The Magnolia Hotel (sometimes called the Magnolia Building, originally the Magnolia Petroleum Building) is a 29-story, Beaux-Arts style, upscale

hotel A hotel is an establishment that provides paid lodging on a short-term basis. Facilities provided inside a hotel room may range from a modest-quality mattress in a small room to large suites with bigger, higher-quality beds, a dresser, a re ...

in the Main Street District of

downtown Dallas Downtown Dallas is the central business district (CBD) of Dallas, Texas, United States, located in the geographic center of the city. It is the second-largest business district in the state of Texas. The area termed "Downtown" has traditionally ...

Texas Texas ( , ; or ) is the most populous U.S. state, state in the South Central United States, South Central region of the United States. It borders Louisiana to the east, Arkansas to the northeast, Oklahoma to the north, New Mexico to the we ...

, that for many years was the tallest building in the state after surpassing the

Adolphus Hotel The Adolphus Hotel is a historic upscale hotel established in 1912 in the Main Street District of Downtown Dallas, Texas. A Dallas Landmark, it was for several years the tallest building in the state. Today, the hotel is part of Marriott's Au ...

. The structure is a Dallas Landmark and is listed on the

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the Federal government of the United States, United States federal government's official United States National Register of Historic Places listings, list of sites, buildings, structures, Hist ...

History

The building, which opened next door to the

in August 1922Dallassky.com

Retrieved 24 August 2006. at a cost of

US $ The United States dollar (Currency symbol, symbol: Dollar sign, $; ISO 4217, currency code: USD) is the official currency of the United States and International use of the U.S. dollar, several other countries. The Coinage Act of 1792 introdu ...

4 million, was originally the headquarters for the

Magnolia Petroleum Company The Magnolia Petroleum Company was an early twentieth-century petroleum company in Texas. The company was established in 1911, being later acquired by the Standard Oil of New York, which operated it as a wholly-owned subsidiary until its demise ...

. In 1934, the company erected its trademark

neon Neon is a chemical element; it has symbol Ne and atomic number 10. It is the second noble gas in the periodic table. Neon is a colorless, odorless, inert monatomic gas under standard conditions, with approximately two-thirds the density of ...

Pegasus Pegasus (; ) is a winged horse in Greek mythology, usually depicted as a white stallion. He was sired by Poseidon, in his role as horse-god, and foaled by the Gorgon Medusa. Pegasus was the brother of Chrysaor, both born from Medusa's blood w ...

on the building's roof (the Pegasus logo later became the logo of

Mobil Oil Mobil Oil Corporation, now known as just Mobil, is a petroleum brand owned and operated by American oil and gas corporation ExxonMobil, formerly known as Exxon, which took its current name after it and Mobil merged in 1999. A direct descenda ...

who merged with Magnolia Petroleum in 1959) to celebrate the

American Petroleum Institute The American Petroleum Institute (API) is the largest U.S. trade association for the oil and natural gas industry. It claims to represent nearly 600 corporations involved in extraction of petroleum, production, oil refinery, refinement, pipeline ...

's annual meeting, held in Dallas for the first time. The rotating winged horse came to represent the city of Dallas and became one of its most recognizable and endearing landmarks, even after the building became obscured by much larger

skyscraper A skyscraper is a tall continuously habitable building having multiple floors. Most modern sources define skyscrapers as being at least or in height, though there is no universally accepted definition, other than being very tall high-rise bui ...

s (the neon Pegasus can now only be seen in the downtown skyline approaching from the south). By 1974, however, Pegasus stopped rotating due to mechanical problems and in 1977 the property was sold to the city of Dallas. The building was listed in the

in 1978. The building was purchased by

Denver, Colorado Denver ( ) is a List of municipalities in Colorado#Consolidated city and county, consolidated city and county, the List of capitals in the United States, capital and List of municipalities in Colorado, most populous city of the U.S. state of ...

developers in 1997 and was converted into the luxury 330-room Magnolia Hotel. In 1999, in preparation for Dallas's Millennium Celebration, Pegasus was taken down to be completely restored. However, the sign was beyond repair and a new sign was recreated from scratch. At midnight on 1 January 2000, the new Pegasus, complete with rotation, was lit for the first time. A copy of the original sign, which sat atop a Mobil Oil station in the Casa Linda neighborhood of Dallas for many decades, is now on display at the Old Red Museum.

Gallery

File:MagnoliaBuilding Dallas.jpg File:Magnolia Hotel front.jpg, File:MagnoliaBuilding Dallas Elevator Lobby.jpg, Elevator lobby in the Magnolia Building File:MagnoliaBuilding Dallas Pegasus.jpg, Pegasus elevator medallion File:Dallas - Magnolia Building roof 01.jpg, Photo of the roof in which the red pegasus is placed

References

External links

Magnolia Hotels, the company that owns and operates the Dallas MagnoliaRestoration of the Pegasus sign
* {{National Register of Historic Places in Texas Skyscraper hotels in Dallas Office buildings completed in 1923 National Register of Historic Places in Dallas Recorded Texas Historic Landmarks Dallas Landmarks Beaux-Arts architecture in Texas ExxonMobil buildings and structures Hotel buildings on the National Register of Historic Places in Texas

Hotel A hotel is an establishment that provides paid lodging on a short-term basis. Facilities provided inside a hotel room may range from a modest-quality mattress in a small room to large suites with bigger, higher-quality beds, a dresser, a re ...

1923 establishments in Texas Individually listed contributing properties to historic districts on the National Register in Texas

History

Gallery

See also

References

External links