Southdale Center Shopping Mall. 1956. Carleton College. Minnesota Digital Library.
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Located in Edina, Minnesota, Southdale Center was the first shopping mall to be constructed under one roof. Costing 20 million dollars, Southdale was built in 1956 and developed by the Dayton family. Its designer, Victor Gruen, modeled the mall after the elegant European city centers he remembered from his childhood. When it opened the mall contained 72 stores and 2 department stores, all gathered around a central court. It had over 5,000 free parking spaces, all conveniently grouped around the mall, with symbols to help shoppers remember where they parked. Southdale was copied by many suburban communities, making this model of shopping mall the standard across the country.
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