“Hey, want to go to the mall?”
We shopped (or we window shopped), teens hung out, ladies lunched, kids got their pictures taken on Santa’s lap, we tried to win cars and other prizes. Sometimes there was even live music (and, hey — remember Tiffany’s mall tour?)!
For decades, the mall was THE gathering place for millions of Americans. It might seem like malls have been around since forever, but the first official indoor shopping mall didn’t exist until 1956.
Built on the outskirts of Minneapolis, Southdale Mall was the first climate-controlled, fully-enclosed mall in the US. Not only was it a convenient and comfortable place to shop and gather — no matter what the weather! — it made good business sense, too.
Unlike the traditional downtown shopping scene, where every building had a different landlord, mall properties had centralized management, where leasing could be controlled to maximize sales for everyone. And, of course, parking was significantly less hassle at the mall than it was downtown.
Consequently, the mall concept exploded, and Southdale Mall became the template for suburban indoor malls as we knew them.
Back then, indoor malls were a convenient one-stop location for shopping, eating, recreation and socializing. Many of these sprawling malls had movie theaters — and some even had ice rinks and bowling alleys.
And, the mall looked, smelled, and sounded good, too! Malls were glittering and luxuriously appointed, designed to tempt you to indulgence at every turn. Just by taking a quick walk around the place, you could tell that they really know how to make customers feel like royalty.
But none of that was enough for indoor malls to survive the age of the internet.
By the turn of the millennium, brick and mortar retailers — including so many of those located in shopping malls — struggled to compete with online marketplaces.
After all, shopping doesn’t get much more convenient than online! Especially when there are machine learning algorithms that not only help retailers better predict what customers need, but also efficiently connect customers with their products.
Since the ease of online shopping has lured most of us to its charms, indoor malls have started to die out. But what hasn’t faded is our fondness for this vintage relic.
Take a nostalgic trip back with us to some of the best indoor malls from the 60s, 70s and 80s.
And don’t miss part 2: 50 old mall stores you probably haven’t seen for years (at least not looking like this)
1960s: Vintage malls in the early years
Multilevel vintage mall with a palm garden courtyard
Stores you can see in this mall include Treasure Isle gifts & Jewelry, Hart Schaffner & Marx Clothes, a barber, and a medical clinic
Chris-Town Shopping Mall, Phoenix, Arizona (1962)
Old Chris-Town indoor mall in Arizona (c. 1960s)
You can see the Korrick’s Department Store on the right
Hudson’s store at Oakland Mall – Troy, Michigan (1969)
1960s mall with a Florsheim Men’s Shoe Shop (1969)
MORE: Vintage shoe stores: What shoe shopping used to be like
Scenes from the Old North Mall in York, Pennsylvania (1969)
Stores shown include The Fabric Tree, Hanover Shoes, Buxton’s, Parklane Hosiery and Kinney Shoes
Smith & Welton store at a vintage mall (1960s)
Dayton’s department store at Brookdale Shopping Center, Minneapolis (1966)
1970s: Vintage malls with 70s style
Rich’s store at Cumberland Mall – Atlanta, Georgia (1973)
Dayton Hudson’s Woodland Hills Mall, Tulsa, Oklahoma (1976)
See Aberson’s Alley, Florsheim Shoes & Gray’s Jewelers
Plymouth Meeting Mall, Pennsylvania (1960s-1970s)
Shops include a Fashion Bug and a jewlery store
Belden Village Mall – Canton, Ohio (1960s-1970s)
ALSO SEE: Remember Hickory Farms? That’s how we fed our charcuterie obsession back in the day (1970s-90s)
Inside the old Belden Village Mall (1960s-1970s)
You can see a Thom McAn shoe store, Deuble’s Jewelers, and a Hallmark store
Colonial Park Plaza vintage shopping mall, Pennsylvania (1970)
Town East Mall, near Dallas, Texas (1971)
Rosedale Shopping Center – St Paul, Minnesota (1971)
Midtown shopping mall, Rochester New York (1960s-1970s)
Strawbridge & Clothier grand court at mall in Pennsylvania (1972)
JC Penney at 3-level Southdale Shopping Center, Minnesota (1972)
Old malls: Ridgedale Shopping Center, near Minneapolis, Minnesota (1973)
Stores include B Dalton Bookseller, Peck & Peck, and The Limited
Strawbridge & Clothier – Neshaminy Mall in Bensalem, PA (1973)
Mayfair Shopping Center – Old mall in Wisconsin (1973)
Beyond the creek and bridge is a large Marshall Field & Company store
Huge light fixture at Fox Valley Shopping Center in Illinois (1974)
Deptford Mall Shopping Center, New Jersey (1970s-1980s)
Florsheim Shoes, Flower World, Marqueland’s Candies
ALSO SEE: See vintage drugstores 100 years ago, selling lots of things you can’t (legally) buy anymore
Retro shopping mall in Indiana
You can see Florsheim shoes, Kinney, Kay Jewelers
Vintage postcard of Briarwood Mall in Ann Arbor, Michigan
Stores seen include Naturalizer, Meyer Treasure Chest Stores, and Hanover Shoes
Vintage mall – Woolworth’s store and fountains
Twin City Mall – North Palm Beach, Florida (1971)
Shops seen include Morse and Upstage
Vintage postcard – Sunvalley Mall, Concord, California (c1970s)
Shops seen include Sandra Joy Casuals, Kushins, Penney’s
Vintage 1970s shopping mall
Stores seen include Kinney Shoes, Jack and Jill, and a Northwest Airlines kiosk
Vintage Woolworth’s store next to a fountain at a retro shopping mall (1976)
Vintage 1970s shopping mall with two levels
Stores include Young World & Basket House
Vintage shopping mall scene – 1970s or 1980s
Stores seen here Hardy Shoes, The Bombay Shop, Hot Sam and Sears
Fiesta Mall in Mesa, Arizona (1979)
Stores shown include Rings & Things, Musicland, Sears and a Hallmark store
1980s: Retro 80s malls
A classic old-school eighties shopping mall
You can see a Flagg Bros, Thayer McNeil Shoes, and what looks like a Chick-Fil-A
Eastland Mall ice skating rink – Charlotte, North Carolina (1970s-1980s)
Skating rink inside Galleria Mall, Houston, Texas (1980)
Shopping mall food court stands (1980)
There’s a Pretzel Fest and a popcorn place (Photo date based on photographer’s catalog record)
ALSO SEE: 12 abandoned malls & the history of their heartbreaking decline
Shopping mall food court in northern Virginia (1980)
There’s a Pik-A-Pita and Frank & Stein restaurant (Photo date based on photographer’s catalog record)
Town Center mall – Cobb County, Georgia (1980s)
The Shops at Georgetown Park mall at Christmas (1980)
MORE: The history of the iconic Sears ‘Wish Book’ Christmas catalog that made dreams come true
Montclair Plaza – Montclair, California (1986)
Hulen Mall – Fort Worth, Texas (1980s)
Stores here include The Cook’s Nook, The Limited, The Gap
Georgetown Park shopping mall (1980)
(Photo date based on photographer’s catalog record)
1980s shopping mall with fountain and clock
DON’T MISS: See Cheryl Tiegs’ clothing collection & swimwear at Sears in the ’80s
Tysons Corner Center shopping mall, Tysons Corner, Virginia (late 1980s)
Vintage malls: Shopping mall and hotel lobby (1980)
Retro 80s shopping center information booth
NOW SEE THIS: 50 old mall stores you probably haven’t seen for years (at least not looking like this)
6 Responses
As a person who grew up in the Minneapolis area and shopped at Southdale in the 80s and 90s – I loved seeing the video of its history. So fascinating! Interesting that through all the changes and decades, it’s still a very recognizable mall – not generic like the ones built later on. Thanks for posting this!
The Tysons Corner Center shopping mall picture description is inaccurate. I worked there in 1986 and the mall was only one floor then. The anchor stores, such as Hecht’s, my employer, had a lower level that was part of a service area for the entire mall. That is where they got the space for expansion, the existing underground loading dock level was converted into another floor for the entire mall. Your photo is circa 1988, when that remodeling was complete. Tysons Corner Center has continually expanded upward and outward since.
In the 80s, the mall was The Place to Be on a Friday or Saturday night. If you were a teen, that was where you hung out; you could catch a movie, play games at the video arcade, eat at the food court, and browse the stores (my favorites were the book and record stores). It was safe, it didn’t have to cost a lot, and you could go there rain or shine. Malls were most popular around the holidays (of course), but also when it was too cold or too hot to do things outdoors. These days, in my area at least, the more upscale malls are still going strong; it’s the lower-end malls that have lost their “anchor” stores and gone under.
In 1965 I was 4 when my parents moved from Minneapolis, MN to Phoenix, AZ. We lived 15 minutes from the same Christown Mall in this article and I have vivid memories of the early mall when it had large, brightly colored bird cages hanging from the ceilings and a huge exposed aggregate pedestal fountain in the formal mall entry. Every year Santa was set up in that same entry near the fountain and the line to see Santa was LONG. During my freshman year of college, I worked at the Montgomery Ward at one end of the mall while my older sister worked at The Broadway at the other end of the mall. Sadly, this year (2023), Christown is being torn down along with a lot of wonderful memories.
I never cared for malls. They sucked the life blood out of the smaller cities, and contributed to an already ongoing problem caused by the white flight of the 60s. So, their disappearance and failures having increased in larger numbers over the past 20 years is a welcome scenario. Like most of the wasteful extravagance of previous decades the situation is more than poignant considering our favorite pastime and sport being shopping, has suffered as the decades past as well. it only seem like poetic justice that they would begin to fail. Fifteen years ago as mall closings became more evident to the general population, the prediction of the awful ‘big box’ stores being next only seemed to good to be true. And here we are now, experiencing the shuttering of these ugly buildings (if you could call them that) and their massive parking lots are fast becoming nothing but grave markers to our national pastime.
In Tulsa we miss the Williams Center Forum that existed from 1979-1994. It was similar to the Houston Galleria with a skating rink. It was fun to go at Christmas time and hear the Tulsa Philharmonic on ice concert and watch the ice skaters. Good times. Woodland Hills Mall is still going strong but still not the same. It is, however, getting a Sheels.