Highland Park

Highland Park sits just north of downtown Dallas, surrounded by the city but governed entirely on its own. Turtle Creek runs through the middle of it, the streets bend with the water instead of following a grid, and the tree canopy is old enough that the whole town feels a few degrees cooler in August.

A Town Within a City

The land was laid out in 1907 for John S. Armstrong, who brought in Wilbur David Cook, the landscape architect who later planned Beverly Hills, to design streets that followed the creek and the high ground above it. Residents voted to incorporate as a town in 1913 and never joined Dallas, so Highland Park still runs its own town hall, police and fire departments.

Turtle Creek and the Parks

The creek organizes everything. Lakeside Drive follows it past Exall Lake, and a chain of small parks turns the flood plain into a shared front yard for the whole town. Creekside lots are the largest and the most tightly held, and a block or two away the scale tightens without losing the canopy.

Architecture Worth Slowing Down For

Most of the original houses went up between the 1910s and the 1930s, when architects like Hal Thomson, Anton Korn and Fooshee & Cheek were working here, and the vocabulary is Tudor, Spanish Eclectic, Georgian and Colonial Revival. Decades of careful renovation and full rebuilds sit alongside them, so a single street can hold a 1925 original and a house finished last year.

Schools

Highland Park is served by Highland Park ISD, one of the smallest and most sought-after districts in Texas, with Armstrong, Bradfield and Hyer elementaries feeding McCulloch Intermediate, Highland Park Middle and a single high school. Zoning changes street by street, so it is worth confirming a specific address before you write an offer. Hockaday, St. Mark’s, Jesuit and Episcopal School of Dallas are all a short drive away.

Everyday Life

Highland Park Village opened in 1931 as one of the first planned shopping centers in the country and is still the anchor: groceries, the theater, restaurants and flagship retail within walking distance of much of the town. Knox Street, the Katy Trail, downtown and Love Field are all minutes away.

If you are thinking about buying or selling in Highland Park, I would love to walk you through what is happening street by street.