DUANE
Duane's take
Here's my telling of what the official marker says, right there on The Strand in Galveston. Now, they called The Strand the Wall Street of the Southwest, and that name carries some weight — because this stretch of Galveston was the beating heart of early Texas commerce. And the building we're talking about today has a story that starts not with construction, but with fire.
In 1869, somebody set a blaze on this very site to cover a robbery at Cohn Brothers, a clothing emporium. That fire burned a mile wide area. A mile.
And the spot where it all began had once been occupied by Moro Castle — a fashionable bar, a meeting place of famous people. Whatever glamour Moro Castle once held, the fire didn't spare it. So the site sat, cleared by flame, waiting for someone with vision and resources to do something with it.
Enter Thomas Jefferson League. Born in 1834, son of a prominent pioneer family, League was an attorney and later a judge — the kind of man who looked at a fire-scarred lot and saw possibility. In 1871, he began construction.
He contracted with local craftsmen to erect a three-story commercial building, and he didn't skimp on the finishing touches — a decorative cast iron first floor facade and a galvanized iron cornice. That building announced itself. When it opened, three stores filled those floors: Isaac Bernstein and Company, described as a leading clothier; a stationer and bookseller; and a cotton factor and commission merchant.
The Strand was doing business, and this building was right in the thick of it. Thomas Jefferson League, though, would not see his building age much. He died in 1874, just three years after breaking ground.
The building outlasted him, as buildings often do, and over the years attorneys, insurance agents, and clothing manufacturers all took their turns inside those cast iron walls. Then came 1921, when Ben Sass joined Aaron P. Levy in purchasing the property — and along with it, Ben Blum Hardware Co.
They moved that hardware business into the building in 1923, and it stayed put for fifty years. Fifty years. Two more years than the entire life of the man who built it.
But the story didn't stay simple. Aaron P. Levy died in 1929, and Ben Sass followed in 1935.
After their deaths, the building and the business passed to Joseph Levy Rosenfield and other Levy family members. The Levys held on until 1973. So think about that arc — from a fire set to cover a robbery, to a judge's vision in cast iron, to half a century of hardware trade, to a family that kept faith with the place for decades.
That's The Strand. That's Galveston. And that's the story this building has been standing here telling all along.
What the marker says
The Strand, known as "Wall Street of the Southwest," served as the central business district of early Galveston. A fire, set in 1869 to cover a robbery at Cohn Brothers, a clothing emporium, burned a mile wide area. It began at this site, once occupied by Moro Castle, a fashionable bar and meeting place of famous people. Thomas Jefferson League (1834-1874), began construction of this building in 1871. League, son of a prominent pioneer family, was an attorney and later a judge. He contracted with local craftsmen to erect this commercial building with a decorative cast iron first floor facade and a galvanized iron cornice. Originally the three-story structure housed three stores: Isaac Bernstein & Company, a leading clothier; a stationer and bookseller; and a cotton factor and commission merchant. Later tenants were attorneys, insurance agents, and clothing manufacturers. In 1921, Ben Sass joined Aaron P. Levy in purchasing this property and buying Ben Blum Hardware Co. They moved the business into this facility in 1923, where it remained 50 years. After the deaths of Aaron P. Levy (1929) and Ben Sass (1935), the building and the business were purchased by Joseph Levy Rosenfield and other Levy family members. The Levys remained owners until 1973. Recorded Texas Historic Landmark - 1979