Columbus' Town & Country Shopping Center 

Although it is not a mall, per se, we are including a write-up about the Discovery City's TOWN & COUNTRY SHOPPING CENTER. This innovative retail complex was a forerunner of the American shopping mall.

Don Monroe Casto, Senior (1898-1963) developed the TOWN & COUNTRY complex. His first mercantile mecca, Columbus' GRANDVIEW AVENUE SHOPPING CENTER, had opened in 1928.

Photo from the Columbus Metropolitan Library

A Kroger supermarket was one of eleven tenants in the so-called "First Section" of TOWN & COUNTRY CENTER. This store opened its doors in March 1949.

Graphic from the Kroger Company

The first operational tenant in the "First Section" was a Moore's of Ohio Hardware store. It is seen on the left side of Kroger in this circa-1950 snapshot.  

Photo from the Whitehall Historical Society

The TOWN & COUNTRY J.C. Penney was one of the first shopping center-format stores in the chain. The 2-level Penney's, which encompassed approximately 22,600 square feet, opened its doors in 1950.

Graphic from the J.C. Penney Company

The Union Company was a Columbus-based division of Marshall Fields. The TOWN & COUNTRY store depicted here welcomed first shoppers in October 1951.

Drawing from the Columbus Metropolitan Library

This east Columbus shopping hub opened for business in March 1949. During its early years, it was promoted as MIRACLE MILE TOWN & COUNTRY CENTER. The physical layout above dates to 1952, when East, North, Central and West sections had been completed. The strip center housed around twenty-nine stores and encompassed 265,000 leasable square feet. 

TOWN & COUNTRY CENTER TENANTS 1952:

J.C. PENNEY / KROGER supermarket / ALBERS supermarket / BIG BEAR supermarket / UNION COMPANY / S.S. KRESGE 5 & 10 (with luncheonette) / Carroll's Furniture / City Loan & Savings Company / Club Carry-out / Cooke Appliance Company / Gray Drug (with luncheonette) / Howard Furniture Company / Inez of Town & Country ladies' wear / Jay's Jewelry / Maternity Modes / Miracle Automatic Laundry / Moore's of Ohio Hardware / Monaco's Restaurant & Cocktail Bar / Neuron Photo / Public Library of Columbus / Sali-Wer Millinery / Schiff Shoes / Shirley's Shoe Repairs / Swan Cleaners / The Boston Store / Town & Country Bank / Town & Country Barber Shop / Town & Country Texaco (outparcel) / Zane's Restaurant / Zettler Hardware

In 1959, TOWN & COUNTRY CENTER housed four supermarkets; Albers, Eavey's, Kroger and Big Bear. Based in Columbus, Big Bear was a T & C tenant between January 1952 and January 2004. The original location is depicted here. A larger store would be completed in October 1987.

 

 

In addition to four grocery stores, the mid-20th century TOWN & COUNTRY CENTER featured two S.S. Kresge and two Gray Drug Stores. 

Graphic1 from Gray Drug Stores 

Graphic 2 from the Kresge Company

 

 

A 1950s aerial photo of TOWN & COUNTRY CENTER. The complex extended for one half mile from end-to-end. In 1959, it hosted eighty-five stores and services.

Photo from http://www.columbusceo.com

Casto and company went on to develop several sprawling retail hubs in the suburbs surrounding Ohio's capital. These included GREAT EASTERN SHOPPING CENTER (1955), GREAT WESTERN SHOPPERS' MART (1956) and the GREAT SOUTHERN SHOPPERS' CITY (1957), which is depicted here. In June of 1962- this complex hosted the very first Woolco discount department store.

Drawing from the Columbus Metropolitan Library

 

Our TOWN & COUNTRY logo montage features trademarks of stores from the years between 1959 and 1963.

In 1968, the Union Company at TOWN & COUNTRY CENTER has just emerged from a renovation. This remodeling doubled the size of the store. 

Photo from http://catalog.clcohio.org / Columbus Citizen Journal / Grandview Heights Public Library

TOWN & COUNTRY CENTER was given its first major renovation in 1976. New facades, canopies and signage were installed. 

Photo from the Columbus Metropolitan Library

The Union Company was rebranded as a Halle's specialty store in 1980. It  became the shopping center's second Lazarus Capri Shop location in 1982.

Photo from the Columbus Metropolitan Library

Another large-scale renovation was done in the mid-1980s. This time, half of the original section was razed and replaced with a new structure (in medium gray). This included a new location for the Big Bear supermarket. A freestanding movie theater had opened -on an across-the-street pad- in the mid-1960s. It had closed by the time of this site plan.

 

This snapshot was taken soon after the completion of the "Main Street USA" face lift of 1999. Big Bear (on the right) anchored the northwest end of TOWN & COUNTRY CENTER for over 16 years,

Photo from www.donmcasto.com / Casto Lifestyle Properties

The TOWN & COUNTRY Staples opened in the fall of 2004. It was a new store built on an old Drug Emporium spot.

Photo from www.doncasto.com / Casto Lifestyle Properties

The Bob Evans chain of restaurants, exemplified by the TOWN & COUNTRY store seen here, had humble beginnings in 1962. The first location, known as the Sausage Shop, opened in Rio Grande, Ohio. Today, there are over 600 stores in twenty-four states.

Photo from www.castoinfo.com / Casto Lifestyle Properties

A vacant A.J. Wright store was expanded into adjoining space and re-opened, as this Shoppers World discount outlet, in the fall of 2011.

Photo from http://www.castoinfo.com / Casto Lifestyle Properties

Kroger, which had been one of the charter TOWN & COUNTRY tenants, moved into a new across-the-street store in 1998. In February 2017, they bought an 8-acre parcel on the west end of TOWN & COUNTRY and demolished a vacant Big Bear supermarket. The plan was to build a Kroger Marketplace on the spot. Unfortunately, Kroger abandoned the new store plan in November 2020. 

Graphic from the Kroger Company

On a circa-2021 T & C site plan, stores in a MIRACLE MILE section are shown in blue. A vacant Kroger parcel leaves a gaping hole at the west end of the shopping strip. Perhaps the powers that be will soon devise a way to fill the space. In the meantime, the complex encompasses around 458,400 leasable square feet, with a total of thirty store spaces. 

TOWN & COUNTRY SHOPPING CENTER

East Broad Street and Robinwood Avenue

Whitehall, Ohio

 

The first post-war shopping plaza in the Buckeye State was the brainchild of Columbus' Don M. Casto, Senior. Originally promoted as the TOWN & COUNTRY DRIVE-IN SHOPPING CENTER, the  complex was built on a 12-acre plot, situated 5.3 miles northeast of the Ohio State House, in the newly-incorporated suburb of Whitehall. 

At the time, the area was considered remote and off the beaten path...which resulted in the the project being derided as "Casto's Folly." Details of the prospective shopping center had been divulged to the local media on July 5, 1947. A groundbreaking was held November 11, 1948. 

An initial four-section, twenty-store complex was designed by C. Melvin Frank. Its first operational store, a Moore's of Ohio Hardware, opened on March 1, 1949. Ten stores debuted as part of an official grand opening held on March 6th. These included Gray Drug, Carroll's Furniture and 1-level (10,000 square foot) Kroger supermarket. Attending the grand opening were Howard O. Barr (Mayor of Whitehall) and James A. Rhodes (R) (Mayor of Columbus and eventual Governor of Ohio). 

A Central Section, completed in 1950, featured an S.S. Kresge 5 & 10, Albers supermarket and 2-level (22,600 square foot) J.C. Penney. Stores in an East Section were dedicated between October 1951 and January 1952. These included a 1-level (20,000 square foot) Columbus-based Union Company and 1-level (22,200 square foot) Big Bear supermarket.

By the late 1950s, the complex, now promoted as TOWN & COUNTRY CENTER, encompassed ten retail buildings and over 300,000 leasable square feet. The shopping hub covered 25.6 acres and (reputedly) had free parking for 4,000 autos.

TOWN & COUNTRY was now co-anchored by a branch of The Boston Store (a Columbus-based chain operated as a division of Dearborn, Michigan-based Federal). Inline stores included Lil' Kiddy Shop, Stately's Apparel, Sarah's Yarn Shop, Edward's Rexall, Sam's Shoe Service and Harry's Beauty Salon. It was a requirement that all businesses be open six days a week until 9 pm. At the time, this was a radical concept, as downtown stores tended to close at 5 pm.

The General Cinema Corporation Town & Country Cinema opened, as a freestanding structure, on September 21, 1966. It was located across the street from the shopping strip and was shuttered September 25, 1986. The venue was converted into a cinema draft house in 1991.

Meanwhile, a renovation had been done to the shopping center in 1975, with new facades and canopies installed. The Union Company was doubled in size with the addition of a mezzanine level in 1967. It was rebranded as a Halle's ["Hal-eez"] boutique store in May 1980. A Lazarus Capri Shop had taken over the Boston Store building in 1973. It moved into the Halle's spot when that space was vacated in 1982. This store was shuttered on January 31, 1992.

A second major shopping center renovation had commenced in 1986. The western store block was demolished and replaced by a new structure. This housed a 1-level (53,000 square foot) Big Bear supermarket, which opened on October 31, 1987.

As the 50th anniversary of TOWN & COUNTRY CENTER approached in 1999, the Casto Company decided that a third renovation of the property was in order. A "Main Street USA" motif was used, with stores given new brick facades and awnings. The parking lot was also reconfigured. 

The revitalized retail hub now encompassed approximately 489,600 leasable square feet and provided free parking for 2,083 autos. The Big Bear supermarket closed for good in January 2004. The vacant building was acquired by Kroger in March 2017. They demolished the structure, with plans to replace it with a (105,000 square foot) Kroger Marketplace. This plan was abandoned in November 2020.

Sources:

The Columbus Dispatch

The Eastern Review (Columbus, Ohio) 

Columbus News Index

https://www.the-review.com / The Alliance Review / Steve McLoughlin

https://www.doncasto.com / Casto Lifestyle Properties

https://property.franklincountyauditor.com / Franklin County, Ohio

The Columbus Metropolitan Library

http://www.bigbearstores.com

https://www.cinematreasures.org

http://www.columbusmemory.org

http://www.columbusunderground.com

https://www.bobevans.com

https://www.thisweeknews.com