Dallas County has opened a new free exhibit called Legacy Dallas, putting 75 curated artifacts from the region's history on public display inside the Dallas County Records Building at 500 Elm Street. The collection ranges from J.R. Ewing's cowboy hat to a restored spinning gas-station figure known locally as Peggy, blending municipal archives with the pop-culture touchstones that put Dallas on the map.
According to CBS News Texas, county officials opened the exhibit to showcase artifacts from local inventors, entertainment, landmarks, and the arts, including items from the television show “Dallas” and memorabilia tied to the local invention of the frozen margarita machine. The exhibit sits on the main entrance level of the Records Building and is free to the public, as reported by Fox 4 Dallas-Fort Worth, which noted the display serves as the physical anchor for county archival materials previously housed at the Old Red Courthouse.
A Museum Collection Finds a New Home
Legacy Dallas was created to preserve and display the collection of the former Old Red Museum of Dallas County History and Culture, which closed in 2021 after Dallas County reclaimed its 1892 courthouse building for court use, according to the Dallas County Pioneer Association. That museum had operated inside the red sandstone courthouse since 2007 before the county needed the space back.
The historic courthouse itself underwent structural work and reopened as an active court facility, becoming home to the Texas Fifth District Court of Appeals in 2024, per Candy's Dirt. Rather than lose the artifact collection when the museum vacated, the county and private donors reimagined it as a hybrid effort combining an online archive with the new physical exhibit inside the Records Building.
Inside a Complex With Its Own Dark History
The Records Building complex now housing Legacy Dallas underwent a $200 million adaptive reuse renovation completed around 2021 that merged three historic structures — the 1917 Criminal Courts Building, the 1927 Records Building, and the 1953 Annex — into a modern 320,000-square-foot government center, Architect Magazine reports. The project ranks among the largest historic preservation and government facility modernization efforts in Texas.
That same complex carries notable weight in Dallas history: it once housed the jail cell of Depression-era outlaw Clyde Barrow and served as the venue for Jack Ruby's 1964 murder trial, according to the same Architect Magazine account. The building sits adjacent to Dealey Plaza, where President John F. Kennedy was assassinated in 1963.
From Slurpees to Frozen Margaritas
Among the exhibit's featured inventions is the story behind the world's first frozen margarita machine, invented by Dallas restaurateur Mariano Martinez on May 11, 1971. Per Business Wire, Martinez adapted a used soft-serve ice cream machine after watching a Slurpee dispenser at a 7-Eleven, and his original machine was later retired to the Smithsonian National Museum of American History.
The exhibit also features Peggy, the spinning Mobil gas-station Pegasus figure tied to Dallas's long association with the flying horse symbol. That symbol first rose to local fame in 1934, when a rotating sign was erected atop the 29-story Magnolia Petroleum building downtown, according to Hello Little Home, which notes the flying horse became one of Dallas's most enduring corporate trademarks during the Texas oil boom.
Leadership and Location
Legacy Dallas operates under Executive Director Dr. Evelyn Montgomery, a former curator at Dallas Heritage Village, and is funded through a partnership between Dallas County and private philanthropic donors including the Hillcrest Foundation and Summerlee Foundation, according to Legacy Dallas. Montgomery oversaw the transition of materials from the Old Red Museum into the new hybrid digital and physical layout.
Situated across from the Sixth Floor Museum at Dealey Plaza, Legacy Dallas expands a major historic tourism cluster that already includes the John F. Kennedy Memorial Plaza and the John Neely Bryan log cabin replica, per Hello Little Home. The West End area draws significant international and local visitors exploring North Texas heritage, giving the new exhibit a built-in audience just steps from its door.
