Greenway Parks – Dallas, Texas
Greenway Parks is a 150-acre residential neighborhood located approximately five miles north of downtown Dallas, Texas, bounded by the Dallas North Tollway on the east, Mockingbird Lane on the south, Inwood Road on the west, and University Boulevard on the north. It borders the city of Highland Park on the southeast and the city of University Park on the east.
Greenway Parks is the most successful planned development in Dallas. Not only is the plan of shared greenbelts relevant today, but it also attracts the highest quality young buyers. Greenway Parks has the distinction of being designed by architect David Williams, the father of Texas Modernism. He is known for combining the indigenous qualities of Texas with the Modernism of Europe. In Greenway Parks, the Spanish Colonial influence of the neighborhood markers and monuments came from the time David Williams spent in Mexico.
In May 2003, Greenway Parks became Conservation District No. 10 within the City of Dallas, designating it as a neighborhood with a distinct physical character, and requiring specific building and renovation standards to maintain its character.
In January 2008, Greenway Parks was officially entered into the National Register of Historic Places, one of only 24 such districts in the City. The certification notes many of the neighborhood’s distinguishing characteristics, including 23 acres of parklands and open spaces that are privately- and commonly owned by the neighborhood’s homeowner’s association.
Most significant among these are the eight eponymous “greenway” parks which extend east-west between houses on Mockingbird, Montrose, Waneta, Nakoma, and Wenonah. “In contrast to the many late 19th. and early 20th century Dallas neighborhoods that were mostly bungalow suburbs that developed along streetcar routes, Greenway Parks was conceived of as a residential park, adapting American garden suburban planning practices and integrating shared green space.”
Greenway Parks evolved from a plot of land first developed in 1927 in the “English commons” tradition of clustering homes around a series of private parkways. The graceful boulevards and heavily treed lots preserve a quiet atmosphere that belies the fact that the Dallas North Tollway runs conveniently along the neighborhood’s eastern boundary. Inwood Village and Lovers Lane, which constitute its northern end, provide top-notch shopping and dining options too.
Architecturally, Greenway Parks encompasses the styles of seven decades including romantic revival storybook styles of the 1920s, Modern ranch residences of the 1950s, and the large European-inspired residences of the late 1990s. Houses of architectural significance include those by famed architects Howard Meyer, David R. Williams, and Charles Dilbeck, and builders Fooshee and Cheek. Greenway Parks was made a City of Dallas Conservation District in May of 2003, a tribute to its outstanding architecture and planning.