I recently received the Debbie Reynolds-Hazen Memorial Award at the Tarrant County Historical Commission Annual Summit. I was truly honored and humbled to accept it.

In April 2020, I visited Downtown Fort Worth to explore and photograph architecture. I stumbled upon a Texas Historical Marker for Hell’s Half Acre that would ignite my interest in local history.

While Arlington is a city of 400,000 people today, it wasn’t always that way. There was a time when it was a small town, and ads from the local newspaper helped tell the story.

The General Motors Assembly Plant in Arlington, which began production in 1954, has assembled more than 12 million vehicles. In 1999, the plant began assembling the Chevy Suburban—it also assembles its “little” brother, the Chevy Tahoe, among other full-sized GM SUVs. In addition to being an iconic vehicle, the Chevy Suburban has an extensive movie and TV career—in fact, it also has a Hollywood Star in Arlington’s Entertainment District.

It was a historic day in Arlington on September 27, 2023, as two intertwined occasions were celebrated. First, the Arlington Texas & Pacific Depot and Platform were honored with a Texas Historical Marker, and second, there was a Recommitment Signing Ceremony between Arlington and our Sister City, Bad Königshofen, Germany.