diff --git a/cpp/src/parquet/CMakeLists.txt b/cpp/src/parquet/CMakeLists.txt
index 11eaeb60bcce1..f35af707254db 100644
--- a/cpp/src/parquet/CMakeLists.txt
+++ b/cpp/src/parquet/CMakeLists.txt
@@ -1,18 +1,23 @@
-# Copyright 2015 Cloudera Inc.
+# Licensed to the Apache Software Foundation (ASF) under one
+# or more contributor license agreements.  See the NOTICE file
+# distributed with this work for additional information
+# regarding copyright ownership.  The ASF licenses this file
+# to you under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the
+# "License"); you may not use this file except in compliance
+# with the License.  You may obtain a copy of the License at
 #
-# Licensed under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the "License");
-# you may not use this file except in compliance with the License.
-# You may obtain a copy of the License at
+#   http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0
 #
-# http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0
-#
-# Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing, software
-# distributed under the License is distributed on an "AS IS" BASIS,
-# WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, either express or implied.
-# See the License for the specific language governing permissions and
-# limitations under the License.
+# Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing,
+# software distributed under the License is distributed on an
+# "AS IS" BASIS, WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY
+# KIND, either express or implied.  See the License for the
+# specific language governing permissions and limitations
+# under the License.
 
 # Headers: top level
 install(FILES
   parquet.h
   DESTINATION include/parquet)
+
+ADD_PARQUET_TEST(reader-test)
diff --git a/cpp/src/parquet/reader-test.cc b/cpp/src/parquet/reader-test.cc
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000000..f6bf8b1c9bde1
--- /dev/null
+++ b/cpp/src/parquet/reader-test.cc
@@ -0,0 +1,26 @@
+// Licensed to the Apache Software Foundation (ASF) under one
+// or more contributor license agreements.  See the NOTICE file
+// distributed with this work for additional information
+// regarding copyright ownership.  The ASF licenses this file
+// to you under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the
+// "License"); you may not use this file except in compliance
+// with the License.  You may obtain a copy of the License at
+//
+//   http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0
+//
+// Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing,
+// software distributed under the License is distributed on an
+// "AS IS" BASIS, WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY
+// KIND, either express or implied.  See the License for the
+// specific language governing permissions and limitations
+// under the License.
+
+#include <gtest/gtest.h>
+
+namespace parquet {
+
+TEST(TestReader, ItWorks) {
+  ASSERT_TRUE(true);
+}
+
+} // namespace parquet
diff --git a/cpp/src/parquet/util/CMakeLists.txt b/cpp/src/parquet/util/CMakeLists.txt
index 1a5de97c6cdb5..1b712f715f6a3 100644
--- a/cpp/src/parquet/util/CMakeLists.txt
+++ b/cpp/src/parquet/util/CMakeLists.txt
@@ -22,3 +22,20 @@ install(FILES
   rle-encoding.h
   stopwatch.h
   DESTINATION include/parquet/util)
+
+add_library(parquet_test_main
+  test_main.cc)
+
+if (APPLE)
+  target_link_libraries(parquet_test_main
+	gtest
+	dl)
+  set_target_properties(parquet_test_main
+		PROPERTIES LINK_FLAGS "-undefined dynamic_lookup")
+else()
+  target_link_libraries(parquet_test_main
+    dl
+	gtest
+    pthread
+  )
+endif()
diff --git a/cpp/src/parquet/util/test_main.cc b/cpp/src/parquet/util/test_main.cc
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000000..00139f36742ed
--- /dev/null
+++ b/cpp/src/parquet/util/test_main.cc
@@ -0,0 +1,26 @@
+// Licensed to the Apache Software Foundation (ASF) under one
+// or more contributor license agreements.  See the NOTICE file
+// distributed with this work for additional information
+// regarding copyright ownership.  The ASF licenses this file
+// to you under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the
+// "License"); you may not use this file except in compliance
+// with the License.  You may obtain a copy of the License at
+//
+//   http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0
+//
+// Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing,
+// software distributed under the License is distributed on an
+// "AS IS" BASIS, WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY
+// KIND, either express or implied.  See the License for the
+// specific language governing permissions and limitations
+// under the License.
+
+#include <gtest/gtest.h>
+
+int main(int argc, char **argv) {
+  ::testing::InitGoogleTest(&argc, argv);
+
+  int ret = RUN_ALL_TESTS();
+
+  return ret;
+}