Dallas Hall, The Early Days

SMU_building_the-campus-mag_july-1912_coverBuild it and they will come, Jimmie…

by Paula Bosse

I can’t even remember what I was looking for in the SMU Libraries database when I stumbled across a collection of magazines/newsletters called The Campus, from 1912-1914. It’s pretty dry reading, but they appear to be updates sent out to moneyed Methodists who were actively working on raising funds for construction of the new Southern Methodist University in Dallas. There are the occasional interesting ads (especially for the Methodist-owned real estate which surrounded the campus and would soon generate substantial moolah) and progress reports on the construction of the first building, the magnificent Dallas Hall. Here are a few of the photos.

“Showing progress on Dallas Hall” (1912) — this is great:

SMU_dallas-hall_construction_the-campus-mag_oct-1912

“Workingmen’s quarters on S.M.U. campus” (1912) — this is greater (tents! — is that a horse in there?):

SMU_dallas-hall_construction_the-campus-mag_oct-1912_workers-tents

“Dallas Hall — as it appears today” (1913):

SMU_dallas-hall_construction_the-campus-mag_march-1913

And finally, all shiny and ready to open for business (1915):

SMU_dallas-hall_the-campus-mag_ca-1914_cover

Lastly, an architectural drawing, which I’d like to think construction workers might have glanced at occasionally to make sure everything was going in the right place — like dissectologists using the lid of a jigsaw puzzle box. (Incidentally, $300,000 in 1912 was equivalent to about $9.5 million in today’s dollars. I think it might have ended up costing more by the time it was finished.)

SMU-dallas-hall-drawing_the-campus-mag_july-1912

***

Sources & Notes

All images are from various issues of The Campus, all of which may be accessed on the SMU Libraries site here; (DeGolyer Library, SMU Libraries, SMU Archives, Southern Methodist University).

See a couple of great photos of Dallas Hall under construction: domeless, and mid-dome (DeGolyer Library).

Other Flashback Dallas posts on the very early years of SMU:

This post originated in a post I made last week on my Patreon page, which I update daily. If you would like to subscribe to that page for as little as $5 a month, please hie yourself over there!

*

Copyright © 2023 Paula Bosse. All Rights Reserved.