Our Pick
Posted on @rawstates
Woodmar Center, Victor Gruen's shopping mall two years before Southdale
Hammond, Indiana
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Chicago developers bought 20 acres here in 1953 and hired Victor Gruen, the architect who would go on to design Southdale in Minnesota and get the credit for inventing the enclosed American mall. Woodmar opened in early 1954 as an open air centre built around the first Carson Pirie Scott store in Indiana, and was roofed over in 1966 as the fashion changed. The mall came down in 2006 and the Carson's building followed in 2019, leaving a municipal sportsplex on the site.
Similar places
Southdale, the first enclosed shopping mall in America1956 · Edina, MinnesotaMaryvale Shopping City, Victor Gruen's mall in the desert1959 · Maryvale, Phoenix, ArizonaMilliron's puts the parking on the roof1949 · Westchester, Los Angeles, CaliforniaEastpoint Mall opened in 1956 as one of Baltimore's first shopping centers1956 · Dundalk, MarylandNorthland Center, the first regional shopping centre1954 · Southfield, Michigan
That was 1 of the hidden places.
Location: historic site
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