Casa Linda Plaza. Photo courtesy of Beverly Heart.
Casa Linda was dreamed up by Carl Martin Brown and developed by his son, Howard Brown.
Carl, a Dallas entrepreneur and land buyer, envisioned a one-stop shopping center that was pedestrian- and family-friendly.
Work on the development was paused while Howard was serving in the military during World War II. When he returned, progress resumed, with the help of his wife, Mary Reid Brown, and sister, Corinne Brown Walton.
Some of the first tenants at the shopping center included Tom Thumb, Mott’s, C&S Hardware, Skillern’s drug store, Reynolds Penland, El Fenix, Zenith, Ashburn’s Ice Cream and more.
East Dallas neighbor Brenna Elliott, who founded Dallas History Guild on Facebook, got to know Beverly Heart, the daughter of Howard Brown and granddaughter of Carl Martin Brown, before Heart died in September 2020.
And Orris shared with Elliott some history about how Casa Linda, a project managed by her family, got its name.
Orris said Howard loved the Spanish language. In the late 1930s, he and his wife traveled to San Antonio to visit his wife’s sister and her husband.
As he was driving around, Howard noticed the home styles and street names. Howard knew he wanted Casa Linda to be a place filled with beautiful homes. So he found out the word for “house” in Spanish (“casa”) and started looking for Spanish words for “pretty” or “beautiful” and decided on “linda.”
Orris’ aunt sent some examples of street names in San Antonio to Howard, and he and Carl selected some for the roads in Casa Linda. They added “Drive” to the end of the names because they wanted people to feel like they were touring something lovely while they cruised around the neighborhood.
Editor’s note: This story has been updated to specify when Beverly Heart died.
