A Brief History of the Shopping Mall

In the Beginning (1924 - 1945)

The first wave of malls in America were all open-air shopping malls attempting to recreate traditional downtown shopping experiences outside of town. Most were built to draw people to reside and plant roots in newly formed and growing small cities. They were used as magnets of people more than profit generators. Most of the value for these developers was realized from the increase in demand for the surrounding land where the mall sat.

The earliest and most influential example was the Country Club Plaza, opened in 1924 by the J.C. Nichols Company. Located 5 miles south of Kansas City, Missouri, it spanned 30 acres (12 hectares), nearly half of which was allocated to wide boulevards and off-street parking—a novel concept at the time. Construction costs totaled $5 million, equivalent to about $89 million today. Designed in Spanish architectural style, it was the first retail center built to accommodate automobiles and is often cited as the first planned shopping center in the world.

Retail tenants included Piggly Wiggly (pictured below), one of the earliest self-service grocery stores in America. The development also featured early examples of unified architectural design, coordinated signage, and strict tenant curation. Radical concepts for the era.

A key design feature of these early malls was that all storefronts faced outward, creating a streetscape feel. That changed in 1931 with Highland Park Shopping Village, just north of Dallas, Texas. It introduced the inward-facing open-air mall, a layout that would become standard in the coming decades. The village also offered an early example of mixed-use retail, with restaurants, service businesses, and fashion boutiques.

Highland Park Shopping Village still operates today in what is now one of the most affluent zip codes in America. The mall was purchased in 1976 for $5 million; by 2009, a consortium led by Ray Washburne acquired it for $170 million, reflecting the immense rise in land and asset value. Washburne would later be tapped to head OPIC, now the U.S. International Development Finance Corporation (DFC).

By the early 1940s, roughly 100 planned shopping centers had been built across the U.S., though most were small and auto-oriented. These laid the groundwork for the post-war suburban retail boom to come.

Post-WWII Era (1945 - 1955)

Following the Second World War, American servicemen returned to a country poised for economic growth and a housing shortage. Russia had defeated the Nazis, and the Americans Japan through nuclear warfare. The GI Bill enabled millions to purchase homes, many in newly developed suburbs. Car ownership soared, from 26 million in 1945 to over 50 million by 1955, making auto-oriented retail not just feasible but essential. The postwar baby boom and rising household incomes created the perfect conditions for suburban malls to flourish.

One of the earliest suburban malls was Shopper’s World, opened in Framingham, Massachusetts in 1951. It was among the first malls to feature two shopping levels, an ambitious layout for its time. Its architectural crown jewel was the Jordan Marsh dome, which was said to be the third-largest unsupported dome in the world, following St. Peter’s Basilica (Rome) and St. Paul’s Cathedral (London). The mall included 44 stores at its peak, and became a central retail destination for Boston’s growing suburban population. Today, the original structure has been demolished, and Jordan Marsh, once a major New England department store, was absorbed by Macy’s in the 1990s and eventually retired as a brand.

A more transformative milestone came with the Northland Center in Southfield, Michigan, opened in 1954. It was the largest shopping center in America at the time and introduced a design layout that would set the tone for future malls: a massive anchor store at the center, surrounded by radiating smaller shops and vast parking lots. Its anchor, a four-level Hudson’s department store, was the largest in the world at 480,000 ft² (45,000 m²). The full development sat on 159 acres, featured over 100 stores, and included 8,344 parking spaces.

By the mid-1950s, the U.S. had entered a golden era of mall construction, with developers and department store chains racing to secure retail dominance in rapidly expanding suburbs.

Modern Era Enclosed Malls (1956 & Beyond)

The enclosed shopping mall as we know it began in 1956 with the opening of Southdale Center in Edina, Minnesota, a suburb of Minneapolis. Designed by Victor Gruen, an Austrian by birth, and considered by many the "grandfather" of malls. Southdale was the first fully enclosed, climate-controlled mall in the U.S., a rarity for America’s cold-weather regions.

The mall spanned 800,000 ft² (74,000 m²) of gross leasable area, featured 72 stores, 5,200 parking spaces, and was anchored by two department stores placed on opposite ends to encourage foot traffic past smaller retailers. Gruen’s strategic layout aimed to create what is now called the “Gruen Transfer”—A psychological phenomenon where shoppers, disoriented by ambient stimuli and visual distractions, become more susceptible to making impulse purchases. Known as the “Gruen Transfer,” or the “Gruen Effect." this principle remains embedded in modern mall design and is still taught to architects and urban planners around the world.

Southdale’s interior also emphasized community and culture. It featured a three-story garden court filled with eucalyptus and magnolia trees, a bird aviary, and metal sculptures by American artist Harry Bertoia. It served as more than a commercial hub—it was a civic space for socializing, exhibitions, and public life. The center is now owned by Simon Property Group, the largest retail REIT in the world.

The success of Southdale triggered a nationwide boom. From 1956 to 2007, at least one new enclosed mall opened every year in the United States. By the late 1970s, malls were being built at a rate of nearly 60 per year. At their peak, there were over 1,500 enclosed malls operating across the country, defining the suburban retail experience for generations.