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How our world changed 50 years ago today

On this day, 50 years ago, an experiment that would change shopping in the Philadelphia area began.

On this day, 50 years ago, an experiment that would change shopping in the Philadelphia area began.

In a former farm field in what was then Delaware Township, the first purpose-built enclosed, climate- controlled shopping center east of the Mississippi opened.

Today we know it as the Cherry Hill Mall.

In the following 5 decades, more malls would spring up in the suburbs surrounding Philadelphia, signaling the decline of most small town Main Streets and the city's own Department Store row on East Market Street, then home to Lit Brothers, Strawbridge & Clothier, Gimbels and John Wanamakers.

Of them, only the Wanamaker's building remains in use as a department store, under the Macy's name.

When it opened on Oct. 11, 1961, it was known as the Cherry Hill Shopping Center and postcards from the era described scenes of its gardened interior as "On the Mall at Cherry Hill."

There were palm trees, artificial streams, fountains, ducks and an aviary.

Strawbridge & Clothier and Bamberger's served as its anchors.

There were few nationwide chains in those day, but of those that did exist, Woolworth's and S.S. Kresge, the predecessor of K-Mart, had a presence in the new mall.

There also was a supermarket - Food Fair - two liquor stores, a Sherwin Williams paint store and a movie theater.

That make up would change as the mall expanded and underwent expensive face-lifts.

Now offering nearly 1.25 million square feet of retail space, the names of most of the original stores are long gone, replaced by the likes of Nordstrom's, Macy's, Old Navy and Victoria's Secret.

Cherry Hill Mayor Bernie Platt will present a special proclamation honoring the mall 11 a.m. today in the Grand Court.