Launching Retail in Orange County – The 1955 Ground Game
The Broadway opened on October 14, 1955, on Euclid Street, about three miles from Disneyland, which had launched just three months earlier.
The building, which measured 208,000 square feet and cost $8.5 million to build, featured marble columns, wall-to-wall carpet, and 1,000 workers hired to manage it. The parking lot held 5,000 cars.
The Broadway wasn’t alone for long. Within months, smaller shops started to open around it. This new outdoor mall—called the Broadway Orange County Center—was the first of its kind in the county…