Southfield, Michigan - circa 1975
Here's a great overhead view of the Northland Shopping Center in Southfield, Michigan (suburb of Detroit) around 1975, a year after it was expanded and fully enclosed to become a true "shopping mall". Seen here is not only the four-level Hudson's Department Store looming in back, but also the mall's (then) newer JCPenney anchor store (lower-right corner), and the new Montgomery Ward addition, which I believe is the store just to left of Penney's, both of which were added in 1974.
Mall history: 1954 - present
Architect: Victor Gruen
Current website: here
Current aerial view
Info from Wikipedia
Previous entries: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11
Montgomery Wards isn't in the picture -- it would be waaaaaay at the back from this angle. The store you see to the left of JCPenney -- I don't know what that was, but by the early 1980s it was Main Street. When Main Street was bought by Kohl's in 1988, it became Kohl's, which closed in 1995. Around the same time Kohl's closed, the Target was added to the left.
ReplyDeleteFrom memory, I believe that the building next to the newer JCPenney addition to Northland were mall shops-most notably B. Siegel Co., an upscale women's store, and Himmelhoch's, which was a small carriage trade store with clothing and a home gift department. The Northland Himmelhoch's store was large enough to have escalators.
ReplyDeleteThis is amazing to see. I spent a good portion of my childhood in the 60s in this "shopping center" as it was called then. It was said to be the biggest one in the world then, with parking for 10,000 cars. Our favorite was Kresge's, which had a basement with a toy department and pet section. Penny's and Ward's came later, around the time they enclosed it. I'd like to hear what it's like now, as I haven't been in there for about 35 years.
ReplyDeleteI hate malls and cities too.. sadly i live in city... anyway those places are boring... there's nothing funny to do in there...
ReplyDeleteDear Keith Milford,
ReplyDeleteThese are some very exciting archival photographs of the Northland Shopping Center! I was wondering where you sourced these, or are these perhaps from your own collection? I'm a Picture Researcher at Phaidon Press currently working on a large scale book - The Phaidon Atlas of 20th Century World Architecture - that will feature Victor Gruen's Northland Shopping Center. We are looking to source good quality interior and exterior photographs of this building for reproduction in our book. I would be very grateful if you could advise on the availability of the photographs on your blog. I look forward to hearing from you. With kind regards,