Guilded age mansion in Indiana

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Built in 1905 the Louis Levey mansion may have been designed by the Indianapolis firm of Rubush and Hunter, who designed the Levey Brothers Printing Plant, which was also occupied in 1905, and still stands on the north side of the Statehouse. The architects use the same style on the Masonic Temple, the former First Church of Christ Scientist, Old City Hall (now the Indiana State Museum), and the American Central Life Insurance Company Building.

The construction of the mansion and the choice of its location were the concrete expression of the commercial success of the second generation of a family of printers. Louis H. Levey, the owner, was born in Madison, Indiana, to William P. Levey, who had engaged in binding, printing, and book-selling since 1848. By the time Louis was 21 years old, he was a principal in the firm. In partnership with an older brother, he moved the business, renamed Levey Brothers & Co., to Indianapolis in 1883. The brothers located their operations on South Meridian Street until a building was constructed for them in 1890 at 15-19 West Maryland Street. Despite the depression of the 1890s, the company, which was one of the nation's leading bank supply printers and which conducted its entire business by mail order catalog, expanded its facilities in 1900 and built a new plant, occupied in 1905. The growth of the company coincided with the heyday of the mail-order business, including Sears and Montgomery Wards.

Louis Levey exemplified the merger of commercial and social leadership roles in American society of his day. He was president of the firm during 25 years of its greatest era of growth; when he retired from active management in 1915, after 40 years, he retained a "business home" in the plant. Levey's organizational affiliations marked him as a prominent local figure. He was on the board of trustees of the Indianapolis Foundation, was a director of the Union Traction Company of Indiana and a member of the Indianapolis Board of Trade and the Chamber of Commerce. Levey made his mansion, with its onyx and ormulu fireplace and organ, a common gathering place for prominent local people.

By the 1950s the mansion and its once prestigious neighbors suffered the fate of successive predecessors from the Civil War years onward in Indianapolis. As its size, opulence, and location lost favor with people of sufficient wealth to sustain its use as a residence, the mansion was abandoned, and the area passed into commercial use. Restoration by the Pilgrim Life Insurance Company transformed the structure and brought it once more into the mainstream of Indianapolis commercial life.

Building Description

The Louis Levey Mansion stands at the prestigious intersection of 29^th and Meridain Streets in Indianapolis. Until the development of the area to the south, the property was extensively wooded with formal gardens and terraces.

The Italian Renaissance design consists of two cubical masses, a main one three bays wide and four bays deep, and a shorter rear one bay wide and two bays deep, which has a semi-circular bay centered on its south side. Both masses are two stories tall. A chimney on the end (east) bay of the south elevation projects slightly from the wall surface and is capped to match the dados of the balustrade. The mansion is constructed of ashlar limestone walls set on a rusticated base, which extends on the south and east to form a broad terrace. On the main (east) elevation, broad steps approach the round-arched doorway, which has flanking pilasters and broken segmental pediment. The symmetrically placed windows are surrounded by broad, smooth facings with simple moldings and croisettes. Emphasis is given to the first-floor windows and the second-floor window above the entrance by the addition of a cyma recta to crown the lintels; garlands are also on the lintels of windows flanking the entrance. Directly above the windows, openings filled with metal grillwork are let into the frieze of the Composite entablature; above the cornice a stone balustrade double-hung sash; those located along the south terrace extend from floor to ceiling and can serve as doorways. The rounded bay on the west end of the south facade has a half-story podium beneath large windows separated by Tuscan pilasters, and is crowned by a simple entablature with a frieze of laurel wreaths, . The north elevation has a one-story porte-cochere which is supported by square pillars. On the west facade, two unadorned window openings punctuate the wall of the rear wing adjacent to the large bay window.

Although the house is no longer used as a residence, the interior of the Levey home has undergone only minor changes since its completion in 1905. The first-floor plan has a central hall with two rooms on either side; these are the principal spaces described below.

The central hall with its beamed ceiling is intact. The mahogany enframements of doors and windows form pilasters with recessed panels and a simplified entablature with egg and dart moldings; this design is used throughout the house. At one time the walls in the hall, as well as the entire house, were covered with brocaded velvet panels stretched on frames. The varied fabric designs were in slightly different shades of green, to make movement from room to room seem continuous and flowing.

The northeast room of the first floor is a Louis XV-style drawing room. On the walls, plaster moldings form decorative panels. The delicate cornice is also plaster; the cover ceiling is highlighted with plaster moldings and hand-painted designs. In the southeast corner of the mansion is the library. The east and north walls are lined with mahogany bookcases with leaded glass doors. The south and west walls have a mahogany wainscot; the onyx and ormolu mantle was taken from a European palace. To the southwest is the dining room, whose walls are canvas-covered and painted with a grape-and vine motif. The ceiling, also covered in canvas, is broken into coffers by wood moldings. The grape motif was also expressed in a Tiffany grape-cluster chandelier and matching sconces, now removed.