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Highland Park Information
Highland Park is a town located in central Dallas County, Texas (USA).
The population was 8,842 at the 2000 census. Located on Texas State Highway 289
and U.S. Route 75 (North Central Expressway), four miles north of downtown
Dallas (USA).
It is the 41st wealthiest place in the United States and the 19th wealthiest
place with a population of over 1,000. Highland Park is the 4th wealthiest
location in Texas by per capita income.
Highland Park is bordered on the south, east and west by Dallas and on the north
by University Park. Highland Park and University Park together comprise the Park
Cities, which share many joint services such as schools. Known in the area as
having a high concentration of the wealthy and elite social classes, Highland
Park is also home to the Highland Park Village shopping center.
The land now known as Highland Park was purchased in 1889 by a group of
investors from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, known as the Philadelphia Place Land
Association, for an average price of US$377 an acre, with a total of $500,000.
Henry Exall, an agent, intended to develop the land along Turtle Creek, as
Philadelphia Place, exclusive housing based on parkland areas in Philadelphia.
He laid gravel roads, and dammed Turtle Creek, forming Exall Lake, before the
Panic of 1893 brought a blow to his fortunes, halting development. Afterwards,
he began a horse breeding farm. In the 1890s, Exall Lake was a common picnic
destination for Dallas residents.
In 1906, John Armstrong (the former partner of Thomas Marsalis, the prominent
developer of Oak Cliff), sold his meatpacking business, and invested his money
in a portion of the former Philadelphia Place land, to develop it under the name
of Highland Park. He chose this name as it was located on high land that
overlooked downtown Dallas. Wilbur David Cook, the landscape designer who had
planned Beverly Hills, California, and George E. Kessler, who had previously
planned Fair Park and most of downtown Dallas, were hired to design its layout.
Notably, twenty percent of the original land was set aside for parks. A second
development in Highland Park was developed in 1910.
In 1913, Highland Park petitioned Dallas for annexation, but was refused. The
500 residents voted to incorporate on November 29, 1913, and incorporation was
granted in 1915, its population then was 1100. The first mayor of Highland Park
was W. A. Fraser. A third and fourth development were added to the town and 1915
and 1917, respectively. In 1919, the city of Dallas sought to annex Highland
Park, beginning a lengthy controversy that lasted until 1945. J W Bartholow led
the fight to resist the annexation. The final major land development occurred in
1924. In 1931, Highland Park Village was constructed, the first shopping center
of its kind in the United States.
Due to its location near Dallas, Highland Park, had, by the early 1930s,
developed a moderately large (8400) population, with few businesses. Eventually
the school districts and newspapers of Highland Park and University Park were
combined. In the 1940s, after the failure to annex Highland Park, Dallas began
annexing the land surrounding it. Reaching a population high of just under
13,000 in the late 1950s, Highland Park afterwards grew only by building houses
on the remaining vacant lots, and by the destruction of old buildings. Since
1990, Highland Park has maintained strict zoning ordinances. Known for its
quality housing, the town still has many parks running along Turtle Creek, and
is home to the Dallas Country Club.
Most of the city (areas east of Roland Avenue) is served by the Highland Park
Independent School District. The HPISD portion is served by Highland Park High
School in nearby University Park. A minuscule portion of Highland Park (areas
west of Roland Avenue) is zoned to Dallas Independent School District. DISD
schools that serve western Highland Park include Maple Lawn Elementary School,
Rusk Middle School, and North Dallas High School.
In 2005, Highland Park High School's football team won its first state
championship since 1957, defeating Marshall High School 59-0. The team finished
with a perfect record of 15-0, winning the Texas University Interscholastic
League 4A-Division I state championship. The school has one of the most
legendary high school football programs in the state of Texas, with Pro Football
Hall of Fame inductee, Bobby Layne, and 1948 Heisman Trophy winner, Doak Walker.
Parade All-American and Texas State champion, Matthew Stafford, will possibly
start for the University of Georgia Bulldogs this upcoming season as a true
freshman.
Some Things to Consider When Looking for a Place...
When searching for a new apartment make sure to take your time to think
through what are the most important things to you in an apartment and plan your
search based on those priorities. Here are some things to consider when planning
your move:
1. Consider the areas where you would like to live
* What is the crime rate?
* If you have children - what rating does the local school system have?
* Is there area convenient shopping, health and recreation services in the area?
2. Make a list of your housing priorities
* Do you have pets?
* Do you need parking?
* Do you need to be on the ground floor?
* What amenities are important to you - swimming pool, fitness room, in unit
laundry?
3. Evaluate the building
* What is the condition of the unit and building?
* Are the grounds maintained?
* Are windows, steps, and railings in good condition?
* View the property at night. Is it safe and well lit?
4. The security of the property
* Are there security service? When is the guard on duty?
* Does the building have controlled access?
* Does each unit have secure door and window locks?
5. Talk to the neighbors
* Ask other residents whether they are satisfied with the building.
6. Amenities
* Who is allowed to use the amenities?
* When are they open?
* Are the fees charged to use those facilities included in rent?
7. Ask about Utilities
* Does the owner or tenant pay the utility bills?
* Are any utilities included with monthly rent?
* Do units have separate thermostats to control heat and air conditioning?
8. Review the lease
* How much notice must you give before moving out?
* Can the rent be increased? If so, by how much and how often?
* Are pets allowed?
* What is the security deposit and cleaning costs upon move out?
* What is the responsibility of tenants for damage to property?
* Is there a penalty for breaking a lease?
9. Information too bring to a lease signing
* Credit Report
* Pay stubs/tax returns
* Reference
* Application
More Apartment Information
An apartment (or flat in Britain and most other Commonwealth countries) is a
self-contained housing unit that occupies only part of a building. Apartments
may be owned (by an owner-occupier) or rented (by tenants).
Some apartment-dwellers own their apartments, either as co-ops, in which the
residents own shares of a corporation that owns the building or development; or
in condominiums, whose residents own their apartments and share ownership of the
public spaces. Most apartments are in buildings designed for the purpose, but
large older houses are sometimes divided into apartments. The word apartment
connotes a residential unit or section in a building. Apartment building owners,
lessors, or managers often use the more general word units to refer to
apartments. Units can be used to refer to rental business suites as well as
residential apartments. When there is no tenant occupying an apartment, the
lessor is said to have a vacancy. For apartment lessors, each vacancy represents
a loss of income from rent-paying tenants for the time the apartment is vacant
(i.e., unoccupied). Lessors' objectives are often to minimize the vacancy rate
for their units. The owner of the apartment typically transfers possession to
the occupant by giving him/her the key to the apartment entrance door and any
other keys need to live there, such as a common key to the building or any other
common areas, and an individual unit mailbox key. When the occupant move out,
these keys should typically be returned to the owner.
Apartments can be classified into several types. Studio, efficiency, bed-sit, or
bachelor apartments tend to be the smallest apartments with the cheapest rents
in a given area. These kinds of apartment usually consist mainly of a large room
which is the living, dining, and bedroom combined. There are usually kitchen
facilities as part of this central room, but the bathroom is its own smaller
separate room. Moving up from the efficiencies are one-bedroom apartments where
one bedroom is a separate room from the rest of the apartment. Then there are
two-bedroom, three-bedroom, etc. apartments. Small apartments often have only
one entrance/exit. Large apartments often have two entrances/exits, perhaps a
door in the front and another in the back. Depending on the building design, the
entrance/exit doors may be directly to the outside or to a common area inside,
such as a hallway. Depending on location, apartments may be available for rent
furnished with furniture or unfurnished into which a tenant usually moves in
with his/her own furniture. Permanent carpeting is often included in an
apartment.
Laundry facilities are usually kept in a separate area accessible to all the
tenants in the building. Depending on when the building was built and the design
of the building, utilities such as water, heating, and electric may be common
for all the apartments in the building or separate for each apartment and billed
separately to each tenant (however, many areas in the US have ruled it illegal
to split a water bill among all the tenants, especially if a pool is on the
premises). Outlets for connection to telephones are typically included in
apartments. Telephone service is optional and is practically always billed
separately from the rent payments. Cable television and similar amenities are
extra also. Parking space, air conditioner, and extra storage space may or may
not be included with an apartment. Rental leases often limit the maximum number
of people who can reside in each apartment. On or around the ground floor of the
apartment building, a series of mailboxes are typically kept in a location
accessible to the public and, thus, to the letter-carrier too. Every unit
typically gets its own mailbox with individual keys to it. Some very large
apartment buildings with a full-time staff may take mail from the mailman and
provide mail-sorting service. Near the mailboxes or some other location
accessible by outsiders, there may be a buzzer (equivalent to a doorbell) for
each individual unit. In smaller apartment buildings such as two- or
three-flats, or even four-flats, garbage is often disposed of in trash
containers similar to those used at houses. In larger buildings, garbage is
often collected in a common trash bin or dumpster. For cleanliness or minimizing
noise, many lessors will place restrictions on tenants regarding keeping pets in
an apartment.
In some parts of the world, the word apartment is used generally to refer to a
new purpose-built self-contained residential unit in a building, whereas the
word flat means a converted self-contained unit in an older building. An
industrial, warehouse, or commercial space converted to an apartment is commonly
called a loft.
When part of a house is converted for the ostensible use of a landlord's family
member, the unit may be known as an in-law apartment or granny flat, though
these (sometimes illegally) created units are often occupied by ordinary renters
rather than family members. In Canada these suites are commonly located in the
basements of houses and are therefore normally called basement suites.
Staying in privately owned apartments rather than in a hotel is quickly becoming
popular with travelers.