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When Elephants Walked Down Dix
Before the shopping malls got bigger and the parking lots got emptier, Lincoln Park had a retail centerpiece that locals actually talked about. It started with elephants – literally. In early 1957, a parade marched down Dix Highway to announce the grand opening of Lincoln Park Shopping Center, a strip complex anchored by Sears and built for the postwar boom.
This was before Southland Center even broke ground. For years, that corner at Southfield Road and Dix held groceries, appliances, dime store goods, and the kind of Saturday traffic that stretched past the lights.
The center’s footprint covered parts of both Lincoln Park and Allen Park, but its identity belonged squarely to the former.
For anyone searching for things to do in Lincoln Park, Michigan, that was where you’d begin.
Retail Groundwork and Grand Openings
Construction began in 1955. The first major tenant was Sears, which opened its doors in 1956. A Kroger supermarket followed. By early 1957, the full strip center staged its formal debut, using a Dix Highway elephant parade as publicity…