Marcus House
Dallas, Dallas County, Texas
Marker Inscription
After dismissing Frank Lloyd Wright for his failure to produce a suitable design, Stanley Marcus commissioned Dallas architect Roscoe Dewitt to design this International style residence. Recognized worldwide for his innovations in fashion retailing and a significant patron of modern architecture, Marcus hosted hundreds of dignitaries here, including President Lyndon B. Johnson, Princess Grace of Monaco and global leaders in politics, fashion and the arts. Completed in 1938 and home to the Marcus family until 1994, the house is a notable example of its style in Texas. Recorded Texas Historic Landmark - 2001
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
After dismissing Frank Lloyd Wright over an unsatisfactory design, retailing pioneer Stanley Marcus turned to Dallas architect Roscoe DeWitt for this crisp International Style residence, completed in 1938. The Neiman Marcus visionary — celebrated worldwide for his innovations in fashion retailing and his patronage of modern design — filled the house with hundreds of eminent guests, from President Lyndon Johnson to Princess Grace of Monaco. The family lived here until 1994, leaving one of Texas's most notable examples of the style.
Why it matters
The house marks both the arrival of modern architecture in Texas and the outsized cultural reach of Stanley Marcus, who helped make Dallas a name in world fashion and design.
Own a business near here? Add it to the map.
Related people
- · Stanley Marcus
- · Roscoe DeWitt
- · Frank Lloyd Wright
- · Lyndon B. Johnson
- · Princess Grace of Monaco
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
Robert and Marie Stubbs House
Dallas, TX
Robert Campbell Stubbs came to Dallas from Mississippi in 1887 and built a paving business just as the automobile age created enormous demand for modern streets; by 1922 he had patented a 'vibrolithic' paving method and was regarded as a leading national authority. His success paid for this stately Tudor-style home on fashionable Swiss Avenue, completed in 1926 and possibly designed by Dallas architect Otto H. Lang. Stubbs died a year later, and his widow Marie entertained here into 1940 before the house passed through use as apartments and back to a single family.
White Rock Pump Station
Dallas, TX
As Dallas's population surged and droughts strained its water supply in the early 1900s, the city engineering department designed and built this pump station in 1911 to draw on additional water. Its Renaissance Revival dress—corbelled brick and terra cotta—gave a utilitarian waterworks the dignity of a public building. Though its machinery has changed over the decades, the structure endures as a landmark of the city's water system.
White Rock Dam, Reservoir and Park
Dallas, TX
As Dallas outgrew its springs, wells, and the Trinity River in the early 1900s, the city acquired thousands of acres and built a dam on White Rock Creek, completing the reservoir and pump house by 1911 though drought delayed a full lake until 1914. Over the following decades the shoreline became a beloved city park with an Art Deco bathhouse, a swimming beach, and facilities built by the Civilian Conservation Corps and the Works Progress Administration. During World War II the former CCC camp served as an Army Air Corps center and a camp for German prisoners of war.
Swiss Avenue
Dallas, TX
What began as a muddy country lane, named in 1857 by Swiss immigrant Henri Boll for his homeland, became one of Dallas's grandest boulevards. In 1905 cotton-gin manufacturer R. S. Munger paved and extended Swiss Avenue as the spine of his exclusive Munger Place development, imposing minimum costs and two-story heights while letting owners choose from Tudor, Georgian, and Prairie styles. By 1920 some 200 elegant homes housed the city's lawyers, bankers, and industrialists, and after mid-century decline, citizen preservationists won the neighborhood designation as Dallas's first historic district in 1973.