E.S.Levy's - Galveston, TX - Ghost Signs on Waymarking.com

All that can be seen is the word "Levy's".

NOT LEVI'S - as in Levi Strauss, the Denim Manufacturer.

The "bridge" between the Star Drug Store and the building at 514 Tremont crosses an alley which is actually known as Postoffice Rear Street.

The missing Texas Historical Marker which should be mounted outside of the E.S. Levy and Company location at 2227 Postoffice Street used to read:

Founded 1877 by Abraham Levy and a partner, as Levy & Weiss, family clothiers. Building erected 1878; several times remodeled. Owners since 1879, Levy family includes many civic, cultural, professional leaders for city and state.

Recorded Texas Historic Landmark - 1966

National Register of Historic Places Continuation Sheet
E.S. Levy Building
Section 8 Page 9 Galveston, Galveston County, Texas

"By the late 1890s, Galveston was well established not only as a major port but as a regional retail center. Substantial department-store projects in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century attest to this position." It was during this period that E. S. Levy & Co., built the four-storyLevy building in 1896-97 at the comer of Market and 23rd Streets. Thestore had ground floor retail and 84 offices on the upper three floors and cost nearly $50,000. The Galveston Daily News states in an article on September 1, 1897 that "the Levy Building, corner of Market and Tremont Street [23rd], was one of the first and most modern office building erected in Galveston. Mr. C. W. Bulger was the architect and superintendent. Its erection, which was the quickest work seen here in many a day. It was commenced in October and was finished in May. The first floor is devoted to stores and the three upper stories contain eighty-four offices. This building cost nearly $50,000. An additional floor was added in 1899 at a cost of $7,000.”

“The Levy Building was built by an early Galveston business. Abraham Levy and his partner Leopold Weis opened a men's and boy's clothing and furnishing's store in 1877, known as Levy and Weis. The store had a small twenty-foot frontage onto Market (Avenue D). Abraham Levy died in the early 1880s and his widow Esther Levy is listed as one of the business' proprietors along with Leopold Weis in the 1882-83 city directory. By 1888, the store changed its name to Levy & Cohen when Abraham Levy's son, Edward S. Levy entered the business with Robert I. Cohen. By 1890 the firm was known as E. S. Levy & Co. with Edward S. and Harry H. Levy as proprietors. The store was located at 2215 Market - the same location with the modest storefront where Abraham Levy began the business. In 1900, Edward S. Levy, Gustav G. Levy and Harry H. Levy filed incorporation papers and the business became known as E. S. Levy & Co. By 1901, Edward S. Levy left Galveston "to attend business interests in New York."" In 1912 Gustav G. Levy sold out to Harry H. Levy, Sr.”

"The building was home to E. S. Levy & Co. from 1897 until 1917. In 1917 the firm moved one block south to a newly constructed larger building at 2227 Postoffice Street where it remained until the department store closed in 1979."