The Centre at Preston Ridge is a large outdoor shopping center (on over 50 acres), that is way too big to be called a strip mall, but it is not what I consider a mall either. The Centre at Preston Ridge shopping center has many shops of all types, from small specialty shops and boutiques (in 18 separate buildings), to a HUGE Target (discount store) Supercenter that combines their discount store with a grocery store. However, the stores are not what make The Centre at Preston Ridge special. After all, there are countless places to shop throughout the Dallas/Ft Worth metropolitan area. Rather, it is the setting it is built in.

The Centre at Preston Ridge is built around the theme of Texas heritage, with its location (Preston Ridge) on the Shawnee Trail. This is done in the form of several conspicuous tall white stone towers with historical plaques explaining various aspects of this time (1830's to 1890's) in Texas history. More notable (and more conspicuous), are the very nice sculptures of a cattle drive, cattle that are separate from the drive, a lone cowboy mounted on a horse, and best of all, sculptures of cowboys sitting around a campfire near a man-made pond and a stagecoach.

Imagine what a cattle drive going through a modern shopping center must look like, and you start to get an idea of what The Centre at Preston Ridge looks like. There are also many restaurants in The Centre at Preston Ridge. From some of them, you can sit outside and enjoy looking at the sculptures nearby while you are eating (if the Texas heat is not too great).

The Centre at Preston Ridge is located north of Dallas in Frisco, on Preston Road, north of Stonebriar Centre Mall (see other journal entry). To get there, take Preston Road (also known as Texas 289) north of Dallas, through the city of Plano to Frisco, Texas, and it will be on the left about a half mile north of Highway 121.

If you are interested in the history of Texas cattle drives, there are even better sculptures and exhibits you can see at Pioneer Plaza in downtown Dallas, and the sculptures and memorials in nearby Central Park (see my journal entries) in the Frisco Bridges development, which is very close to The Centre at Preston Ridge.