The Kalamazoo Mall

In 1834, when Kalamazoo was first platted, Burdick Street was one of three main roads cutting north to south through the village—and it was only four blocks long. Those four blocks evolved from a village street, to a bustling shopping district, and are now a unique retail corridor. Designed as an open-air parkway with trees, fountains, benches, and a decorative walkway, the Burdick Mall opened in 1959 and was the first outdoor pedestrian mall in the United States. In the 1990s, a movement began to reopen the Mall to traffic, along with a “Save Our Mall” campaign to keep it pedestrian. Even though citizens voted to open the Mall back up to traffic in 1998, we still call it “The Mall,” and it remains as the most noticeable legacy of Victor Gruen’s vision in the city. 

To read more, visit:

https://kalamazoomuseum.org/images/museon/2009-Summer-MuseON-jumptojapan.pdf