Magnolia Building
National Register of Historic Places

Magnolia Building

Dallas, Dallas County, Texas
Listed
January 30, 1978
Type
Building
Period
Industrial
Ref No.
78002915

About this property

The Magnolia Hotel (sometimes called the Magnolia Building, originally the Magnolia Petroleum Building) is a 29-story, Beaux-Arts style, upscale hotel in the Main Street District of downtown Dallas, Texas, that for many years was the tallest building in the state after surpassing the Adolphus Hotel. The structure is a Dallas Landmark and is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. The building, which opened next door to the Adolphus Hotel in August 1922 at a cost of US $4 million, was originally the headquarters for the Magnolia Petroleum Company. In 1934, the company erected its trademark neon Pegasus on the building's roof (the Pegasus logo later became the logo of Mobil Oil who merged with Magnolia Petroleum in 1959) to celebrate the American Petroleum Institute'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 skyscrapers (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 National Register of Historic Places in 1978. The building was purchased by Denver, Colorado 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. National Register of Historic Places listings in Dallas County, Texas Recorded Texas Historic Landmarks in Dallas County Magnolia Hotels, the company that owns and operates the Dallas Magnolia Restoration of the Pegasus sign Archived November 9, 2006, at the Wayback Machine

Location

108 S. Akard St.
Dallas, Dallas County, Texas
32.78002, -96.79910

Categories

INDUSTRYECONOMICSARCHITECTURE
National Register nomination ›
Sources

Property data from the National Register of Historic Places, National Park Service (public domain).

Description adapted from Wikipedia under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.

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Nearby Historic Sites

Hotel Adolphus
Industrial
0 mi
Busch Building
Industrial
0 mi
Busch-Kirby Building (Boundary Increase)
Industrial
0 mi
First National Bank Tower
Industrial
0.1 mi
Wilson Building
Industrial
0.1 mi

Nearby Battles

Sam Bass — Texas Train Robberies 1877-1878
1877Frontier
11.6 mi

Questions about this property

When was Magnolia Building listed on the National Register?

Magnolia Building was listed on the National Register of Historic Places on January 30, 1978.

What type of historic resource is Magnolia Building?

Magnolia Building is classified as a building in the National Register of Historic Places.

What is the period of significance for Magnolia Building?

The period of significance for Magnolia Building is recorded as the industrial era.

Can I research the history near Magnolia Building?

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