Architects
In September 1934, when Dallas submitted its bid to become the host city for the Centennial Exposition, George Dahl’s conceptual sketches for the State of Texas building were presented to the Texas Centennial Commission. [9] This version included a cylindrical tower with a gold star on top in the center of the building with pavilions on each side. By June 1935, these plans, minus the tower, were published in the Dallas Morning News . [10] Dahl’s design was approved by the Exposition Commission and the Texas Centennial Commission.
Around June 20, the Centennial Board of Control, a group established by the Texas Legislature to oversee and disburse money set aside for the Centennial, [11] contracted the Texas Centennial Architects, Associated to design the building. This group included ten prominent Dallas architects, such as Mark Lemmon, Hal Thomson, Roscoe DeWitt, Marion Foosher, Anton Korn, Ralph Bryan, Walter Sharp, and Arthur Thomas. [9] On June 24 and 29, 1935, this group presented their designs for the State of Texas building. [12]
These new designs attempted to bring the building’s costs down to the amount set by the Texas Legislature ($1 million). [13] By July 3, 1935, none of these designs had been approved. [9] [14]
The next day, Mark Lemmon offered Donald Barthelme the position of chief designer for the State of Texas building. By July 9, Barthelme presented his designs, which were approved by the State Board of Control in Austin. The final revisions to his design was approved on July 20, 1935. [15] All three entities involved—the Texas Centennial Central Exposition Corporation, the Texas Centennial Commission, and the Centennial Board of Control—approved his design. [9]
Construction
The formal groundbreaking ceremony for the Hall of State was on October 12, 1935. [5] The original building plans included two additional rooms, the Hall of 1836 and the Hall of 1936. To keep costs down, they were not built, although their foundations were poured. [9] By February 1936, the building's steel framework was up, [16] but only the exterior of the building was ready when the Centennial opened on June 6, 1936. [9] The building was officially dedicated as the State of Texas building on September 6, 1936. [5] The building's cost totalled $1.2 million dollars. [6] [17]
Interior
The building is designed in the shape of a T, and has four interior rooms representing regions found in Texas: West, East, North and South. [17] Each room includes artwork representative of the region. The bottom floor includes an auditorium, offices, and archives.
Hall of Heroes
The main, semi-circular entry area inside the Hall of State is called the Hall of Heroes. [17] This area features six bronze statues of James Fannin, Mirabeau B. Lamar, Stephen F. Austin, Sam Houston, Thomas Jefferson Rusk and William B. Travis sculpted by Pompeo Coppini. The statue subjects were chosen by historians and the Centennial Commission to represent key figures in Texas history. [23] A bust of Chester Nimitz sculpted by Felix de Weldon was added in 1964 as part of a planned expansion to the Hall of Heroes. Carvings near the top of the walls in this area list locations important to Texas' fight for independence.
This area also contains bronze plaques that commemorate the Battle of the Alamo and the Battle of San Jacinto.
East Texas Room
The design of this room focuses on the East Texas region. The wood panelling is made from the East Texas gum tree. Orotones by Polly Smith capture scenes from this region, including cotton and oil field workers, and farm life. [24] Two paintings by Olin Travis are in this room. The first, called "Pre-Oil Texas," depicts cotton ginning and lumber manufacturing. At the bottom of the painting, symbolic characters that Travis called "Sleeping Giants" hide in the soil. [25] The other painting, called "Post-Oil Texas," shows an oil derrick with the "Sleeping Giants" coming up through it. Oil refineries and skyscrapers are in the background. [26]
West Texas Room
This room decor draws inspiration from West Texas region. The walls are covered in adobe-like plaster with cattle ranch brand designs imprinted in them.The window treatments are made of lariats, horseshoes, and horsetails. The tile designs on the walls were created by Ethel Wilson Harris and the Mexican Arts and Crafts Workshop in San Antonio, Texas. [27] The eight panels depict people in a West Texas town such as a sheriff, horse wrangler, sheep herder, and prospector.
The cowboy statue in the rear of the room was sculpted by Dorothy Austin Webberle y out of white pine [28] The wall behind the statue is covered in cowhides laced with rawhide strips. The two paintings in this room are by Tom Lea. The first painting is called "Frontier Family," and depicts a man, woman, and child sitting in a wagon with a town in the background. The second, "Cowboy," shows a ranch scene with a cowboy in the foreground.
The West Texas room is currently the G. B. Dealey Library.
The Great Hall
This main room in the building is forty-six feet high, ninety-four feet long, and sixty-eight feet wide. The columns are reeded Cordova Cream shell stone, a quarried Texas limestone.
South Texas Room
The walls of this room are covered in aluminum leaf with black Pyrenees marble wainscotting. The artwork in this room includes wood carvings by Lynn Ford depicting history and romance and eight shields designed by James Owen Mahoney, Jr. [32] The mural in this room, entitled "Allegorical View of South Texas" was also painted by Mahoney. [26]
