The History and Significance of Thanks-Giving Square in Dallas
Published: April 29, 2023
Updated: April 29, 2023
Thanks-Giving Square in Dallas was founded by a group of businessmen and religious leaders in 1964. The city had a history, going back to at least the early 1900s, of ecumenical religious celebrations between Protestants, Catholics, and Jews in the downtown area. As Dallas’s “new downtown” space developed in the early 1960s, local businessmen Peter Stewart, Julius Schepps, Joe Neuhoff, and John Stemmons created the Thanks-Giving Square Foundation in 1964. Their goal was to develop the “triangle of land bounded by Akard, Ervay, and Pacific,” which was in essence the city’s “center acre,” into a space for interfaith and cross-cultural connections. As their founding document stated, “a city’s great aspiration should be apparent at its center. Thanksgiving to God is America’s most ancient and enduring tradition.”
Interest in the notion of Thanksgiving as an organizing principle led to the creation of numerous “Thanksgiving Roundtables” hosted in the United States and abroad—in London, Vancouver, Buenos Aires, Nanjing, Bangalore, Hong Kong, and elsewhere. In 1968 a booklet of Dallasites’ reflections on the theme of Thanksgiving was edited by Peter Stewart and published with the title The Spirit of Thanksgiving—Testimony of the People.
In 1968 the Foundation acquired the land from the city. The group intended to have Thanks-Giving Square—actually triangular in shape—completed by 1976, in time for the U. S. Bicentennial. They chose architect Philip Johnson to design the Square and began clearing the space on May 17, 1972. President Gerald Ford declared Thanks-Giving Square “a major national shrine” in 1974 and established the Presidential Collection of Thanksgiving Proclamations there. In 1976 the Chapel of Thanks-Giving, which dominates the Square, was completed, and the chapel and bell tower were dedicated on Thanksgiving Day (November 25) of that year. The chapel’s design draws on that of the Great Mosque of Samarra, Iraq, built in the ninth century, and has been noted as part of Johnson’s historicist turn. It features the Glory Window, a spiraling array of seventy-three stained-glass panels designed by French artist Gabriel Loire.
The Hall of World Thanksgiving opened at Thanks-Giving Square in September 1977. The First Convocation of World Thanksgiving was held at the site in 1981, and in 1991 President George H. W. Bush dedicated the Wall of Presidential Thanksgivings at the Square. Thanks-Giving Square has seen numerous ecumenical celebrations of the theme of Thanksgiving over the years, and its organizers have helped develop educational programs and curricula in Thanksgiving studies. Peter Stewart and the Thanks-Giving Square were honored with the inaugural Spirit of the United Nations Award for Youth Outreach in 2012. The space offers a park-like setting that includes trees, grass, water channels, and a waterfall wall. Visitors may take self-guided tours of the various landscape, architectural, and art features of the park and view exhibits that chronicle the history of Thanksgiving. In 2021 the Thanks-Giving Square Foundation announced a plan to expand and renovate the Square.
Bibliography:
Dallas Morning News, March 18, 2021. Elaine Pasquini, “Thanks-Giving Chapel’s Islamic Design a Visual, Spiritual Gem in Downtown Dallas,” Washington Report on Middle East Affairs 29 (November 2010) (https://www.wrmea.org/2010-november/travel-tips-thanks-giving-chapel-s-islamic-design-a-visual-spiritual-gem-in-downtown-dallas.html), accessed April 27, 2023. Peter P. Stewart, “A Small Miracle: ‘Thanksgiving Together’—From 1907 in Dallas to 2000 International Year of Thanksgiving,” Legacies: A History Journal for Dallas and North Central Texas 12 (Fall 2000). Thanks-Giving Square, Thanks-Giving Foundation (https://thanksgiving.org/thanksgivingsquare/visit/), accessed April 27, 2023.
Time Periods:
The following, adapted from the Chicago Manual of Style, 15th edition, is the preferred citation for this entry.
Benjamin V. Allison, “Thanks-Giving Square,” Handbook of Texas Online, accessed March 09, 2026, https://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/entries/thanks-giving-square.
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- April 29, 2023
- April 29, 2023
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