PRESTON ROAD’S PIONEERS

Story by ELISSA CHUDWIN

Before Valley View Mall grew out of a cotton field, the Preston Road property belonged to the ByrdPierce family for five generations.

The expansive farm disappeared in the 1960s, but North Dallas’ Marjorie Pierce Beard was determined to preserve her family’s history. In the late 1980s, she researched and wrote “Growing Up on Preston Road: A Family Portrait.” The 120-page book was distributed to her expansive family.

“Through the years, it was swept under the rug,” says Marla Bush, a member of the Pierce family. “Nobody knows what was on that property long ago.”

Their ancestors, James and Mary Byrd, were among Dallas’ earliest pioneers. In 1844, the Tennessee natives trekked to what was then Nagadoches County, enticed by the prospect of owning their own piece of the city.

People were hesitant to live in Texas, still a wild and often unlawful land, after it won its independence from Mexico. Dallas wasn’t a city yet, and the area’s only occupants were Native Americans. “An Act Granting Land to Emigrants” was an incentive for people to relocate to the republic. A man could homestead 640 acres if his family settled in Texas before July 1, 1844.

The couple built their new home near White Rock Creek. James, a member of Dallas’ first Methodist Society, was a cotton farmer and raised horses, Pierce Beard writes. He and Mary raised eight children together.

The family acquired another 1,960 acres after their parents’ death. When James and Mary’s granddaughter, Martha Elizabeth Byrd, married Andrew Pierce, a family feud erupted, and her father banned her from the property.

After the couple began having children, her father forgave her and gave them 90 acres of his land, according to a 1965 Dallas Times Herald article. They moved into a house that stayed in the Pierce family for a century.

The family maintained the acreage until Andrew Pierce died.

Her great-grandmother, Martha, sold pieces of the cotton farm to make ends meet, Bush says.

The McCutchin family purchased some of the property and sold it to Trammel Crow, who constructed Valley View Mall. When Sears offered them money for the remaining land, the family moved off Preston Road for the first time in decades.

Alecia Milliken’s father, Ray Pierce, was the final generation that grew up on Preston Road before it became a retail destination. She didn’t listen to her father’s ramblings about the family when she was young, she says, so the book is giving her a glimpse of what she ignored. She’s also reconnected with family members, like Bush, through posting about her family history on Facebook.

“People just go crazy over this stuff when you’re a native, native Texan.” vive, Capref needed to attract businesses that weren’t offered in nearby places like Preston Hollow Village.

Austin-based building supply store TreeHouse was the first company to take a chance on the under-developed site.

“It was a disaster,” says CEO Jason Ballard. “There were few to no open businesses. There were a lot of old abandoned buildings. The parking lot was in bad shape.”

The property’s shortcomings made it the right spot for the store’s second location.

“It was sort of intentional and goes back to the mission of the company The idea for a home, or for a development, or a city is that when TreeHouse comes to town, things get better,” Ballard says. “We sort of picked the derelict intersection on purpose.”

Founded in 2011, TreeHouse markets an unconventional approach to home improvement. It strives to sell eco-friendly, sustainable products, in addition to offering installation services and parklike spaces to hang out.

The success of its Austin store surprised even Ballard. In four years, the company’s revenue increased 300 percent, he says.

TreeHouse’s neighborhood location already attracted nationwide media attention as the first energy-positive retail store in the United States. It runs en- tirely on a Tesla battery backed by solar power, so it actually adds power back into the grid.

The company’s dedication to preserving the environment is a component of The Hill’s transformation, but it’s not Minnis’ focus.

“You have to lead with experience-based retail, activity-driven retail,” he says.

Restaurants like Hat Creek Burger and Tacodeli have announced plans to open at the development. Both started in Austin, like TreeHouse.

The Hill’s overhaul won’t be complete until summer 2018, but TreeHouse opened to shoppers last month. In the meantime, Capref is determined to erase the center’s former reputation — and the now-demolished Condoms To Go sign — from the public’s memory.

“If we get the right mix of retail and restaurant, health and fitness, spa and beauty, it will become the center point. It’s so well located.” students at Dallas ISD magnet schools live outside of the district