SMU Campus Tour

Southern Methodist University opened in 1915 on donated farmland north of Dallas, and it has spent the century since dressing itself in red brick and white columns. The Georgian look was set by Dallas Hall and carried on by architect Mark Lemmon, whose buildings line the older quads. This walk starts beneath the Dallas Hall dome, visits the library, auditorium, and chapel of the historic core, strolls down Bishop Boulevard, and finishes at two major museums: the Meadows Museum of Spanish art and the George W. Bush Presidential Center.

Southern Methodist University has been dressing itself in red brick and white columns since it opened in 1915 on farmland north of Dallas, and this walk shows how that look came together across a century of architecture, philanthropy and campus life.

Dallas Hall, with its dome and columns, takes cues from Rome's Pantheon and Jefferson's University of Virginia, and its name thanks the city whose backers pledged land and money to win the new Methodist university. It set the Georgian tone that consulting architect Mark Lemmon carried through the older quads for decades. McFarlin Memorial Auditorium, opened in 1926 with room for the whole student body, went on to host acts from The Doors to Prince.

Bishop Boulevard is the ceremonial avenue where the dressed-up 'Boulevarding' tailgate spreads out under white tents before home football games. The campus is also home to two major collections: the Meadows Museum, built on an oilman's gift of Spanish paintings and housed since 2001 in a building dedicated with Spain's king and queen in attendance, and the George W. Bush Presidential Center, with its full-size Oval Office replica and native Texas prairie park.

It's an elegant stroll that rewards anyone interested in architecture, art or presidential history.