Top O' Hill Terrace (Images of America)

If the saga of Top O' Hill Casino becoming Arlington Baptist College

were written as fiction, readers would dismiss it as improbable and

impossible. The story of a tearoom evolving into the gambling hot

spot of North Central Texas that was then acquired by a fiery gospel

preacher, who foretold its transformation into a Baptist seminary and

ultimately an accredited Bible college, is stranger than fiction yet

absolutely true. The rich and famous enjoyed rubbing shoulders with

the mysterious and notoriously infamous, and if large amounts of

money were involved, so much the better. Stir in fabulous racehorses,

flashy stage and screen stars, singers, dancers, well-known bandleaders

and bands, and the tale becomes enthralling.