END MARK

Taming the Trinity River

LESLIE ALLISON STEMMONS November 8, 1876–October 15, 1939

story by WILL MADDOX

ON THE LEVEE

Leslie Stemmons and his sons helped pioneer what’s now known as the Dallas Design District.

DALLAS PUBLIC LIBRARY

COURTESY OF M ost north texans have spent more time than they may like on Stemmons Freeway, a section of Interstate 35-E that runs north of downtown Dallas. But newcomers to the region may not know for whom the roadway is named. For generations, the Stemmons family had a dramatic impact on Dallas’ development. The land for the highway was donated by one of the city’s foremost leaders, John Stemmons. But the highway is named for his father, Leslie, who was born in Dallas and studied law at the University of Chicago. After school, he and Scott Miller formed a real estate and insurance business. In 1908, the two developed the

Stemmons family farm in Oak Cliff, which included

East Kessler Park, Winnetka Heights, and areas around Sunset High School. After a record floo that same year, Stemmons served as chairman of a levee improvement district, which planned to move the river channel one mile west and build a series of levees. In 1928, Dallas gave landowners in the corridor a charter to develop the former river bottoms property. Among them was Stemmons, who, with his sons, helped create the industrial district on the north side of downtown—now the

Dallas Design District. In addition to Stemmons

Freeway, Leslie Street and a DISD elementary school bear his name. The Stemmons Service

Award, considered the highest honor in DFW commercial real estate circles, recognizes the impact the Stemmons family has had on the region.