MINNEAPOLIS — This holiday season, many Minnesotans will head to one of the state’s many malls.
Though Minnesota is home to Mall of America, it’s also the birthplace of the country’s very first indoor mall — Southdale Center, which opened in 1956 and was developed by the Dayton family.
“We have a lot of malls in large part because of the weather,” said Tom Fisher, director of the Minnesota Design Center at the University of Minnesota.
At the time Southdale Center was one of the largest air-conditioned spaces in the country, and there was even a lake to handle the heating and cooling of the building.
Austrian architect Victor Gruen designed the mall, which looked a lot different from its current design.
“It was the same width of a typical Vienna street and it had trees, it had birds, it had fish. There was a pond and it had sidewalk cafes,” said Fisher.
The innovative shopping center garnered international attention and sparked a mall boom.