McCree Park
Established in 1958, McCree Park is located within the boundaries of Highland Meadows, the original amenities for McCree Park included Tennis courts, baseball field, picnic pavilion, stone terrace with nature observation area, and a large community swimming pool.
McCree Park was designed by the pioneering landscape architecture and city planning firm Hare & Hare who had a profound impact on the development of numerous North Texas cities and others across the United States.
Notable projects by Hare & Hare include Dallas’ Dealey Plaza (1939-1941), redesign of Dallas’ Fair Park Centennial (1936), Dallas’ Turtle Creek Park (1944), Dallas Lee Park (1940), Lake Cliff Park Dallas Stone Pergola (1944), and Fort Worth Botanic Garden.
Generations of neighbors have learned to swim, dive, play tennis or baseball at McCree Park. Children growing up in our neighborhood in the 1950’s, 60’s, 70’s, 80’s, 90’s and early 2000’s recall summer days and nights spent at the community pool. Sadly our neighborhood swimming pool at McCree Park was removed in 2009 due to city of Dallas budget cuts.
Photo: McCree Park, 1960, by Squire Haskins - Highland Meadows Preservation Foundation
Hare & Hare, Landscape Architects and Planners
When Sidney J. Hare (1860-1938) and S. Herbert Hare (1888-1960) launched their Kansas City firm in 1910, they founded what would become the most influential landscape architecture and planning practice in the Midwest. Sidney Hare was a self-taught landscape designer who developed his skills while working for the Kansas City engineer’s office and as a cemetery superintendent. S. Herbert studied landscape planning at Harvard University before returning to Kansas City to join his father’s practice.
Over time, their work became increasingly far ranging, in both its geographical scope and project types. Between 1924 and 1955, Hare and Hare commissions included fifty-four cemeteries in fifteen states, numerous city and state parks, more than fifteen subdivisions in Salt Lake City, the Denver neighborhood of Belcaro Park, the grounds of the Christian Science Sanatorium in Chestnut Hill, Massachusetts, and the University of Texas at Austin among fifty-one college and university campuses. Other notable projects include the Park and Boulevard system and the master plan for the Country Club District in Kansas City, the pre-planned city of Longview, Washington,and the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art in Kansas City.
Photo: Aerial View of McCree Park, 1969, by Squire Haskins - Highland Meadows Preservation Foundation
McCree Park - Preliminary Design Study
Preliminary design study for McCree Park by Hare & Hare prepared for Dallas Parks Board.
Illustration: Preliminary Design Study for McCree Park, 1956, courtesy of City of Dallas Archive - Highland meadows preservation Foundation
McCree Park - A View Toward the Swimming Pool
Photograph: McCree Park Community Pool, 1960, by Squire Haskins - Highland Meadows Preservation Foundation
McCree Park - 1970
Photograph of McCree Park with Snow, 1970.
Photograph of McCree Park with Snow, 1970, courtesy of Emily Louise Hershey Philp - Highland Meadows Preservation Foundation
