Levi-Topletz House

The Levi-Topletz House, designed by Dallas architect H. A. Overbeck and built c.1914, is an excellent example of eclectic architecture from the prestigious Edgewood Addition (1912) in South Dallas. The Edgewood Addition was the last exclusive streetcar suburb developed along the Rapid Transit streetcar line that traversed South Dallas along Forest Avenue (now Martin Luther King, Jr. Boulevard [MLK]). Although MLK no longer retains its original streetscape to any appreciable degree, due to commercial encroachment and insensitive intrusion along the former streetcar route, several of its houses stand out as landmarks, among them the Levi-Topletz House, which is nominated under Criterion C in the area of Architecture at the local level. The building is associated with the historic context, The Development of East and South Dallas: 1872-1945.

Residents of the Edgewood Addition included a number of Jewish merchants and businessmen who followed Temple Emanu-El (razed) from The Cedars, an earlier exclusive neighborhood. Although the Edgewood Addition was part of an earlier addition (South Park) platted by Martha Camp Warren in 1889, it was never developed until she re-platted the 2300-2700 blocks of South Boulevard, Park Row and Forest Avenue (now MLK), as Edgewood Addition in 1912. Of the three parallel streets, South Boulevard and Park Row experienced little change through the years and were listed in the National Register in 1979. MLK (formerly Forest Avenue), which carried the main east-west streetcar line, however, was subject to intensive re-development consisting of commercial buildings and multi-family apartment buildings, beginning as early as the 1920s. The lack of any restrictive covenants or zoning regulations served to further erode the original architectural fabric of the street. In addition to the deteriorating streetscape, which by the 1940s and 1950s was substantial, white residents of the area abandoned the neighborhood for North Dallas suburbs when the African-American community to the south began expanding northward into the traditionally white neighborhoods. Today, only a handful of the original grand houses survive on the street, among them the Levi-Topletz House, which retains its original architectural fabric to a remarkable degree.

Jewish businessman, Leo S. Levi, who commissioned the plans for the Levi-Topletz House in 1914, was typical of Edgewood's prosperous residents in many respects, but in a larger sense, he and his brother Marcus were also responsible for much of the development and character of the addition. Around 1914, the year Leo Levi moved into his new house, he and Marcus, together with L. F. Munzesheimer, were partners in both the Levi Insurance Agency and Builder's Investment Company. By 1915, Builder's Investment Company had been active in South Dallas real estate development for a number of years and was responsible for some of the medium-priced housing in the Colonial Hill and South Park additions, immediately west and south of Edgewood (city building permits 1905-1915). When the northern section of the South Park Addition was re-platted as the Edgewood Addition in 1912, Builders Investment Company seized the opportunity to expand its business into the new addition, and it built more elaborate and expensive houses than it had previously done. Over the course of their involvement in the addition, Builder's Investment Company was responsible for at least 15 residences in Edgewood, including at least five designed by Dallas architect H. A. Overbeck (Watson, 1981: 21). The Levi brothers built homes in the addition, lived in them temporarily, and later moved into newly constructed ones. Leo Levi built his house at 2603 Forest Avenue. It was one of the first houses in the addition, and one of the first to front Forest Avenue, the streetcar line. In 1919, Leo Levi moved to 1901 South Blvd., and that same year, Marcus sold his house at 2709 South Blvd. and moved next door to 2707 South Blvd., where he remained for many years. The Marcus Levi House at 2707 South Blvd. is considered the premier house in Edgewood Addition. Leo moved again, to 2412 South Blvd., in the 1920s.

Dr. S. M. Freedman lived in the house vacated by Leo S. Levi from 1919 until Solomon Topletz and his wife Rebecca purchased the house in 1922. Topletz was a partner in the real estate loan and investment firm of Topletz and Topletz, and Bracey's plat maps of 1937 show him as one of the largest property owners in far South Dallas. Topletz, his wife, and sons Jack and Harold lived in the house from 1925 through the mid-1940s. In 1940, however, just east of Topletz's house, between Oakland and Jeffries streets, there were six commercial buildings and three large apartment complexes. As early as 1915 when the first houses were being built in prestigious Edgewood, apartment buildings were constructed along the streetcar line, and by the 1940s, gracious single-family dwellings along the street were being broken up for boarding houses or replaced by new construction. The gradual erosion of Forest Avenue's single-family residential composition led to the near-complete disintegration of its architectural fabric.

Noted Dallas architect H.A. Overbeck was responsible for the design of the Levi- Topletz House, along with many others in the Edgewood Addition such as the nearby Levi- Moses House. These houses are typical of Overbeck's residential work during the early 20th century and are among the most impressive domestic buildings in South Dallas. Overbeck also was the architect of several early-20th-century buildings in downtown Dallas, many of which are in the West End Historic District.

Today, although many of the finest homes in the Edgewood Addition were sited on the north side of MLK, only a few remain that retain their architectural integrity. Along with the Levi-Moses House, at 2433 MLK, the Levi-Topletz House is among the very finest houses in the Edgewood addition, which was the last exclusive development in South Dallas. The Levi-Topletz House is an outstanding local example of an early 20th-century domestic building with Italian Renaissance and Prairie School-style detailing, and it retains its historic integrity to a remarkable degree. The two outbuildings on the property, likewise, retain sufficient integrity to be classified as contributing buildings.