Preservation Park Cities Plaques Memorialize UP History

Preservation Park Cities is commemorating a century of University Park history by placing large, permanent plaques in significant locations around the city.

One marker was placed in Centennial Park as part of the Centennial Celebrations Closing Ceremony in December. Eight more plaques were dedicated on March 18 at University Park city hall. 

“I think we all take for granted what a wonderful place this is,” Preservation Park Cities board member and former city council member Taylor Armstrong said during the dedication. “This may be as nice a place to live as anywhere in the country, and it’s all a matter of the kinds of things that we are commemorating today.”

The plaques document University Park’s early history, from the city’s beginning as three streets west of SMU’s Dallas Hall, to the incorporation of the town of University Park in 1924 and Dallas’ unsuccessful attempt to annex the Park Cities in 1945.

They also tell the story of the city’s growth. University Park’s character is due in part to the vision of a retailer from Baltimore, Maryland, who made the “remarkable and gutsy move” of developing estates on large lots that eventually formed the heart of the city, Armstrong explained.

“I think it’s important that we understand how we got to where we are, so that we’ll know what to do in the future,” he said, “and for our children and grandchildren to understand what a unique place this is.”

The plaques are sprinkled with lesser-known facts about the city. A plaque in Pardoe Park states that University Park houses eight churches within its city limits and may be the most churched city of its size in Texas.

According to the forthcoming Snider Plaza plaque, the last buffalo shot in University Park was killed in Snider Plaza after the unfortunate animal escaped from a wild west show being held on the Caruth farm.

The city of University Park contributed a cast stone surround to the plaques. The plaque sites are:

• Centennial Park, intersection of Vassar Ave. and Turtle Creek Blvd.
• City Hall, 3800 University Blvd.
• Churches at Pardoe Park, 3821 University Blvd.
• Volk Estates at Byrd Park, 6700 Turtle Creek Blvd.
• Caruth Park, 7801 Hillcrest Ave.
• Moody Family YMCA, 6000 Preston Road
• Snider Plaza, 6601 Snider Plaza (forthcoming in fall 2025)
• SMU Dallas Hall, 3225 University Blvd. (forthcoming)
• Highland Park High School, 4220 Emerson Ave. (forthcoming)