Modern shopping malls, as people know them today, were effectively “invented” in 1956 with the opening of the fully enclosed Southdale Center in Edina, Minnesota, designed by architect Victor Gruen.

Quick Scoop

  • The idea of grouping many shops together in one complex goes back to ancient marketplaces like Roman forums and later European arcades.
  • The first planned shopping centers appeared in the early 1900s, such as Market Square (1916) and Country Club Plaza (1922) in the U.S.
  • The first fully enclosed, climate‑controlled mall in the modern sense was Southdale Center, opened in 1956, which most historians treat as the birth of the modern mall.

Different “invention” moments

  • Ancient roots: Trajan’s Market in Rome (around 100–110 AD) is often cited as one of the world’s earliest multi‑level shopping complexes.
  • Arcades era: Covered passages like Passage du Caire (1798, Paris) and Burlington Arcade (1819, London) were early ancestors of malls.
  • Early shopping centers: U.S. developments like Roland Park Shopping Center (1907), Market Square (1916), and Country Club Plaza (1922) mark the rise of planned shopping centers.
  • Modern enclosed mall: Southdale Center (1956) is widely labeled the first true enclosed shopping mall, inspiring the boom of malls across the U.S. and beyond.

Short answer for “when were malls invented?”

  • If “mall” means any large shopping complex: the concept evolved over centuries, with key steps in the 18th–19th century arcades and early 20th‑century shopping centers.
  • If “mall” means the classic, enclosed suburban shopping mall: it was effectively invented in 1956 with Southdale Center in Minnesota.

So, for most modern discussions, the go‑to answer is: malls were “invented” in 1956, even though their roots are much older.

Information gathered from public forums or data available on the internet and portrayed here.