The video above is a downtown Fort Worth walking tour filmed on a rare snowy day, covering the stretch from Sundance Square north along Main Street all the way to the Tarrant County Courthouse. It's a solid route if you want to take in some of Fort Worth's most interesting architecture, read up on the historical plaques scattered along the way, and get a feel for what downtown has to offer beyond the Stockyards.
What Can You See on a Walk from Sundance Square to the Courthouse?
Main Street is the backbone of this walk, and there's a lot packed into a relatively short distance. Starting at Sundance Square, one of the first things worth noting is the studio for 95.5 The Ranch (KFWR), which sits right on the square. They broadcast Texas country music to the Dallas-Fort Worth area and run a free concert series during the summer — worth keeping on your radar if you're visiting in warmer months.
From there, heading north along Main Street, here are some of the landmarks and stops along the route:
- Knights of Pythias Building — A historic three-story red brick building dating to 1881, rebuilt in 1901 after a fire. Today it houses Ham's Jewelers.
- Western Union Building — A Commercial Art Deco structure with Razu River Cafe on the ground floor.
- Sid Richardson Museum — Features paintings by Frederick Remington and Charles M. Russell, along with other late 19th and early 20th century artists focused on the American West. Free to visit.
- Domino Building — Once Buck's Domino Parlor, a gaming house in the late 1800s where figures like Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid reportedly hung around. It was called the casino of the Wild West.
- Plaza Hotel Building — Built in 1908 as a saloon with "guest rooms" upstairs — essentially a brothel where cattlemen stayed while driving herds to the Stockyards. Now home to a couple of restaurants.
- Weber Building — Goes back to 1885, originally housing stores and a printing press. Today it's home to the Thomas Kincade Gallery, with Risky's Barbecue in a nearby section.
- Worthington Renaissance Hotel — A popular downtown hotel that hosts live music inside from time to time.
- Wells Fargo Tower — Fort Worth's fifth tallest building at 33 floors, completed in 1982.
The walk ends at the Tarrant County Courthouse, built from red Texas granite in Renaissance Revival style and opened in 1895. It has a similar look to the Texas State Capitol in Austin. You can go inside to see the hallways, staircases, columns, and a stained glass county seal at the top of the dome. There's also a small museum inside covering Fort Worth history.
Live Music Connections Along the Way
David Bridwell filmed this walk the day after playing a gig at Twisted Sisters Tap House in Midlothian, which is about 45 minutes south of Fort Worth. Downtown Fort Worth itself has plenty of live music if you know where to look — the Worthington Renaissance occasionally has something going on inside, and the 95.5 The Ranch summer concert series at Sundance Square is a free, easy way to catch Texas country acts outdoors. The Stockyards, just a short drive north, is where the bigger concentration of honky tonks and live music venues sits, but this downtown stretch is worth the walk for the history and architecture alone.