Now Town
There’s an old flame burning once again in downtown Fort Worth.
The iconic 20-foot Lone Star Gas neon blue flame logo atop the former Lone Star Gas Building adjacent to City Hall is back.
The flame, a mainstay in the Fort Worth skyline since 1957, came down in October 2018 for restoration. It was so badly damaged that it was considered structurally unsound, according to city records.
The building, designed in art deco style by architect Wyatt Hedrick in 1929, is at 901 Monroe St. The general contractor was C.L. Hudgens. Three floors were added in 1957, the year the blue flame was installed. It rotated until 2004.
Lone Star Gas Co. organized in 1909. It provided natural gas from fields in Petrolia to domestic and industrial users in Henrietta, Petrolia, and Wichita Falls. After a pipeline from Petrolia to Fort Worth was completed in 1910, the company became the city’s major source of natural gas distributed through the Fort Worth Gas Co., according to Historic Fort Worth.
Today, the building is the City Hall Annex, with the Water Department’s customer service lobby on the ground floor. Offices for several other city departments are on the floors above.
The city has said that it intends to sell the building once the new City Hall at 100 Energy Way, just west of downtown, is fully operational.
The city and Fort Worth Art Commission explored opportunities to restore the flame, but without a recognized artist it could not be accomplished through the arts program. By 2018, after years of freewheeling in the wind, the bearings had failed, and the flame was leaning on its structural mount.
In 2018, the city’s Historic & Cultural Landmarks Commission approved a certificate of appropriateness to allow the removal, restoration, and reinstallation of the flame. The flame was stored at the city’s James Avenue Service Center until Property Management Department PayGo funds were identified for the restoration.
A contractor repaired the existing enamel paint, replaced neon lights with LED lights, and replaced the bearings and motor to make the sign rotate again.
Voila.