{"nrhp_refnum":"78002913","name":"Dallas Hall","other_names":[],"category":"building","location":{"address":"Southern Methodist University campus","address_restricted":false,"city":"Dallas","county":"Dallas County","state":"TX","lat":32.845235358000025,"lon":-96.78488117599994,"geom_source":"nps_gis"},"listed_date":"1978-11-17","is_nhl":false,"nhl_designated_date":null,"areas_of_significance":["Education","Architecture"],"significance_levels":["local"],"summary":{"what_it_is":"Dallas Hall is a four-story red brick Neo-Georgian academic building on the campus of Southern Methodist University in Dallas, Texas, built between 1912 and 1915 and designed by Shepley, Rutan & Coolidge.","why_significant":"The nomination presents it as the focal point of the university and its first building, funded by Dallas citizens' gift. It reflects founding president Robert S. Hyer's Beaux-Arts campus plan with a monumental building at the end of a long boulevard. It was an early Neo-Georgian design in Dallas, by a nationally prominent firm.","narrative":"Dallas Hall sits on a hilltop at the north end of Bishop Boulevard on the Southern Methodist University campus. Built between 1912 and 1915, it is a four-story red brick building with a central rotunda modeled on the Roman Pantheon, topped by a copper dome. East and west wings end in semi-circular Doric porticoes, and a front portico has six tall fluted columns with hand-carved limestone capitals. The Chicago-based firm Shepley, Rutan & Coolidge designed it, with Fred A. Jones Co. as contractor. It was the university's first building and, for its first decade, the only classroom facility. Dallas citizens financed it, and it was named in appreciation. President Robert S. Hyer envisioned a grand campus with a long mall instead of a traditional quadrangle, and he chose Neo-Georgian architecture before the style became prominent in Dallas. A 1970-71 renovation rebuilt the interior for classrooms, offices and an auditorium while leaving the exterior unchanged.","period_of_significance":"1912-1915","architect_builder":"Shepley, Rutan & Coolidge (architects); Fred A. Jones Co. (general contractor)","architectural_style":"Neo-Georgian (Georgian Revival)","criteria":[],"status_note":"Excellent condition; still in academic and administrative use. Interior was renovated in 1970-71 with the exterior left unchanged.","vacant_flag":false,"machine_generated":true,"model":"claude-sonnet-5-5","prompt_version":"v1.0-2026-10-29","generated_at":"2026-10-29 02:54:19.306969-05","source_pdf":"https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/opastorage/live/10/9687/40968710/content/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_TX/78002913.pdf"},"photo":{"url_800":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/78002913/a5daa4d5aa-800.webp","url_1600":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/78002913/a5daa4d5aa-1600.webp","licence":"CC BY-SA 3.0","author":"Jeffrey Beall","credit_html":"<a href=\"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Dallas_Hall_(Southern_Methodist_University).JPG\" rel=\"noopener\">Jeffrey Beall</a>, <a href=\"https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0\" rel=\"license noopener\">CC BY-SA 3.0</a>, via Wikimedia Commons","source_page":"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Dallas_Hall_(Southern_Methodist_University).JPG"},"district":null,"sources":{"nps_snapshot_date":"2026-05-22","nara_catalog":"https://catalog.archives.gov/id/40968710","wikipedia":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dallas_Hall","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q16953984"},"indexable":true,"url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/texas/dallas-county/dallas-hall-78002913/"}