In 1952, developer John M. Stemmons donated land for a freeway bearing his father’s name to connect downtown Dallas with the Love Field airport. The freeway stimulated development of his land in this former Trinity River floodplain. Protected by a 1932 levee system proposed in the Kessler Plan, the levee was elevated in 1960. Stemmons initially partnered with Trammell Crow on the Dallas Market Center but withdrew over financial disagreements. The wholesale merchandise mart, owned and managed by Crow Holdings, has grown since 1957 to become a five-million-square-foot, four-building complex, not open to the public, serving home and fashion markets.
The Dallas Trade Mart (1959, Harwell Hamilton Harris with Harold Berry) at 2100 M. Stemmons has saw-toothed skylights over a large central atrium. A luncheon at the Trade Mart was the destination of President John F. Kennedy’s motorcade when it passed through Dealey Plaza on November 22, 1963.
At the southern apex of the site at 1950 Stemmons Freeway is the InfoMart (1985, Growald Architects), the iconic structure of the complex and of Dallas’s mercantile prominence in general. The eight-story, lacy steel and glass structure is topped with three glass barrel vaults. Their source is Joseph Paxton’s Crystal Palace of 1851 in London, which displayed products of Great Britain’s industrial revolution to the world; the InfoMart houses information technology companies, technology offices, and data centers.