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The Arcade is the country's oldest indoor shopping mall. Built entirely of granite in 1828 (when Providence's population numbered only 14,000), it was the first commercial venture established on the west side of the Providence River.
The 216-foot structure, which fronts on both Westminster and Weybosset Streets, was originally owned by two separate groups whose architects argued over the building's design. This resulted in a structure with mismatched entrances: The Weybosset Street entrance is topped off by a stepped parapet, while the Westminster Street side is topped by a pediment. The Arcade's twelve massive 21-foot granite columns, which were quarried in Johnston and dragged to the construction site by a team of 30 oxen, were the largest monolithic columns in the country at the time, weighing in at 13 tons a piece. The total cost of the building was $145,000 ($2,128,100 in today's money—cheap!).
The building was once named by the Metropolitan Museum of Art as one of the finest commercial buildings in the history of American architecture, and it has also been designated a National Historic Landmark. In addition to its impressive exterior, it boasts a huge glass skylight, supported by wooden beams, that runs the length of the building and floods the open area between the three floors with natural light. Shops on the second and third levels are connected by long, open balconies overlooking the ground-floor. The building has survived a fire, three hurricanes, the threat of demolition, and a $3 million refurbishment.
Incidentally, Cleveland, Ohio's Old Arcade (1894), Seattle, Washington's Northgate Mall (1950), Appleton, Wisconsin's Valley Fair shopping mall (1954), and Edina, Minnesota's Southdale Center (1958) all claim to be the country's oldest/first indoor/enclosed shopping mall. Losers. http://www.quahog.org/attractions/index.php?id=1
Southdale was the brainchild of Victor Gruen, an Austrian emigrant who moved to the United States. Gruen was a European style socialist; he hated the suburban lifestyle of 1950s America, and wanted to design a building that would bring people together into a community, by providing a meeting place that American towns lacked. They would come together to shop, drink coffee, and socialize. It was never his intention to design what some consider an icon of capitalism. He modeled the design of Southdale on the arcades of European cities, although his original version was never achieved. Gruen also saw the mall as the center of a community. When he first drew up the plans for Southdale, he placed the shopping center at the heart of a 463-acre (1.9 km²) development, complete with apartment buildings, houses, schools, a medical center, a park, and a lake. Southdale, in Gruen's opinion, was not a suburban alternative to downtown Minneapolis. It was the Minneapolis downtown you would get if you started over and corrected all the mistakes that were made the first time around. Gruen planned for an atmosphere of leisure, excitement, and intimacy to be created. To achieve this he placed works of art, decorative lighting, fountains, tropical plants, and flowers throughout the mall.
Groundbreaking for Southdale took place on October 29, 1954. 800 construction workers were needed to construct the 4-story, 800,000 ft² (74,000 m²) center, complete with 5,200 parking spaces and 72 spaces for tenants. The mall was originally developed by the Dayton Company, owners of Dayton's department store in Minneapolis and predecessor to the Target Corporation. A branch of Dayton's would anchor the mall along with Donaldson's, Walgreens Pharmacy and Woolworth.
It was envisioned that Southdale would become the central gathering place not only for the residents of the city of Edina, but also for the greater Twin Cities area. Southdale was designed from the viewpoint of the future. The creators of the center understood that in the future, consumers would demand convenience and variety; as a result, the mall was designed to provide many useful services all under one roof. These services included everything from a Post Office, to a grocery store, to an upscale apparel store and even a small zoo. Other intentions would take hold, though, and the construction of the IDS Center and its attached Crystal Court would shift attention back to downtown Minneapolis.
When Southdale opened, it became a gathering place for area residents, just as was envisioned. Over the years, Southdale hosted gem, boat, and fine art shows, and also served as host for charity and community events. Southdale was even the host-site for an episode of the popular game show Truth or Consequences. However, the full scale of the original plan was never realized. There were no parks or schools or apartment buildings - just a big box in a sea of parking. With a few exceptions, no one else planned a shopping mall as the centerpiece of a tidy, dense, multi-use development.
Southdale was the site for many firsts in shopping mall history. Besides being completely enclosed and climate-controlled, Southdale was also the first United States shopping mall to feature two competing department stores under the same roof, as well as the first to feature original works of art hanging on the walls. —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 24.118.124.228 ( talk) 05:11, 9 December 2006 (UTC).
The Appleton, Wisconsin article claims that "Valley Fair Mall, recognized as the first enclosed shopping mall in the United States, was built in Appleton in 1954." As Tex Williams once sang, somethin' somewhere's cockeyed.
"I would argue that it's the most important mall ever built," said St. Olaf College history professor Jim Farrell, who wrote a book on malls, "One Nation Under Goods." He said Southdale was the prototype for the modern mall. 2006 Article from Minnesota Public Radio : http://minnesota.publicradio.org/display/web/2006/10/04/southdale/ -- Gary.Vollink@GM41L.com —Preceding unsigned comment added by 75.73.148.241 ( talk) 04:34, 1 May 2008 (UTC)
As has been pointed out by our well-researched anonymous friend, this is not the only mall to lay claim to oldest mall. Northgate Mall (Seattle, Washington 1950) and Valley Fair Shopping Center (Appleton, Wisconsin's 1954) claim this too. I've put "dubious" tags on their pages and will put this up for discussion there.-- Loodog 23:37, 1 April 2007 (UTC)
North Gate Mall is the oldest mall in the USA. It was opened in early 1950. There are building records, however I do not have them and North Gate Mall is and has always been "Fully Enclosed"....-- Airwaysim ( talk) 23:21, 10 January 2008 (UTC)
I think the way to clarify things is to note that major sources all agree that Southdale was the first "modern" mall in the world. That takes into account the Westminster Arcade, as well as its predecessors in Europe, and the proto-modern malls that were seen in the years preceding Southdale. -- Bobak ( talk) 18:36, 18 July 2009 (UTC)
Nobody has noticed 1950 is before 1956 in almost 10 years? Northgate in Seattle was fully enclosed from 1950. It's a large suburban (at the time) modern mall. I assume a fully enclosed building in 1950 in a northern climate had to be "climate-controlled" at least shortly after it opened to stay in business but that I don't know, but either way I don't think that's an important distinction people mentally call up when they hear the word mall. Old Burlington Arcade sort of places are a very different beast and aren't in the running, but Southdale and Northgate are virtually identical, so I can't see how this first mall claim is justified at all on some sort of technicality. It's simply 1950 vs 1956 and one date is clearly older than the other one.
I respectfully disagree on the description of the above links as spam problems. I know there are a lot of references, but they are to credible, non-commercial sources like the MN State Historical Society, MPR, the Edina City gov't website and then two books (thus are not serving as advertisements). I can understand situations where this might be a problem (e.g. "There are a lot of car dealers in Edina" followed by refs to each dealer page), but this is a situation where we have credible sources on a factual comment that has and could still be disputed for whatever reason. Obviously, its possible to go overboard on refs, but this was a contentious issue (surprisingly) over who had the first modern mall. As an example of where having a number of refs can be permissible see the end of the second paragraph of this Feature Article. In that case its also a statement that could be construed as POV if it weren't for all the refs. Looking at the spirit of WP:SPAM, which doesn't address ref issues, I think this isn't a problem. -- Bobak ( talk) 18:03, 18 July 2009 (UTC)
This is probably just trivia, but I remember a brass(?) donkey (perhaps 3 feet tall) inside the north entrance to Southdale in the 1960s. This was a common location to rendezvous after shopping at the mall. 136.162.34.1 ( talk) —Preceding undated comment added 08:07, 14 December 2015 (UTC)
GA toolbox |
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Reviewing |
Reviewer: Wilhelmina Will ( talk · contribs) 11:16, 10 April 2016 (UTC)
The article now complies with all MOS policies on grammar, layout and structure.
Herein dwells the greatest dictionary ever composed! (
talk)
08:08, 29 April 2016 (UTC)
The article holds a considerably-sized bibliography of reliable sources, and all information is well-cited by way of these.
Herein dwells the greatest dictionary ever composed! (
talk)
08:06, 28 April 2016 (UTC)
The article seems to include all aspects of its topic which have been covered by reputable sources. No signs of irrelevancy within the content.
Herein dwells the greatest dictionary ever composed! (
talk)
08:05, 28 April 2016 (UTC)
The article's text maintains a neutral approach to its subject.
Herein dwells the greatest dictionary ever composed! (
talk)
08:04, 28 April 2016 (UTC)
For at least six years the article has not suffered from edit warring or similar disruptive behaviour, according to the revision history.
Herein dwells the greatest dictionary ever composed! (
talk)
09:48, 27 April 2016 (UTC)
All files used in this article are suitably licensed to be accepted by the Wikimedia Commons, so there is no concern over fair use compliance.
Herein dwells the greatest dictionary ever composed! (
talk)
09:47, 27 April 2016 (UTC)
Done
Done
Done
Done
The article qualifies as GA. Congratulations!
Herein dwells the greatest dictionary ever composed! (
talk)
08:08, 29 April 2016 (UTC)
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The text says: "In a joint statement to the Star Tribune…." and a corresponding footnote [14] attributes an article to the "Star Tribune" of 7 October 1956. This is a mistake; the "Star Tribune" didn't exist as such in 1956. (The "Minneapolis Daily Star" and the "Minneapolis Tribune" were then separate newspapers; they merged in 1982 to form the "Star and Tribune" which was renamed the "Star Tribune" in 1987. See [ [3]].)
The mistake apparently originated at newspapers.com, where the cited article resides with the misattribution "Star Tribune." After following the link, it takes a couple more clicks to see that the article actually appeared in the "Minneapolis Sunday Tribune" according to the top of its page. It may well be that the Star Tribune Media Company now owns the copyright for the 1956 article.
Will someone else either make this edit or tell me how to make it (or tell me why it shouldn't be made)? I am new to this and rather intimidated by the complicated formatting rules and markup.
-- Jim Dixon 55104 ( talk) 19:41, 26 July 2020 (UTC)
Thanks for your help! That was an oversight on my part, I think I'll just correct it by putting "now known as the Star Tribune". Thanks again Windyshadow32 ( talk) 05:42, 27 July 2020 (UTC)
![]() | Southdale Center has been listed as one of the
Art and architecture good articles under the
good article criteria. If you can improve it further,
please do so. If it no longer meets these criteria, you can
reassess it. Review: April 29, 2016. ( Reviewed version). |
This is the
talk page for discussing improvements to the
Southdale Center article. This is not a forum for general discussion of the article's subject. |
Article policies
|
Find sources: Google ( books · news · scholar · free images · WP refs) · FENS · JSTOR · TWL |
![]() | This article was nominated for deletion on 23 October 2005. The result of the discussion was keep all articles. |
![]() | This article is rated GA-class on Wikipedia's
content assessment scale. It is of interest to the following WikiProjects: | ||||||||||||||||||||
|
The Arcade is the country's oldest indoor shopping mall. Built entirely of granite in 1828 (when Providence's population numbered only 14,000), it was the first commercial venture established on the west side of the Providence River.
The 216-foot structure, which fronts on both Westminster and Weybosset Streets, was originally owned by two separate groups whose architects argued over the building's design. This resulted in a structure with mismatched entrances: The Weybosset Street entrance is topped off by a stepped parapet, while the Westminster Street side is topped by a pediment. The Arcade's twelve massive 21-foot granite columns, which were quarried in Johnston and dragged to the construction site by a team of 30 oxen, were the largest monolithic columns in the country at the time, weighing in at 13 tons a piece. The total cost of the building was $145,000 ($2,128,100 in today's money—cheap!).
The building was once named by the Metropolitan Museum of Art as one of the finest commercial buildings in the history of American architecture, and it has also been designated a National Historic Landmark. In addition to its impressive exterior, it boasts a huge glass skylight, supported by wooden beams, that runs the length of the building and floods the open area between the three floors with natural light. Shops on the second and third levels are connected by long, open balconies overlooking the ground-floor. The building has survived a fire, three hurricanes, the threat of demolition, and a $3 million refurbishment.
Incidentally, Cleveland, Ohio's Old Arcade (1894), Seattle, Washington's Northgate Mall (1950), Appleton, Wisconsin's Valley Fair shopping mall (1954), and Edina, Minnesota's Southdale Center (1958) all claim to be the country's oldest/first indoor/enclosed shopping mall. Losers. http://www.quahog.org/attractions/index.php?id=1
Southdale was the brainchild of Victor Gruen, an Austrian emigrant who moved to the United States. Gruen was a European style socialist; he hated the suburban lifestyle of 1950s America, and wanted to design a building that would bring people together into a community, by providing a meeting place that American towns lacked. They would come together to shop, drink coffee, and socialize. It was never his intention to design what some consider an icon of capitalism. He modeled the design of Southdale on the arcades of European cities, although his original version was never achieved. Gruen also saw the mall as the center of a community. When he first drew up the plans for Southdale, he placed the shopping center at the heart of a 463-acre (1.9 km²) development, complete with apartment buildings, houses, schools, a medical center, a park, and a lake. Southdale, in Gruen's opinion, was not a suburban alternative to downtown Minneapolis. It was the Minneapolis downtown you would get if you started over and corrected all the mistakes that were made the first time around. Gruen planned for an atmosphere of leisure, excitement, and intimacy to be created. To achieve this he placed works of art, decorative lighting, fountains, tropical plants, and flowers throughout the mall.
Groundbreaking for Southdale took place on October 29, 1954. 800 construction workers were needed to construct the 4-story, 800,000 ft² (74,000 m²) center, complete with 5,200 parking spaces and 72 spaces for tenants. The mall was originally developed by the Dayton Company, owners of Dayton's department store in Minneapolis and predecessor to the Target Corporation. A branch of Dayton's would anchor the mall along with Donaldson's, Walgreens Pharmacy and Woolworth.
It was envisioned that Southdale would become the central gathering place not only for the residents of the city of Edina, but also for the greater Twin Cities area. Southdale was designed from the viewpoint of the future. The creators of the center understood that in the future, consumers would demand convenience and variety; as a result, the mall was designed to provide many useful services all under one roof. These services included everything from a Post Office, to a grocery store, to an upscale apparel store and even a small zoo. Other intentions would take hold, though, and the construction of the IDS Center and its attached Crystal Court would shift attention back to downtown Minneapolis.
When Southdale opened, it became a gathering place for area residents, just as was envisioned. Over the years, Southdale hosted gem, boat, and fine art shows, and also served as host for charity and community events. Southdale was even the host-site for an episode of the popular game show Truth or Consequences. However, the full scale of the original plan was never realized. There were no parks or schools or apartment buildings - just a big box in a sea of parking. With a few exceptions, no one else planned a shopping mall as the centerpiece of a tidy, dense, multi-use development.
Southdale was the site for many firsts in shopping mall history. Besides being completely enclosed and climate-controlled, Southdale was also the first United States shopping mall to feature two competing department stores under the same roof, as well as the first to feature original works of art hanging on the walls. —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 24.118.124.228 ( talk) 05:11, 9 December 2006 (UTC).
The Appleton, Wisconsin article claims that "Valley Fair Mall, recognized as the first enclosed shopping mall in the United States, was built in Appleton in 1954." As Tex Williams once sang, somethin' somewhere's cockeyed.
"I would argue that it's the most important mall ever built," said St. Olaf College history professor Jim Farrell, who wrote a book on malls, "One Nation Under Goods." He said Southdale was the prototype for the modern mall. 2006 Article from Minnesota Public Radio : http://minnesota.publicradio.org/display/web/2006/10/04/southdale/ -- Gary.Vollink@GM41L.com —Preceding unsigned comment added by 75.73.148.241 ( talk) 04:34, 1 May 2008 (UTC)
As has been pointed out by our well-researched anonymous friend, this is not the only mall to lay claim to oldest mall. Northgate Mall (Seattle, Washington 1950) and Valley Fair Shopping Center (Appleton, Wisconsin's 1954) claim this too. I've put "dubious" tags on their pages and will put this up for discussion there.-- Loodog 23:37, 1 April 2007 (UTC)
North Gate Mall is the oldest mall in the USA. It was opened in early 1950. There are building records, however I do not have them and North Gate Mall is and has always been "Fully Enclosed"....-- Airwaysim ( talk) 23:21, 10 January 2008 (UTC)
I think the way to clarify things is to note that major sources all agree that Southdale was the first "modern" mall in the world. That takes into account the Westminster Arcade, as well as its predecessors in Europe, and the proto-modern malls that were seen in the years preceding Southdale. -- Bobak ( talk) 18:36, 18 July 2009 (UTC)
Nobody has noticed 1950 is before 1956 in almost 10 years? Northgate in Seattle was fully enclosed from 1950. It's a large suburban (at the time) modern mall. I assume a fully enclosed building in 1950 in a northern climate had to be "climate-controlled" at least shortly after it opened to stay in business but that I don't know, but either way I don't think that's an important distinction people mentally call up when they hear the word mall. Old Burlington Arcade sort of places are a very different beast and aren't in the running, but Southdale and Northgate are virtually identical, so I can't see how this first mall claim is justified at all on some sort of technicality. It's simply 1950 vs 1956 and one date is clearly older than the other one.
I respectfully disagree on the description of the above links as spam problems. I know there are a lot of references, but they are to credible, non-commercial sources like the MN State Historical Society, MPR, the Edina City gov't website and then two books (thus are not serving as advertisements). I can understand situations where this might be a problem (e.g. "There are a lot of car dealers in Edina" followed by refs to each dealer page), but this is a situation where we have credible sources on a factual comment that has and could still be disputed for whatever reason. Obviously, its possible to go overboard on refs, but this was a contentious issue (surprisingly) over who had the first modern mall. As an example of where having a number of refs can be permissible see the end of the second paragraph of this Feature Article. In that case its also a statement that could be construed as POV if it weren't for all the refs. Looking at the spirit of WP:SPAM, which doesn't address ref issues, I think this isn't a problem. -- Bobak ( talk) 18:03, 18 July 2009 (UTC)
This is probably just trivia, but I remember a brass(?) donkey (perhaps 3 feet tall) inside the north entrance to Southdale in the 1960s. This was a common location to rendezvous after shopping at the mall. 136.162.34.1 ( talk) —Preceding undated comment added 08:07, 14 December 2015 (UTC)
GA toolbox |
---|
Reviewing |
Reviewer: Wilhelmina Will ( talk · contribs) 11:16, 10 April 2016 (UTC)
The article now complies with all MOS policies on grammar, layout and structure.
Herein dwells the greatest dictionary ever composed! (
talk)
08:08, 29 April 2016 (UTC)
The article holds a considerably-sized bibliography of reliable sources, and all information is well-cited by way of these.
Herein dwells the greatest dictionary ever composed! (
talk)
08:06, 28 April 2016 (UTC)
The article seems to include all aspects of its topic which have been covered by reputable sources. No signs of irrelevancy within the content.
Herein dwells the greatest dictionary ever composed! (
talk)
08:05, 28 April 2016 (UTC)
The article's text maintains a neutral approach to its subject.
Herein dwells the greatest dictionary ever composed! (
talk)
08:04, 28 April 2016 (UTC)
For at least six years the article has not suffered from edit warring or similar disruptive behaviour, according to the revision history.
Herein dwells the greatest dictionary ever composed! (
talk)
09:48, 27 April 2016 (UTC)
All files used in this article are suitably licensed to be accepted by the Wikimedia Commons, so there is no concern over fair use compliance.
Herein dwells the greatest dictionary ever composed! (
talk)
09:47, 27 April 2016 (UTC)
Done
Done
Done
Done
The article qualifies as GA. Congratulations!
Herein dwells the greatest dictionary ever composed! (
talk)
08:08, 29 April 2016 (UTC)
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I have just modified one external link on Southdale Center. Please take a moment to review my edit. If you have any questions, or need the bot to ignore the links, or the page altogether, please visit this simple FaQ for additional information. I made the following changes:
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The text says: "In a joint statement to the Star Tribune…." and a corresponding footnote [14] attributes an article to the "Star Tribune" of 7 October 1956. This is a mistake; the "Star Tribune" didn't exist as such in 1956. (The "Minneapolis Daily Star" and the "Minneapolis Tribune" were then separate newspapers; they merged in 1982 to form the "Star and Tribune" which was renamed the "Star Tribune" in 1987. See [ [3]].)
The mistake apparently originated at newspapers.com, where the cited article resides with the misattribution "Star Tribune." After following the link, it takes a couple more clicks to see that the article actually appeared in the "Minneapolis Sunday Tribune" according to the top of its page. It may well be that the Star Tribune Media Company now owns the copyright for the 1956 article.
Will someone else either make this edit or tell me how to make it (or tell me why it shouldn't be made)? I am new to this and rather intimidated by the complicated formatting rules and markup.
-- Jim Dixon 55104 ( talk) 19:41, 26 July 2020 (UTC)
Thanks for your help! That was an oversight on my part, I think I'll just correct it by putting "now known as the Star Tribune". Thanks again Windyshadow32 ( talk) 05:42, 27 July 2020 (UTC)