The brand-new Bowie House brings a high-end, horse-centric hotel to Fort Worth’s Cultural District.
Since Bowie House, Auberge Resorts Collection broke ground in Fort Worth, Texas, in January of 2022, and opened at the end of 2023, it’s been a whirlwind adventure for owner Jo Ellard, all spurred by her love of the iconic Western city and the horse-centric life she’s lived in the area.
Come On In
The lobby of Bowie House (pronounced BOO-ee) feels more like a stately home than a luxury hotel property. And that’s precisely what businesswoman and cowgirl fixture in the cutting horse world Jo Ellard had in mind. “I wanted it to be the kind of hotel you just want to go to,” says Ellard, who was the visionary behind the latest addition to the prestigious property portfolio of Auberge Resorts Collection. “You want to meet your friends there. You want to eat there. It’s not intimidating. It’s just warm. It’s like going to a home.”
The whole intention, she says, is for the hotel to be seen as “the living room of Fort Worth.” As a hotel guest you get all the amenities, and local residents have access to the whole first floor with the lobby, restaurant, bar, and event space. “It was all consciously designed with that welcoming idea in mind. It is a place to be enjoyed and feel comfortable.”
Though this is her first venture as a hotelier, Ellard was hands-on throughout the entire design process. Her personal touch is everywhere. In the same fashion as a grand home, the hotel is decorated with more than 400 pieces of original art, including some of Ellard’s own beloved pieces, among them Ashley Collins’ massive layered contemporary paintings of horses.
“I’ve always designed my homes, and now this hotel, so that a big guy could come in and be comfortable — I’ve never been a fan of real dainty modern furniture,” Ellard says. “I wanted it to have a strong and a rich feel.” To that end, rich wood tones, intentional use of color, and statement furniture pieces with beautiful details impart an immediate sense of grandeur. You feel both comfortably welcomed and wowed.
It’s a reflection of Ellard’s philosophy of hospitality. Nothing serious or stuffy — just a tasteful, Texas-size come-on-in-and-stay-awhile.
Location, Location, Location
“Fort Worth is becoming an icon. It’s an international destination,” Ellard says. “When people arrive at Bowie House, I want them to know they’re in Fort Worth, Texas. I want them to feel the Western influence. I want them to know that equestrians play a large role in life here and in how I did the hotel.”
There’s good reason she’d want them to feel at home, and good reason why they will. Ellard has spent much of her life raising, training, and competing horses, and Fort Worth — in particular, the Will Rogers Equestrian Center — has been a home away from home. Cutting horse, American Quarter Horse Association, and paint horse events there bring horse people to town for several months a year. With Bowie House, Ellard is delivering something she felt the Cultural District lacked: a unique high-end hotel property to serve those crowds.
Within the city’s museum- and garden-rich Cultural District, Bowie House is a quick 10 to 15 minutes from the Historic Fort Worth Stockyards. But there’s plenty of history right where the hotel sits. Its large, bright windows overlook the famous red-brick road of Camp Bowie Boulevard, a historic thoroughfare of Fort Worth, known for its military ties, proximity to high-dollar homes, and entrepreneurial retail past. It’s so distinctive that it’s a district within a district: Camp Bowie District.
A Texas Turndown
If there were ever an ideal spot from which to reflect on Fort Worth’s heritage and future, this might be it. Bowie House capitalizes gorgeously on a strong sense of place and isn’t being merely poetic in its marketing when describing itself as “a bold, imaginative retreat where cowboys and cattle once roamed.”
In point of fact, they’re not very far away still.
“We should never give up our Western heritage and culture,” Ellard says, surveying Cowtown outside of the windows of her suite at her instantly iconic new hotel. “It is what has made us unique and great, but the influences are coming. Bowie House is positioned to embrace those influences while holding steady our values that brought us to the party.”
Read Jo Ellard’s Fort Worth favorites and 12 things to do at Bowie House.
This article appears in our February/March 2024 issue.
For more information on the Bowie House, check out their website.
PHOTOGRAPHY: Courtesy Auberge Resorts Collection
