Southdale Center: 1956

http://static.panoramio.com/photos/original/11788654.jpg

It depends on how tight the specialty is to consider this the "first shopping mall" in the US. If you are looking at the subset of first enclosed, suburban, multi-level, postwar shopping mall, then yeah, it is the first. But if you want the first enclosed shopping mall then no. Northgate Mall was built quite a few years earlier as were a few others:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Northgate_Mall_(Seattle)

[A mall, in the original sense of the word, is something like a fairway or greenspace. The pedestrian walkway or mall running down the middle of Northgate Shopping Center between two rows of stores was mostly open to the sky, so this was not a "shopping mall" as we know it today. - Dave]

This photo doesn't look dated at ALL. You know the saying, "Everything old is new again"? Well, decorating trends are very similar to what's being shown here.

I was five when Southdale opened. It didn't have a JC Penney at that time. It did have a little play area in the basement with a maze for kids. The basement also had a shoe repair place that is still there, though it is now on the second floor.

Southdale also had Gager's Hobby and Handicraft store (on the opposite side of the open area from Woolworth's) where I could get chemicals for my chemistry set. I have no idea what kids do for chemistry sets these days. Do they even sell them? There was also our favorite, the Toy Fair, that sold nothing but toys. It was to the right of where the camera was.

They also had a grocery store called Red Owl. It would have been off to the left of the camera and down a hall. The grocery store didn't last too long, probably because people who just wanted groceries didn't really want the hassles of a big mall.

Thanks for sharing this photo. I had told my wife about the bird cage there, and now she has finally gotten to see it.

Kottke has a piece on this, including another link to a relevant Economist article.

I was struck by this picture when it came through the RSS feed the other day. Lovely to read these comments and articles on it too.

Growing up in the UK in Cambridge, shopping malls were something of an oddity. I think the nearest real one was in Peterborough, at least 40 minutes race north. Cambridge now has two, I think (more's the pity because beautiful subsidised Georgian and Victorian housing was destroyed to build them, and Cambridge doesn't handle large numbers of people driving into town anyway). Both are relatively modern compared with this one so I never even considered shopping in a place like this. I wonder what the original mallrats would have looked like.

This is not the first enclosed mall. The first was (and still is) in Milwaukee. Built just after the Civil War. It is on Wisconsin Ave. I haven't more information at my fingertips. I am no historian, but was amazed to find this here. It is very attractive, too.

[Covered markets and shopping arcades go back hundreds if not thousands of years. Southdale was the first enclosed, climate-controlled shopping center of the modern era. In other words, the first shopping mall. - Dave]

Great piece in The New Yorker a few years back about Victor Gruen and his how his vision for malls was undone by a change in tax regulations regarding depreciation of capital assets. Great, if somewhat depressing, reading.

"Victor Gruen invented the shopping mall in order to make America more like Vienna. He ended up making Vienna more like America."

Indoor malls were first developed in colder climates for obvious practical reasons. Over the years, mall design shifted from a focus on shopper experience and comfort (coat check rooms, lockers, sufficient restrooms ... even items of local historical interest) to maximizing the revenue of businesses (row after row of mini-vendor carts along what had heretofore been pedestrian walkways). On balance, I'll take the early generation mall ... or better yet, the restored downtown shopping district.

[The synthesized version of "restored downtown shopping district" is the current hot concept in retailing -- the faux-urban "lifestyle center." A shopping mall turned inside out. - Dave]

This really brings back memories. I was 10 years old when Southdale opened. I actually took part in some of the opening ceremonies. A friend and I hitch-hiked out to the mall and in the parking lot somehow we got picked to participate in a contest. Four of us kids were picked to catch passes from two pro quarterbacks. My friend and I caught passes from Otto Graham and the other kids caught passes from Tobin Rote. Whichever team caught the most passes would be treated to malted milks paid for by the winning quarterback. My team won but all four of us were treated to malts. Otto and Tobin us into Southdale and we all crammed into a booth and listened to them talk shop about the upcoming season. Quite a memory. I still live in the area and often thought I should contact Southdale to see if they might have any pictures of the event.

I was born in 1964 and spent my early childhood going to this mall with my mother. She used to push me around in a stroller. The tall cage on the left was filled with canaries and parakeets. I was mesmerized by this. We would always stop at Fanny Farmer (just past Woolworth's) to get a treat of jelly fruit slices and continue around the corner on the left side to the pet store near the exit. There was a magnificent parrot that lived in a cage right out front of the store that I used to talk to. I think he might have known more words than me at the time! There was an FTD florist near the same spot, and I loved the fragrance of the fresh flowers that wafted into that part of the mall. It smelled like springtime, even in the middle of a dreary and cold Minnesota winter day. Dayton's and Donaldson's were the anchor stores; one on each end. I believe Donaldson's would have been directly behind the camera and Dayton's would have been straight ahead, on the far end (or vice versa). The shimmery gold floor-to-ceiling mobile type structures on the right, past the escalators, fascinated me too. They were so glamorous and HUGE! The lighting hadn't been changed yet, this is exactly what it looked like in the late '60's, although, later on when I returned there in my teens, there had been many changes and additions and a lot of these features had been removed. Going to this mall for a small child in Edina was possibly the equivalent of going to Disneyland for a child growing up in L.A. Thank you, Shorpy, for this special memory!

Southdale Center is, incredibly, still quite bustling. It's the more sane alternative to the nearby Mall of America. It has upscale shops but is still approachable, is small enough to navigate but has many of the options most people want. I hope this little gem doesn't go anywhere!

P.S. - Minnesota in the cold months is ALSO bustling! Don't discount the ice skating, nearby skiing and snowboarding, local arts and theater, and the hardiness of its residents, who are always willing to put on a thick pair of mittens and go out and live life to its fullest (and coldest)!

I think these slice-of-life pictures are my favorites. And, it's amazing how little malls have changed over 50 years.

Such fond memories of eating at the Woolworth's lunch counter in the 1970s and '80s.

Mr. Lileks, have you taken over Shorpy, you naughty blogger?

First thing I thought of when I saw the (awesome) picture, and then I saw it was in Minnesota, his stomping grounds.

The Apple store would be behind and to the left of the camera. The upper level bridge is still there, so crossing from the left and continuing to the right would take you to Penney's.

I bet there is a great diner inside that Woolworth's with lots of tasty things like meat loaf, stuffed bell peppers, and root beer floats. Yum.

Southdale was designed by Victor Gruen, often considered the "father of the shopping mall." It's interesting that this picture depicts what Gruen wanted malls to be -- an indoor town center where people would be comfortable just hanging out as they would in a downtown park -- even if they weren't buying anything -- but nowadays I can't imagine anyone other than teenagers actually spending time just "hanging out" in a mall.

From the 1950's through the early 2000's, didn't shopping malls have a great run? They're all subtly turning into ghost malls. There's another one near the Twin Cities called Har Mar (yes, like Har Mar Superstar) that's practically a marble desert with a dwindling Barnes & Noble being its biggest draw.

There's also another popular local: The Mall of America. The Death Star. The Sprawl of America. The Mall of Gomorrah.

Because what the hell else is there to do in Minnesota? Especially when it's colder than a witch's tit outside?

[Some malls. Even many malls. But not all malls. - Dave]

Mostly because a friend of mine worked at the Babbages that was there for a while, and because it was a pretty short drive from home. Of course, it looked nothing like this then (highschool was late 80's to early 90's), but you can still make out the similarities.

I can't quite get my bearings in this picture - where's the Apple Store? It looks like to the right might be the hallway down to where JC Penney is (is it still there? I don't frequent Southdale too much anymore). If I remember right, that would make this picture looking toward the Apple Store (which was a B. Dalton before that).

At least the ceiling is the same (what parts they haven't expanded/remodeled, that is).

Something about this photo is almost like a Norman Rockwell painting. The soft colors and muted details help, but what I notice are the little vignettes scattered about the mall — the dignified older man in the gray suit, the woman looking at a book with her son, the lady rummaging through her shopping buggy. The presence of a Woolworth's is just the sort of touch I would expect from Rockwell had he painted this scene. This photo is an excellent find!

There's a lot less brown paneling now, and the escalators have been turned so they both face toward the camera.

This one is still open.

After having worked on several shopping malls, and knowing how much work goes into the construction of them, I am amazed how fast they are considered obsolete! This one would fail by today's standards, even though it was truly a work of art.