Lloyd Center - History

History

Ideas for Lloyd Center were conceived as early as 1923. The mall was named after southern Californian oil company executive Ralph B. Lloyd (1875–1953) who wished to build an area of self-sufficiency that included stores and residential locations. However, the mall wasn't built until 37 years later, due to major events such as World War II, the Great Depression, and Portland's conservative anti-development attitude.

The mall opened August 1, 1960 in a 100-store, open-air configuration. At the time it was the largest shopping center in the Pacific Northwest and claimed to be the largest in the country and in the world.. Actually, Garden State Plaza, in Paramus, New Jersey was a bit larger. Moreover, Old Orchard Center, in Skokie, Illinois, Northshore Center, in Peabody, Massachusetts, and Roosevelt Field Center, on New York's Long Island, were as large as Lloyd Center. However, in the present, Lloyd Center is the largest shopping mall in Oregon.

in 1960, Lloyd Center was located very close to the downtown retail core and was the first major retail development to seriously challenge it, aimed almost exclusively at commuters utilizing Portland's then-growing freeway system, especially the adjacent Banfield Expressway.

The original anchor stores were Meier & Frank at the center, Best's and Nordstrom's Shoes anchoring the west end, and J. C. Penney and Woolworth anchoring the east. The Seattle-based Nordstrom' Shoes chain acquired Best's apparel in 1963 and rebranded all locations as Nordstrom Best in 1967. The Nordstrom nameplate was adopted in 1973.

Lipman and Wolfe added a store to the west end of Lloyd Center in 1974. Frederick & Nelson acquired and renamed Lipman's in 1979. The store went through a dizzying succession of owners, nameplates and locations within the mall. It appears that, in 1988, Nordstrom moved into the old Lipmans/Frederick and Nelson building. The Lipmans name was apparently reinstated at a new location in the north end of the mall in 1987, only to be replaced by that of Spokane-based The Crescent later in the same year. In March 1988, the store was acquired by Bellevue, Washington-based Lamonts.

Nordstrom ended up demolishing the Lipmans store and opening an entirely new location on its space in August 1990. The former Nordstrom spaces had been gutted and refitted as inline stores, followed by a mall-wide renovation which fully enclosed the mall and added a food court. The remodeled shopping hub was rededicated in August 1991. JC Penney closed in June 1999 and was replaced by Sears in October. Meier & Frank became Macy's in 2006.

Lloyd Center is well-connected to TriMet, the regional transit system. Buses stop outside and MAX light rail stops one block away at the Lloyd Center/Northeast 11th Avenue station. Crime in and around the park and light rail station are of concern to the mall management. (As these stops are in the Free Rail Zone and mall parking is free, the lots are sometimes used illegally by commuters and visitors going towards Downtown Portland.

Because of the size and importance of Lloyd Center, it has played a significant role in the history of freedom of speech in the United States, especially with regard to the scope of free speech within private shopping centers. Lloyd Center was the defendant in the landmark cases of Lloyd Corp. v. Tanner, 407 U.S. 551 (1972), a decision of the U.S. Supreme Court involving First Amendment rights and private property, and Lloyd Corp. v. Whiffen, 307 Or. 674, 773 P.2d 1293 (1989), a decision of the Oregon Supreme Court.