Snider Plaza is home to many local favorites, from restaurants to bookstores. For the past 83 years this area has retained local customers by maintaining a small town feel. (REBECCA HANNA/The Daily Campus)

Snider Plaza keeps ‘em coming back.

After 83 years the University Park shopping center still possesses tradition and charm.

German-native Karl Kuby came to Dallas in 1959 and worked in a meat store near McKinney Avenue and Knox where he felt mistreated as an employee.

M.R. Newnham, a customer of Kuby, suggested that he start his own business in one of Newnham’s Snider Plaza buildings.

“Young man, you shouldn’t be working for this man; he is not honest,” Newnham said.

These words would change the course of Kuby’s life.

I

n December of 1960 Kuby took Newnham’s advice and left the meat store. On Feb. 13, 1961, Karl Kuby launched his Sausage House in Snider Plaza selling German meats.

“On the first day of business I took in $27,” Kuby said.

Almost 50 years later Kuby’s Sausage House still functions as a family-owned, German specialty store offering a wide variety of homemade sausages and cold cuts.

The authentic German meat market and deli offers an extensive assortment of imported and gourmet products, and authentic German restaurant. Kuby’s is one of the hundred gems that make up Snider Plaza.

University Park’s Snider Plaza has been home to theaters, upscale boutiques, dining establishments and meat markets for generations.

Long-time business owners recall the history of the plaza as they know it.

In 1927, real estate mogul Ralph Porter developed Snider Plaza for oilman C.W. Snider of Wichita Falls. Snider Plaza was located at the corner of Hillcrest and Lovers Lane.

Ralph Porter Co. is the oldest residential real estate firm in Dallas County, managing and controlling approximately 50 percent of the buildings in Snider Plaza today.

The newly built center remained mostly undeveloped throughout the Great Depression.

Southern Methodist University attracted families and prospective students to the Park Cities over time. University Park began as a cluster of homes surrounding the fledgling university.

SMU is synonymous with Snider Plaza because of its close location and social fluidity.

In 1929 the Varsity Theatre opened in Snider Plaza. The theatre, seating over 1,000 people, was one of the first businesses to open in University Park.

 In 1957 it became the Fine Arts Theater, showing foreign films among others.

Those who patronized the theater have strong reminiscences of the Spanish village interior as well as twinkling stars painted on the ceiling.

James Brychta, owner of Snider Plaza Hair Styling, distinctively remembers the theater.

“They had the best popcorn,” Brychta said. The structure stood three doors down from his hair salon.

In later years, the theater was known as the Plaza Theater and the Park Cities Playhouse. It transitioned from a family theatre to one featuring adult films. Brychta says the rainy days were the busiest days at the theatre. Construction workers, unable to work in the rain, would pack into the theater to catch a flick.

From 1996 to 1997 the theater was renovated and the beautiful marquee removed. The structure still exists, but is nearly unrecognizable as it has been converted into multiple retail stores.

In the 1960s, Ralph Porter’s son Buddy began buying properties in Snider Plaza and he soon became the plaza’s largest property owner. Buddy Porter transformed his father’s small business into one of the Park Cities’ most powerful real estate firms.

Dallas residents, as well as students and faculty of Southern Methodist University have been the center’s primary consumers for decades.

Martha Woodcook, owner of Snider Plaza Antique Travel Group, says that the only way Snider Plaza will lose its traditional charm is if someone buys the entire center and renovates it, which she doesn’t see happening any time soon.

Woodcook and her husband opened their upscale antique store in 1989.

Snider Plaza has made headlines of local newspapers regarding the issue of parking.

There have been numerous attempts to solve the issue but none that everyone could agree on. Snider Plaza consists of over 20 independently owned buildings.

Woodcook said that the parking problem has been around for ages, and everyone knows that.

“It’s not going to change. It has been like this from the very beginning, and people expect it,” she said.

The parking issue has not detracted from Snider Plaza’s appeal yet. Eighty-three years later it is still one of Dallas’ most desired shopping centers.

What makes the plaza so unique?

Woodcook has an idea: “I love the small-town atmosphere here, and everybody knows everybody.”