General Worth Square

Dedication

1980

Size

1.5 acres

Additional amenities

Benches
Electrical Boxes
Historical Marker
Park Lighting
Pet Station
Water Feature

Fun facts and History

The location of General Worth Square is best known for an event that occurred even before the park existed. On the morning of November 22, 1963, President John F. Kennedy made an impromptu speech there before heading to Dallas where he was assassinated as his motorcade passed through Dealey Plaza. Kennedy had stayed at the Hotel Texas the night before and was to give a breakfast speech there to the Fort Worth Chamber of Commerce in the morning. Many had been unable to get a ticket to the speech and had gathered around the hotel. The president stepped outside and addressed the crowd gathered in a parking lot before speaking to the audience inside the hotel and then proceeding to Dallas.

After the assassination, there were five women known as the “Kennedy Ladies” (Dale Parrent, Gerry Cornelius, Pat Aguire, Pauline Martinez, and Charlene Bridges) who wanted the spot turned into a plaza or park. However, a fifteen-block area that included the parking lot was to be redeveloped as the Tarrant County Convention Center. The women circulated a petition for the park proposal and gathered 10,000 signatures. The petition was presented to the Tarrant County Commissioners but the commissioners rejected the idea.

In 1980, the area was set aside for a public park named for General William Jenkins Worth, the city’s namesake. Yet there were still those who wanted a memorial to Kennedy placed at the site. In 2009, the Fort Worth City Council approved the expenditure of $250,000 to fund an assessment of General Worth Square as a location for the tribute as well as initial design work, landscaping, and electrical improvements. At a press conference on January 25, 2011, the JFK Tribute Committee unveiled the plans for the tribute to be erected in the square. By that date, $500,000 of the expected $1.5 million project had been raised with an additional $500,000 still needed to finish the project and another $500,000 for maintenance. An eight-foot bronze statue of the president to be erected in the park was created by Lawrence Luke. The setting for the statue was designed by Randy Sorensen of the Fort Worth office of Jacobs, a multinational engineering and design firm. The sculpture was dedicated on November 8, 2012. On the fiftieth anniversary of the president’s assassination, Fort Worth citizens gathered at the park in remembrance of the late president.

View animal, plant and insect species observed at General Worth Plaza and make some of your own observations through iNaturalist. See link under the "Related information" Section.

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