Our Melshire Estates neighborhood has a rich history that had its beginnings in the mid-1950’s when the Preston Dell Estates subdivision was created and houses were built on Charlestown Drive. Williamstown Road was the next street to be developed in the first Melshire Estates subdivision. Four additional Melshire Estates installments quickly followed with the last homes being built in the early 1970’s. It’s interesting to note that the first home in Melshire Estates was the built before any subdivisions even existed. The old Meletio family homestead was built in 1938 at a time when most everything surrounding it were cotton fields.

The boundaries established by the Melshire Estates Association are Charlestown Drive on the north, Forest Lane on the south, Preston Road on the east and Dallas North Tollway on the west. Included in these boundaries are the zero-lot line homes along Jamestown Road and Lindenshire Lane in the Preston Park Square subdivision, which were built in the early 1990’s. All-in-all, there are 496 lots in our neighborhood.

Melshire Estates was developed before there was an LBJ Freeway or the Dallas North Tollway. Much of Valley View Lane became LBJ and a line of the Cotton Belt Railroad became the Tollway.

The first stores in Preston Forest Shopping Center opened in the spring of 1958, and the Grand Opening was in August 1960. One of the main attractions was a 32-lane bowling alley. When it closed, a portion of that space became the first Container Store (where Staples stands today). The area now occupied by Joann Fabrics was a Titche’s Department Store. Do you know that there is an old fallout shelter in the basement? In in the small lobby of the office space next to Whole Foods is a beautiful 80 square foot mosaic of the Dallas skyline comprised of over 46,000 pieces of tile…check it out!

In the June 2017 issue of D Magazine, Melshire Estates was named one of The 10 Best North Texas Neighborhoods to Live Now.