Highland Mall: From Orphanage Grounds to Suburban Promise
Before Highland Mall opened in Austin, the property was the site of the St. John Industrial Institute and Home for Negro Orphans, founded in the early 1900s and closed and destroyed by fire in the 1950s.
In the late 1960s, Austin Malls Inc., a subsidiary of the Rouse Company, bought the tract with plans for an enclosed shopping mall. On August 4, 1971, Highland Mall opened to the public with a two-level design.
…