A photographic journey through one Dallas crossroads, from a 1920s dirt road through every generation that reinvented it, to the tornado-struck corner today and an imagined vision of what it could become next.
1838 – 1920sThe First Leap
Someone decided a path should be a road
Preston Road began as a trail worn by Native Americans and pioneers. In 1838 the Republic of Texas ordered a road from Austin to the Red River, and cattle drives on the Shawnee Trail followed it north. By the 1920s it was a gravel road through open prairie and pasture, crossing a country lane that would become Royal. Every part of that was new once: the road, the telephone poles, the Model T. Each one was somebody refusing to settle for what came before.
1953 – 1959The Bold Bet
They built a town center in an open field
After Dallas annexed Preston Hollow in 1945, ranch houses spread across the open land. In 1953 Preston Royal Shopping Center went up on the northeast corner, and in 1959 Henry S. Miller Jr. and Trammell Crow opened Preston Royal Village across the street. The suburban shopping center was a new idea, and plenty of people called it a gamble so far from downtown. They built it anyway, and a farm crossing became a destination.
1965 – 2010sThe Next Generation
Every era remade the corner
In 1965 the centers came under one management, and the corners started working as one place. Then came new storefronts, wider parking lots and more traffic down Preston Road. Each generation reworked what the last one left behind, and the corner grew into where North Dallas ran its errands. The places we love most were somebody else’s new idea first.
October 20, 2019The Storm
Ten minutes that forced a choice
On a Sunday night, an EF-3 tornado with winds near 140 mph tore a 15-mile path through North Dallas. It went straight through the southwest corner of Preston and Royal, shredding storefronts, stripping the old oaks and scattering brick across Preston Road. The shops were never rebuilt. The seven-acre site has sat mostly empty behind construction fencing ever since. Now the corner has to choose: patch the past, or build what comes next.
2026 & BeyondOur Turn
If we never left the dirt road, we’d still have a dirt road
Every generation here bet on something new. Now it’s our turn. The $800 million plan for the storm-struck southwest corner, designed by GFF, adds a 19-story hotel and condo tower, an 18-story apartment tower and an office building around a half-acre public green. Today the Dallas City Council votes on the rezoning that would let it rise. The future doesn’t build itself.
