N. P. Sims Library and Lyceum

Duane's take

Now, I'm tellin' this one straight from the official marker; here's how Duane reads it. Settle in, because this story's got Confederate veterans, Carrara marble, and a Virginia-born farmer who lived long enough to see nearly a century of Texas history before he put his name on something that would outlast them all. That's the kind of tale Ellis County keeps quiet until you come looking.

Pull up a chair. We're going in. The N.

P. Sims Library and Lyceum sits in Getzendaner Park, right there in Ellis County, and before we even get to the library, that park has a story. Captain W.

H. Getzendaner, attorney, Confederate veteran, banker, and president of the Dallas and Waco Railroad, donated that land to the city on December 31, 1895. New Year's Eve.

A gift to a whole community on the last night of a year. Getzendaner lived from 1834 to 1909, and that park still carries his name. Now.

Nicholas P. Sims. Born in Virginia in 1806.

He came to Ellis County in 1833 and made his life there as a farmer and investor. He prospered. And then, in 1902, the year he died, at the age of ninety-six, he endowed the library and lyceum.

Ninety-six years old, and still thinking about what he was leaving behind. He named three trustees: his stepsons O. E. and S.

W. Dunlap, and George H. Cunningham.

The building itself was designed by architect S. Wemyes Smith of Fort Worth in the Neo-Classical style, built with Carrara marble and other fine structural materials. That's not a county reading room; that's a statement.

The library opened in April 1905. Books and reading rooms on the first floor. And up on the second floor: an auditorium, an athenaeum, anterooms, and a stage for the performing arts.

This wasn't just a place to borrow books. It was a place to think, to gather, to perform. Later, the building grew.

Braden and Jones designed the wings. The west wing was financed in 1958 by J. Harry Phillips, an Ellis Countian the marker calls a talented inventor, who lived from 1872 to 1962.

The east wing came in 1965, financed by industrialist W. H. Larkin and Mrs.

Larkin. And the generosity didn't stop there. Major gifts also came from the sale of the home bequeathed by city secretary Robert A.

Watson and Mrs. Watson (Watson served in that role from 1938 to 1952) and from the sale of the farm of Judge Oscar E. Dunlap.

A pioneer among privately-endowed Texas libraries, the marker calls it. And when you trace it back, a donated park, a Virginia farmer's dying wish, a Fort Worth architect and Carrara marble, inventors and industrialists and a city secretary's home, you start to understand what that word pioneer really means. Not just first.

But willing.

What the marker says

A pioneer among privately - endowed Texas libraries. Situated in Getzendaner Park, which had been donated to the city on Dec. 31, 1895, by Capt. W.H. Getzendaner (1834-1909), and attorney, Confederate veteran, banker, and president of the Dallas & Waco Railroad. Nicholas P. Sims (1806-1902), a native of Virginia who settled in 1833 in Ellis County and prospered as a farmer and investor, endowed the library and lyceum in 1902, naming as trustees his stepsons O.E. and S. W. Dunlap, along with George H. Cunningham. Architect S. Wemyes Smith of Fort Worth designed the Neo-Classical building, using Carrara marble and other fine structural materials. The library opened in April 1905. Books and reading rooms were on the first floor, with the auditorium, athenaeum, anterooms, and stage for performing arts on the second floor. Braden and Jones designed the wings. The west wing was financed (1958) by an Ellis Countian, the talented inventor, J. Harry Phillips (1872-1962). Industrialist W.H. Larkin and Mrs. Larkin financed (1965) the east wing. Other major gifts were received from sale of the home bequeathed by 1938-52 city secretary Robert A Watson and Mrs. Watson, and from sale of the farm of Judge Oscar E. Dunlap.