The first self-contained shopping center in America. The Highland Park Village was declared a National Historic Landmark in 2000. Edgar Flippen and Hugh Prather Sr. decided that Highland Park needed a shopping center that could function as a town square, 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.
They hired American architects Marion Fresenius Fooshee and James B. Cheek to design the center, which opened in 1931. After the death of Hugh Prather, Sr. in 1959, management of the Village was taken over by his sons, John Prather and Hugh Prather, Jr. In 1966, the Howard Corporation acquired the shopping center. Under its management, little attention was given to proper tenant mix, landscaping deteriorated, overhead wires began to criss-cross the property, inappropriate signage appeared, and tenants were permitted to make facade alterations that were not in keeping with the classical architecture of the Village. The distinctive Spanish arches were covered up and newer materials that did not blend with the basic stone and stucco began to appear.
In 1976, the Howard Corporation decided to sell the Village and enlisted the help of the Henry S. Miller Company. Henry S. Miller, Jr. became attracted to the Village’s unrealized potential. Miller had a sentimental attachment to the property because his father had been an associate of the Flippen-Prather Realty Company from 1917 to 1919 and a close friend of both partners, Hugh Prather and Edgar Flippen.
Under Henry S. Miller, the sleepy shopping center quickly turned into a luxury shopping destination that became known for harboring the most premiere designer shops in Texas. Lesser known, local stores were replaced with Ralph Lauren and the state’s first Chanel.
In 2009, Highland Park Village was purchased by Stephen Summers, Elisa Summers, Heather Washburne, and Ray Washburne for a record $170 million, the highest total price for a retail property of that year. While retail in other parts of the country was hit hard by the recession, Highland Park Village managed to stay strong with the opening of Vince, a contemporary sportswear label and Leggiadro, a Manhattan-based luxury Italian store. The new owners replaced the former Banana Republic space with Texas’ only Christian Louboutin and Diane Von Furstenberg.
2013 saw the opening of Christian Dior, Tom Ford, and Alexander McQueen, Brunello Cucinelli, Ermenegildo Zegna, James Perse, as well as a new Saint Laurent Paris.