With over 40 years of experience in landscape architecture, urban planning, and economic development, James Toal shaped much of today’s Fort Worth. Join us as Librarian Linda Barrett reviews his career, beginning with his role at the Fort Worth Planning Department in the early 1970s, where much of his work involved parks and the Trinity River. He left the City in 1985 to work for a private firm and continued to influence the Fort Worth cityscape as a consultant on several projects until his death in 2013. To tell the story of James Toal is to tell the story of Fort Worth during those years. So don’t miss this chance to take a deep dive into how our modern city took shape.

Linda Barrett is a certified archivist who manages the Genealogy, Local History, and Archives unit of the Fort Worth Public Library. She unofficially began her career in the preservation field as a volunteer with an archaeological project at the site of a 19^th century pottery kiln in Denton County before spending a year working at the Courthouse on the Square Museum in Denton while completing her undergraduate degree. She came to work for the Fort Worth Public Library in 2013 and was promoted to Archivist after she completed her Master of Library and Information Science the next year. Linda lives in a 95-year-old house in a historic district, so you could say she lives and breathes history. Her work at the library leads her to discover many fascinating people who lived and worked in Fort Worth.

This program will be conducted via Zoom. Click here to register!