Some More Chicago Innovations-- Part 6: Shopping Centers

SHAOPPING CENTERS: Chicago was at the forefront of the City Beautiful movement that made setting aside land for public use a priority. But, another land use became even more influential: the mall. //// Other cities claim to have the first urban shopping center, but the NRHP deemed it to be Lake Forest's Market Square, which opened in 1916. //// An early version of what became the typical indoor mall, the Lake View Store, opened in the U.S. Steel company town of Morgan Park, Minnesota. But, this mall was designed by the Chicago architectural firm Dean & Dean. //// Of course, one of the very early modern indoor malls, Randhurst. opened in Mt. Prospect, Illinois, in Chicago's Northwest Suburbs in the mid-1960s. That was a big hangout for all the local high schoolers, including those of us from dear old Palatine High School. //// Jus' Hangin' Out at the Mall. --Cooter