The sun was setting as I took some pictures of the gates to University Heights, just to the west of the Loop. The lions are actually concrete casts of the originals, which are now in an undisclosed location.

I still think University City’s city hall is one of the most beautiful in the area.

Update: The building below was not in fact built as a synagogue, but rather in 1924-5 as the First Church of Christ, Scientist, later becoming the Assumption Greek Orthodox Church in 1958. It was designed by Thomas Barnett.

Then there are the many amazing former synagogues. This one is for sale, if you’re looking for an amazing Beaux-Arts building with its own copper patinaed dome.

Even all four sides of the building (or eight sides?) are carefully composed.

Behind the gates is the former Masonic temple, in the Egyptian Revival style.

Then, in an interesting twist, this former church is now a synagogue, below.

What I find so fascinating about the University Heights subdivision is that it places an upper middle class, and wealthy neighborhood adjacent to a bustling commercial strip such as the Delmar Loop. We have a fantastic Tudor Revival house below, for example.

We also have an interesting example of the Colonial Revival with an infusion of early Modernism.

Here are two other beauties in between the gates and Big Bend Boulevard.