The Texas A&M School of Law occupies legendary Fort Worth real estate, sitting as it does in “Hell’s Half Acre” where rowdy cowboys came to unwind – and sometimes fight – in Cowtown’s early days.
It was the site of the original White Elephant saloon where on Feb. 8, 1887, a gunfight broke out between White Elephant Saloon owner Luke Short and “Longhair Jim” Courtright, now re-enacted annually in the Fort Worth Stockyards.
If you’d like to know more about Hell’s Half Acre, you are in luck.
The Law School is conducting a number of free webinars on a variety of subjects, and the one Friday, Aug. 28, at 12 Noon, conducted by history guide Brendan Smart is titled “A Visit To Hell’s Half Acre.” Alumni Board President Dana Zachry ’11 will be the moderator.
The law school promises the presentation will tell the story of Fort Worth’s most legendary and controversial district, a thriving and tenacious assortment of bordellos, saloons, and gaming parlors, serving up the delights of cowboys, railroaders, gamblers, thieves, and ordinary citizens – and generally outraging the religiously fervent and the reform minded.
The stories and characters of the Acre are memorable, entertaining, illuminating and sometimes tragic, the law school says, still relevant, still part of the fabric of Fort Worth’s public life.
“The profits, struggles and compromises of the Acre shaped the character of Fort Worth, and it is therefore fitting that the Texas A&M School of Law should be situated in this historic district where human nature and emerging institutions – of society and of the law – met each other in high tension,” the school said in a promotional blurb.
To register: https://info.law.tamu.edu/hellshalfacre
To see other upcoming presentations, visit: http://bit.ly/AandMLawWeb
– FWBP Staff