When I first posted this website back in late 2006, I had no idea what I was getting into. I only knew that I wanted to create a new and different mall fan site; one that did not simply TELL about the histories of selected American shopping malls of the mid-20th century, but SHOW them. This was done with a series of chronologically-advancing site plans.

Never had I fathomed how difficult it was going to be to gather other mall-related information. Using Wikipedia as a source proved problematic. Certain "mall" articles there are well-researched...others are chock-full of incorrect data. I found that it was not always easy to fact check such things. Moreover, so-called "scholarly source" newspapers turned out to not always be accurate when reporting some historical aspect of a mall or shopping plaza.

To make things a bit easier, GoogleNews had amassed a collection of newspaper archives covering cities such as Pittsburgh, Miami, Fort Worth, Salt Lake City, St. Petersburg or Toledo. Then there were the hard nuts to crack, such as Atlanta, Phoenix, Nashville, St. Louis or Denver (where online historical data about shopping malls was often VERY hard to come by).

Regular newspaper archives sometimes provided a source of "real time-related" info about what mall -or anchor store- opened when. Other details might be derived from hundreds of Google searches. Of course, as with Wiki, I often ran into incorrect data...usually the result of people not remembering things accurately (they seem to do this a lot).

I decided to try and establish mall histories, even for those entries that are undocumented anyplace else on the web. Unfortunately, various details might not be entirtely correct. My chops have been busted many times for incorrect data in articles. However, IF something on here is proved to be inaccurate, I DO correct written copy, captions and / or graphics.

So, by now, the 400-plus mall articles and the various "Special Feature" sections have been completed. Sometimes, someone will post a correction (which I try to fact check as best as I can) or an update. The site has evolved and, after over 10 years, is now just about the way I wanted it to be way back in 2006. As they say, Rome -or the Roosevelt Field Mall- were not built in a day.

No doubt, there are STILL things mentioned here that are not correct...maybe it will always be this way (obviously I would hope otherwise). One needs to take into consideration that this is a problem experienced with most (if not all) mall fan or mall history websites. It is certainly not unique to this one...

If you see a reference on the MALL HALL OF FAME that says such and such department store at such and such mall opened on (for example) "November 21, 1947"...with the month, day AND year included in the write-up...this is an accurate detail that has been taken from a contemporary ("real time-related") newspaper write-up.

Square footage figures of anchor stores mentioned are sometimes derived from measuring a building's area on aerial and / or satellite views. One does not have to research malldom for very long to discover that square footage figures for the SAME STORE can vary widely between what is listed on local tax assessor websites, mall operator / real estate investment trust sites, mall fan sites...or Wikipedia.

We hope that you enjoy perusing the MALL HALL OF FAME. This a completely ad-free site, with no distracting banner ads. We do not solicit monetary donations, as this project is entirely a labor of love.