First Shopping Center & Mansion Row

Highland Park was dreamed up as Dallas's most exclusive address, and a century on it still wears the part. This driving loop traces how the dream was built: from the first self-contained shopping center in America to the mansions, churches, and landmarks of the Park Cities. The neighborhood began in 1906 when Colonel John Armstrong bought 1,350 acres of horse-farm land north of Dallas and hired a Beverly Hills landscape architect to lay out a suburb of curving streets and parks. The route follows the old Preston Road trace the developers used, passes a Mount Vernon-inspired homestead won on a coin flip, and ends among the Gothic and Norman landmarks that gave Mansion Row its name. Drive slowly — the houses here are private, and the best of this tour is looking up at the rooflines and gateposts from the street.