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Architect Germane Barnes, center, speaks to residents during a Transform 1012 N. Main Street community conversation event on Aug. 10, 2024, at Artes de La Rosa. (Camilo Diaz | Fort Worth Report)
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Architect Germane Barnes sat with residents to listen to their ideas and wishes for the future of the Fred Rouse Center for Arts and Community Healing. The table allowed visitors to write prompts and speak to the faces involved with the nonprofit Transform 1012 N. Main Street. 

The group, which seeks to turn a former Ku Klux Klan auditorium into a cultural hub, held its first community conversation event in mid-August at Artes de La Rosa. Northside is the first community where listening sessions were held, but it won’t be the last. 

Leaders of Transform 1012 N. Main Street aim to expand these gatherings in surrounding communities in Fort Worth. The purpose of these meetings is to get feedback about the building and listen to what community healing means to residents so officials can incorporate those thoughts into the design of the building. 

The building, purchased in 2021 by the nonprofit, will honor the memory of Fred Rouse, a Black man who was lynched in 1921 by a white mob who removed him from his hospital bed where he was recovering from another mob attack in the Stockyards. Rouse is the only recorded lynching victim in Tarrant County.

Project leaders envision the building housing a performance space, meeting spaces, an outdoor urban marketplace, a makerspace and historical exhibits, along with services for underserved and LGBTQ youth. 

Barnes, an architect for B-arn-S Architects, is one half of the design team selected for the Fred Rouse Center for Arts and Community Healing. Among these conversations, Barnes enjoyed seeing how excited people were to share their input.

“One of the awesome things we heard from one of the visitors is that there should be some sort of volunteer system,” Barnes said during the Aug. 10 event. “So that way people in the community could also be there to give their services because they have skills as well.”

Fred Rouse III attends the first Transform 1012 N. Main Street community conversation event on Aug. 10, 2024, at Artes de La Rosa. (Camilo Diaz | Fort Worth Report)

The event was also a time to inform community members with a presentation on the history of the century-old Ku Klux Klan Klavern No. 101 Auditorium. During the presentation, Fred Rouse III came on stage to tell the story of his grandfather. 

In September 2020, Rouse III received an unexpected phone call from Adam McKinney, president of the Tarrant County Coalition for Peace and Justice, telling him they found his grandfather. Puzzled by the idea, he immediately thought of his maternal grandfather buried in east Texas. Through McKinney, Rouse III learned for the first time about the murder of the grandfather he is named for. 

“We have to first recognize what happened, then once you recognize what happened, then you have to put in process the steps to heal the pain of what happened,” said Rouse III. 

Transform 1012 N. Main Street officials and residents gathered for the first community conversation event on Aug. 10, 2024, at Artes de La Rosa. (Camilo Diaz | Fort Worth Report)

Eastside residents Brenda Barajas-Koch and her husband, Matt Koch, explored the areas with activities to learn more about Transform 1012 N. Main Street.

“I think it’s a wonderful, really great event to give people more historical context on the project,” said Barajas-Koch. 

Before hearing about Transform 1012 N. Main Street, the couple did not know much about the building. To them, it was just another abandoned structure.

After finding out the origins and how the project is aiming to heal the community, they have been inspired to find ways to support the project. 

Jorge Garcia was born and raised in Northside, where his family has been in the community for generations — around 80 to 100 years, he estimates. His grandfather was an employee at Swift & Co. Meatpacking Plant. 

Growing up, he also didn’t know anything about the former Ku Klux Klan hall. 

“I’m sorry to hear that it has such a bad history to the building, but it is a historical building, I think it’s better to preserve and convert it into something better than to just destroy it,” said Garcia.

Carlos Gonzalez-Jaime, executive director of Transform 1012 N. Main Street, speaks during a community conversation event on Aug. 10, 2024, at Artes de La Rosa. (Camilo Diaz | Fort Worth Report)

Carlos Gonzalez-Jaime, executive director of Transform 1012 N. Main Street, said the nonprofit has secured $4.6 million for the design of the building. 

“It’s taking longer than a normal design process because we are listening to … the eight organizations that will live there, but most importantly, we’re listening to the communities and that takes time,” Gonzalez-Jaime said during the presentation.

A project process timeline for 2024-2026 was displayed during the community conversation event on Aug. 10, 2024, at Artes de La Rosa. (Camilo Diaz | Fort Worth Report)

The organization plans to dedicate the rest of the year to community conversations, with organizers expecting to go through a permitting process in 2025 and begin construction in 2026.

Architect Dennis Chiessa, speaks to attendees during a Transform 1012 N. Main Street community conversation event on Aug. 10, 2024, at Artes de La Rosa. (Camilo Diaz | Fort Worth Report)

Architect Dennis Chiessa, with Ch_studio, is the other half of the design team for the structure. Chiessa attended the event with his family, engaging with community members. He has memories of passing by the building as a kid, heading downtown to Sundance theater, and riding his bicycle around Northside. 

He spoke with residents to answer any questions they might have and to listen to what community healing means to them. 

“From the design team, what you can expect is more community conversations and that we will listen,” said Chiessa. “We’re gonna somehow interpret that into a hopefully genuine response to the needs of the communities of Fort Worth.”

Eva Bonilla, right, puts a sticker on the area where she lives on a map at one of the activity sessions during a community conversation event on Aug. 10, 2024, at Artes de La Rosa. (Camilo Diaz | Fort Worth Report)

Communities collaboration curator Angela D. Mack speaks during a Transform 1012 N. Main Street community conversation presentation on Aug. 10, 2024, at Artes de La Rosa. (Camilo Diaz | Fort Worth Report)

Camilo Diaz is a multimedia fellow at the Fort Worth Report. Contact him at camilo.diaz@fortworthreport.org. At the Fort Worth Report, news decisions are made independently of our board members and financial supporters. Read more about our editorial independence policy here.