January 2nd, 2007
I’m not one to romanticize shopping malls — except when it comes to Southdale Center. When it opened in 1956, the suburban Minneapolis retail center was the country’s first indoor mall and a social destination for Minnesotans. Decades later, when I spent a large chunk of my childhood inside its walls, it had pretty much everything a materialistic South Minneapolis kid could ask for: a sweet arcade (Picadilly Circus) with waiting lines for Dragon’s Lair and Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom, a music store (Musicland) that didn’t card you for 2 Live Crew’s “As Nasty as They Wanna Be,” ample bus service (R.I.P bus no. 28 .. dead homeez roll on in heaven), a bike rack to park your ride when it didn’t rain, Herman’s sporting goods for my bourgeois Avia hightops, and of course … Orange Julius (liquids) and Arby’s (solids).
Southdale netted lots of media coverage in the past year. The mall’s 50th anniversary was the perfect occasion to point out the challenges faced by aging retail developments.
Now, it’s Har Mar Mall’s turn. Southdale’s weirder, uglier baby sister just lost its bedrock tenant — the 11-screen movie theater — so Har Mar is now fighting for its life. I shoulda seen this coming. First the Ground Round rolled away, then the Boy Scout store packed up and went camping.
NOTE: The Star Tribune article linked above contains the origin of the name “Har Mar.” It has nothing, sadly, to do with this guy.