Suburban Square

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Coordinates: 40°00′30″N 75°17′17″W / 40.00833°N 75.28806°W / 40.00833; -75.28806
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Suburban Square
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Websitesuburbansquare.com

Suburban Square is a

Strawbridge & Clothier opened a four-story, 50,000 sq ft (4,600 m2)[3] branch there on May 12, 1930.[4][5][6] The site has grown from its original 7 acres (28,000 m2) to 18 acres (73,000 m2) since its launch.[7]
The complex currently includes Suburban Square, Times Building, and the adjacent Ardmore Farmers Market and features more than sixty retail and dining establishments.

Description

Coulter Avenue

A number of shopping centers have made claims to be the "first" shopping center (depending on the definition used) in the United States, including

Strawbridge & Clothier opened there on May 12, 1930.[4][5][6][9] Notably, architect Frederick Dreher's design called for "a cluster of shops built around a major department store, with a supermarket, movie theater and office buildings with ample parking space."[10]

Early 1970s editions of the Guinness Book of World Records listed Suburban Square as the "first shopping center"[11][12] however, later editions of Guinness (since 1979)[13] list Roland Park.[14]

History

The Times-Medical Building

Planning for the center started in 1926, when work by architectural firm of Dreher and Churchman began, and construction commenced in 1927. The original (and rarely used) name was "Hestobeen Square", a combination of three of the developers' names. It was renamed in a 1936 contest as "Suburban Square".[15]

St. James Place with central pedestrian only section near Life Time Fitness

As noted above, the Strawbridge's branch opened in 1930, was among the few in a first wave of suburban branches of big downtown department stores in the U.S., preceded only by

Jenkintown) were the last such suburban branches of downtown department stores until after World War Two.[16][17]

The original Strawbridge's was converted to Macy's in 2006. The Macy's would eventually close in March 2016. In early 2017, it was announced that the former Macy's store would be replaced by health club Life Time Fitness and furniture retailer West Elm by the end of the year.[18]

References

  1. ^ a b “Suburban Square”, Kimco Realty, accessed July 19, 2020
  2. ISBN 978-1559638333
    )
  3. ^ a b "4 Dec 1930, Page 13 - The Philadelphia Inquirer at". Newspapers.com. 1930-12-04. Retrieved 2022-06-05.
  4. ^ a b "12 May 1930, Page 7 - The Philadelphia Inquirer at". Newspapers.com. 1930-05-12. Retrieved 2022-06-05.
  5. ^
    ISBN 978-1578519606
    )
  6. ^ a b Feinberg, Samuel. What makes shopping centers tick? (Fairchild Publications 1960)
  7. ^ Hoffman, Brooke (July 21, 2011). "Suburban Square: A Constant For Many Decades, Responding to Fashion and Food Trends". Patch.
  8. ^ "Advertisement for Country Club Plaza". Kansas City Star. December 16, 1923. p. 48.
  9. ^ Feinberg, Samuel. What makes shopping centers tick? (Fairchild Publications 1960)
  10. ^ "Setting the trend for, not in, stores". The Philadelphia Inquirer. April 25, 1999. Retrieved February 24, 2010. Dreher's design called for a cluster of shops built around a major department store, with a supermarket, movie theater and office buildings with ample parking space.
  11. ^ Guinness Book of World Records p.252 (1975)("The world's first shopping center was Suburban Square in Ardmore, Pennsylvania, built in 1928.")
  12. ^ "L.M. Boyd column". Reading Eagle. June 19, 1973. Retrieved February 24, 2010.
  13. ^ Ardmore Real Estate, ThunderThornton.com, Retrieved February 24, 2010("The square's record as the first shopping center in the world accorded by the Guinness Book of World Records proved erroneous after many years. In the 1979 and later issues Guinness has credited a shopping mall near Baltimore with predating it.")
  14. ISBN 978-0684825298
    )
  15. ^ Suburban Square, Lower Merion Conservancy, last updated January 22, 2004, Retrieved February 24, 2010
  16. ^ "Nugents' opens store at Vandeventer and Olive: Uptown Shop is Replica on Smaller Scale of Downtown Establishment". St. Louis Globe-Democrat. April 13, 1913. Retrieved July 19, 2020.
  17. ISBN 0262122006
    .
  18. ^ Adelman, Jacob (January 12, 2017). "Posh health club to take over Macy's building in Suburban Square as Ardmore evolves". Retrieved May 8, 2017.

External links

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