Suburban Square

The Times-Medical Building, Suburban Square, Ardmore, PA
Anderson Ave. underpass near Suburban Square in Ardmore, PA

Suburban Square is a shopping center located in Ardmore, Pennsylvania, United States, in the Philadelphia area. The center opened in 1928, and is notable as one of the earliest shopping centers in the United States.[1] It has also been generally credited as being the first such shopping center to include a true department store, when Strawbridge & Clothier opened in May 1930.[2][3] The Strawbridge's was converted to Macy's in 2006. It was announced on April 22, 2015 that Macy's will close this location in early 2016.[4]

Planning for the center began in 1926, when work by architectural firm of Dreher and Churchman began, and construction began 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."[5]

A number of shopping centers have made claims to be the "first" shopping center (depending on the definition used) in the United States, including Roland Park Shopping Center (1907), Country Club Plaza (1923), and Highland Park Village (1931). On some occasions, Suburban Square has been reported to be first, such as in some 1970s editions of the Guinness Book of World Records[6][7][8] Later editions of Guinness since 1979[9] list Roland Park.[10]

References

  1. ↑ Gillham, Oliver & MacLean, Alex S., The limitless city: a primer on the urban sprawl debate p.38 (Island Press 2002) (ISBN 978-1559638333)
  2. ↑ Spector, Robert. Category killers: the retail revolution and its impact on consumer culture p.87 (2005)(ISBN 978-1578519606)
  3. ↑ Feinberg, Samuel. What makes shopping centers tick? (Fairchild Publications 1960)
  4. ↑ Stettler, Andy (April 23, 2015). "Macy's to leave Suburban Square in 2016". Mainline Media News. Retrieved April 23, 2015.
  5. ↑ Suburban Square, Lower Merion Conservancy, last updated January 22, 2004, Retrieved February 24, 2010
  6. ↑ Guinness Book of World Records p.252 (1975)("The world's first shopping center was Suburban Square in Ardmore, Pennsylvania, built in 1928.")
  7. ↑ "L.M. Boyd column". Reading Eagle. June 19, 1973. Retrieved February 24, 2010.
  8. ↑ "Setting the trend for, not in, stores". The Philadelphia Inquirer. April 25, 1999. Retrieved February 24, 2010.("Suburban Square is possibly the oldest suburban shopping center in the nation. ``We argue about it all the time,...")
  9. ↑ 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.")
  10. ↑ Rybczynski, Witold. City Life p.204 (Scribner 1996) (ISBN 978-0684825298)

External links