N.P. Sims Library and Lyceum

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.

N.P. Sims Library and Lyceum is a historical marker in Waxahachie, Ellis County, dedicated in 1968. It is one of 116 historical markers documented in Ellis County in the Texas Historical Commission Atlas, among 300 historic sites cataloged across the county.

The site sits at 32.3882, -96.8523 near Waxahachie. The nearest cataloged historic site is Mahoney - Thompson House (historical marker), about under a tenth of a mile away. Others within a short drive include First Presbyterian Church Building, Thompson, Dr. D.G., Homesite of, and Hawkins, Eddy P., Home.

This record corresponds to Texas Historical Commission Atlas #5139007149. Use the map below for its exact position and turn-by-turn directions.