TLW's Mallscope™ (Shopping Mall Historyscope) |
By T.L. Winslow (TLW), the Historyscoper™ |
© Copyright by T.L. Winslow. All Rights Reserved. |
Original Pub. Date: Feb. 4, 2016. Last Update: Jan. 17, 2019. |
Westerners are not only known as history ignoramuses, but double dumbass history ignoramuses when it comes to shopping mall history. Since I'm the one-and-only Historyscoper (tm), let me quickly bring you up to speed before you dive into my Master Historyscope.
The Shopping mall (center) is a North Am. invention, possible only because of the great middle class and its highly mobile consumer society; it pretty much defines what it means to be an American, although in recent years globalization makes it one of the top items to clone to prove they're rising out of poverty; before that the British, French et al. had shopping arcades.
In 59 C.E. the Macellum Magnum indoor fruit-vegetable market bldg. (the world's first shopping mall?) is built on the Caelian Hill in Rome.
About 1200 Chester Rows in Chester, Cheshire, England is established, consisting of first floor covered walkways leading to shop entrances, becoming the oldest continuously-occupied shopping mall on Earth.
In 1860 Englewood, Colo. is founded in the area of Little Dry Creek S of Denver under the name Orchard Place by Thomas Skerritt, who ploughs the first road to Denver in 1864; in 1883 the Cherrelyn horsecar path is laid, later hosting the Cherrelyn horse trolley, which connects with Denver's Broadway (until 1908); Englewood is incorporated in 1903, with landowner J.C. Jones as mayor #1; in 1905 Swedish Nat. Sanatorium (later Swedish Medical Center) is founded; in 1849 the city purchases 2.5K acres on the Platte Canyon, creating McLellan Reservoir, giving it water independence from Denver, sparking a building boom; in 1965 Cinderella City Mall is founded on the former city park, opening on Mar. 7, 1968, becoming the largest covered mall W of the Mississippi River; it is demolished in 1999.
In 1923 Country Club Plaza, the first suburban shopping center in the U.S. accomodating automobiles opens in Kansas City, Mo., developed by Jesse Clyde "J.C." Nichols (1880-1950), who foresaw a nation on wheels, and designed by architect Edward Buehler Delk (1885-1956) - goodbye round plate, hello square plate?
On Oct. 4, 1951 Shopper's World in Framingham, Mass. opens, becoming one of the first shopping malls in the U.S.
On Aug. 11, 1992 the 4.2M sq. ft. Mall of America, AKA the Megamall in Bloomington, Minn. opens, becoming the biggest shopping mall in the U.S. (until ?).