N. P. Sims Library and Lyceum
Waxahachie, Ellis County, Texas
Marker Inscription
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.
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
One of the earliest privately endowed libraries in Texas, the N. P. Sims Library and Lyceum grew from a bequest by Virginia-born farmer and investor Nicholas P. Sims, who died in 1902. Rising in Getzendaner Park—land donated by Confederate veteran and railroad president Captain W. H. Getzendaner—the Neo-Classical building of Carrara marble opened in 1905, with reading rooms below and an auditorium and athenaeum above. Later benefactors, including inventor J. Harry Phillips, added wings that carried the institution through the twentieth century.
Why it matters
The library embodies the Gilded Age faith in self-improvement and civic philanthropy, when private fortunes funded the reading rooms and lecture halls that brought culture to small-town America.
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Related people
- · Nicholas P. Sims
- · W. H. Getzendaner
- · J. Harry Phillips
Themes & tags
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