Comprehensive Aerial Photography of Northwest Dallas, Highland Park, and University Park.
A scarce and detailed aerial atlas offering full photographic coverage of northwestern Dallas County in 1980, including Highland Park, University Park, Southern Methodist University, and surrounding neighborhoods. Issued by Real Estate Data, Inc., this is the ninth edition of their Region 1 aerial series, part of an ambitious and largely undocumented private mapping initiative in Dallas during the 1970s and 1980s.
The set consists of 51 high-resolution aerial photographs reproduced as map plates, providing an impressive level of detail that captures not only street layouts and lot lines but also the built environment of the time. Major features include SMU’s campus and sporting facilities (notably still showing Ownby Stadium), downtown Dallas prior to the construction of the Bank of America Plaza, and pre-remodel versions of local landmarks such as John S. Bradfield Elementary School and the Dallas Country Club’s clubhouses.
This atlas predates several major changes in Dallas’s urban fabric and offers a snapshot of the city’s development before suburban expansion transformed its periphery. Particularly notable is its documentation of the agricultural fringes north and west of Dallas just before their absorption into the expanding metropolitan area.
Historical Context and Rarity
The earliest known aerial survey of Dallas was conducted by Sherman Mills Fairchild in 1930, under municipal commission. Commercial aerial platbooks do not appear until the 1960s, when the Carson Map Company began producing photographic atlases of Dallas County. Real Estate Data, Inc. entered the market in 1972 and continued producing updated volumes annually through the 1980s. To date, we locate no other contemporary competitors. Institutional holdings are limited: the Dallas Public Library appears to be the only repository with a near-complete set of editions across all regions. This ninth edition of Region 1 is otherwise unrecorded in public collections.