The Plymouth Park Shopping Center, located at Irving Boulevard and Story Road in Irving, TX, was built in 1955 and considered the finest mall between Fort Worth and Dallas. As one of the first fully air-conditioned shopping centers in the Southwest, Plymouth Park boasted a 750,000 square foot shopping center with a wide range of businesses. Levines, M.E. Moses, 5 & 10, a toy store, jewelry store, and optometrist were some of the first tenants, with Fazio’s department store and Zack’s Arts and Crafts locating in the shopping center at a later time. Kevin Morrow, a local Irving artist, recalls his memorable time as a chef at Wyatt’s Cafeteria in the 1970’s. During the cold winters at the cafeteria, they would take large metal cookware from the kitchen and slide around the icy parking lot of Plymouth Park while being pulled by a car. Irving had a population of 2,585 in the 1950’s with orchards and farms throughout the community when the shopping center opened. By the 1960’s, the population had jumped to 45,895, and Plymouth Park remained the popular place for residents to shop.
Why the decline?
In the 1970’s, the population reached 100,000 and a new shopping center, Irving Mall, became the new attraction. While Plymouth Park had limited big name department stores compared to Dallas, the new mall was home to Dillards, a Skillern Drug store, Krogers, M.E. Moses, 5 & 10, Foley’s, Chateau Movie Theater, and several small stores. Plymouth Park Shopping Center declined in popularity and had its last major renovation in 1998. Florida based Equity One Inc. took ownership in 2004 with a vision to revitalize the center, but eventually sold to California based SEJ Properties L.P. with no improvements made. The property is now under development today by CaliTex, LLC.
The demolition was handled by JR Demolition. The site is being prepared for a large mixed-use development that will include a new shopping center and apartments.
