25 incredible photos revealing the history of America's first modern shopping mall

1956 southdale interior garden court Life magazine photo archive

When the Southdale Center in Edina, Minnesota opened its doors in 1956, its design was revolutionary.

Southdale was the first modern indoor mall in the US, and eventually became a national symbol of car-centric, consumerist, postwar suburbia.

The shopping mall featured a large central atrium with escalators that led to two upper floors. A pair of department stores anchored each end of the climate-controlled complex, which was surrounded by thousands of parking spaces.

Over the next half-century, thousands of American malls copied Southdale's layout (which has since gone through several renovations).

While Southdale is still open today, a number of similar malls have died or are being redeveloped to survive, due largely to the rise of online shopping. Check out the history of Southdale, which defined American shopping habits throughout the late 20th century.

In 1956, the Southdale Center debuted in Edina, a growing Minnesotan suburb of 15,000 at the time. Eight hundred workers built the mall, which cost $20 million to construct.

Southdale's opening year marked the 100th anniversary of the city of Minneapolis. Dayton Development Company (now Target Corporation) announced the concept of the climate-controlled, enclosed mall in 1952.

Source: The New Yorker

The mall originally had 5,200 parking spaces on its lot, though it has since added more with an underground parking garage.

The 500-acre mall stretched three floors. (A fourth was added later.) In this 1956 photo, construction workers are finishing storefronts before the grand opening, which attracted around 75,000 people.

''People came in and looked and their mouths opened.'' Herman Guttman, who supervised Southdale's construction, told The New York Times in 1986. ''The impact was phenomenal. There was nothing like it.''

Source: The Guardian

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