a month or so ago i got a call from a friend asking me if i was interested in shooting inside what he called a "sunday school" here in fort worth. when he told me where it was i immediately knew which building he was talking about and i couldnt say yes fast enough.
the building is a 3 story, red brick building located in the near southside of fort worth, just off magnolia avenue. it began as the college avenue baptist sunday school recreation building. the top floor was a gymnasium and the bottom floor contained the first indoor pool in the city. in the 1950s the church sold the building and the southwest ballet center was created. many of the top ballet dancers of the southwest and the entire country were trained there. the school was in operation until the late 1990s when it went belly up and the doors have been locked since then. the caretaker opened the front doors for us and said "have fun!" to his knowledge we were the first group to photograph the interior of the school and it was a pleasure doing so.
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when the ballet school took over they covered up the indoor pool with wood floors for the dancers to train on. about 10 years ago the floor just gave in and fell into what was the swimming pool. the rest of the floor was surprisingly stable. there is about 5 feet of the most putrid, blackened, disgusting water i have ever seen just out of view.
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