With all the new businesses coming to Preston Royal Village, we thought we’d take readers down memory lane to the shopping center’s early years.
The $2-million development only occupied the Preston-Royal intersection’s northeast corner when it opened on July 12, 1956. A ribbon cutting, Miss Preston Royal pageant, political rally and live music commemorated its arrival, the Dallas Morning News reported.
“Mixon started with the two buildings on the south section of the land in 1953,” we wrote in 2002. “One building housed his office. The other building included a 7-Eleven and a service station. The structure on the north end of the property opened two years later, making space for 10 merchants.”
Holiday cleaning, Deb ‘n Heir children’s clothing store, Wyatt’s grocery store, RoyalBurger and Safari Steakhouse — a restaurant known for its “exotic Indian curries” and Bengal tiger murals — were a few of the development’s first tenants.
In 1959, Henry S. Miller Jr. and Trammel Crow welcomed customers to a center they named Preston Hollow Village. Located on the northwest corner, the site’s main attraction was the Preston Royal Theater.
“Tickets to see movies were just 35 cents and soft drinks cost a mere 12 cents. When the theater featured “The Alamo,” crowds filed in,” we wrote. “After all of the seats were filled, people sat in the aisles or stood in the back to see the film, says Carol Short, who is now vice president of public affairs for the North Dallas Chamber of Commerce and grew up near the center.”
The two establishments merged in 1965 when Miller and Crow bought out Mixon’s property.
Learn more about the origins of Preston Hollow Village — including Fran’s Lingerie, which closed every July with a sign that read “Gone Fishin’ ” — here.
