Elizabeth Boulevard

Ryan Place has been rescued twice. The neighborhood association says the original entrance gates were torn down in 1955 as traffic hazards, so the gates standing today are a reconstruction. In 1969 about 150 residents formed an improvement association and defeated the city's plan to widen Fifth and Sixth avenues into arterials. Elizabeth Boulevard joined the National Register in 1979, which the association counts as the only residential historic district in Fort Worth. A Christmas home tour began in 1983 to pay for rebuilding the gates.

What the plaque says

Elizabeth Boulevard This Boulevard, named the wife of developer John C. Ryan, was designed as the first phase of a residential district known as Ryan Place. Elaborate entry gates and the first house, the W.T. Fry home at 1112 Elizabeth, were built in 1911. Construction here peaked in 1920 and declined as a result of the economic depression at the end of the decade. The exclusive area was the home of many prominent Fort Worth oilmen and business leaders. Detailing of the elegant houses reflects the variety of architectural styles popular during the early 20th century. (1981)

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• National Cowgirl Museum and Hall of Fame — 2.7 mi
  A hall of fame begun in Hereford in 1975 to honor rodeo women, widened in 1977 to Western heritage, and housed in Fort Worth's Cultural District since 2002.
• Kimbell Art Museum — 2.8 mi
  Louis Kahn's cycloid-vaulted museum of 1972, built from Kay Kimbell's bequest and joined in 2013 by Renzo Piano's pavilion for the exhibitions the Kahn galleries could not hold.
• Tarrant County Courthouse — 2.8 mi
  A pink-granite courthouse of 1895 on the bluff where the Army set up Fort Worth in 1849, in a county named for the man who led the 1841 attack on the Native villages of Village Creek.
• Fort Worth Stockyards — 5.1 mi
  The brick-street cattle market where Armour and Swift built packing plants in 1902, now a National Register district with a Coliseum, a museum and a longhorn drive twice a day.

More markers nearby

• Travis Avenue Baptist Church — 0.7 mi
• Baker Funeral Home — 1.3 mi
• James E. Guinn School — 1.4 mi
• Fort Worth Zoological Park — 1.5 mi