The 2000 block of Greenville Avenue in 1930. (Photo courtesy of Flashback Dallas.)
You may not have heard of the Belvick neighborhood, but odds are, you’ve probably been there. The lively business district that emerged in East Dallas during the 1920s is known today as Lowest Greenville.
City directories from that era show that business owners tried to establish the area between Ross and Belmont avenues as a business district known as “Belmont,” according to Flashback Dallas. As development increased in other neighborhoods, “Belmont” suddenly became “Belmont-Vickery.” It was called “Belvick” for short.
A 1927 Dallas directory. (Photo courtesy of Flashback Dallas.)
With storefront names like Belvick Drug Co. and Belvick Plumbing, it’s clear that business owners bought into branding the fledgling neighborhood. There was even a small theater that rebranded from The Belmont Theatre to The Belvick Theatre when it changed ownership, Flashback Dallas reported.
The neighborhood was anchored by the Angelus Arcade, which was built in 1923 in the 2000 block of Greenville Avenue at Sears Street. The building housed several retailers, and just like Belvick, many tenants chose to use Angelus in their company names, according to Flashback Dallas.
Creativity must not have been high on the list of priorities for business owners back then.
In 1927, the Angelus developer, Albert Klein, and Dean Theatre partnered to build a movie theater on the property. Modifications were made to the building, but it still served as an “arcade” and was home to several other businesses. Naturally, the theater was called the “Arcadia.”
It opened Nov. 4, 1927, and was sadly destroyed about 80 years later in a fire. That was the end of good ol’ Belvick.
