23.12.12

Found: Mayfair Shopping Center, Wauwatosa, WI

Found: Gimbels, the South Mall at Mayfair, Hiway 100 at North Ave., Waustosa 13, Wisconsin
copyright the L.L. Cook Co. from an Ektachrome Transparency, 1959, 1961.
Found: Marshall Field and Company, the North Mall at Mayfair Shopping Center,
Route 100 at North Ave., Waustosa 13, Wisconsin copyright the L.L. Cook Co.
from a Natural Color Transparency, 1959 postmarked May 1968.
Found:Office Building at Mayfair Shopping Center, Hiway 100 at North Ave., Waustosa 13, Wisconsi
 copyright the L.L. Cook Co. from an Ektachrome Transparency, 1963.
Anyone searching for consumer utopia unlike the old downtown streets of Wisconsin circa early 20th century? Three views of Mayfair circa 1959 when it was a shopping center--recently opened with 70 stores (Gimbels and Marshall Field and Company were the original "anchors") and not a mall like today with a blog--show a clean, tree-filled, uncongested, wide-open pedestrian space for shopping. Photographer Brian Ulrich has examined the demise and/or evolution of such places in the 21st century in his most excellent book: Is This Place Great or What (Aperture, 2011).

1 comment:

  1. Anonymous11:05

    I remember ice skating at Mayfair mall as well as the babbling brook inside the mall. I had a joke related to a store at Mayfair. What did the bird say when if flew over K-mart? "cheap cheap" and what did the bird say when if flew over Gimbles? "expensive expensive"
    It seemed funny back then.

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