The Model T and Suburbanization Activity #1:

The Valley Fair Mall

Developed by the Outagamie County Historical Society with funding from Cooperative Education Service Agency 6, University of Wisconsin-Oshkosh, and the U.S. Department of Education. © 2006 OCHS.

Goal:  Students will recognize the opening of the Valley Fair Mall in 1955 as a symptom of suburban sprawl and an increasingly mobile population.

Objectives:

1)  Students will be able to name the Valley Fair Shopping Mall as the World’s First Enclosed Shopping Mall.

2)  Students will analyze a historic document.

3)  Students will practice observational skills on questions # 1, 2, 3, and 4.

4)  Students will synthesize information gained from the document in order to answer question 5.

5)  Students will make predictions about the effect the automobile had on the Valley Fair Mall and the effect the Valley Fair Mall had on local businesses in questions 5 and 6.

6)  Students will practice oral interviewing skills by pretending to be reporters covering the opening of the mall in question 7.

Read the article “18 Stores in Valley Fair’s Biggest Preview Opening Starting Thursday” and look at the Grand Opening illustration from the Appleton Post-Crescent, March 9, 1955.

1)  According to the article, how will the indoor setting of the mall be a comfort or convenience to shoppers?

2)  What is special about the fact that the shopping mall is enclosed?

3)  When the shopping mall’s spots are full, how many stores will it house?

4)  Study the picture of the shopping mall.  What is the distance of the mall from the towns or cities listed?

5)  Based on the information in the article and picture, how is it likely people will get to the shopping center?  Given your answer, do you think this mall would have been a success before the automobile?  Why or why not?

6)  Out of the open stores mentioned, how many are locally-owned and how many are state, Midwest, or national chains?  What effect do you think chain stores like those mentioned have had on locally-owned businesses?  Why?

7)  Imagine what it would have been like to attend the Preview Opening of the 1st enclosed shopping mall in the world!  Divide into groups of 3-4 students.  One student can take on the role of a television news reporter and can interview the others who pretend to be shoppers.  Some questions to think about:  What do you think of the new Valley Fair Shopping Mall?  What would make you shop here as opposed to other individual shops or outdoor shopping centers?  How does the Valley Fair Shopping Center reflect a new “automobile age”?

This activity uses the primary source document:

Newspaper article "18 Stores in Valley Fair's Buggest Preview Opening," Appleton Post-Crescent, March 9, 1955

Newspaper illustration about Valley Fair's Grand Opening, Appleton Post-Crescent, March 9, 1955

Click here for a printable worksheet for this activity (PDF file)
Click here for a printable worksheet for this activity (PDF file)