Flashback : Dallas

Fast-forward 50-something years…

by Paula Bosse

The Noel Page Building opened in 1966 at 6400 N. Central Expressway, between Yale and University — see it on Google Street View here. For many years it has been the home of the Turley Law Center (its address is now 6440 Central). It was designed by Thomas E. Stanley, who designed a ton of buildings, including the not dissimilar 211 North Ervay (the blue-and-white building you’ll probably recognize on Google Street View here).

The developer/owner — a Dallas orthodontist named Noel J. Tomlin Jr. (1916-2003) — envisioned this office building as something of an answered prayer for businesspeople who didn’t enjoy the hassle of commuting to workplaces downtown (or, as he said in a 1965 Dallas Morning News interview, “[a place] where parking is no problem and the business livin’ is easy”). 

Tomlin acquired the property in 1961, at a time when there were very, very few office buildings that far from downtown (and before NorthPark had even been built), but, presciently, he felt it would be a good location for what was described at the time as an office “tower.” He also hoped to get in on the overflow waiting-list action of prospective business tenants who had been turned away from the very successful nearby Meadows Building (which is generally considered to be the first substantial office building built beyond the Central Business District). It took Tomlin five years to finally build his “tower,” but he did it. Big-money commercial real estate was starting to heat up above Mockingbird!

Feb. 1966

The physical properties of the planned building were described in two Dallas Morning News articles, printed four years apart (the architectural renderings which accompanied the articles showed slightly different designs).

From July 1961 (a 10-story building):

Exterior walls will be made of pre-cast concrete on the east and west, and the north and south walls will be of glass, aluminum, porcelain enamel, and mosaic tile. Three elevators will be included in the structure. There will be three parking levels — two underground and one above-ground ramp at the rear of the building.

From April 1965 (an 11-story building, with just under 10,000 square feet of rentable space per floor, with the cost of the land and construction estimated “in excess of $2.5 million” — about $25 million in 2023 dollars): 

End walls will be of white marblecrete. A curtain wall system utilizing clear vision glass and white spandrel glass with anodized aluminum vertical mullions will complete the tower. The first and second floors will be recessed, forming a colonnade emphasized by white marble columns.

The name of the building? “Noel” was Tomlin’s first name, and “Page” was his wife’s maiden name.

For some reason, I thought this building was built much more recently. Were those red stripes added during a renovation? I’ve never thought that much about this building — it’s always just been there — but I stumbled across the above ad today while looking for something else and immediately recognized it in the ad. And now I find it really interesting! Especially when comparing this somewhat modest “tower” with the 211 N. Ervay building. So… happy accident!

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Sources & Notes

Top photo is a (cropped) image from a commercial real estate listing, here. More photos can be found there.

Read more in the Dallas Morning News archives:

• “Dallas Developer Plans 10-Story Office Tower” (DMN, July 9, 1961)
• “Away-From-Town Office Building Slated for Start” by Jim Stephenson (DMN, Apr. 11, 1965)

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