America's First Shopping Malls

The American shopping mall began in 1923 with the Country Club Plaza in Kansas City, the first planned regional shopping center in the country built around the automobile. The format developed in two distinct generations. The first generation was open-air: planned outdoor shopping centers with unified architecture and parking, of which the Country Club Plaza, Northgate Mall in Seattle (1950), and Northland Center near Detroit (1954) were the landmarks. The second generation was the fully enclosed, climate-controlled mall, which arrived with the Southdale Center in Edina, Minnesota in October 1956. The architect of both Northland and Southdale was the Austrian-born Victor Gruen, widely called the father of the American shopping mall. The format then spread rapidly across the country during the late 1950s and 1960s, peaking in the early 1990s at roughly 1,500 enclosed malls nationally. The twelve pioneers below trace the formative years of the American mall from 1923 to 1965. Each was a national first or major step in the development of the format. Most are still open today, though some of the most historically significant have been demolished or are being converted to mixed-use redevelopment.

Country Club Plaza, Kansas City, Missouri (1923)

The Country Club Plaza in Kansas City, Missouri is the first planned, automobile-oriented regional shopping center in the United States. Real estate developer Jesse Clyde Nichols announced his plans in April 1922 and the first commercial building opened in 1923. The 30-acre, $5 million project was designed in a unified Spanish Baroque Revival architectural style by architect Edward Buehler Delk, drawing inspiration from Seville. Nichols deliberately designed the Plaza around the car, with wide streets and the first free off-street parking in any American shopping district. Many of the original 1920s buildings still stand and remain in retail use, anchored today by luxury chains including Tiffany, Burberry, and Apple. The Plaza's annual Christmas lights display, dating from 1925, is one of the oldest continuous Christmas traditions in the country. The Plaza is privately owned and is now managed by HP Village Management after a 2020 sale from Highwoods Properties.

Northgate Mall, Seattle, Washington (1950)

Northgate Mall opened on April 21, 1950 in north Seattle as the first regional shopping center in the United States to be called a "mall." The term referred to the central pedestrian walkway running between two parallel rows of stores, modeled on traditional outdoor pedestrian streets and closed to vehicle traffic. The mall was designed by Seattle architect John Graham Jr., who later designed the Space Needle, and was developed by Allied Stores (the parent company of The Bon Marché department store). Northgate opened with 18 stores anchored by a three-story, $3 million Bon Marché, and grew to over 70 tenants by 1952. The walkway was open-air at opening and was enclosed during a 1974 expansion. The mall was substantially redeveloped in 2021 as Northgate Station, with much of the original retail replaced by a Sound Transit light rail station, the Kraken Community Iceplex (training facility for the Seattle Kraken hockey team), and several thousand new residential units in a mixed-use redevelopment.

Lakewood Center, Lakewood, California (1952)

Lakewood Center opened in 1952 as the anchor commercial development of the planned suburb of Lakewood in Los Angeles County, on land that had previously been lima bean and sugar beet fields. The mall transformed the area into one of the fastest-growing suburbs in America within a decade, going from 17,000 residents at the 1950 census to over 67,000 by 1954. Lakewood Center was originally open-air and anchored by a May Company department store; the central concourses were enclosed in a 1980 renovation. The mall covers 154 acres and offers parking for more than 10,000 cars across surface lots, which has long been one of the largest shopping center parking provisions in the country. Lakewood is now anchored by Macy's, JCPenney, Target, and Costco, with about 2.1 million square feet of leasable area across 270 retail spaces. The mall has been owned and managed by Macerich since 2005.

Northland Center, Southfield, Michigan (1954)

Northland Center opened on March 22, 1954 in Southfield, Michigan, an inner-ring suburb north of Detroit, and was the first project to apply Austrian-born architect Victor Gruen's vision of a regional shopping center as a complete suburban civic core. The mall was developed by the J.L. Hudson Company on a 159-acre site at a cost of $25 million and was the largest shopping center in the world when it opened. The original design was open-air with a cluster of stores arranged around a central four-story Hudson's department store, served by underground service tunnels that kept truck traffic out of the pedestrian areas. Landscaped courtyards held sculptures commissioned from artist Marshall Fredericks, including the well-known Boy and Bear. The mall was enclosed during a 1975 renovation. After decades of decline, Northland closed permanently on April 15, 2015 when Macy's (the renamed Hudson's anchor) shut down. The city of Southfield bought the site for $2.4 million later that year and demolition was completed in 2021, with the original Hudson's facade preserved for inclusion in a new mixed-use development called Northland City Center.

Southdale Center, Edina, Minnesota (1956)

Southdale Center opened on October 8, 1956 in Edina, Minnesota, a suburb of Minneapolis, and was the first fully enclosed, climate-controlled shopping mall in the world. The mall was designed by Victor Gruen Associates for the Dayton family, owners of the Dayton's department store chain (the same family company that later evolved into Target Corporation). It cost $20 million to build, opened with 72 tenants across 800,000 square feet, and drew more than 75,000 visitors on opening day. The defining architectural feature was the central two-story Garden Court of Perpetual Spring, a 50-foot-tall skylit atrium designed to function as an indoor town square with trees, fountains, sculptures, and a goldfish pond. Gruen pioneered the dual-anchor format that would define the American mall for the next half-century, with Dayton's at one end and Donaldson's at the other and smaller specialty stores arranged along the indoor walkways between them. Southdale Center is still operating, anchored today by Macy's, JCPenney, and a recently added Life Time Fitness, and is owned by Simon Property Group.

Roosevelt Field, Garden City, New York (1956)

Roosevelt Field opened in 1956 in Garden City on Long Island, on the site of the airfield where Charles Lindbergh had taken off for his solo transatlantic flight in 1927. The site had operated as a regional airfield until 1951 and was redeveloped into one of the first major regional shopping centers in the New York metropolitan area. The original 1956 mall was a partially covered cluster of stores anchored by Macy's and Gimbels; it was substantially expanded and fully enclosed in 1968 and again in 1993. Roosevelt Field is now the largest shopping mall in New York State with 2.4 million square feet of gross leasable area, and is among the most-visited malls in the United States by annual traffic. Current anchors include Macy's, Bloomingdale's, Nordstrom, JCPenney, and Neiman Marcus. The mall is owned by Simon Property Group.

Old Orchard Shopping Center, Skokie, Illinois (1956)

Old Orchard Shopping Center opened in 1956 in Skokie, Illinois, a suburb of Chicago. The mall was developed by Marshall Field & Company and unusually has retained an open-air format throughout its history, with covered walkways and landscaped courtyards arranged to evoke an orchard. A 1991 expansion added 100,000 square feet of retail and a four-story parking deck, growing the mall to about 140 stores. Westfield (now Unibail-Rodamco-Westfield) acquired the property in 2002 and rebranded it as Westfield Old Orchard. The mall is currently anchored by Macy's (in the former Marshall Field's space), Bloomingdale's, and Nordstrom. A major mixed-use redevelopment of the former Lord & Taylor wing began in 2023 after Lord & Taylor closed all stores nationally in 2020, replacing the department store with 740 apartments, a new public park, and additional retail space at street level.

Garden State Plaza, Paramus, New Jersey (1957)

Garden State Plaza opened in 1957 in Paramus, New Jersey, at the intersection of Routes 4 and 17, the heaviest-traffic retail corridor in Bergen County. Like other early malls, it was originally open-air and was enclosed in a 1986 renovation. The mall now has 2.1 million square feet of leasable area and is among the highest-grossing malls in the United States by sales per square foot, partly because Paramus law has prohibited Sunday retail trading since 1957, which concentrates the local week's shopping into six days. Current anchors include Macy's, Nordstrom, JCPenney, AMC Theatres, and a Neiman Marcus. The mall is owned by Unibail-Rodamco-Westfield and operates as Westfield Garden State Plaza.

Ala Moana Center, Honolulu, Hawaii (1959)

Ala Moana Center opened on August 13, 1959 in Honolulu, two weeks before Hawaii became the 50th state. It was the largest shopping center in the world at the time it opened and remains the largest open-air shopping mall in the world today, with 2.4 million square feet of gross leasable area on a 50-acre site. The mall was developed by Walter Dillingham and was deliberately designed open-air to take advantage of Honolulu's year-round climate, with landscaped tropical courtyards, koi ponds, and outdoor performance spaces. Major expansions in 1966, 1987, 1999, and 2013-2016 grew the mall from its original 87-store opening to roughly 350 stores today. Ala Moana is the highest-grossing shopping center in the United States by annual sales, driven by a large share of Asian luxury tourism. Anchors include Macy's, Nordstrom, Neiman Marcus, Bloomingdale's, Target, and a Foodland Farms grocery store. The mall is owned by Brookfield Properties.

Del Amo Fashion Center, Torrance, California (1961)

Del Amo Fashion Center opened in 1961 in Torrance, California, in Los Angeles County's South Bay region. The original mall was relatively modest at opening but expanded steadily through the 1970s and 1980s, and at one point in the early 1990s it was briefly the largest enclosed shopping mall in the United States by gross leasable area at approximately 3 million square feet. The mall was substantially renovated between 2013 and 2015 in a $500 million project that demolished portions of the older enclosed sections and replaced them with open-air promenades, dining terraces, and updated entrances. Current anchors include Macy's, Nordstrom, JCPenney, AMC Theatres, and Dick's Sporting Goods. The mall has approximately 2.5 million square feet of leasable area and is owned by Simon Property Group.

King of Prussia Mall, King of Prussia, Pennsylvania (1963)

King of Prussia Mall opened in 1963 as The Plaza in King of Prussia, Pennsylvania, a suburb of Philadelphia at the intersection of the Pennsylvania Turnpike and the Schuylkill Expressway. It expanded with a second connected building called The Court in 1981 and the two were joined by a connector concourse in 2016. The combined complex has 2.9 million square feet of gross leasable area, which makes it the largest shopping mall in the United States by leasable area and the second-largest in the country overall after the Mall of America. The mall is anchored by Macy's, Nordstrom, Bloomingdale's, Neiman Marcus, JCPenney, Primark, and Dick's Sporting Goods, and includes a significant luxury wing with Gucci, Louis Vuitton, Hermès, and Tiffany. King of Prussia is owned by Simon Property Group.

NorthPark Center, Dallas, Texas (1965)

NorthPark Center opened in 1965 in Dallas, Texas, and was conceived by developer Raymond Nasher as a fusion of shopping mall and modern art gallery. The mall's permanent collection now includes major sculptures and paintings by Frank Stella, Mark di Suvero, Henry Moore, Jonathan Borofsky, James Rosenquist, and Andy Warhol, displayed throughout the public spaces alongside the retail. NorthPark is anchored by Neiman Marcus, Macy's, Nordstrom, and Dillard's, and has a significant luxury wing including the original Stanley Marcus-era Neiman Marcus flagship. The mall has 2 million square feet of leasable area and is privately owned and managed by Nasher Company, the development arm founded by Raymond Nasher. NorthPark consistently ranks among the highest-grossing shopping malls in the United States by annual sales per square foot, and it was named one of the seven retail wonders of the modern world by the International Council of Shopping Centers in 2007.

The Decline Of The American Mall

The American enclosed mall peaked in the early 1990s at roughly 1,500 enclosed shopping malls nationwide. The number has declined to approximately 700 by 2024, with steep losses accelerating after the 2008 financial crisis and again during the COVID-19 pandemic. The retail anchor bankruptcies that started the cascade include Sears (Chapter 11 in 2018, now down to fewer than 10 stores nationwide from a 1980s peak of more than 3,500), JCPenney (bankruptcy 2020, restructured under new ownership), Macy's (announced 150 store closures through 2026), and the complete shutdowns of Mervyn's (2008), Lord & Taylor (2020), and the original Bon-Ton chain (2018). Online retail captured roughly 16 percent of total US retail sales by 2024, up from less than 5 percent in 2007. Many of the most historically significant first-generation malls have been demolished or are in conversion: Northland Center in Southfield was torn down in 2021; Eastland Center in Harper Woods closed in 2021; the original Bergen Mall in Paramus was demolished for a mixed-use redevelopment in 2010. The remaining mall stock has bifurcated sharply between high-end "A malls" that have largely held their value (Roosevelt Field, King of Prussia, Ala Moana, NorthPark, the Country Club Plaza) and a broad middle and lower tier that is being repurposed for housing, last-mile fulfillment warehouses, medical offices, and mixed-use redevelopment.