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Arlington Baptist College embraces casino past
12:06 AM CST on Saturday, November 8, 2008
By MICHAEL E. YOUNG / The Dallas Morning News
myoung@dallasnews.com
ARLINGTON – On an imposing hilltop at the edge of town, students train in pastoral quiet for the ministry and the mission fields, surrounded by the echoes of a vastly different and long-ago era. But the gambling past and academic present at what is now Arlington Baptist College are of one piece, woven in ways the school's founders tried to ignore, but which current leaders embrace.
Today, even the Arlington Convention & Visitors Bureau is helping spread the word about the new twice-a-week tours offered at the school. Previously, guests had to arrange a tour.
Every Tuesday and Thursday afternoon, visitors can experience an unforgettable slice of Texas' gambling history that lurks behind strong gates in a scattering of old brown-stone buildings.
Before this was Arlington Baptist and before it was Bible Baptist Seminary, these 46 acres on West Division Street were known by another name: the lilting Top O' Hill Terrace. And in the 1930s and '40s, it was the fanciest gambling joint around, a forerunner to Las Vegas looming over the Texas plains.
Top O' Hill was the vision of Fred Browning, who had run some gambling operations in Fort Worth but was weary of the efforts of the Rev. J. Frank Norris of the First Baptist Church to put him out of business.
He bought the property in 1926 from a pair of sisters who'd operated a tea room and garden there and promptly dug a 6,000-square-foot basement beneath the restaurant for a casino and showroom large enough to house the big bands of the day.
Vickie Bryant, wife of Arlington Baptist president David Bryant and a tenacious investigator of the school's history, said Mr. Browning and Dr. Norris were inextricably linked.
Even as Mr. Browning built his casino's reputation, attracting many of America's best-known players to his tables, Dr. Norris fought to shut him down, vowing that one day, "We will own that place."
Mrs. Bryant recounts their stories before leading the tours through the old Top O' Hill's attractions. And she still marvels "how God has taken this place from poker to preachers."
When Mr. Browning bought the property, he told his wife, Mary, that he'd build a fortress there, "so those pesky Baptists and the law couldn't break in," Dallas historian and writer Jim Gatewood said.
And that's exactly what Mr. Browning did.
Twenty guards, some working with attack dogs, protected the property. It took a password, repeated several times at various points, to gain access to the stairway leading down to the casino. And Mr. Browning ordered his staff to ensure the anonymity of his guests.
But over the years, names trickled out – Clark Gable, Hedy Lamarr, Mae West, Tom Mix and Howard Hughes. John Wayne visited. So did Frank Sinatra.
Gangster Bugsy Siegel gambled there, and so did Bonnie and Clyde. A young Ginger Rogers tap-danced there. The Tommy Dorsey Orchestra entertained, and so did fan dancer Sally Rand.
Top O' Hill drew Texas' new oil millionaires, too, including H.L. Hunt, Mrs. Bryant said.
The subterranean casino deterred too much snooping. But gambling was illegal in Texas, and Dr. Norris, Mr. Browning's nemesis, rarely rested.
So he designed the place with hidden rooms to hide the gaming tables and slot machines and built an escape tunnel so gamblers could scramble to the nearby "tea garden." There, food and drinks were always set out so arriving Texas Rangers would find the guests relaxed and happy in the hilltop garden.
Still, word spread and the raids began in 1935, with at least four more through 1947, when Texas Ranger Capt. M.T. "Lone Wolf" Gonzaullas led several officers through an open doorway, arresting dozens of gamblers and staff and destroying the gambling paraphernalia.
Mr. Browning reopened within days. But out in the Nevada desert, Las Vegas was becoming a legal gambling capital, and Top O' Hill Terrace was on its way down. He eventually lost the property, but bought it back again in 1953, a few months before he died.
Dr. Norris had died the year before. But his promise to acquire Top O' Hill was never forgotten.
The Bible Baptist Seminary, founded by Dr. Norris, purchased the property in 1956.
And the two men, opposites in life, would be linked in history by this particular piece of ground.
Go & do
What: Top O' Hill tours
Where: Arlington Baptist College, 3001 W. Division St.
When: 3 p.m. Tuesdays and Thursdays
Admission: $5 donation per person
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