Levy-Leblanc House

The Levy-LeBlanc House is a modified Victorian house originally built on the east side of South Washington Street between West Vermilion and West Main Streets. The significance of this building relates to the
original owner, Lazarus Levy, who emigrated from Germany in 1852 at age 15. He was a veteran of the Civil War and was wounded at the Battle of Shiloh, incurring injuries that lasted for the remainder of his life. In
1865 he married Miss Frimmit (translated as Flora) Plonsky. After the birth of their first two or three children, they moved to Vermilionville  and acquired property on South Washington Street where they built a
general merchandise store and this house. The Levy family is noted for their economic success and positive impact on Lafayette’s development history. In 1897, Lazarus and Flora’s sons, Victor and William, opened a
general merchandise store in the Lafayette Hardware Store building at 121 West Vermilion Street. That building is featured on page 11 of this book. Ten years after that, they built Levy Brothers Department Store,
the double story, white glazed brick building on Jefferson Street at the corner of East Congress. It still bears the Levy Brothers logo and year, 1915.