Freese and Nichols, Inc.

Fort Worth's Lake Worth was an early product of this firm's lineage. John B. Hawley was design engineer for its dam, begun in 1912, with water impounded from June 1914. The firm says it was the biggest municipal water-supply reservoir in Texas when finished. Marvin C. Nichols, born in Roanoke in 1896 and named a partner in 1928 according to the Dallas Morning News, supervised construction of Lake Bridgeport and Eagle Mountain Lake. He became the first chair of the Texas Water Development Board in 1957 and held the post for six years.

What the plaque says

Freese and Nichols, Inc. Engineer John B. Hawley, designer and builder of Fort Worth's first city water system in 1892, was joined by Simon W. Freese in 1927 and Marvin C. Nichols in 1930 to form Hawley, Freese, and Nichols. The firm designed the nation's first dual-purpose reservoirs and pioneered the use of environmental engineering concepts in water treatment. One of Texas' oldest engineering firms, Freese and Nichols, Inc. is noted for developing water for west Texas by designing regional supplies to serve several cities and industries. It continues to play a vital role in the development of Texas. (1994)

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Tarrant County Courthouse — 0.5 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.
• Kimbell Art Museum — 1.8 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.
• National Cowgirl Museum and Hall of Fame — 2.0 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.
• Fort Worth Stockyards — 2.8 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

• Amon G. Carter — steps away
• First Christian Church of Fort Worth — 0.2 mi
• Fort Worth Library — 0.3 mi
• John Peter Smith — 0.3 mi