Donald S. Nelson collection

Born in Paris, Texas, Thomas Dohoney Broad (1893-1985) received a BS in architecture from The University of Texas at Austin in 1915 and attended graduate school in architecture at Harvard from 1915 to 1916. He left his studies at Harvard to return to his hometown of Paris after a disastrous fire destroyed the downtown area in 1916. From 1916 through 1917, Broad helped rebuild the city of Paris with a short lived partnership known as Curtis, Broad and Lightfoot. After spending two years in the US Army Air Corp, he worked for Wight and Wight of Kansas City (1919 to 1923). During the latter part of 1921, he travelled to Europe to further his education.

In March of 1923, Broad established an architectural firm in Dallas with Lester Flint. Flint and Broad designed commercial buildings in the 1920s and 1930s including the Medical Arts Building in Shreveport, Lousiana (1928) and the Black Hotel in Oklahoma City (1930).

From 1933 to 1938, Broad took a leave of absence from the firm and was employed successively by the CWA, the Texas Relief Commission and Texas Rural Communities. He was subsequently placed in charge of the design division of the Resettlement Administration and the Farm Security Administration for Texas and Oklahoma. During his tenure with these federal programs, he designed farm communities in Wichita Falls, Ropesville, and Highlands (all in Texas). During Broad's absence from the firm, Flint designed several important public buildings in association with other firms including the Hall of State (1936) and the Dallas Aquarium (1936), both located at Fair Park in Dallas.

Following the death of Lester Flint in 1938, Broad became the sole owner of the firm. Thomas D. Broad, architect, designed such well-known structures in Dallas as the first Administration Building at Love Field (1939) and the Masonic Temple (1941). Over a period of 18 years, he designed 18 buildings for the Buckner Orphans Home in Dallas.

Broad served for many years on the State Board of Architectural Examiners (1937-1951), the board of directors of the Dallas Museum of Art and the Dallas Council on World Affairs. He was also elected to fellowship in the American Institute of Architects.

Donald S. Nelson (1907-1992) was born in Chicago and received a bachelor of architecture degree from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1927. In addition, he studied at the Ecole Nationale des Beaux Arts at Fountainebleu in 1925 and received the Paris Prize from the Society of Beaux Arts Architects in 1927 which enabled him to study for three years in Paris. In 1929, he joined the Chicago firm of Bennett, Parsons, and Frost where he participated in the design of the 1933 Chicago Century of Progress Exposition. Nelson designed the United States Government Building as well as many of the corporation buildings at the Chicago fair.

In 1935, he was hired by George L. Dahl, chief architect of the Texas Centennial Fair. After the completion of Fair Park in 1937, Nelson remained in Dallas and established a private practice from 1937 to 1940. He was selected by the Federal Fine Arts Commission to be the architect for the federal memorials for the Texas Centennial. He was also associate architect with W.W. Ahlschlager on the Mercantile National Bank of Dallas (1940-1942). During World War II, he served as Chief of Planning and Design for the United States Army Air Force in Washington, D.C. from 1942 to 1946.

In 1946, the firm of Broad and Nelson was established. Nelson succesfully made the transition from the Beaux-Arts style to Modernism after World War II. Among his larger commissions for commercial and public buildings are: the Dallas Mercantile Bank Complex (1940-47); the Texas Memorial Grand Lodge Temple in Waco (1950); the Dallas County Government Center (1969); the Scottish Rite Library and Museum in Waco (1969); and the Experimental Science Building at The University of Texas (1951). Nelson was noted for his ability to integrate the other fine arts into the design of his buildings.

Nelson received numerous design awards at both the state and national level. He served as president of the Dallas Chapter of the American Institute of Architects in 1956 and as secretary-treasurer of the Texas Architecture Foundation from 1950 to 1954. Nelson was made a Fellow in the American Institute of Architects in 1954.