The memorial is located on the north end of Trinity Park along West 7th Street. It occupies approximately five acres of park. » Get Directions
Hours of Operation
5:00am - 11:30pm
The displays and paths are always
illuminated.
By Mail
3801 Hulen Suite 101
Fort Worth, Texas 76107
By Phone
817-870-2171
Alfred S. Hayne
Age:
40
Date of Birth:
August 1, 1849
Date of Injury:
May 30, 1890
Date of Death:
May 31, 1890
Location of Incident:
Burial:
Oakwood Cemetery
Summary:
The Texas Spring Palace opened on May 29, 1889. The completed Spring Palace served as an educational, cultural, and entertainment center for Texas residents and guests throughout the month of June. With its exterior walls natural; its roof sporting both turnip-shaped cupolas and a massive center dome surpassed in size only by that of the national Capitol in Washington; and wheat, cotton, and other products of Texas covering the entire structure, the Spring Palace building looked like something out of a fantasy world. Inside the oriental-style exhibit hall, tourists and investors could find neatly classified samples of most grains, grasses, fruits, vegetables, and minerals produced within the state.
A second season scheduled for May 10-31, 1890, proved especially popular but ended catastrophically. On the night of May 30, a flash fire swept through the building, leveling the structure in a matter of minutes. Although several thousand people were attending a dance in the palace that night, only one life, that of Alfred Haynes, was lost. Haynes died as a result of his burns suffered in his attempts to save women and children who had not yet escaped from the burning building.
The City of Fort Worth created a professional fire department on December 1, 1893. Prior to that time, the city relied on volunteer fire fighters to take care of the city’s emergencies. The rosters of the early volunteer firefighters, spread through numerous independent companies, are incomplete. The name of Alfred S. Hayne has not been found on any of the existing original documents in the city archives. The basis for the belief that Alfred S. Hayne was a volunteer fire fighter are based on news accounts of the annual conventions of the Texas Firemen’s Association, later eye witness accounts of the fire, photographs of the “Al Hayne Memorial” located at Main and Lancaster in Fort Worth, and the dedication speech of the Monument to Texas Volunteer Firemen that was erected in 1896 at the Texas State Capital. The pertinent sections are as follows:
Dallas Morning News - July 22, 1922 (Magazine Section)
“The firemen were concentrating their efforts wherever there was a vantage point for them to avoid the terrible heat. “My baby, my baby!” shrieked a woman, “Up there, up there!”
“A fireman heard the words. The dull red furnace was roaring and snapping. Burning beams and cinders were falling across the entrance. The fireman did not hesitate. It required no urging for him to leap into the smoke and flames in search of that baby. The crowd in the immediate vicinity grew quiet and tense. The fireman was seen coming out through the rain of embers and swirling smoke. The baby was saved, but the heroic man who had rescued it fell into the arms of his comrades, his uniform burned off in places.
“As they laid him on the trampled grass he murmured, “Give me air, give me air!”. He never spoke again, but a monument surmounted by a bust of the heroic Al Hayne a few feet west of the entrance of the present Texas and Pacific passenger station attests the appreciation of the people for the sacrifice of the life of the hero.
