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The Bryce Building, tucked away in a veritable hidey-hole on Ninth and Throckmorton looking over the greenspace that makes up Hyde Park, is today a quasi-monument to a Fort Worth giant.
The two-story, 2,500-square-foot structure is at 909 Throckmorton, though as was said of it when constructed in 1910, it really doesn’t sit on a street. That it faces Throckmorton, that’s true enough.
The building, an adaptation of the Classical Revival style, was constructed on a triangular plot by William Bryce, a civic and business leader, at a cost of $5,000. That’s more than $155,000 today. The upper floor was originally fitted as a six-room apartment overlooking the lawn of the Carnegie Library, long ago turned to dust, as well as the old City Hall.
The lower floor housed Bryce’s company, the Bryce Building Company.
The building has an irregular five sides, three of which contain decorative trimmings. The exterior brick, hard fired with iron ore, is believed to have been furnished by Bryce's Denton Press Brick Company. An incised panel of cast stone includes an inscription, "Bryce Building," in Roman style letters.
Bryce, born in Scotland and raised in Ontario, Canada, was a brick mason by trade, though his career evolved to general contractor. The Bryce Building Company was responsible for erecting many of the city’s older structures, including the Armour & Co. building in 1902, the Livestock Exchange Building, the Texas Brewing Company, and the Worth Building.
The original building of Central and Paschal high schools and today Trimble Tech High School was built by the Bryce Building Company and the Wyatt C. Hedrick Construction Company in 1917. It was designed by Sanguinet & Staats, according to fortwortharchitecture.com, a site operated by John Roberts.
The Bryce Building has a place on the National Register of Historic Places and is a recorded Texas Historic Landmark.
Though not American by birth, Bryce, it was said at the time of his death at age 83 in 1944, “became a thorough American in every sense of the word. He rose to prominence through sheer ability, application and character.”
The story of this man’s American dream began with building a small bricklaying contracting business from a “shack on Main Street, with capital painstakingly saved from his wages and with no credit,” to the sizeable Bryce Building Company.
He was an instrumental participant in the creation of the Park Hill and Arlington Heights residential neighborhoods. The street on which he lived, Bryce Avenue, was named for him. Bryce was also a founding member of River Crest Country Club.
“Simplicity and modesty were the marks of his character that were never sacrificed in the rise to success,” the Fort Worth Star-Telegram wrote.
When the city of Fort Worth adopted a council-manager form of government in 1925, Bryce was elected to its ranks, a member of the city’s first City Council.
He was elevated to mayor in 1927, succeeding Henry Meacham, a position he held until 1933.
He was distinguished by his wisdom. For example, each spring, the mayor encouraged the townspeople to blow off work and go to the Fort Worth Cats’ season opener.
“To the Citizens of Fort Worth: Thursday, April 18, marks the beginning of a new season in baseball history in Fort Worth.
“Let us go out to the game and make it a gala day. Let us close our shops, stores, schools and home and attend en masse the opening game.
“Let us show our confidence in our team by winning the attendance cup. Fort Worth can do it!
“Let us help our boys win the pennant this year by showing them, through a manifestation of enthusiasm on their opening day, that we are real supporters of an institution of which Fort Worth is justly proud.
“Let us, therefore, declare half a holiday on the occasion of Fort Worth’s first baseball game of the season.”
The letter in the daily newspaper was signed, “William Bryce, Mayor, City of Fort Worth.”
While in office, he also tried to use his bully pulpit to advocate for safer streets — for motorists and pedestrians.
“Prevention of motor car accidents and reduction of resulting casualties is a duty incumbent on every person in all walks of life. The mounting death rate of men, women, and children, especially children … should arrest the attention of everyone to the performance of their duty in an unbiased, unprejudiced effort to assist in reducing accidents, a real humanitarian act.”
To that end, he said, he was giving Texas Gov. Dan Moody’s “Save-A-Life Campaign” from May to June 1928 his full embrace.
Ironically, it was a car accident that precipitated him leaving public life prematurely.
An automobile accident involving Bryce and his wife at Bryce Avenue and Camp Bowie Boulevard left both with serious injuries. He resigned his office to attend to his wife, Catherine, who ultimately died a few months later from complications of the injuries she sustained.
Colleagues on the council urged him to reconsider staying on, even offering him three months’ leave of absence to recuperate his health and that of his wife.
He declined, but reporters in that day said he “broke down in emotion” at the offer.
“The immeasurable service which the late William Bryce gave to his city as a public official, active supporter of civic and humanitarian causes and business leader advancing the progress of Fort Worth is well known to the majority of our people,” the Star-Telegram wrote at the time of his death. “At no time did William Bryce in his public or private life lose one bit of the esteem felt toward him by the people of our city because his entire life was an open book and above reproach.”