According to a longtime resident, it was a true community party with booths and games, a Ferris wheel in the center, and the attraction of a grand prize for the lucky winner – a pony. When Highland Park Village had its Grand Opening in 1931, nearly everyone in town came. Prominent architects Marion Fooshee and James Cheek created this Mediterranean Spanish masterpiece, which today truly has become the “heart of the town.” Located at the corner of Mockingbird Lane and Preston Road, it’s often referred to today as “Downtown Highland Park”. But with the same planning and foresight used in establishing Highland Park, the developers traveled to Barcelona and Seville, Spain as well as to Mexico and California, studying the architecture in order to plan a retail center for Highland Park. Business was “expected” to stay downtown. Prather decided that Highland Park needed a shopping center that could function as a town square, most bankers and merchants offered them discouraging words. Because of a good original master plan and strict deed restrictions, it is today an enclave of gracious homes, fine schools and beautiful parks. Over the years, Highland Park, a separate town now located within the boundaries of the city of Dallas, has become one of the most beautiful communities in the nation, rivaling even Beverly Hills. This club, Dallas Country Club, is the oldest country club in Texas. Prather lured a country club to Highland Park as a drawing card to attract wealthy citizens of Dallas to their new development. After all, it was 130 feet higher than Dallas, and it certainly had plenty of parks. The new community would be named Highland Park.

They set aside 20% of the land for parks, planning a high-class community with fine homes surrounded by abundant green space. Armstrong and his two sons-in law, Hugh Prather and Edgar Flippen hired noted architect Wilbur David Cook, the designer of Beverly Hills, to lay out the new Town, which opened in 1907. Armstrong envisioned a new, exclusive planned community just north of the bustling young city of Dallas. Armstrong purchased 1,326 acres of land bisected by an Old Indian trace later used as a cattle trail, now called Preston Road. The story of the development of the Village began in 1906 when entrepreneur John S.

According to the Urban Land Institute, Highland Park Village was the first planned shopping center in the United States with a unified architectural style and stores facing in toward an interior parking area, all built and managed under a single ownership. This unique Mediterranean Spanish-style development was constructed in 1931. Highland Park Village is America’s first shopping center and the prototype for shopping centers all over the country.

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