University Park: SMU, a President & Park Cities Grandeur

Tucked inside Dallas sit the Park Cities — University Park and Highland Park — leafy enclaves built around one of Texas's great private universities. Southern Methodist University opened in 1915 on land pledged by Dallas boosters, and its Georgian-red-brick campus has since gathered a Heisman-winning football tradition, a renowned Spanish-art museum, and the presidential center of a U.S. president. This walking tour links those landmarks with the elegant district that surrounds them: from the domed first building of SMU to the George W. Bush library, the Meadows Museum's old-master galleries, the storied stadium where Doak Walker dazzled, and Highland Park Village, often called the country's first self-contained shopping center. It's a stroll through Texas wealth, learning, and ambition — equal parts campus quad and country-club avenue.