The Dallas Skyline from the Maple Terrace Penthouse — 1952
by Paula Bosse
View from the penthouse (click for larger image) Huntington Library
by Paula Bosse
The best view of the Dallas skyline that no longer exists may very well have been the view from atop the Maple Terrace Apartments, located on Maple Avenue, right across Wolf Street from the Stoneleigh Hotel. The photo above was taken in 1952, when there was a straight-shot view of downtown, with no hulking buildings to spoil the vista. This view — completely unobstructed except for the Stoneleigh (out of frame, at left) — must have been spectacular at night. (Although, as can be seen at the far right, the industrial area that surrounded the iconic DP&L smokestacks was also part of the view. Also not included in realtor brochures would have been the fact that the luxury apartment building overlooked the adjacent Little Mexico neighborhood, often described as a “slum area” — the huge economic disparity between the neighboring haves and have-nots would have been starkly apparent to any gimlet-sipping rooftop visitor. And then there was the not-so-distant meat-packing plant…. But I digress.)
The beautiful Maple Terrace Apartments — designed by architect Alfred Bossom (who also designed the Magnolia Building) — was built in 1924-25 and opened with great fanfare as the city’s first luxury apartments.
An early tenant was Morris Feldman, a Polish immigrant whose family owned the successful Parisian Fur Co. (later Parisian-Peyton). Morris’ son, the incredibly wealthy oilman and art collector, D. D. Feldman, must have been quite taken with his parents’ home there, because in the late ’40s or early ’50s, he transformed the entire seventh floor — which had previously contained 20 “hotel-type” units — into his personal penthouse. The patio terrace with the to-die-for view was the cherry on the sundae.
Countless cocktail parties, dinner parties, and fashionable teas were held in the Feldmans’ penthouse. The interior design — the work of Tom Douglas, of Los Angeles — was, apparently, much admired. The decor consisted of a mixture of typically cool Mid-Century Modern pieces as well as a few touches that, from a 21st-century vantage point, look a little … tacky. Somewhere in all of the acreage of furnishings was a fireplace, a white leather-covered piano (!), “a cocoa-striped sofa with pale blue frame,” murals, white brick wallpaper, and several pieces of furniture and cabinetry with a “driftwood finish.” And lots of lacquer. And mirrors, mirrors, mirrors. These “timeless furnishings in beige, marigold, white leather and ash” (DMN, Nov. 19, 1960) are dated relics of another era, but, at the time, they were splashed across the pages of magazines such as Architectural Digest.
As far as I know, the seventh floor of the Maple Terrace is still a single space. A 1978 real estate ad touted its “recently redecorated” 3,000 sq. ft. amenities:
Below, the present-day penthouse floor plan from the Maple Terrace’s website:
And, look, here’s a photo of what that entryway looks like now, (without the mural):
I’m sure the rooftop terrace is still as beautiful as ever, but, sadly, it will never again boast of that once-incredible view:
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Top photo (and all black and white photos from this series) by Maynard L. Parker, for Architectural Digest; from the Maynard L. Parker Collection at the Huntington Library, accessible here. The top photo is a detail, which has been cropped and reversed; the original photo is shown in reverse on the Huntington site (along with some early image “editing” on the outline of the Stoneleigh), which is a bit freaky when you know that what you’re looking at is backwards!
Color photos and floor plan from the website of the Maple Terrace Apartments, here. Biographical info on the architect, Sir Alfred Bossom, is here. Fabulous photos of the building from AIA Dallas, is here; and a wonderful piece on the mystique of living in the famed Maple Terrace from D Magazine, is here.
An intense and thorough description of the Feldmans’ penthouse decor is in the article “Feldman Apartment: Timeless Decorating” by Jeanne Barnes (Dallas Morning News, Nov. 19, 1960).
In addition to his oil holdings, D. D. Feldman was an important collector and patron of Texas art. In reading about Mr. Feldman, my favorite tidbit is this, from the book The Big Rich: The Rise and Fall of the Greatest Texas Oil Fortunes by Bryan Burrough (Penguin, 2009):
Click pictures for larger images.
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Copyright © 2015 Paula Bosse. All Rights Reserved.
What a great view back in the day and a very nice write up Paula. I’ve known of the Maple Terrace for many years, but never knew about the penthouse. Very interesting!
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Thank you, Danny. My father’s bookstore was next-door to the Stoneleigh Hotel, and he had several friends and customers who lived there. I feel like I’ve heard about that place all my life but have never been inside. Let’s hope it stays put — there are rumors every few years of its imminent demise.
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The platform that the terrace garden for the penthouse is still there. I always
wondered what it was for.The penthouse itself was beautiful, but through the
years was subjected to some unfortunate redos.That building holds so many secrets and back stories.Residents have turned many units into showplaces that have appeared in magazines. One resident described it as a vortex that attracted all sorts of people transitioning in their lives.The foundation of the original house that sat on the corner is still in the basement.The place is fascinating and should be listed on the historic register so it stays intact. I saw some plans that a developer had drawn up
and it was horrible.Fortunately they fell through.Newer is not better. It has recently been painted, but still looks old and grey. Young people think it’s a retirement home.You drive by and don’t even notice it, which can be a good thing,but the style of it calls for lots of color,think Palm Beach. With all the detail and towers and trim it could be magnificent ,and brought into this century without spoiling it.People make lifelong friends there,and form a strong bond with the place.There’s nothing else like it in Dallas.
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Thanks, Craig. I’ve been fascinated with that place since I was a kid. I’m probably wrong here, but it might be that property owners have to agree to have their property listed in the Historic Register or as landmarks, and that corner is so valuable to potential developers, I can’t see how that would ever happen. But I love that building, and it would be a huge loss for Dallas if it were ever demolished.
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that is the other side of Dallas we seldom hear of and a great time to recall, John Aston Perkins was one of the decorators who would do these kinds of interiors and Dallas Becomes modern in this decade……this story support the Dallas Modern Art coming into era…..and Cedar Spings was meccas road too Love field……again Paula You are a real Dallas texan……
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and Craig has it right……over all in 1950’s 4 of these such high rises stood in that large swath…..and really Dallas is a Tower city a man made mountain of views and wonderment……it is a facintating story and very rare images…….
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Recently I re-saw the 1950 movie Born Yesterday and was surprised at how very much the suite occupied by the Judy Holliday and Broderick Crawford characters resembled the penthouse of the Maple Terrace. Likely the movie suite was a sound stage recreation of an actual suite in the Washington’s Hotel Statler, the facade of which was shown long enough to be clearly identified. My impression was that the Maple Terrace penthouse would get the nod for its killer chandeliers.
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