Continental D.A.R. House
Dallas, Dallas County, Texas
Marker Inscription
This historic building was erected as part of Texas’ Centennial Exposition of 1936. Funded by the Continental Oil Company, the building was designed by Architect W.R. Brown to emulate a southern colonial mansion, most evident in the grandiose two-story balustrade deck which is supported by six columns. During the exposition, the structure housed a Texas Travel Information Bureau and provided seating for those who wished to rest in its air-conditioned interior. The building was gifted in 1937 to the Jane Douglas Chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution and now houses their large collection of memorabilia. The chapter opens the building to the public annually during the State Fair of Texas, where visitors may learn about American history, education and historic preservation. RECORDED TEXAS HISTORIC LANDMARK – 2016
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
Built for Texas's 1936 Centennial Exposition and funded by the Continental Oil Company, this columned building was designed to evoke a southern colonial mansion and served as a travel bureau during the fair. In 1937 it was given to the Jane Douglas Chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution, which houses its collection here. The chapter opens the building to the public each year during the State Fair of Texas.
Why it matters
The house preserves a tangible piece of Texas's grand centennial celebration and reflects how heritage organizations keep American history and preservation before the public.
The story behind this marker
AI contextThe era
In 1936 Texas threw itself a hundredth-birthday party, and it was enormous. The Texas Centennial Exposition, staged in Dallas, drew millions of visitors to a fairground of bold new buildings, exhibits, and pageantry celebrating a century since Texas won its independence. It landed in the middle of the Great Depression, and for many Texans it was a rare burst of optimism, spectacle, and civic pride.
The exposition was also a showcase for the businesses and industries remaking the state — none more so than oil, which had transformed the Texas economy in the early twentieth century. Corporate money helped build the fair, and companies used its pavilions to present themselves to the visiting public.
Against that backdrop, a building meant to evoke a gracious southern colonial mansion offered fairgoers something the Depression made precious: a cool, welcoming place to rest, learn where to go next in Texas, and feel, for an afternoon, like an honored guest.
People & events
This building was erected for the 1936 exposition and funded by the Continental Oil Company. The architect, W. R. Brown, designed it to look the part of a southern colonial mansion, and its signature feature — a grand two-story balustraded deck carried on six columns — still announces that intention at a glance.
During the fair it did practical, hospitable work. It housed a Texas travel information bureau, pointing visitors toward the state's sights, and it offered air-conditioned seating where footsore fairgoers could escape the Texas heat — a genuine luxury in 1936.
When the exposition ended, the building found a second life. In 1937 it was given to the Jane Douglas Chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution, which has kept it ever since as a home for its collection of memorabilia. Each year, when the State Fair of Texas fills the old fairgrounds again, the chapter opens the doors to the public, turning a former travel bureau into a small classroom of American history and preservation.
Its place in the American story
World's-fair and exposition buildings were usually temporary by design — grand for a season, then gone. That this one survived, and found a lasting purpose, makes it a rare tangible link to the great civic celebration of 1936 and to the Depression-era moment that produced it.
Its afterlife also reflects a distinctly American tradition: the heritage organization as a keeper of memory. Groups like the Daughters of the American Revolution have long taken on the work of preserving buildings, collecting artifacts, and putting the nation's history before the public — the kind of grassroots stewardship that keeps local history alive between the covers of textbooks.
Recorded as a Texas Historic Landmark, the house stands for two American stories at once: the ambition of a state announcing itself to the world, and the quieter, ongoing effort of citizens who decided a piece of that ambition was worth saving.
If you visit
Look first at the front of the building — that two-story columned deck is the whole design idea, and it's meant to make you think of a southern colonial mansion. Notice how a structure built for a single fair was made to look permanent and dignified, as if it had always been there.
The surest time to see inside is during the State Fair of Texas, when the Jane Douglas Chapter opens the house to the public and shows its collection. If you time a visit to the fair, this is a chance to step out of the crowds and midway noise into a room devoted to American history and preservation.
Treat it as a small, rewarding detour on a Dallas fairgrounds visit. It pairs naturally with the other landmarks that survive from the 1936 exposition, and it rewards travelers who like to notice how the buildings around them carry stories the crowds walk right past.
Written by AI to add context, grounded in the marker’s inscription and the historical record. The inscription above is the original, unaltered text.
Own a business near here? Add it to the map.
Related events
- · Texas Centennial Exposition of 1936
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
Sons of Hermann in Dallas
Dallas, TX
Founded in New York in 1840 to preserve German traditions and ease immigrants' entry into American life, the Sons of Hermann established a Texas Grand Lodge in San Antonio in 1890. Dallas lodges soon joined, running German-language schooling for children from 1893 and pressing the State Fair to add a German day. By the 1920s the order was among the largest fraternal groups in the nation, and its Elm Street hall endured as a dance hall, bowling alley, and gathering place.
Grace United Methodist Church
Dallas, TX
This Dallas congregation traces its roots to the years just after the Civil War, when a Sunday School begun in 1868 grew into the Dallas City Mission and spawned two neighborhood churches. At the 1902 North Texas Annual Conference those fellowships merged into Grace Methodist Church, worshiping first in a temporary tabernacle before this permanent sanctuary rose in 1903. A 1925 remodeling added the educational unit, marking the congregation's growth alongside a booming young city.
Baylor University Medical Center
Dallas, TX
Facing a shortage of medical care for booming turn-of-the-century Dallas, Dr. Charles M. Rosser opened a training hospital in 1900, and by 1903 a challenge from pastor George W. Truett spurred Texas Baptists to charter a great teaching hospital that grew into Baylor. From its 250-bed facility of 1909 to the pioneering 1929 'Baylor Plan' — a prepaid hospital insurance scheme that seeded Blue Cross — the center became a landmark of American medicine.
Baylor College of Dentistry
Dallas, TX
Two St. Louis dentists chartered State Dental College in Dallas in 1905, betting that the fast-growing commercial city needed a dental school despite local skepticism. After the Dallas County Dental Society joined its oversight, the school affiliated with Baylor University in 1918, earning national 'Class A' accreditation and accelerating its program during World War II to supply dentists for U.S. troops. Independent again in 1971, it later joined the Texas A&M University System and remains a nationally recognized center for oral-health education and research.