Hall of State

Duane's take

Here's how the official marker tells it, and here's how I'm gonna tell it to you. Back in the 1930s, when the whole country was flat on its back from the Depression, the State Legislature of Texas looked around and said — we're going to build something. Not just anything.

They wanted a building that was, and I am reading these words exactly as they were written down, quote, Texanic in proportion and centennial in character. Texanic. They made up a word.

That right there tells you everything you need to know about the ambition behind this place. When regular words won't do, Texas invents new ones. The occasion was the 1936 Texas Centennial Central Exposition, held right there in Dallas, and this building was to be its focal point — the heart of the whole celebration.

A team of Dallas architects took on the job, and they built it from native Texas materials, with ornamental representations of commerce and history worked right into the structure itself. Now here's the part that ought to stop you cold. The country was in the grip of the Great Depression when they completed this thing.

Breadlines, dust, hard times pressing down on ordinary people from every direction — and yet there it stood. One of the finest examples of Art Deco architecture in the entire state of Texas, risen right up out of the worst of it. The Hall of State.

Texanic in proportion. Centennial in character. And still standing.

What the marker says

Construction of this building, which served as the focal point of the 1936 Texas Centennial Central Exposition, was approved by the State Legislature to be "Texanic in proportion and centennial in character." Designed by a team of Dallas architects, it is built of native Texas materials with ornamental representations of commerce and history. Completed during the 1930s Depression, it is one of the best examples of Art Deco architecture in Texas. RTHL - 1980