The Hilton Anatole has made way for one of its biggest guests ever: a 15-ton bronze propeller from the RMS Lusitania.

Anatole owner Harlan Crow had the 106-year-old propeller moved in June to the hotel, where guests and the public can view the piece of history on permanent display in the hotel’s sculpture garden.

“As an important historic artifact from a critical period in world history, we are very pleased to have the RMS Lusitania propeller added to the incredible collection of artifacts and artwork at the Hilton Anatole,” said Bob McPherrin, the hotel’s marketing director.

The Lusitania, launched in 1906, was the first ocean liner longer than 700 feet to be powered by turbine engines and was a “four-funneled” passenger liner, meaning it had four stacks for smoke, heat and excess steam to escape from the boiler rooms.

In 1915, the second year of World War I, the ship was returning to Liverpool, England, from New York when it was torpedoed by a U-20 German submarine. Nearly 1,200 passengers drowned, including more than 100 Americans. There were 761 survivors, according to the Liverpool Echo.

The sinking of the ship was a factor in persuading U.S. officials to fully engage in the war in 1917 to assist the Allies.

Each year, the Merseyside Maritime Museum in Liverpool commemorates the May 7 anniversary of the sinking with a service held at one of the salvaged propellers at the museum.

The ship was driven by four propellers. One remains below with the ship, and another was melted and reused.

The fourth propeller was at the Military Vehicle Technology Foundation in Menlo Park, Calif., until it was acquired by Crow, a Dallas developer.

“As a longtime student of history, I have found the sinking of the Lusitania an important and fascinating episode of WWI,” Crow said by email. “A number of years ago, I learned that a friend of mine, a collector of antique military vehicles (in California), had come into possession of one of the four propellers. … I told my friend that should he ever want to part with this propeller, I would like to have it.”

Sometime later, Crow was notified of his friend’s death and was able to acquire the propeller from his estate. In 2009, Crow had the propeller moved by flat-bed truck to the Crow Holdings building at Old Parkland Hospital, which he purchased and renovated.

“The Lusitania propeller holds a particular interest for me in connection with the Old Parkland Hospital,” Crow said. “The Old Parkland Hospital was first built in the 1890s as a wooden structure. In 1913, the year before commencing WWI, Old Parkland Hospital was rebuilt into a masonry brick structure.”

Crow knew that bringing a piece of the Lusitania to Old Parkland made a historical connection.

“In 1917, American soldiers, called dough boys, crossed the Atlantic and contributed in a material way to the Allied success and victory in that war,” Crow said. “Doubtless, many young Texans having suffered from poisonous gases and other wartime injuries, were treated in Dallas at Old Parkland Hospital after the conclusion of WWI. … The idea of owning a major artifact of history of such importance from that great war, and bringing the artifact to Dallas and to Old Parkland, just made sense.”

The propeller now sits in the Anatole’s sculpture garden along with pieces of artwork from the Crow family’s collection.

Crow said his father, Trammell Crow, put vast collections of art in buildings in Dallas, across the United States and around the world. The Trammell and Margaret Crow Collection of Asian Art in the Dallas Arts District exhibits art spanning from 3,500 B.C. to the early 20th century.