The Kalamazoo Mall, the first outdoor pedestrian shopping mall in the United States, is a section of Burdick Street in downtown Kalamazoo, Michigan.
Built for $60,000 and opened in 1959, the pedestrian mall became the first of several hundred built in the United States. The bold effort to make a downtown street car-free as a spur to urban vitality and a defense against suburbanization drew national attention to Kalamazoo, which was dubbed "Mall City".[1]
Initially, two blocks of Burdick Street were closed; a third block was added the following year and a fourth in 1975.[1] In 1998, the southern two blocks were reopened to auto traffic,[2] albeit a single southbound lane only.
The two blocks of Burdick from Eleanor Street to W. Michigan Avenue are designated North Kalamazoo Mall; the two blocks south of W. Michigan to W. Lovell Street, South Kalamazoo Mall.
- ^ a b Rzepczynski, Kris (December 2, 2009). "From Wheels to Heels: The Mall City". Kalamazoo Public Library. Archived from the original on March 20, 2019. Retrieved September 16, 2010.
- ^ Cite error: The named reference
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