Early Shopping Center

In the U.S. enclosing a marketplace into a single building started with the Westminster Arcade in Providence, Rhode Island, considered the first indoor mall in America, but the aggregation of multiple retail buildings into a landscape parcel began with the same social changes that fueled the growth of suburbs. The layout of Roland Park, Maryland by Frederick Law Olmsted, Jr. and Edward Bouton in the late 1800s included the first store block, but not until the creation of the Country Club District outside of Kansas City, Missouri did the consolidation of ownership occur. This shift in the owner-class distinguished previous commercial districts from the new discreet, shopping center entity.