Book :: Houses of the Park Cities

The Houses of the Park Cities
An Architectural Guide to the Historic Houses of Highland Park and University Park Texas
by R. Lawrence Good

A comprehensive survey of the architecturally significant historic homes in the iconic Dallas suburbs.

The quality of the residential architecture from the first three-fourths of the twentieth century that is found in the Park Cities has few peers across the entire United States. The period of Highland Park’s development, as well as the early years of University Park, coincided with the peak of the Garden Suburb movement in the US. Contemporary planned communities such as Beverly Hills, River Oaks (Houston), Lake Forest (Chicago), Roland Park (Baltimore) and Shaker Heights (Cleveland) boast many examples of fine residential architecture, but none surpassing, on the whole, that of the Park Cities. And the work of the Park Cities’ leading architects, (Hal Thomson, Anton Korn, Fooshee & Cheek, and Charles Dilbeck) might be considered equal to that of the most revered country house architects practicing nationally at that time (Harrie T. Lindeberg, Bertram Goodhue, Charles Platt and Carrere & Hastings).

Following an introductory essay, the Guide divides the Park Cities into four geographic areas which serve as chapters of the book. There are three chapters covering the Town of Highland Park, while the City of University Park has a chapter to itself. Each of these sections has a brief history of the physical planning and development of the Town and the City, followed by coverage of a similar number of houses, (170 in all), which are located on maps to facilitate easy touring. There are color photographs and a capsule description of each of the featured properties.

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