The Courier-Journal (Louisville)
KY’S FIRST INDOOR SHOPPING CENTER
“Make Center of City Convenient and Exciting, Planner Advises” was the ironic title in the Sunday, March 17, 1957, Courier Journal. The planner was Ken Welch, who was giving a talk to the local architect’s group about urban revitalization.
However, he was here as ‘a statistician for the James Rouse Company, a noted Baltimore firm that has done pioneer work in (developing) shopping centers.’ He was also ‘a consultant for the Federal Highway Research Board in Washington.’ In other words, Welch was in town researching both retail and highway projects that would soon negatively impact Louisville’s downtown.
Four months after Welch’s July 18, 1957 visit, this headline appeared on the newspaper’s front page: “Shopping Center Site Acquired East of City”, with this sub-heading: “50 Acres at Expressway and Shelbyville Road Leased for 95 Years to Baltimore Developers.”
“Although the Rouse company would give no details, it was understood that early planning contemplates one or more department stores, one or more supermarkets, variety stores, drugstores, and 35 to 45 other stores and shops.” So much for Welch’s talk on making the “Center of the City” more convenient and exciting.
By July 28, 1957, “plans (were) filed with the Planning and Zoning Commission (that) show a tentative layout with a mall-type shopping center in the middle of a site that can accommodate 5,000 automobiles and a center of 500,000 square feet.”
A year later, May 8, 1958, in another ironic twist, developer James Rouse was in court challenging the zoning of another nearby retail proposal saying traffic congestion would be a major problem for area residential districts. He said “it would be a mistake to build regional shopping centers a mile apart, as would be the case on Shelbyville Road if his center and Bluegrass Plaza’s are built.” (Bluegrass Plaza would later become Oxmoor
Mall.)
“Roofed-Mall Planned Here … 45 Stores in $10,000,000 Shop Facility,” with a large aerial illustration of the complex, greeted Louisvillians on the front page of the Sunday, Jan. 29, 1959, Courier Journal. “Kaufman-Straus Company announced yesterday a major department-store branch to open in September, 1960, in a new shopping center at the southwest corner of Shelbyville Road and Watterson Expressway.” That date, September 1960, proved to be a bit too optimistic.
An annexation proposal by the City of St. Matthews created a delay in the project. The Rouse Company said any such annexation would have a detrimental effect on the development going forward. But by June 26, 1960, the project was back on track with 12 store leases signed and architectural plans underway: “The center will be designed by Baltimore architects Rogers, Talaiferro and Lamb (which would later be known as RTKL) … The Louisville center is conceived as a complete regional shopping center under one roof. Malls and courts will be enclosed and skylighted so that not only the stores but the shopping sidewalks will be air-conditioned and temperature controlled. This ensures the maximum degree of comfort and convenience, no matter what the weather conditions are outside.”
Ground-breaking was July 6, 1961. “More than 50 shops and stores at the center will employ more than 1.000 persons, E. Bruce Kennedy, Kentucky commissioner of economic development said. Among the guests was St. Matthews Mayor Bernard Bowling. At one time St. Matthews proposed to annex the Mall site, but later discarded the plan.”
“Ribbon-cutting ceremonies at 8:30 a.m. today (March 21, 1962) at The Mall Shopping Center will usher shoppers into a weather-controlled facility … what was 67 acres of open field is now, eight months and several million dollars later, a virtual young town complete with a community hall … inside the mall are tropical garden spots, rest benches, fountains, a playground, a giant-size playing chessboard, and an aviary of imported birds’ per extensive coverage in the Courier Journal. Around 38,000 people attended opening day.
Grady Clay, legendary urban environment columnist, wasn’t totally enamored with the design: “Developers proved that you can persuade a big slice of the local populace to beat a pathway to your door no matter how uninviting the place looks like from the road … looking from the encircling highways somewhat like a hastily put together factory, the Mall inside is as superbly inviting as a domesticated world’s fair. It is clear this region’s closest approach to a shopper’s dream. If the planners and merchants for American downtown districts cannot find useful lessons here, they are incapable of learning.”
The Mall St. Matthews continues to be a major shopping destination some 67 years after Ken Welch visited to discuss how to make “Center of the City” more accessible and exciting. Brookfield Properties of New Your City now owns it along with the nearby Oxmoor Center. The Mall was eventually annexed by the City of St. Matthews, and the traffic congestion concern of James Rouse became a reality, especially around the holiday season.