1922 Renaissance Revival 29-story former Magnolia Petroleum Building beneath Dallas's iconic neon Pegasus; converted to a hotel in the late 1990s and reportedly home to cowboy-boot footfalls and phantom saloon piano.
1401 Commerce Street, Dallas, TX 75201
Age
All Ages
Cost
$$$
Standard room rates typically $150-275 per night. Lobby accessible to non-guests.
Access
Wheelchair OK
Renovated 29-story tower with elevators and accessible public spaces
Equipment
Photos OK
Est. 1922 · National Register of Historic Places (1978) · Recorded Texas Historic Landmark · Dallas Landmark · Magnolia Petroleum (Mobil) Headquarters · Tallest building in Texas, 1922 — west of the Mississippi until the mid-1940s · Iconic 1934 neon Pegasus
The Magnolia Petroleum Building opened in August 1922 at the corner of Akard and Commerce Streets in downtown Dallas. Designed in a Renaissance Revival and Beaux Arts style with 29 stories and a steel frame, it served as the headquarters of Magnolia Petroleum (later merged into Mobil) and surpassed the Adolphus to become the tallest building in Texas. From 1922 until the mid-1940s it was also the tallest building west of the Mississippi River.
In 1934 Magnolia Petroleum installed the company's trademark red flying Pegasus on the roof — a rotating neon sign that has since become the iconic visual symbol of Dallas. The original Pegasus was restored and a faithful reconstruction has continued to crown the building.
The Magnolia Building was listed on the National Register of Historic Places on January 30, 1978 and is a Dallas Landmark and Recorded Texas Historic Landmark. After decades as an office tower, the building was purchased in 1997 by a Denver-based developer and converted to the 330-room Magnolia Hotel that opened in the late 1990s. The 24th floor was preserved in its original 1920s office configuration.
The Wikipedia entry, Visit Dallas, and Dallas-area real-estate publication CandysDirt are consistent on the building's basic timeline and architectural details.
Sources
The Magnolia's haunting is hotel-staff folklore rather than a single named ghost tied to a documented death. According to Visit Dallas and CandysDirt, guests and front-desk staff have for decades reported cowboy-boot footfalls and the metallic jingle of spurs in empty corridors, the smell of old cigar smoke, and the sound of a saloon-style piano playing in the dead of night with no source in the building.
The 24th floor — which the hotel preserved in its original 1922 office configuration — is the most-cited location for the strangest single account, in which calls have reportedly come down to the front desk from antique phones on that floor that staff describe as no longer connected to the hotel's switchboard.
Additional reports cluster around a ghostly little boy said to 'play' on the elevators, sending them between floors without a passenger, and a separate child apparition described as a little girl on the 6th floor. The Wikipedia article does not record specific deaths at the property, and CandysDirt explicitly frames the activity as 'guest lore and anecdotal reports rather than an official named-ghost narrative,' so the building's haunted reputation should be read as accumulated hotel tradition.
Notable Entities
Media Appearances
Stay overnight at the Magnolia. Cowboy-boot footfalls, spur-jingles, and the smell of cigar smoke are most commonly reported on the original office-era upper floors; lore attaches a 'little boy' to the elevators and a 'little girl' to the 6th floor.
The reconstructed 1934 neon Pegasus atop the building is one of the most recognizable symbols of Dallas. The corner of Akard and Commerce offers the best street-level view of the rotating horse.
Every HauntBound history is researched from documented sources. We clearly separate verified historical fact from paranormal folklore.
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