#5 Highland Park Ford Plant.
Catch it if you can. 2013
rdr
#6 Southdale Center in Edina, Minnesota, the first indoor, multi-store shopping center in the US.
The original and intimate groundbreaking mid-century architecture of Southdale remained relatively unchanged from 1956 until the mid-70s but since then there have been many additions and extensive remodeling and renovations which is rather unfortunate. Today it's just another sterile shopping mall.
There was an antique car display in the Garden Court in 1967. Here I am, sitting in a 1915 Ford firetruck, wearing my Minnesota Twins hat and jacket. My dad is the fellow smiling in the background with the flat top and glasses; he's holding my younger sister.
Southdale is still open? Is it like some of the other "dales" that have turned into low buck shops and goodwill stores galore? I use to love Northtown and the Burnsville Mall were great. Now I can't stand to go to anything that even resembles a mall.
Southdale, Ridgedale and Rosedale are alive and well. They are not "low rent" shopping malls. Southdale has to compete with nearby strip malls and indoor malls as well as the Mall of America so it's not as strong as it used to be.
Brookdale was torn down in 2011 and is being replaced by "Shingle Creek Crossings" anchored by a Walmart.
I don't recall the name of the mall over on the Northeast side of St Paul. We were in there several years ago and did a craft show. I couldn't believe how empty it was and the stores that were there were very much "low rent". I felt like I had walked into an abandoned morgue. I'm not real sure how Northtown is doing but when I found out a few years ago a stained glass business was in there for a while I was a little concerned for their health. I lived about a block from there when it first opened. The thing that surprises me is how many outlet malls like Albertville have become major shopping centers and the highend stores that have moved into those areas.
The other night PBS replayed the whole documentary thing on Henry Ford. This time I was able to sit down and enjoy quite a bit of it. I couldn't believe how huge the Highland Park Ford Plant was.