Jonny Goodday

Once a refuge for widows, orphans, and aging members, the Woodmen Circle Home in Sherman eventually became one of North Texas’ most haunting ruins. Here is a look beyond the abandoned walls and remembers the people, promises, and lives that gave the home its meaning.

Read the full article and watch the film:
https://jonnygoodday.com/texas-history/woodmen-circle-home-sherman-texas/

The Home the Woodmen Left Behind: Memory and Loss in Sherman | Jonny Goodday Sherman’s Woodmen Circle Home sheltered widows, orphans, and older members for decades. After abandonment, fire, folklore, and demolition, the people who li ...

Some nights remind you just how small we are.

Last night in Graford, Texas I had the chance to photograph the Milky Way stretching across the sky above this old Chevy, a machine from another time sitting quietly beneath something far older than any of us.

There was something about the contrast that stayed with me. Steel shaped by human hands below, billions of stars scattered overhead, and for a few hours everything seemed to belong in the same frame.

This was part of an outing with the Parker County Camera Club, and it was one of those evenings where the company, the location, and the sky all came together perfectly.

Sometimes photography is about documenting a place. Other times, it is about standing still long enough to realize how much beauty was already there.

At first glance, the Marty Leonard Community Chapel looks almost too complicated to understand. Then you step inside, look up, and realize that is exactly the point.

Built in Fort Worth in 1990, the chapel was designed by E. Fay Jones, a student and apprentice of Frank Lloyd Wright who became famous for creating buildings that seemed to grow out of the landscape around them.

One of the most interesting parts of the chapel is something you may not notice at first. The entrance ceiling is only about seven feet high. As you move farther inside, the space suddenly opens into the enormous timber and glass structure seen above. It was a deliberate architectural trick, taking you from a compressed, almost intimate space into something that feels endlessly tall.

The hundreds of intersecting beams, repeating diamond shapes, glass panels and hanging lights make the building feel different depending on where you stand. As daylight moves across the chapel, the architecture seems to change with it.

And despite its appearance, this was never simply meant to be an architectural showpiece. The chapel was built at the Lena Pope Home and funded through donations honoring longtime supporter Marty Leonard, giving one of Fort Worth’s most unusual buildings a story rooted as much in community as architecture.

Sometimes the most remarkable buildings are not the ones towering over a downtown skyline. They are the ones hiding in plain sight.

More than a century ago, an unusually shaped piece of downtown Fort Worth became one of the city’s most distinctive buildings.

Completed in 1907, the narrow triangular building was designed to fit the unusual shape of its downtown lot at Houston and West 9th streets. More than a century later, it remains one of the most recognizable survivors from an earlier Fort Worth.

Look closely and the building becomes even more interesting. Ornate stonework surrounds the lower floors, arched windows line the upper level, and sculpted panther heads peer out from the facade. Even the exterior fire escapes have become part of its unmistakable character.

Downtown Fort Worth has changed dramatically around it, but the Flatiron Building is still here, holding onto a small piece of the city that existed more than one hundred years ago.

How many times have you passed this building without stopping to look at the details?

Full article coming soon

Fort Worth’s Central Post Office is more than a place to mail a letter. Its grand columns, ornate ceilings, and historic lobby reflect a time when public buildings were designed to serve everyone with dignity and permanence.

Step inside this remarkable landmark and discover the architecture, craftsmanship, and civic history held within its walls.

Columns for the People: Inside Fort Worth’s Central Post Office | Jonny Goodday Opened in 1933, Fort Worth’s monumental central post office turned an everyday public service into an architectural promise of order, beauty, and connection.

Dallas built Thanks-Giving Square around a simple but ambitious idea: gratitude could become part of the city itself. Explore the spiral chapel, its history, and the recent funding questions shaping the landmark’s future.

https://jonnygoodday.com/texas-history/thanksgiving-square-dallas-history/

Who Will Fund Dallas’s Thanks-Giving Square? | Jonny Goodday Inside Dallas’s Thanks-Giving Square, a spiral chapel turns gratitude into architecture. Explore its history, mission, and the funding questions shaping its future.

For more than seventy years, the Ridglea Theater has been one of the most recognizable sights along Camp Bowie Boulevard.

Opened in 1950, the theater was built as a first-class neighborhood showhouse, complete with a towering vertical sign, terrazzo floors, Spanish Mediterranean details, and a large interior mural. By 2010, plans surfaced that could have dramatically altered the building, but preservation efforts helped change its course. After a major restoration, the Ridglea reopened in 2012 and continues serving Fort Worth as a live entertainment and event venue.

This story looks at how the Ridglea survived, what makes its architecture special, and why that glowing tower still matters to Camp Bowie today.

Ridglea Theater: Fort Worth’s Historic Tower Step inside the restored Ridglea Theater, from its neon Camp Bowie tower to the auditorium that Fort Worth refused to lose.

For generations, Fort Worth’s massive Texas and Pacific Warehouse has stood beside the tracks as a reminder of the city’s railroad past.

Its walls witnessed an era when freight, commerce, and opportunity moved through Fort Worth by rail. Today, the landmark stands at the crossroads of preservation and change.

Explore its history, its architecture, and the questions surrounding its future.

A Fort Worth Landmark at the Crossroads of Preservation and Change Fort Worth’s T&P Warehouse helped move freight, goods, and opportunity through the city. Today the enormous Art Deco landmark stands at a crossroads between continued decline and a new purpose.

Full storefront of my vases and coasters 🙂 https://www.facebook.com/share/1Ljzb7dSej/? Take a look at the storefront, i will be adding even more products soon!