Hotel Adolphus - Dallas, TX
Posted by: 
WalksfarTX
N 32° 46.793 W 096° 47.970
14S E 706091 N 3629028
The hotel is a 19-story steel frame structure clad with tapestry brick and gray granite. The hotel is noteworthy for the high quality of its Beaux Arts style ornamentation, which is carried out in bronze as well as granite.
Waymark Code: WMX5PQ
Location: Texas, United States
Date Posted: 12/01/2017
Views: 4
Texas Historic Sites Atlas
Built 1911-12. Builder/Architect Barnett, Haynes and Barnett of St. Louis.
The Adolphus Hotel represents a substantial investment on the part of St. Louis brewery magnate Adolphus Busch in the development of Dallas during the years before World War I.
The elaborate architectural ornament of the hotel serves to divide the exterior elevations into four distinct sections. The base course of the hotel is of red granite, with the first three stories faced with gray granite. The main entrance to the hotel was placed in the central bay of the seven-bay Akard Street elevation. The Akard Street entrance is marked by the large, segmentally arched opening on the second floor which is capped by a granite sculptural group representing Mercury and Ceres. The opening is flanked by panels of relief sculpture depicting Apollo and Terpsichore. This collection of architectural ornament sets the tone for the detailing to be found throughout the hotel's exterior.
The three-window bays to each side of the prominent central opening are alternately capped by segmental arches or triangular pediments supported by scroll brackets. The floor-length casement doors in these openings are screened by wrought bronze grilles whose central element is a cartouche containing the letter "A," the hotel's monogram. The seven windows of the third floor on Akard Street are set in simple frames, but feature the wrought bronze grillwork used on the second floor. A beltcourse carved with a scroll motif separates the second and third floors.