Post by David Sechrest on May 26, 2006 12:21:30 GMT -5
Growing up in Columbus in the late 1950's and all throughout the 1960's, we did most of our shopping downtown. We bought everything downtown: from groceries to clothes and shoes for school to candies and treats at the candy counter in the old Murphy's 5 &10. We ate at downtown restaurants. Heck, our doctor's office was even located on the corner of Washington & 10th.
Even though we spent most of our shopping time (and money) at these downtown places, a new phenomenon was encroaching and approaching fast: Shopping Centers.
One of the earliest shopping centers/strip malls to appear in Columbus was the State Street Shopping Center in East Columbus. Parking was provided around back, and I think cars could even park in front of the stores along State Street back when I was a kid. The A & E Grocery was located at one end and somewhere in the middle was Evans & Haase Department Store. By all indications, it appears that the old A & E was the first building in this area. It seems the strip mall more or less built up around it.
Another early strip mall still stands at the corner of 16th & Home(?).
Whether these places actually qualify as strip malls, well...I guess that's up to your definition of the term. I guess my definition might be pretty loose, encompassing different places of businesses butted up to one another. But that definition probably wouldn't hold up in a court of law.
The first shopping center appeared in Columbus along 25th Street. It helped to enhance the downtown "shopping experience" by providing easy parking. The date that the 25th Street Shopping Center opened up is still being researched.
While the 1940's saw most major grocery stores located downtown, by the 1960's, grocery stores like Kroger, Jay-C, and Standard Food, relocated. There were two that remained in our downtown area throughout the 1960's: the A & P at Washington & 7th, and Standard Food at Washington & 10th. When Eastbrook Plaza opened up, Standard Grocery located another store there.
Driving by the old Standard Grocery building on Washington Street today, some of the younger generation might find it hard to believe that all grocery stores were once that size. Groceries were pretty much the main item of sale.
Up until the time that Columbus Center opened, it was "bill of fare" for our shopping centers to include a grocery store and department store to draw interest. Kroger was coupled with Scotts 5 & 10 at 25th St., and W T Grant and Standard Grocery were located at Eastbrook. Throw in a bank and some specialty stores, and voila! The shopping centers now offered the same goods and services that downtown offered.
It's hard to picture 25th Street as being on the edge of town. During the 1st half of the 1950's, it pretty much separated city from country. The fairgrounds was just to the east of Central Avenue (where Fair Oaks Mall is today), and not much else was located out that way. I remember a gas station, Central Pharmacy, and a chinese restaurant on the corner of 25th & Central. The high school had yet to be relocated out that way. A few businesses were beginning to show up along this corridor. By the mid to late 1950's, many others followed suit. Farmland was being bought up and developed into our own version of suburbia. With so many housing developments popping up on the north side of town, it was only a matter of time until someone started offering products to buy without having to drive all the way downtown to do it.
I think that our shopping centers developed in the following manner:
1) 25th Street
2) Eastbrook Plaza
3) Columbus Center
4) Holiday Center
Shopping Centers had some advantages over our downtown: You could find a parking space relatively close to where you wanted to shop, and you didn't have to pay to park. Some business owners capitalized on shopping centers and opened up branch locations away from their downtown places of business.
While that very first shopping center sounded the death knell for downtown shopping, it would be many years before our shopping demographics would change. By the 1990's, it wouldn't have been too hard to argue that Columbus' "Main Street" had changed from Washington to 25th Street and National Road.
Columbus is currently in the throes of another "redevelopment." That area west of the city is experiencing tremendous growth, and it appears that another "revitalization" of our downtown is on the horizon. Some of our downtown shop owners are excited about all the growth along Jonathon Moore Pike, aka 46 West, hoping that these businesses will help bring more shoppers downtown to buy products. And with talk of moving the Post Office, and building a hotel and parking garage in our downtown area, our shopping demographics will once again go through some changes.
We can all thank our early shopping centers for where we are today...
Even though we spent most of our shopping time (and money) at these downtown places, a new phenomenon was encroaching and approaching fast: Shopping Centers.
One of the earliest shopping centers/strip malls to appear in Columbus was the State Street Shopping Center in East Columbus. Parking was provided around back, and I think cars could even park in front of the stores along State Street back when I was a kid. The A & E Grocery was located at one end and somewhere in the middle was Evans & Haase Department Store. By all indications, it appears that the old A & E was the first building in this area. It seems the strip mall more or less built up around it.
Another early strip mall still stands at the corner of 16th & Home(?).
Whether these places actually qualify as strip malls, well...I guess that's up to your definition of the term. I guess my definition might be pretty loose, encompassing different places of businesses butted up to one another. But that definition probably wouldn't hold up in a court of law.
The first shopping center appeared in Columbus along 25th Street. It helped to enhance the downtown "shopping experience" by providing easy parking. The date that the 25th Street Shopping Center opened up is still being researched.
While the 1940's saw most major grocery stores located downtown, by the 1960's, grocery stores like Kroger, Jay-C, and Standard Food, relocated. There were two that remained in our downtown area throughout the 1960's: the A & P at Washington & 7th, and Standard Food at Washington & 10th. When Eastbrook Plaza opened up, Standard Grocery located another store there.
Driving by the old Standard Grocery building on Washington Street today, some of the younger generation might find it hard to believe that all grocery stores were once that size. Groceries were pretty much the main item of sale.
Up until the time that Columbus Center opened, it was "bill of fare" for our shopping centers to include a grocery store and department store to draw interest. Kroger was coupled with Scotts 5 & 10 at 25th St., and W T Grant and Standard Grocery were located at Eastbrook. Throw in a bank and some specialty stores, and voila! The shopping centers now offered the same goods and services that downtown offered.
It's hard to picture 25th Street as being on the edge of town. During the 1st half of the 1950's, it pretty much separated city from country. The fairgrounds was just to the east of Central Avenue (where Fair Oaks Mall is today), and not much else was located out that way. I remember a gas station, Central Pharmacy, and a chinese restaurant on the corner of 25th & Central. The high school had yet to be relocated out that way. A few businesses were beginning to show up along this corridor. By the mid to late 1950's, many others followed suit. Farmland was being bought up and developed into our own version of suburbia. With so many housing developments popping up on the north side of town, it was only a matter of time until someone started offering products to buy without having to drive all the way downtown to do it.
I think that our shopping centers developed in the following manner:
1) 25th Street
2) Eastbrook Plaza
3) Columbus Center
4) Holiday Center
Shopping Centers had some advantages over our downtown: You could find a parking space relatively close to where you wanted to shop, and you didn't have to pay to park. Some business owners capitalized on shopping centers and opened up branch locations away from their downtown places of business.
While that very first shopping center sounded the death knell for downtown shopping, it would be many years before our shopping demographics would change. By the 1990's, it wouldn't have been too hard to argue that Columbus' "Main Street" had changed from Washington to 25th Street and National Road.
Columbus is currently in the throes of another "redevelopment." That area west of the city is experiencing tremendous growth, and it appears that another "revitalization" of our downtown is on the horizon. Some of our downtown shop owners are excited about all the growth along Jonathon Moore Pike, aka 46 West, hoping that these businesses will help bring more shoppers downtown to buy products. And with talk of moving the Post Office, and building a hotel and parking garage in our downtown area, our shopping demographics will once again go through some changes.
We can all thank our early shopping centers for where we are today...
