I spend a lot of time on the Main Street Mall and every time I’m there, I’m reminded of just how much energy and opportunity already exists. With standout restaurants like the Majestic Grille, Sage, Maciel’s, and Flight, and unique businesses like River City Records and Jasper Float Spa and Wellness Center—both supported through the Downtown Memphis Commission’s Open On Main program, the Main Street Mall is already a great place to visit.
And the exciting thing is, the Main Street Mall, which is a pedestrian mall, is something other cities are leaning into or are trying to create a version of. But Memphis already has it.
(People enjoying the Main Street Mall, Photo: Downtown Memphis Commission)
So what even is a pedestrian mall? I’m glad you asked!
The Roots of the Mall: A Vision That Started Long Ago
(Victor Gruen, Photo: American Heritage Center at the University of Wyoming)
To understand the Main Street Mall, it helps to look at where the story of malls in America began. That story starts with Victor Gruen, born in 1903 in Vienna, Austria. Victor was a Jewish architect who fled to the US right before World War 2 broke out and went on to transform the future of American retail. In 1956, he designed the first indoor shopping mall, Southdale Shopping Center in Edina, Minnesota, a suburb of Minneapolis. Funny enough, while indoor malls exploded, Gruen eventually disowned his creation, saying they had “destroyed our cities”. By the time he died in 1980 a new mall was opening up in the United States almost every week. But his original intent—to create people-first places—still lives on in his next creation.
(Southdale Shopping Center, the first indoor mall, Photo: LIFE Photo Collection)
(The Kalamazoo Mall when it first opened, Photo: Kalamazoo Valley Museum)
In 1957, a year after inventing the first indoor mall, the city of Kalamazoo, Michigan took note that suburbanization was drawing people away from city centers, and hired Victor Gruen to help bring life back to their downtown. His solution was the Kalamazoo Pedestrian Mall, which opened in 1959. He cut off car traffic to a street downtown and in its place created something that more closely resembled the outside communal spaces he knew and loved in Vienna. The idea was to bring community and vibrancy back to urban cores. By the late 1970s, pedestrian malls had spread to about 200 downtowns, including ours. What opened in 1977 as the Mid-America Mall became what we now simply call the Main Street Mall.
(The Main Street Mall, formerly Mid America Mall, around the time it first opened, so groovy! Photos: Crème de Memph)
Memphis Was Ahead of Its Time
The Main Street Mall is the longest pedestrian mall this side of the Mississippi stretching nine blocks. It hosts the main trolley line and is closed to car traffic aside from cross streets. While other cities shortened or removed theirs, Memphis stayed the course.
Today, cities are spending millions to recreate what we’ve had for decades. Think of Atlanta’s BeltLine. New York’s High Line. Recently renovated 16th Street in Denver. Nicollet in Minneapolis. Lincoln Road in Miami Beach. All different in form—but built around the same idea: walkable, shared public spaces that invite people in and build economic energy block by block.
We already have one. And it runs through the heart of Downtown Memphis.
Here are a few examples of today’s pedestrian malls around the US below.
(Above from left to right and top to bottom are the Charlottesville’s Historic Downtown Mall, the Minneapolis’ Nicollet Street, Miami Beach’s Lincoln Road, and Denver’s 16th Street, Photos: Friends of Downtown Charlottesville, Minneapolis Downtown Council, Greater Miami Convention and Visitors Bureau, Visit Denver)
The Moment for Main Street
As Memphis is making a niche for itself as a city that doesn’t tear down history but repurposes it into something new, see Crosstown Concourse, Tom Lee Park, The Civil Rights Museum at the Lorraine Motel, Central Station, The Snuff District, The Pyramid, The Tennessee Brewery, Peabody Place Center, and the planned/under construction redevelopments at 100 N. Main, the Sterick Building, the Mud-Island Museum makeover, and the Falls Building, it’s time to talk about the Main Street Mall.
The Covid pandemic reminded us that people want community, they want human interaction, and they want walkable neighborhoods. The Main Street Mall represents an opportunity to capitalize on this.
We know there are plenty of opinions about the Mall. That’s expected—it’s part of our daily lives. But what matters now is how we shape it for its future.
At the DMC, we’re actively recruiting businesses, supporting current storefronts, and looking at how to make this public space cleaner, safer, more vibrant, and more full of life. And there’s more to come. Last month, the DMC launched the Table Ready Initiative, a new effort to recruit restaurateurs into available downtown spaces and continue building a vibrant, welcoming destination for locals and visitors alike. We also have implemented a $5 parking deal downtown this spring and summer. This summer we will reintroduce our “Main Street Sounds” busking program at various locations along the mall that will showcase local talent. The Main Street Mall is the connective thread of Downtown—the place where location, history, infrastructure, and charm converge. It holds a key ingredient for Downtown Memphis’ future growth.
If Downtown is Memphis’ front porch, Main Street is the front door. Let’s make it feel like home — bold, beautiful, and welcoming.
Have you visited the mall lately?
(People and vendors along the Main Street Mall, Photo: Downtown Memphis Commission)
This blog was written by Coleman Armes, Downtown Memphis Commission
Coleman Armes is the Commercial Strategist at the Downtown Memphis Commission. He loves Memphis and although he was not born here, he grew up visiting family in Memphis and wanted to move here one day. After college he moved to Memphis and the rest is just gravy!
