Magnolia Hotel

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The Magnolia Hotel

The front façade of the Magnolia Hotel that still says "Magnolia Building"

The Magnolia Hotel (sometimes still called the Magnolia Building) is a 29-story, Beaux-Arts style, upscale hotel in the Main Street District of downtown Dallas, Texas (USA) that for many years was the tallest building in the state of Texas.

The building, which opened next door to the Adolphus Hotel in August 1922 ^[1] at a cost of US$4 million, was originally the headquarters for the Magnolia Petroleum Company. In 1934, the building 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). 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 was dwarfed by much larger skyscrapers (the neon Pegasus can now only be seen in the downtown skyline approaching from the south).

By 1974, however, the Pegasus stopped rotating due to mechanical problems and in 1977, the Mobil Oil Company moved their headquarters out of the aging building and the property was sold back to the city of Dallas. The building was listed in the National Register of Historic Places in 1978.

The building was purchased by Denver developers in 1997 and the building was converted into a 330-room luxury hotel.

In 1999, in preparation for Dallas's Millennium Celebration, the Pegasus was taken down to be completely restored. However, the sign was beyond repair and instead it was completely rebuilt from scratch. At midnight on 1 January 2000, the new Pegasus, complete with rotation, was lit for the first time. The original sign now resides at the Dallas Farmers Market.