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John M. Stemmons, who died in 2001, fulfilled his father's dream of developing the former floodplain of the Trinity River for productive use. His father, Leslie Allison Stemmons, was the driving force behind moving and straightening the Trinity to free the city of Dallas from recurring catastrophic floods. After his death in 1939, his sons created the Trinity Industrial District, which became an important part of the Dallas economy and later provided land for a section of Interstate Highway 35E, named in honor of Leslie Stemmons. John Stemmons became president of the family-controlled business, Industrial Properties Corporation, in 1945, and he later served as chairman and CEO until his retirement in 1994. The oldest developer of industrial parks in Texas, Industrial Properties Corporation now owns approximately four million square feet of industrial buildings in Dallas, Austin and San Antonio. The company recently was sold to Crow Family Holdings.
The history of the Stemmons family and the growth of Dallas during the 20th century are closely linked. Family-owned land in the old Trinity River floodplains provided an ideal venue for real estate development when the river levees were constructed.
http://www.dallaspioneer.org/stories/pioneers.php?ID=388 Leslie Allison Stemmons (1876-1939) was born in Dallas County, and studied atSouthwestern University (Georgetown, Texas) and at the University of Chicago, majoring in real estate and law. He was then in the gravel mining business with Scott Miller, and worked for Sanger Brothers in Dallas. Then Leslie and Scott Miller formed a real estate and insurance business. They developed the Stemmons farm property in Oak Cliff, and properties known as Evergreen Hills, East Kessler Park, Winnetka Heights and Rosemont Crest, plus others. Leslie married Elizabeth Vinson Storey (bom Mexia, Texas 1882, died Dallas, 1910). Their children were: Leslie Storey Stemmons (1904-1970), Elizabeth Storey Stemmons (1906-1979), and John Millard Stemmons (bom 1909). After his wife died, Leslie married Proctor Howell in 1915, and they had a son, Leslie Allison Stemmons, Jr. (1917- 1982). John Millard Stemmons married Ruth Trueheart Thomas of Bedford, Virginia, in 1932, and they had two children: Ruth Allison Stemmons (bom 1942, married Heinz Kurt Simon); and John Millard Stemmons, Jr. (1944-1991), who married Sarah Louise Werth and had daughters Leslie Ellen, bom 1970, and Brooks Allison (bom 1974). John Millard Stemmons joined his father in the Industrial Properties Corporation in 1931. Following his father's death in 1939, John was prevented from entering military service in World War II by a football injury he suffered at Washington & Lee University. His son, John M. Stemmons, Jr., played football at the University of Colorado and served in the U. S. Navy in World War II. He became Vice President of the IPC, and left his father, John Stemmons, Sr. as the only living male Stemmons descendant when he died in 1991. Leslie viewed the Panama Canal construction work, and saw what could be done by moving dirt. In 1910, George Kessler suggested levees to control the Trinity River. Leslie served on Mayor Ulrickson's committee, which studied the 550-mile river and the 18,000 square miles it drains. In 1925, the committee recommended a Trinity Levee District to reclaim over 10,500 acres of land by confining flooding to 4,000 acres between levees. Thirteen miles of 30-foot levees were completed in 1932, including viaducts and underpasses. The Great Depression delayed the completion of some of the work, but it was finally done, and Leslie formed the Industrial Properties Corporation to develop the reclaimed land. Leslie died in 1939, but his sons, John and Leslie Storey Stemmons (1904-1970) took over. After the war. Storey and John developed the property. Railways and roads were planned and built and the industrial district grew. Industrial Properties Corporation donated 975 acres to a Trinity River Greenbelt, and 100 acres for U. S. Highway 35-E, opened in 1959, which was aptly named Stemmons Freeway for Leslie Allison Stemmons. The Industrial District and the Dallas Market Center complex, now known worldwide, have been highly successful. Leslie's sons, John and Storey Stemmons, have also served the greater Dallas community in many other ways; in the Chamber of Commerce, Dallas Citizens Council, various arts districts, and the Texas State Fair. Storey Stemmons died in 1970, and "Big John" carries on in 1992.
http://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/online/articles/TT/dst3.html Benefitting from a postwar boom that made Dallas a regional business center, Crow and his early partners, John and Storey Stemmons, built more than fifty warehouses in Dallas. When John Stemmons balked at plans for the World Trade Center at Market Center, Crow bought out his interest.
Dallas Business Journal It will also include a tribute to the real estate icon for whom the award is named, John Stemmons, who died in July at 92.
http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/bus/columnists/chall/stories/122505dnbussunhallintro.29f40e3.html TRAMMELL CROW, 91 Claim to fame: Developed the Dallas Market Center, a half-dozen downtown skyscrapers and thousands of projects internationally Born: 1914 in Dallas First job: Cleaning poultry for a neighborhood market This story is told by his daughter, Lucy Crow Billingsley: "In the 1960s, Dad wanted to expand the Dallas Market Center. Dad and John Stemmons were partners, and interest rates had risen to 6 percent. "John Stemmons could not imagine ever borrowing money at such an incredibly high interest rate. But he would never do anything to block growth or be an inhibitor to his partner's success. "So John said he wanted to sell his interests to Dad. "Dad came to John and told him what he'd pay. But John absolutely refused the terms of the deal. He required that Dad pay him a million dollars less than he'd offered. "Today, you think the deal is everything. "But no, these two successful businessmen knew the relationship is everything. Integrity is everything. Deals come and go. But integrity lives beyond individuals."
The Stemmons Freeway in Dallas,
Texas illustrates the occasional practicability of the frontage road: the real estate developer
John Stemmons offered free land to the Texas Highway commission in which to build a freeway (Interstate 35E
) on terms that the state
build the freeway with frontage roads that would give access to property
formerly of slight value that he owned along the route
. The state
was able to reduce its costs (much of it the cost of land acquisition) of building the freeway,
and the developer profited handsomely from lucrative development along the freeway.
http://www.jenforum.com/storey/messages/633.html STEMMONS JOHN MILLARD, 92, died Friday, July 20, 2001. He was born in Dallas, Texas, July 10, 1909, the son of Leslie Allison Stemmons and Elizabeth Storey Stemmons, attended public schools in Dallas and Hinsboro, Illinois, and Washington & Lee University in Lexington, Virginia where he was a member of Beta Theta Pi and ODK. He married the former Ruth Trueheart Thomas of Bedford, Virginia, a marriage of 66 years until her death on July 28, 1998. In 1931 he joined his father's company, Industrial Properties Corporation, and from that time dedicated himself to the city of Dallas and to the realization of his father's vision of controlling the Trinity River and reclaiming its flood plain for productive industrial use. Leslie Stemmons' early and untimely death in 1939 left his sons to pursue the dream. Following World War II John Stemmons was joined in the company by his late brother, Leslie Storey Stemmons. He became President of the Corporation in 1954, and served as Chairman/CEO from 1971 until his retirement in 1994 at which time he was elected Chairman Emeritus. During that period the Trinity River levee system was installed and the land reclaimed upon which stands the Trinity Industrial District anchored by its showpiece, the freeway named for Leslie Allison Stemmons and the magnificent development of its frontage. Today with that development complete Industrial Properties Corporation continues to build and manage industrial complexes in the Dallas area, Austin and San Antonio. In his honor on the occasion of his retirement from Industrial Properties Corporation the John M. Stemmons Endowed Graduate Fellowship in Engineering was created at the University of Texas for the continuing study of flood control, water conservation and all other elements pertaining to water management. John Stemmons served as President of the Dallas Real Estate Board in 1945, Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Dallas County Flood Control District 1945-70, Vice President of the Texas Real Estate Association in 1954, and was honored by the Dallas Board of Realtors with the Easterwood Cup in 1946 and named Texas Realtor of the Year in 1957. He also served as President of the Greater Dallas Council of Churches (1963), President of the Dallas Citizens Council (1964), President of the Dallas Rotaty Club (1964-63), is an Honorary Life Member of the Dallas County United Fund which he served as General Campaign Chairman (1965) and President (1966-67). He was President of the Better Business Bureau (1967-68), winner of the Linz Award (1967) and the J. Erik Jonsson Award (1983), Dallas Sales and Marketing Executives Distinguished Salesman for 1971, Dallas Press Club All-Time Headliner (1972), presented the Road Hand Award by the Texas Highway Department in 1974 and again in 1999. He was Vice President of the State Fair of Texas and of the Trinity Improvement Association, President of the Greater Dallas Planning Council, and Honorary Consul of Sweden. His Directorships included RepublicBank Dallas, RepublicBank Corporation, Southland Financial Corporation, Dr. Pepper Company, Southwestern Life Insurance Company, Metropolitan Savings and Loan Assn., TU Electric, Dallas Market Center and of course Industrial Properties Corporation. Trusteeships included the Hoblitzelle Foundation, Southwestern Medical Foundation, Stemmons Foundation, Gaston Episcopal Hospital, Childrens Medical Center, Episcopal School of Dallas and Washington & Lee University. He was Treasurer of the Episcopal Diocese of Dallas in 1953 and honored as Layman of the Year in 1956, and has been a member of Saint Michael and All Angels Episcopal Church for more than thirty-five years, He was a founding member of the Northwood Club and Las Colinas Country Club, and held memberships in many clubs including the Dallas Athletic Club, the City Club, La Cima Club, Idlewild Club and Terpsichotean Club. He was named by the Senior Citizens of Greater Dallas as their 1995 Spirit of Generations honoree. Preceded in death by his wife and his son, John Millard Stemmons, Jr., Mr. Stemmons is survived by his daughter and son-in-law Allison and Heinz Simon of Irving, daughter-in-law Jean H. Stemmons of Addison, granddaughters Karen Simon of London, U.K., Kimberly Simon, Brooke Stemmons, Ellen Stemmons Harbison and her husband Todd Harbison, great-grandson John Stemmons Harbison, and "honorary son" Thomas H. Neuhoff, all of Dallas. After a private burial a memorial service will he held on Tuesday. July 24, 2001, 4:00 PM, at Saint Michael and All Angels Episcopal Church, 8011 Douglas at Colgate, The Rev. Stephen B. Swann and The Rev. Mark S. Anschutz officiating, and immediately following the service the family will receive friends at 5549 Wenonah Drive. In lieu of flowers memorial contributions would be appreciated to the United Way of Metropolitan Dallas, 901 Ross Avenue, Dallas, Texas 75201 or to the Tree Fund of the Episcopal School of Dallas, 4100 Merrell Road, Dallas, Texas 75229. Sparkman/Hillcrest Funeral Home Cemetery Mausoleum 7405 W. Northwest Highway Dallas (214) 363-5401