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The tree-lined stretch of the 600 block of Main Street sits in the heart of Sundance Square — surrounded by nice hotels, eateries, and popular Fort Worth hotspots like Bass Performance Hall and the Convention Center. An average day might bring visitors walking the brick-covered sidewalks and meeting friends for lunch.
But in the late 1800s, Fort Worth was much different. A touch of the Old West still prevailed, and a large section of the city featured the unofficial red-light district known as Hell’s Half Acre. A cowboy passing through could take a bath, down some whiskey, gamble and smoke a bit, and even visit a bordello. And that section of Main has a bit of blood-stained Wild West history.
An incident at 606 Main St., now a hotel but then the White Elephant Saloon, exemplified some of the characters who frequented Hell’s Half Acre. In those days, a professional gambler could take advantage of cowboys and railroad workers looking to wager some of their fresh paychecks. That’s exactly how Robert Hayward earned a living, and he didn’t appreciate fellow cardsharp Harry Williams moving in on his turf. Hayward apparently had plans to take out the new competition, but a friend warned Williams first.
On the night of March 15, 1887, Williams stood outside the saloon as a horse-drawn carriage taxi stopped. Hayward exited the carriage and went for his .38 Colt after the two men briefly exchanged words. Before he could get a shot off, however, Williams fired his own gun — the bullet piercing through Hayward’s right eye and killing him instantly.
The carriage driver testified that the shooting was in self-defense, and Williams was never charged. While Hell’s Half Acre was known for almost every vice imaginable, the shootout symbolizes another aspect of this unique time in Fort Worth history — violence.
Cowboys, Outlaws, and a Good Time
During America’s westward expansion, Fort Worth wasn’t alone in lawlessness. Like many growing towns, a certain amount of vice was tolerated as these small cities grew. Places like Tombstone, Deadwood, Dodge City, and others were growing with men moving west for mining, cattle, and other opportunities. In Fort Worth, as cowboys moved cattle north to Kansas, entrepreneurs took advantage of these men looking for a good time.
Hell’s Half Acre developed in the late 1870s and served as a stopover location for those seeking a respite from life in the saddle. The Acre was located from 10th Street, south along Throckmorton Avenue to Lancaster Avenue, and east to Jones Street. Much of what encompassed the Acre is now the Convention Center and Water Gardens.
“Within those 15 city blocks were 20 saloons, even more brothels, and assorted dance halls, gambling houses, opium dens, and cockfight pits,” author Mike Nichols notes in Lost Fort Worth. “And within those establishments, there often was violence: gunfights, knife fights, fistfights, muggings, and suicide among gamblers, cowboys, prostitutes, tinhorns, and greenhorns.”
The Texas and Pacific Railroad only added to the area’s growth but also brought in more men looking for a good time. This was a scenario many towns experienced, and these types of red-light districts popped up in much of the West.
“In places like Dodge City or Abilene, especially where cattle trails would intersect with the railroad, cowboys would come into town with a herd of cattle, be done with their jobs, and frequently they’d get paid at that point,” TCU history professor Dr. Todd Kerstetter says. “They’d been out riding the trail for a couple months at that point, and this became a meeting of needs, wants, and disposable income. It was a chance to clean up, get a meal, and spend your money. It wasn’t uncommon for the cowboys to blow through a big chunk of their pay.”
In Fort Worth, the Acre also attracted a few faces that regularly graced wanted posters at the time. After robbing a bank in Nevada in 1900, Butch Cassidy (aka Robert Leroy Parker) and the Sundance Kid (aka Harry Longabaugh) and their Wild Bunch gang took up in the Acre to avoid capture.
City leaders generally loathed the area and its reputation but accepted a certain amount of lawbreaking and lewdness as the growing town welcomed dollars and investment. For decades, Fort Worth coexisted between rowdiness and acceptable society.
“It was a challenge for towns to manage,” Kerstetter says of these arrangements. “They wanted the cowboys to spend their money, but that would lead to some craziness.”
Booze and Blood
A trip to a Hell’s Half Acre watering hole offered a visitor plenty of options — a meal, plenty of drink, dancing, and even some gambling. A plate of ham and beans with a whiskey or beer was a popular choice at Tivoli Hall Saloon, notes author Richard Selcer in his seminal book on the subject, Hell’s Half Acre. While a few upscale establishments existed with Kentucky whiskeys, the swill served at most joints pales in comparison to today’s premium bourbon trend.
“Among the favorites for frontier whiskey were ‘rotgut,’ ‘red-eye,’ ‘tarantula juice,’ and ‘who-hit-john,’” Selcer notes. “A load of this stuff could make a man feel 10 feet tall. The effects the next morning were considerably different.”
No doubt this type of “bust skull” whiskey helped add to the frequent violence in the Acre. Murders were common, but arrests were rare. In 1897, the Fort Worth Star-Telegram noted that a man named Joe Collins entered a gambling house at Rusk and 12th streets, and six men proceeded to shoot him dead. None were arrested. In 1904, a saloon owner shot a customer who had accused him of watering down his drink. The man was sentenced to nine years in prison for the murder but fled while awaiting appeal and was never captured.
A particularly bloody crime was discovered in 1887 when a dance hall girl was found nailed to the door of an outhouse behind the hall where she worked. The killer was never identified.
Cards and Cheating
Gambling has a deep history in the Old West, and those looking to play cards in the late 19th century had plenty of options in Hell’s Half Acre. Gambling houses and saloons with poker tables were prevalent, and anyone looking for a game could generally find one, no matter the stakes.
But unlike at today’s modern casinos, cheating was prevalent. Skilled cardsharps not only made use of superior poker skills but also other methods to separate cowboys from their cash. Author James McManus wrote about this topic in his book, Cowboys Full: The History of Poker, and spoke about what poker players could expect in those days.
“The cards were paper or cardboard and seldom replaced, so they retained lots of accidental marks, in addition to those made intentionally,” he says. “This made good eyesight paramount in the days before many folks had effective eyewear. The lighting was abysmal. Poor eyesight was a big problem for poker players like Wild Bill Hickok and other gunmen.
“All this is on top of the cheating problem, which occurred in most of the bigger games. Much, if not most, of poker skill then involved skill at cheating. The bigger the game, the more likely that cardsharps were attacking it.”
Famed gunfighting card players Bat Masterson, Wyatt Earp, and Luke Short made the Acre a regular stop for high-stakes action. Other gambling options included billiards, roulette, and keno. However, poker and faro (a card game similar to poker) remained the most popular options. And while a night betting and bluffing might include a winning night, a lack of security meant getting away with the cash could be a different story.
“Most men were armed and often drunk, and very few honest lawmen were around on the Western frontier,” McManus says. “The saloons were teeming with armed, drunk, ornery outlaws looking for women, who were usually prostitutes, and for chances to cheat or rob other men.”
Closing Time
By the late 1880s, Fort Worth citizens had grown tired of the Wild West within their own city. Hell’s Half Acre accounted for about half of the city’s crimes. Prostitution, violence, and regular suicides were especially embarrassing for leaders seeking city growth. They went about looking to rein in some of the criminality and installed a permanent police force in 1887.
City leaders also began getting paid in 1889, helping deter bribery that aided some of the lawlessness. Newspapers editorialized and campaigned for an end to Hell’s Half Acre, and new regulations meant saloons closed at midnight on Saturdays and couldn’t reopen until noon on Sundays. These efforts curbed violence, but some of the area’s activities still continued.
The Acre flared up again in the early 1900s, but merging forces were bringing an end to the area’s activities. Religious groups and pastors, including Baptist preacher J. Frank Norris, began to speak out on the issue, and city officials responded by closing many brothels and gambling houses.
The U.S. entered World War I in 1917, and many young men headed off to fight in Europe. And while Prohibition in 1920 certainly didn’t do away with drinking, swilling booze was at least no longer a wide-open activity. Much of the lawlessness of the Acre was mostly gone, and more tame Fort Worth eventually emerged.
“The boom in badness was ending,” the Fort Worth Press newspaper noted about Hell’s Half Acre’s final years. “Fort Worth had sowed its oats. It was settling down … slowly.”
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