Pegasus Plaza was created as the centerpiece of a $7 million restoration program for the historic Main Street District.

[1] The $2.5 million plaza, an idea of the Dallas Institute of Humanities and Culture, was paid for with $750,000 of 1982 bond election money and private donations, including $500,000 from actress Greer Garson.

[2] Constructed on a corner parking lot originally the site of the Southwestern Life Insurance Building (Otto H. Lang, architect; built 1912; demolished 1972),[3] work on the 16,000-square-foot (1,500 m2) plaza began in 1993 and the plaza was opened in September 1994 by Dallas Mayor Steve Bartlett and former Mayor Annette Strauss .

The design retells the story of when the warrior Perseus slew the serpent-haired monster Medusa and Pegasus sprang from her severed head.

The fountain is connected to a natural mineral spring 1,600 feet (490 m) below the Magnolia Building and is the source well for water in the plaza.