Shopping Centers Today -> May 2004
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FIRST TWO U.S. SHOPPING CENTERS STILL THRIVING

Some credit Market Square, built in 1916 in the Chicago suburb of Lake Forest, as the first U.S. shopping center.
Which was the first planned shopping center in the United States? That’s open for debate, but at least two still-thriving early centers are worthy of consideration.

Some would argue that the first was Market Square, a cluster of buildings that opened in 1916 in the affluent Chicago suburb of Lake Forest, Ill. Historians credit Chicago architect Arthur Aldis with persuading wealthy residents of the area, including industrialist Cyrus H. McCormick Jr., to form a trust to build the center. The design is attributed to architect Howard Van Doren Shaw.

“The automobile was a central factor in this planning, since most Lake Foresters had cars at an early date,” reads the Web site of a local historian. “Market Square was perhaps the first business district to be laid out specifically to accommodate motor vehicles.” The center is also located near the station of a commuter train to Chicago.

Market Square’s buildings, which showed American, English and Flemish colonial influences, were accented with sculptured details. A large, rounded clock tower accentuated one end of the center. Today the center houses 77 stores, restaurants and apartments and is operated by Broadacre Management.

Another candidate for the first shopping center distinction is the automobile-oriented Country Club Plaza, in an affluent area outside Kansas City, Mo. Jesse Clyde Nichols opened this collection of Spanish-style stucco and tile-roofed buildings in 1922, complete with statuary and bronze fountains.

In the eyes of many, Country Club Plaza was the first modern shopping center because Nichols chose complementary retailers that sold a wide range of merchandise, and yet he managed the center as a single entity.

“Nichols would make the term ‘shopping center’ popular to describe such commercial sites built for the automobile,” notes one historian in a report on the center.

Today 170 retailers are doing business in the 900,000-square-foot center, which is managed by Highwoods Properties, Raleigh, N.C.

— EM

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