KALAMAZOO COUNTY, MI
GENEALOGY & LOCAL HISTORY
click on image to enlarge it
| 1974 "The Kalamazoo Mall in downtown Kalamazoo Michigan is a colorful garden complete with pools, fountains, trees and pleasant places to just relax and enjoy the scenery. The Burdick Street Mall was the first to be built in the United States." |
|
KALAMAZOO MALL page 1 |
KALAMAZOO PEDESTRIAN MALL
| In 1959, at a cost of $60,000, the City of Kalamazoo created the first downtown pedestrian mall by blocking off traffic from three blocks of the main commercial area on Burdick Street. The Mall Financed and promoted by downtown business owners was part Victor Gruen's 1958 "Kalamazoo 1980" plan. It was hoped the mall would revitalize the downtown area to compete with the movement of retail businesses to suburban malls. The mall featured all the important department and clothing stores of its era, but the trend in commerce was away from department stores and men's clothing stores. The mall now features many specialty stores. In 2000, the mall was reopened to limited automobile traffic. |
click on image to enlarge it
Burdick Street 1955, site of the future pedestrian mall
click on image to enlarge it
Burdick Street in the years before the Mall was constructed.
click on image to enlarge it
| 1955 - South Burdick Street looking north, a time when downtown Kalamazoo was still the place where people shopped at "dime" stores like Woolworth's, Grant's, and Kresge's or at upscale Gilmore's Department store. The era of large suburban shopping malls like those on South Westnedge and West Main had yet to come. And, it was a time before the big discount stores such as Meijer's Thrifty Acres and K-Mart. |
| In 1959, at a cost of $60,000, the City of Kalamazoo created the first downtown pedestrian mall by blocking off traffic from three blocks of the main commercial area on Burdick Street. The Mall Financed and promoted by downtown business owners was part Victor Gruen's 1958 "Kalamazoo 1980" plan. It was hoped the mall would revitalize the downtown area to compete with the movement of retail businesses to suburban malls. The mall featured all the important department and clothing stores of its era, but the trend in commerce was away from department stores and men's clothing stores. The mall now features many specialty stores. In 2000, the mall was reopened to limited automobile traffic. |
click on image to enlarge it
Similar View About Eight Years Later -South Burdick Street looking north
click on image to enlarge it
Kalamazoo Mall after its construction in 1959
click on image to enlarge it
Four Views of the Burdick Street Mall in 1959
click on image to enlarge it
Return to Kalamazoo Co. Michigan USGenWeb page 