Dallas Market Center was founded in 1957 by real estate developer Trammell Crow. The first trade event at Dallas Market Center was held in July 1957 and was attended by 1,850 visitors. Today, the Dallas Market Center hosts more than a dozen trade events annually, serving over 200,000 buyers visiting from all 50 states and more than 85 countries.
Benefitting from a postwar boom that made Dallas a regional business center, Trammel Crow and his early partners, John and Storey Stemmons, built more than fifty warehouses in Dallas. Crow pioneered the idea of "building on speculation" and short lease arrangements but was noted most for forming partnerships to complete his projects rather than a conventional corporate organization.
While in Chicago during World War II, Crow had visited the Chicago Merchandise Mart and its trade shows and decided to replicate the model in Dallas. After the Dallas Decorative Center in 1955, Crow went on to build the Dallas Market Center on the Trinity River – the Dallas Home Furnishings Mart in 1957, the Trade Mart with its distinctive atrium and Market Hall in 1960, the Apparel Mart in 1964, the World Trade Center in 1974, and later the Infomart in 1985. Today, the Dallas Market Center’s 4-building campus spans over 5 million square feet.
The two-story International Trade Plaza, which opened in 1957, is the first building at the current site of Dallas Market Center. Designed by Donald H. Speck, the 434,000 square foot building was originally named the Dallas Home Furnishings Mart. The 434,000 square feet building was repurposed in 1999 as the International Floral & Gift Center and later in 2012 as The International Trade Plaza. The current name is the Interior Home + Design Center following a renovation in 2017.
The Dallas Trade Mart, the second Dallas Market Center building, was designed by Harold Berry, Donald Speck, and Harwell Hamilton Harris and it opened its doors in 1958. The project provided 980,000 square feet of showroom space and cost $12.64 million. It is four stories tall and the atrium at its center is named The Grand Pavilion.
The Trade Mart was the destination of United States President John F. Kennedy's motorcade on November 22,1963 when he was assassinated in Dealey Plaza just minutes away. He was scheduled to arrive approximately at 12:35 p.m. to give a speech to 2,600 people at a sold-out luncheon in the Grand Pavilion. Notable guests awaiting Kennedy's arrival included Market Center partners Trammell Crow and John Stemmons; Jerrie Smith, daughter of Neiman Marcus chairman Stanley Marcus; Texas Senator Ralph Yarborough; J. Erik Jonsson, one of the owners of Texas Instruments; and Dallas Mayor Earle Cabell.
On October 12, 1964, English sculptor Elisabeth Frink created the bronze sculpture The Eagle which sits outside the main entrance today. It features a William Blake quote and a plaque which reads, "Placed in memorial by the friends of United States President John Fitzgerald Kennedy who awaited his arrival at the Dallas Trade Mart on November 22, 1963 when he was assassinated in Dealey Plaza."
Market Hall opened in 1960 across Market Center Boulevard from the rest of the campus and is the only building that is open to the public. It is the world's largest privately owned exhibition hall.
In 1964, the Dallas Apparel Mart opened as part of the Dallas Market Center’s 100-acre campus of buildings. The $15 million, 1.6 million square foot building was a trading center for clothing and accessories for men, women, and children. By 1984, it had grown to 2.3 million square feet over seven stories and 2,000 showrooms, making it the largest wholesale fashion market in the country at the time.
The Apparel Mart also served as a venue for the Dallas Museum of Fashion, which was founded in the 1960s by fashion industry professionals who collected and displayed historical garments at the building. The museum's collection grew to include contemporary designs as well, and in 1969 it merged with the Neiman Marcus Collection to create a large archive of artifacts for industry professionals to use as inspiration and for research. By 1972, the combined collections had grown to more than 3,000 items. The Apparel Mart closed in 2004, and its 600 tenants were relocated to the World Trade Center.
Dedicated in 1974, the World Trade Center, the largest building and centerpiece of the campus, opened with seven stories. It was expanded in 1979 to have 3.1 million square feet of floor space and 15 stories.