One of Dallas’s best-kept secrets remains just as recondite as it was during its Prohibition heyday. Top o’ Hill Terrace, known to some as “Vegas before Vegas,” was designed and built to cover outright debauchery under a façade of only the most prim and proper dining that the suburbs of Dallas could offer.
Top o’ Hill Terrace began its life as exactly what it seemed to be: an exclusive, upstanding restaurant nestled in a beautiful, spacious campus at one of the highest points in the county. But with the opening of the Arlington Downs horse track nearby, came the opportunity to bet on its races. By the late 1920s, Top o’ Hill Terrace had been literally hollowed out to a new purpose.
The facility retained its elite status even as a casino was built in its recesses and new underground rooms. To keep law enforcement from ending the extremely illegal fun, the Terrace was reconfigured into a veritable labyrinth of escape tunnels and secret entrances and exits. Hidden corridors were planned out masterfully, deflecting many a police raid as patrons who had been gambling minutes before posed themselves around innocuous pots of tea.
Due to the advanced security and the renown already attached to Top o’ Hill Terrace, it drew in such high rollers as John Wayne, Frank Sinatra, and Howard Hughes to gamble shoulder-to-shoulder alongside notorious criminals. It became one of the most prestigious casinos in America, and its sinful influence clashed with the values of the local clergy people.
The First Baptist Church of Fort Worth, the most outspoken critics of the secretive gambling operation, had the last laugh in the 1950s. A Texas Ranger raid finally succeeded in catching Top o’ Hill Terrace and its patrons off guard, bringing its fun to an end once and for all. The First Baptist Church bought the location, converting it into a seminary and letting the sordid underbelly remain hidden.
In the late 2010s, with the selection of a new president for what is now Arlington Baptist University, the secrets began to leak out. Led by the new president’s wife, school staff have begun efforts to restore and preserve the history of Top o’ Hill Terrace, and even launched a crowdfunding campaign to begin excavating the secret rooms hidden under their campus.
