With its seven original buildings in Spanish Colonial Revival facing inward around an interior parking area, the complex became the first self-contained suburban shopping district in the nation. A variety of decorative treatments on individual buildings, all based on Spanish Colonial models, created the impression of a village, a picturesque accumulation of buildings. Highland Park Village was developed by Flippen-Prather Realty as the final section of their Highland Park property. They anticipated a shopping component early in the 1920s but held the land until most of the residential lots had been sold. They met with J. C. Nichols, owner of Country Club Plaza in Kansas City, for advice and traveled to Spain, where the ersatz Spanish village of the Barcelona International Exposition of 1929 left a strong impression. The advice from Nichols to create a buffer between residential and commercial streets led to the internalized planning of Highland Park Village.
Starting with their first houses in Highland Park in 1924, Marion Fooshee (1888–1956) and James Cheek (1895–1970) were the strongest Dallas proponents of Spanish Colonial or Mediterranean revival styles. They met in Hal Thomson’s office in 1918 and opened their practice in 1920 in Wichita Falls during the oil boom. Returning to Dallas in 1925, they maintained a small office with mostly residential commissions, largely concentrated in the Park Cities.