A spillway on White Rock Creek built in 1912 to provide water to the city created the lake that today is the centerpiece of the Dallas park system. The Parks Board began development of recreational facilities around the lake in the late 1920s, which today include hiking, boating, wildflower areas, playgrounds, and fountains.
The twenty-two-acre Camp House and the forty-four-acre DeGolyer Estate were acquired by the city in 1980 and 1977, respectively, for the Arboretum and Botanical Garden, which opened to the public in 1984. Nineteen gardens highlight the vegetation of North Texas seasons.
Two houses are now a part of the Garden landscape. The Roberta and Alex Camp House (1938; 8617 Garland Road) overlooking White Rock Lake was one of two houses in Dallas by John F. Staub of Houston. Its soft stylistic blend that he called “Latin Colonial” has similarities to his Bayou Bend in Houston. The Nell and Everett DeGolyer House (1939, Schutt and Scott; 8525 Garland) is a 21,000-square-foot Spanish Colonial Revival. The house’s gardens (1940, Marie and Arthur Berger) were originally a dairy farm. DeGolyer, who first bought a house in north Dallas when he relocated to Dallas in 1936 from New Jersey, pioneered the use of seismographs to find oil.
The Trammell Crow Visitor Education Pavilion and Entry Plaza (2003, Lake|Flato), the gateway to the Gardens, is built of massive blocks of native Texas limestone, with copper roofs with glazed lanterns.