Jonny Goodday

09/04/2026

Going places

08/25/2026

The 1934 Brazos River Bridge near Millsap has carried people across the river for more than 90 years. It has survived major floods, the construction of Interstate 20, changing traffic patterns, and generations of daily use.

Now, the bridge is facing removal as part of a future replacement project.

This film brings together the history, memories, practical concerns, and preservation efforts surrounding the bridge while inviting the public to take part in the next chapter.

Featured in order of appearance:

Jonny Goodday, filmmaker, host and narrator

Teri Hubbard, President of the Parker County Historical Commission

Joann Barnhart, lifelong Millsap resident whose father helped build the bridge and led the first mule team across it

Sandra Griffin Davis, local property owner

Loree Ellis, Secretary of the Parker County Historical Commission

Brian Leatherman, Pastor of Soda Springs Baptist Church

Janna Blumentritt, Community Outreach and Education with the Parker County Historical Commission

Jeannine Kuhnell, Vice President of the Parker County Historical Commission

Tyra Bruns, historian, preservationist and organizer of Requiem for a Bridge

Requiem for a Bridge will be held Saturday, September 19, 2026, from 10:00 AM until noon at the Brazos River Campground, located at 10770 W. I-20 Frontage Road in Millsap.

The event is free and will include art, history, treats, community documentation, and information about protecting Parker County’s historic resources. Bring a chair, a camera, or any art supplies you would like to use.

A photograph can preserve what this bridge looked like.

Only preservation can keep it part of the road ahead.

Special thanks to the Parker County Historical Commission and everyone working to document and advocate for the 1934 Brazos River Bridge.

08/24/2026

At first glance the 1934 Brazos River Bridge may look like another old steel crossing.

But this bridge holds a rare place in Texas history.

It has been identified as the only surviving example in Texas of its specific Texas Highway Department truss design making it truly the last of its kind in the state. For decades it carried traffic across the Brazos before the interstate changed the landscape around it.

Today you can still drive through it and experience a piece of early Texas highway engineering that somehow survived into the modern era.

There is much more to this story and the full film will be released tomorrow evening.

08/18/2026

Once a refuge for widows, orphans, and aging members, the Woodmen Circle Home in Sherman eventually became one of North Texas’ most haunting ruins. Here is a look beyond the abandoned walls and remembers the people, promises, and lives that gave the home its meaning.

Read the full article and watch the film:
https://jonnygoodday.com/texas-history/woodmen-circle-home-sherman-texas/

Sherman’s Woodmen Circle Home sheltered widows, orphans, and older members for decades. After abandonment, fire, folklore, and demolition, the people who li ...

08/16/2026

Some nights remind you just how small we are.

Last night in Graford, Texas I had the chance to photograph the Milky Way stretching across the sky above this old Chevy, a machine from another time sitting quietly beneath something far older than any of us.

There was something about the contrast that stayed with me. Steel shaped by human hands below, billions of stars scattered overhead, and for a few hours everything seemed to belong in the same frame.

This was part of an outing with the Parker County Camera Club, and it was one of those evenings where the company, the location, and the sky all came together perfectly.

Sometimes photography is about documenting a place. Other times, it is about standing still long enough to realize how much beauty was already there.

08/14/2026

At first glance, the Marty Leonard Community Chapel looks almost too complicated to understand. Then you step inside, look up, and realize that is exactly the point.

Built in Fort Worth in 1990, the chapel was designed by E. Fay Jones, a student and apprentice of Frank Lloyd Wright who became famous for creating buildings that seemed to grow out of the landscape around them.

One of the most interesting parts of the chapel is something you may not notice at first. The entrance ceiling is only about seven feet high. As you move farther inside, the space suddenly opens into the enormous timber and glass structure seen above. It was a deliberate architectural trick, taking you from a compressed, almost intimate space into something that feels endlessly tall.

The hundreds of intersecting beams, repeating diamond shapes, glass panels and hanging lights make the building feel different depending on where you stand. As daylight moves across the chapel, the architecture seems to change with it.

And despite its appearance, this was never simply meant to be an architectural showpiece. The chapel was built at the Lena Pope Home and funded through donations honoring longtime supporter Marty Leonard, giving one of Fort Worth’s most unusual buildings a story rooted as much in community as architecture.

Sometimes the most remarkable buildings are not the ones towering over a downtown skyline. They are the ones hiding in plain sight.

08/13/2026

More than a century ago, an unusually shaped piece of downtown Fort Worth became one of the city’s most distinctive buildings.

Completed in 1907, the narrow triangular building was designed to fit the unusual shape of its downtown lot at Houston and West 9th streets. More than a century later, it remains one of the most recognizable survivors from an earlier Fort Worth.

Look closely and the building becomes even more interesting. Ornate stonework surrounds the lower floors, arched windows line the upper level, and sculpted panther heads peer out from the facade. Even the exterior fire escapes have become part of its unmistakable character.

Downtown Fort Worth has changed dramatically around it, but the Flatiron Building is still here, holding onto a small piece of the city that existed more than one hundred years ago.

How many times have you passed this building without stopping to look at the details?

Full article coming soon

08/12/2026

Fort Worth’s Central Post Office is more than a place to mail a letter. Its grand columns, ornate ceilings, and historic lobby reflect a time when public buildings were designed to serve everyone with dignity and permanence.

Step inside this remarkable landmark and discover the architecture, craftsmanship, and civic history held within its walls.

Opened in 1933, Fort Worth’s monumental central post office turned an everyday public service into an architectural promise of order, beauty, and connection.

08/10/2026

Inside the USS Cavalla, the reality of submarine warfare becomes hard to ignore.

Commissioned during World War II, Cavalla entered combat in 1944 and, on her very first war patrol, sank the Japanese aircraft carrier Shokaku, a carrier that had taken part in the attack on Pearl Harbor.

Today, Cavalla rests in Galveston, Texas, where visitors can climb through the narrow passageways, bunks, torpedo rooms, controls, and machinery that once surrounded the men who served aboard her.

This short film is a look inside one of the most remarkable naval artifacts preserved on the Texas coast.

08/10/2026

Dallas built Thanks-Giving Square around a simple but ambitious idea: gratitude could become part of the city itself. Explore the spiral chapel, its history, and the recent funding questions shaping the landmark’s future.

https://jonnygoodday.com/texas-history/thanksgiving-square-dallas-history/

Inside Dallas’s Thanks-Giving Square, a spiral chapel turns gratitude into architecture. Explore its history, mission, and the funding questions shaping its future.