On New Year’s Day in 1914 readers of the Star-Telegram read these articles and ads:
The Star-Telegram was selling a book about the engineering marvel of the age: The Panama Canal would open on August 15, 1914.
The International and Great Northern Railroad would take passengers from Fort Worth to Marlin, where they could celebrate the new year by sipping or soaking in the town’s famous mineral water. The mineral water brought to town the Cincinnati Reds and New York Giants baseball teams, who held spring training in Marlin. The mineral water brought to town Conrad Hilton, who built a hotel across the street from the Marlin Sanitarium Bathhouse. A tunnel connected the two buildings. Marlin still calls itself the “Hot Mineral Water City of Texas.”
In New York State suffragettes were marching from New York City to Albany. Women would get the right to vote six years later.
This ad for the expectorant Peruna warned of the dangers of grip (from the French grippe meaning “claw”). Grip (or grippe) is an old-fashioned term for influenza. Peruna was certainly the brew for the flu: It was 28 percent alcohol.
Eleven years after the Wright brothers’ first flight, aviation remained a novelty. A young aviator would fly from Polytechnic to Morris Park, where he would make three more flights. Morris Park was home of the Fort Worth Panthers baseball team. The park was built in 1911 at North Main and Northeast 6th streets just west of today’s LaGrave Field.
This “state of the city” op-ed piece looked back on progress during 1913 and ahead to progress in 1914. It mentions the impounding of Lake Worth (1914), a new building for First Christian Church on Throckmorton (1914), a new Fort Worth Club building (now the Ashton Hotel, 1916), construction at TCU and the Baptist seminary, and the “new” women’s college (Polytechnic College, founded in 1890, became Texas Woman’s College in 1914, Texas Wesleyan College in 1934, and Texas Wesleyan University in 1989).
The article mentions the new State National Bank building, now the Burk Burnett building (Sanguinet and Staats, 1914). The article also mentions the interurban line to Cleburne (1912) and plans for an interurban line to Denton. The Fort Worth-Denton Interurban Company was formed, but financial trouble prevented the line from being built.
