’m not as big on from a design perspective is the West 7th project by Cypress Equities. It is far more monolithic and of odd design choices. Apart from some work by Gideon Toal there aren’t too many Fort Worthians involved in it.
I am a big supporter of the style of infill and redevelopment being done in the Near Southside, and do think it should be a model for the rest of the city. It’s going to be difficult, however, when talking about 7th Street. That’s always where the big money’s wanted to go, so the current projects come as no real surprise to me.
(Incidentally, TownSite is a company to keep an eye on. They’re local and have some great projects in the pipeline.)
Jun 26th, 2008
Emmy
I still miss the funky, decrepit 7th Street theatre. I don’t necessarily miss the decrepit former Honda dealership and the Taylor Rental building and am looking forward to a new cinema/bowling alley/retail/hotel or whatever. Bring it on. I’d also rather have people leaving in the old Montgomery Ward building than pigeons. IF the development is done properly, then the progress is good. But we do need to retain some sense of our cultural, funky history.
Jun 26th, 2008
b kooistra
We all knew it was coming. . .too bad that another great little funky treasure of the west side of Fort Worth is coming down so milionaire yuppies can have condos with sushi bars on the ground floor.
I really liked the Hideaway. It was the true definition of a “cocktail lounge,” all dark and smoky with tinted windows and a big ol’ rock wall inside and old leather seats and dirty shag carpeting. . .a cozy place, too, not too big to be elbow-to-elbow with anyone, yet relaxing to just hang out and tip back a few beverages and strike up a conversation with a stranger.
Fort Worth will be the lesser for its loss. But I guess who needs a place like the Hideaway when you have mix-used commercial/residential and Tommy Lee Jones extolling the virtues of the Barnett. Get behind the Barnett. Get behind the gentrification movement! Raise that tax base, dammit! And while you’re at it, make a big ol’ fake lake with canals and still more places for rich yuppies to live. .
Jun 27th, 2008
Kevin
Last I noticed, Museum Place abuts places like Monticello, which is already one of Fort Worth’s richest neighborhoods. Complaints about “gentrification” there seem a bit off base - it gentrified a long time ago. The housing stock is just catching up with a choice between big single family homes and swanky condos.
Though I’d like to point out that the only condos in Museum Place are the ones in the two buildings already built. The rest of the development’s residential is rental apartments, and while none will be exactly “cheap,” there will likely be a bigger range of affordability than with the condos built thus far.
Jun 27th, 2008
Jeremy
A note about the Hideaway. That was what the original post was about correct?
They taught me the goodness of olives in my beer, i’ll never forget that.
Many a good times were shared in the hideaway. Cold winter nights, the warmth of the rock fireplace blazing next to me, laughing and telling lies with good friends…
…but it’s just a place.
John, B & 2 :The people are the ones that make ithis city special. Fort Worth is NOT turning into Dallas. You mean to tell me a city can’t grow and have nice places and rich people without turning into Dallas? I begged to differ. What ’s your problem with people with money and sushi? Rich people pay high taxes and afford the rest of us to reap the benefits of nicer roads, parks, public transportation, better schools and better city services. Let’s give these projects a chance before we burn them to the ground.
Lets not let the ‘new’ scare us..
Peace.
Jun 27th, 2008
Sarah
I love the olives in beer thing they do there. Whenever I try to order it that way somewhere else they give me a weird look or tell me they don’t have olives.
Jun 27th, 2008
Connie
I love the olives, but they no longer do it automatically in draft beers. I have a friend who used to go there in college 20 years ago. He walked in and said NFO. The bartender looked at him in surprise. He doesn’t like olives. I will leave the rest up to your imagination.
As a person who lives just West of this development by a few blocks, I have mixed feelings. I am excited about the growth, but really weary of the construction and leary of the upcoming traffic woes. In the end, I am happy. It was a long time coming and FW deserves the development.
Jul 2nd, 2008
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