Built in 1877 for merchant Paul Levyson and Fannie Cohn Levyson, this residence is identified in city tour materials as an early Greek Revival home in Gonzales and is listed at 612 St. Louis Street. A later local guide notes an 1880 remodel that refined the exterior and plan while retaining the classical expression.
People and context
Paul Levyson was born May 1, 1839, in Posen, Germany/Prussia. He arrived in the United States in 1859, was in Texas by 1866, and married Fannie Cohn on August 4, 1868. Levyson served in the Confederate Army with Waul’s Texas Legion and was present at the Siege of Vicksburg. He later became active in veteran circles and in Gonzales civic life. The couple raised seven children and are documented among Gonzales’s early Jewish families.
House history
City heritage listings describe the property as a Greek Revival dwelling built in 1877 and later remodeled in 1880. The house appears on multiple community tours of historic homes and is regularly cited as an example of the town’s nineteenth century classical taste.
Later years
Levyson relocated to San Antonio late in life and died there in 1905. Fannie lived until 1933. Family burials and congregational records connect the household to the Gonzales Jewish Cemetery, one of two historic Jewish burial grounds that mark the long presence of Jewish merchants and families in the community.