User:VitusKonter/Southgate Shopping Center (Milwaukee)

Southgate Shopping Center, later known as Southgate Mall, is a defunct shopping center that was located on the west side of South 27th Street (then US Highway 41), between Morgan Avenue and Euclid Avenue in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.

Southgate was Milwaukee’s first planned shopping center, and one of it’s most successful. It’s opening in September of 1951 changed the way people in Milwaukee shopped and paved the way for the creation of other shopping centers to follow. The center became an enclosed mall in 1971 and was renamed Southgate Mall. The mall remained open until 1999 when most of the buildings were demolished to make way for a Wal-Mart store. In its 48 years of existence, the shopping center made a lasting impression on the City of Milwaukee, and the neighborhood is still referred to as Southgate to this day.

Prelude

Froedtert’s vision

Main article: Kurtis Froedtert

The individual responsible for the creation of Milwaukee’s first shopping center was millionaire industrialist Kurtis Froedtert, head of the one of the largest malting companies in the world. Born in a basement apartment on Milwaukee’s near north-side, Froedtert took over operations of the family business in 1915 when his father William Froedtert died. The Froedtert Grain & Malting Company produced more than 22 million bushels of malt each year, supplying the brewing industry in Milwaukee and throughout the Midwest.

In the mid-1930’s, Froedtert began speculating in real estate, purchasing prime oceanfront property in Sunny Isles Beach, Florida, north of Miami Beach. After World War II, Froedtert began to branch out into real estate development. Robert A. Polacheck, a commercial real estate broker in Milwaukee, presented the shopping center idea to Joseph E. Rapkin, the attorney who represented Kurtis Froedtert. Froedtert had seen similar shopping centers on the East and West coasts and welcomed the opportunity to back the project. Planning for the venture began in March of 1949, with an anticipated investment of $3 million by Froedtert Enterprises.

Froedtert and his advisors envisioned 3 shopping centers that would surround the city: Southgate, Northgate, and Westgate; each of them located on a main highway, or gateway, to the city. Southgate would be the first center to be built.

The neighborhood

Froedtert’s choice for his first shopping center was a large parcel of farmland on the southern edge of the City of Milwaukee, bordered by the Town of Greenfield and close to the Town of Lake. The tract lay on the west side of U.S. Highway 41 (the main-traveled road through the city before freeways), just north of the intersection with Wisconsin Highway 36, also known as Loomis Road.

The main reason the site was so attractive was because the entire area was thriving. To the north lay Milwaukee’s old south side with densely populated ethnic neighborhoods and only a few shopping districts to sustain them.

Only 2 blocks north of the Southgate site, a new branch of St. Luke’s Hospital was under construction. East and west of the site lay newly annexed neighborhoods, quickly expanding to meet the needs of the post-war city. Housing for veterans was scarce, and the city was struggling to accommodate them. In 1949, the 332 unit, 66 building, Southlawn Housing Project for low income veterans had just been completed, only 2 blocks east of the Southgate site. A bit further south, hastily constructed trailer colonies, Goodyear Wingfoot houses, and Harnischfeger prefab homes had been assembled in Wilson Park just to accommodate the veteran’s families until more permanent homes could be constructed.

The area was also heavily populated with factory workers and several factories and manufacturing companies. Milwaukee Malleable & Grey Iron Works, Maynard Electric Steel Casting Company, Heil Company, W. A. Getzel Millwork Company, Crucible Steel Casting Company, and Froedtert’s own business, the Froedtert Malting Company, were all located within 2 miles of the proposed construction site.

Many of the existing businesses in the area lay along this increasingly busy stretch of U.S. Highway 41 (South 27th Street). Entertainment and recreational facilities such as Pinky’s Bowl at 27th and Oklahoma Avenue and the Pallomar Roller Rink, directly across the highway from the Southgate site, were attractive draws to the neighborhood since the 1930’s. Other established businesses nearby included the Treuber Trailer Camp, Trubilt Trailer Sales Company, Corral Riding Academy, Mazo’s Restaurant, Leon’s Frozen Custard Drive-In, and the Evergreen Hotel and Campsite. South of the city limits, the highway continued through transitional neighborhoods interspersed with dairy farms. Since this was the most traveled highway between Milwaukee and Chicago, a large number of motels and motor inns dotted the landscape (White Court Motel, Suburban, Edge-O-Town, Hideaway, Dreamland Motel, Nite Rest, Park Motel, Villa Vista, Plaza Motel, Embassy, Skyway, El Rancho, Knotty Pine, Modern 41 Motel, Twi-Lite, Nine Mile Inn, and more). The newest business in the area was one of the largest outdoor theaters in the country, the 41 Twin Outdoor, which had just opened in the Town of Franklin.

The highway was also strewn with auto repair and gas service stations (Diamond, Shell, Sinclair, Black Eagle Gas Station, Cities Service), mobile home suppliers (Casey’s Trailer Sales), small grocery stores, and a number of restaurants and taverns ( A&W, Chickland Drive-in, Ray Bussler’s). Several farms (Badger Turkey Farm) and apple orchards (Mahr’s Hillside Orchard, Meyer’s Orchard, Honadel’s Orchard, Pyzyk’s Orchard) competed for space with new housing developments and trailer camps (Evergreen, Anderson’s, Shady Lane, Franklin, Badger Trailer Park). Population in the area was growing so rapidly that some local schools more than doubled in enrollment and had to place desks wall-to-wall to accommodate the new students.

The State Department of Transportation reported that Highway 41 had experienced an almost 25% traffic increase from August 1947 to August 1948, with daily traffic averaging well over 13,000 vehicles per day. In 1949, this prompted an approval of $600,000 for widening and surfacing improvements for Highway 41 from the Milwaukee city limits to the Racine County Line. Ease of access and the burgeoning new suburban areas would prove to be a tremendous draw for the Southgate location.

The 1950's

Construction and Grand Opening

Construction at the Southgate site began in 1949. Froedtert chose the architectural firm of Grassold & Johnson for the design, E. C. Knuth & Company as general contractors, and Herman Andrae Electrical Company as electrical contractors. Robert Polacheck’s employer, the Oscar Brachman Company, was retained as the leasing agent for the center. Krambo Food Store was the first store to sign a lease.

After 2 years of work, Southgate was finally ready to open. A ribbon cutting ceremony was set for 10:00 a.m. on August 15, 1951. The 33-acre site boasted 3000 parking spots and 2 buildings which shared a single, 800 foot long canopied sidewalk, with loading areas in front of every store. The completed shopping center included 2 buildings containing over 180,000 square feet of retail space. A driveway between the buildings served to connect the front and rear parking lots, and also provided access to the second level Professional Building (at the south end of the northernmost building). The office level would provide over 7,000 square feet of air-conditioned office space. The remainders of both buildings were constructed in a single level, but several of the stores also had retail space, storage space, or both in a basement level. Each of the stores had illuminated signs stretched along the entire length of the canopy, and the Spic & Span store had also installed one of the largest illuminated clocks in Milwaukee above their portion of the canopy.

The shopping center itself had erected one enormous sign along the side of Highway 41. The sign was over 50 feet tall with “Southgate” emblazoned in yellow on a mint-green background, and the lettering was illuminated at night in red neon.

The 20 original tenants at the time of the opening were (listed from north to south):

BUILDING 1 (north)

• Badger Paint Store
• Samson’s Radio & Appliance Store
• Krambo Food Store
• S.S. Kresge Company
• Three Sisters
• Kinney Shoes
• Walgreens
• Roderick’s Card and Gift Shop
• Joseph, Your Hair Stylist
• Nu-Way Shoe Service

BUILDING 2 (south)

• W. T. Grant Company
• Mrs. Steven’s Candy Shop
• Ritz Hat Shop
• Spic & Span Cleaners
• Royal Baking Co.
• H.T. Grossman Co.
• Luber’s Fruit & Vegetable Market
• Singer Sewing Shop
• Bitker-Gerner
• Friedman’s Men’s Shop

The new center provided customers the opportunity to shop at several national chain stores ( Grant’s, Kresge’s, Kinney Shoes, Walgreens), as well as at branches of more familiar local stores (Badger Paint, Grossman’s, Samson’s, Royal Baking, Friedman’s). Samson’s was promoted as “Wisconsin’s largest television and appliance dealer”, and already had 6 other locations in the Milwaukee market. Stores like Bitker-Gerner and Three Sisters were already well established in the area. In keeping with the shopping center’s “One Stop Shopping” catchphrase, many of the stores were designed to offer special services not available in other areas. The Walgreen Super Drug Store contained a U.S. Postal sub-station. The Grant’s, Kresge’s, and Walgreens stores each offered soda fountains or luncheonettes. The Spic & Span store advertised “Meet me under the clock at Spic and Span”, and even provided a personal message exchange board inside their store. Many of the stores also offered extended business hours, staying open until 9:00 p.m. on Thursday, Friday, and Saturday evenings.

One of the major concerns that Froedtert and his advisors had tried to address in the design of Southgate was the parking issue. Parking in many downtown shopping districts had been a problem back to the 1920’s. Even the brand new Broadway-Crenshaw Center in Los Angeles, California which had just opened in 1947, was drawing complaints because the parking was inconvenient. At Southgate, they had 400 more spaces than the Crenshaw Center and half of the parking was directly in front of the stores. Southgate vigorously publicized the loading zones in front of every store where customers could conveniently drive right up to the canopied sidewalk rather than carry their purchases across the parking lot; hence, their second catchphrase “Parking Paradise”.

At the southeast corner of the out lot, another building was under construction for a Howard Johnson's Restaurant, the first in the Midwest; but the project would not be completed until November and the restaurant would miss the Grand Opening event.

The center’s opening had been an instant success, so a huge 3-day Grand Opening event was planned for September 20, 1951. The opening expected to draw “a few thousands”, but the merchants were pleasantly surprised when more than 60,000 people showed up. Froedtert Enterprises and the newly formed Southgate Merchants Association had a wide variety of entertainment lined up for the 3-day event, most of it to take place outdoors in the large parking lot. Polka music was provided by Lawrence Duchow and his Red Raven Inn Orchestra. Bob Stevens and his Orchestra, featuring Barbara Palm, provided dance music. The Romany Singers and The Bonelli Family also entertained the crowds, and Kay Sterling gave several organ concerts. There were also appearances by the reigning Alice in Dairyland, a Battle of the Disk Jockeys competition, and Richard “Dixie” Blandy, world champion flagpole sitter, planned to stand at the top of a pole in the parking lot for 11 straight days. Throughout the event there were Polish, Italian, American Indian, Latvian, Bavarian, and Croatian dancers performing daily, and each evening at 9:30 p.m., customers were encouraged to enjoy the fireworks, music, and outdoor dancing in the lighted parking lot.

On the heels of their success, Froedtert and his advisors continued the planning for their next 2 shopping centers: Westgate and Northgate. Westgate would be about twice the size of Southgate. The site for Westgate had already been chosen at the intersection of North Avenue and Wisconsin Highway 100, but on December 6, 1951, Froedtert died suddenly from complications of stomach cancer, only 2 months after the opening of Southgate. Joseph Rapkin, Froedtert’s attorney, stepped in as the new head of Froedtert Enterprises. The Westgate project would eventually be completed in 1958 (and renamed as Mayfair Shopping Center), but the Northgate Shopping Center would never be built.

Early years and expansion

The first 6 months of business at Southgate had been so remarkable that by March of 1952 the center expanded business hours, staying open until 9:00 p.m., six days a week.

With business running far ahead of expectations for the first year, Froedtert Enterprises continued with their plans for a $4-million department store addition. The original shopping center plans had called for a large anchor store, but the construction had been deferred at that time. The new building would be a 300,000 square foot addition to the south end of the center, with a 2-story parking lot. Architectural drawings showed a large structure which would fill the entire area from Building 2 south to Morgan Avenue, and from the back of the Howard Johnson’s Restaurant west to Lakefield Drive. The addition of a parking structure would allow the center to retain their 3000 parking spaces, and would also allow direct access to the department store from both levels. Two current department stores with locations in downtown Milwaukee were being wooed to become anchors at both Southgate and Westgate; and Froedtert Enterprises continued negotiations with them throughout the next year.

On February 22, 1953, Southgate announced that the new anchor store would be Gimbels, one of the leading department stores in Milwaukee. The new $5-million Gimbels store would be a separate building at the north end of the center, but still connected to the existing canopied sidewalk. With the Gimbels store being built on the north end, the original plans for a department store at south end were scrapped, and a different building with smaller stores was planned for that area. Current employment at Southgate was approximately 500 people, but it was anticipated that this would be more than doubled with the addition of Gimbels and the planned 4th building.

To facilitate building at the north end of the property, Froedtert Enterprises negotiated a land swap and purchased over 2 acres of land, including 330 feet of prime frontage along Highway 41, from the neighboring Our Lady Queen of Peace Catholic Church. This would allow room for an additional 204 parking spots for Gimbels. Construction on the new Gimbels store commenced at the end of June 1953, with Milwaukee mayor Frank Zeidler operating a steam shovel for the groundbreaking ceremony. The 200,000 square foot store would be 2 stories high, plus a basement level, and would have its own entrances on 3 sides of the building.

Gimbels opened on October 1, 1954 with a ribbon cutting by Milwaukee mayor Frank Zeidler and Gimbels’ chairman of the board Bernard F. Gimbel. Milwaukee was the first city in the country to have 2 Gimbels locations, and the Southgate opening physically doubled the size of the shopping center. Southgate had grossed between $7-million and $10-million in the first year, and saw a 30% increase the 2nd year (to about $13-million). The Gimbels addition itself would carry a $2-million inventory and bring an expected $15-million in gross revenue.

While Southgate was adding their new 3rd building for Gimbels, plans continued for the southerly expansion of Building 2 and the addition of Building 4. Southgate broke ground on June 15, 1954 for the Building 2 expansion, which would cost $250,000, adding space for 8 new merchants and doubling the space of the Bitker-Gerner store. Another groundbreaking was held on January 10, 1955 for Building 4 which would cost $1.5-million and include 4 new stores plus a new 40,000 square foot store space for Krambo. The new Krambo supermarket would be billed as the largest in the Midwest, and one of the largest in the world.

The Building 2 expansion was completed in May of 1955. Joining the enlarged Bitker-Gerner store were the Orville Harris Barber Shop, Heinemann Bakery, Janzers Religious Articles, Orson’s Camera Center, Rudi’s Sausage Shop, Stone’s Jewelers, Cotton Shop, Neumode Hosiery, and Dr. Edward Tomasik, Optometrist. With the final completion of Building 4 in the autumn, the Badger Paint Store moved from the north end of the shopping center and re-opened on October 12, 1955; and Krambo soon followed on November 9, 1955. Slenderella International, a women’s exercise salon, would also open there on January 3, 1956. Once Krambo and Badger Paint had moved to their new locations, work began to divide up the old spaces for new stores. A.S. Beck Shoes, Brills Menswear, and Maling Brothers Shoes added stores in March 1956, followed by William A. Lewis Company, a Chicago-based women’s apparel store, in April1956, and an expanded store for the Friedman’s Menswear store.

By the time of Southgate’s 5th anniversary, sales had increased by more than 300% over the first year, and sales volume was expected to reach over $35-million annually. Southgate was already widely recognized as one of the most successful shopping centers in the country, which aided Froedtert Enterprises in securing a $10-million mortgage loan for the Mayfair Shopping Center from Prudential Insurance Company of America. Mayfair had been in the planning stages since 1953 when both Gimbels and Marshall Field’s announced plans to occupy stores there.

With all of the expansion and new stores at Southgate, the one piece of the puzzle that was still missing was a bank. The center had been receptive to having a new bank established there, but the State of Wisconsin had a long-standing law against branch banking, and there had been no new banks in the city since 1934. In April of 1956, Wisconsin Bankshares Corporation, which owned the First Wisconsin National Bank of Milwaukee, filed applications for 3 new shopping center banks at Southgate, Mayfair, and Capitol Court. They finally received preliminary approval to establish a new national chartered bank at Southgate in March of 1957. Because of the state law, the bank would be chartered as a separate entity, not as a branch office of the First Wisconsin. (First Wisconsin’s existing network of 13 branches was already organized before the Wisconsin law was enacted). When final approval was granted in October, the shopping center wasted no time in preparing the 7200 square foot space remaining in Building 4 and the new Southgate National Bank officially opened on Monday, April 7, 1958.

In the remainder of the 1950’s, the shopping center continued to grow and prosper. In January of 1958, Bitker-Gerner, a 61 year old women’s wear retailer (which had a branch store at Southgate since the center’s opening), announced that they would close their main store at 3rd and North, citing that most of their patrons had moved away to the suburbs. On May 9, 1959, another upper 3rd Street merchant of 58 years, Rosenbergs, opened a branch store at Southgate, buying out the lease from the Chicago-based William Lewis store which withdrew from the Milwaukee market.

The competition

Southgate had been one of the largest commercial ventures in Milwaukee in almost 25 years, and had climbed among the top US centers in dollar volume, ranking among the top four centers in high volume of chain store trade. In their first 7 years, the shopping center had grown from 196,000 to 500,000 square feet and from 20 stores to 36 stores. Employment had grown from 600 to 1500 employees (depending on the season), and payroll increased from $1.5-million to $2.5-million. Gross sales grew from an estimated $7-million to over $30-million. By 1958, the center had an average patronage of 20,000 customers per day, and this was more than doubled during Christmas, Easter, and for special sales.

Froedtert and his advisors had been correct in their assessment of the south side neighborhood’s growth. The towns and suburbs in the area continued to grow at a rapid pace. In one fell swoop, Milwaukee had annexed the entire remainder of the Town of Lake in 1954, adding 15,000 residents to the city overnight. In response, the Town of Oak Creek drafted the “Oak Creek Law” in 1955 (WI Statute 66.0215) to prevent annexation by Milwaukee. The Town of Franklin followed suit with incorporation as a city in 1956, and the Town of Greenfield followed in 1957. Southgate successfully drew customers from all of these areas, and other developers quickly took notice of the profit potential in other areas of the city.

Before the advent of shopping centers, Milwaukee shoppers were left with limited shopping choices. A number of neighborhood shopping districts had sprung up along major thoroughfares, usually in the vicinity of a larger department store such as Gimbels or Schuster's. By the 1950’s, Milwaukee had several well-defined shopping districts including Downtown (along Wisconsin Avenue), Upper Third Street (near North Ave), 12th and Vliet, 21st & North, and Mitchell Street (between 5th and 13th Streets). The Mitchell Street district was the only one of these areas south of the Menomonee Valley and was Southgate’s nearest competitor, approximately 3 miles away. Most of Southgate’s customers came from the southern and southwestern portions of the city, and many were in the lower-medium to medium income groups.

As older central city areas began a steady decline, the population shift to outlying regions made shopping centers possible. Throughout the 1950’s a shopping center boom hit the city, spurred by Southgate’s success. In 1954, the Bay Shore Shopping Center was opened in the northern suburb of Glendale (one of the locations that Froedtert had considered for his Northgate center). The Capitol Court shopping center opened in 1956 on the near-northwest side of the city, and Packard Plaza opened that same year in the southeast suburb of Cudahy. After six years of construction, Froedtert’s own Westgate project, now named Mayfair Shopping Center, opened in 1958 and was the largest development yet.

Each of these centers filled their own niche within the city, but Southgate had fought long and hard to retain control of their own area. In November of 1953 while Gimbels was being built at Southgate, a bigger shopping center was being planned on 32 acres of land adjacent to the Southgate site. In March of 1954, former Southgate tenants Joseph and Abe Luber closed their Luber’s Fruit & Vegetable Market and joined forces with Charles Lubotsky, the operator of a chain of auto appliance stores. They began planning a $5-million, 45-store shopping center with 2000 parking spaces on land to be annexed from the Town of Greenfield, immediately south of Southgate. The wedge-shaped property was located at the intersection of Highway 41 and Loomis Road, and would eventually be known as Point Loomis. Southgate, Gimbels, the Mitchell Street Development Corp, and neighborhood residents vigorously opposed the zoning change necessary for construction, claiming that another shopping center in the area would overcrowd the market.

Even though Point Loomis’ developers claimed that J.C. Penney, Thom McAn Shoe Stores, and Kohls Food Store had already expressed interest in locating there, and that Southgate had a monopoly on shopping in the area, the rezoning was delayed and eventually denied. After several more years of opposition from area businesses and residents, and more zoning issues with both the common council and the mayor, Point Loomis finally gained approval in 1958. The shopping center opened in October of 1959 with 22 stores, (instead of the originally proposed 45) and 250,000 square feet of retail space, with a J.C. Penney store as an anchor. Boston Store entered the center in 1960 with a 30,000 square foot store, and Point Loomis planned a further $1-million expansion to be completed by 1962.

Despite the close proximity of Point Loomis, Southgate continued to do well in the area. Business reports indicated that more families in higher income brackets spent their money at outlying shopping centers rather than in the older neighborhoods, and that the areas with the heaviest declines had the highest percentages of lower income families. According to polls conducted by local newspapers, the Downtown shopping district lost 9% of its customers between 1956 and 1960, while Upper 3rd Street lost 34%, 12th & Vliet lost 35%, and 21st & North lost 17%. In the same time period, Capitol Court gained 52%, Southgate gained 20%, Bay Shore gained 11%, and the Mitchell Street district gained 7.5%.

The 1960’s

Even though an assessment of surveys and polls seemed to indicate that shopping centers were better in generating business volume, several of Southgate’s tenants pulled out if the center in the early 1960’s. Samsons closed their TV and appliance store in Southgate in June of 1961, consolidating with their store at 8th & Mitchell which had been remodeled and doubled in size. Samsons claimed that the reason for the move was that the Mitchell Street district was being revitalized, and that customers wanted a larger store. In October of the same year, Rosenberg’s also closed both their Southgate and Capitol Court stores, moving back to their main store at 3rd & North. This retrenchment would prove to be the death knell for the 63-year-old retailer. Business was so poor at the 3rd Street location that even after cutting back store usage to less than half of their 38,000 square feet, within 2 years Rosenberg’s closed their doors for good. Southgate quickly replaced the vacant Rosenberg’s store with Singer’s, another women’s apparel store, and the Samsons space was divided for several new retailers.

Other Southgate retailers were doing very well, and even expanding. In December of 1961, Gimbels announced that they were acquiring one of their oldest competitors in the Milwaukee market, the Schuster's Department Store chain. Schuster’s had closed their store at 12th and Vliet that January, and was experiencing serious financial problems because many of its stores were located in declining neighborhoods. The merger made Gimbels the largest chain in the entire state. Beginning in June of 1962, Gimbels officially changed their name to Gimbels-Schusters and kept that name until 1969 when they reverted back to Gimbels.

The Krambo Food Store also initiated a name change in 1962, when advertisements began to show logos for both Kroger and Krambo together. (Krambo had been a division of The Kroger Company since 1955.) The Kroger-Krambo store at Southgate underwent a major remodeling in October 1962, and the Krambo name was finally dropped altogether in 1963.

Southgate continued to attract new merchants throughout the 1960’s, and although there were no plans for further expansion at the time, retail spaces in the shopping center were always in demand. When original Southgate tenant Bitker-Gerner closed in 1963, the space was filled immediately. Popular maternity and plus-size retailer Lane Bryant opened a new store in Southgate in the space vacated by Bitker-Gerner in October 1963. This was their 2nd store in Milwaukee, and their 11th store nationwide.

In 1963, the first new construction at the shopping center since 1955 began as Southgate added a new movie theatre to the west out lot. The Point Theatre was already under construction at Point Loomis, and Capitol Court was also building a theatre, so Southgate would become only the 3rd shopping center in the area to offer film entertainment to their customers. The new building was erected in the rear lot along Lakefield Drive and would be a state-of-the-art, wide-screen Cinerama theatre. The Southgate Theatre, managed by Prudential Theatres, opened on July 3, 1964 with the newly released John Wayne movie Circus World.

Southgate continued to be successful with their holiday sales and special promotions, but sometimes that success attracted the wrong attention. On Friday September 18, 1964, during the Southgate Days 13th Anniversary, four gunmen held up the Southgate Bank getting away with over $47,000. The bank had about $17,000 more than usual on hand because of the busy anniversary celebration, and the robbers apparently knew that this would be a good time to strike.

In the remainder of the 1960’s the shopping center continued to perform beyond expectations, and many stores underwent renovations to remain competitive. In November 1965, Howard Johnson’s completed remodeling of the main dining area and the opening of their new addition, the Lamplighter Room, doubling the restaurant’s capacity. In March of 1966, the Three Sisters store was also remodeled, and in October 1967 the Brills/Colony Shop celebrated their recent renovations with a $1-million inventory consolidation sale.

The next year would also turn out to be a good year for Southgate Bank. After 21 years, the ban on new branch banks in Wisconsin was lifted. Branches had been banned by law since 1947 on the grounds that they tended toward monopoly practices. Removal of the ban allowed Southgate and 44 other banks to continue with their expansion plans. Southgate National Bank quickly drew up plans for a new branch on Loomis Road in Franklin, and 2 years later First Wisconsin Bankshares Corp finally got what they had originally wanted: for all of their banks to be able to share the First Wisconsin name. On Aug 1 1970, Southgate National Bank was renamed the First Wisconsin National Bank of Southgate.

Throughout the 1960’s, construction had steadily progressed on Milwaukee’s new interstate system, and a major portion of the work was completed by 1967. The shopping center viewed the interstate as a positive development, and even claimed in advertisements that “with the opening of the new freeway, Southgate is now easy to reach from any point”. (Southgate was 2 miles west of the main freeway Interstate 94, and was also 2 miles north of the bypass I-894.) What wasn’t quite realized at the time was that Highway 41 had been the main drag leading from Chicago to Milwaukee, and that the new freeway system would leave Southgate and other Highway 41 businesses somewhat isolated without the benefits of interstate traffic. This isolation would have a slight impact over the next 20 years, but would overshadowed more by the threat of increased competition in the area.

More competition

Southgate’s stature and location had helped to ensure their success, even when threatened by the Point Loomis Shopping Center being built next door; but beginning in the late 1950’s, a plague of new discount department stores also began to spring up in the neighborhood. Rather than offering merchandise from a wide variety of retailers at one shopping location, these new stores offered everything under one roof at discount prices. The Atlantic Mills store was built in November 1958, just a few miles south of Southgate along Highway 41. Other local store chains soon followed, including More-Way in 1960, Spartan Department Store in 1961, and Arlans in 1962. In 1963, Atlantic Mills added an in-house Samsons Appliance department (Samsons had been one of Southgate’s first tenants and had just left the shopping center 2 years earlier).

National discount chains also invaded the area in 1964 with a large Treasure Island store (a discount unit of the J.C. Penney Company) being built adjacent to the Point Loomis and Southgate centers. More competition would come from other new discount chains being constructed nearby, including K-Mart and Target (both around 1970), but bigger changes were on the horizon that would dwarf the competitive effects of the discount department stores.

In 1967, Brookfield Square opened in the western suburb of Brookfield, just outside of Milwaukee County. The new shopping center was the first enclosed mall in the area (constructed as such and not enclosed later), and had a total retail space of over 1-million square feet on a 92-acre site at a cost of $30-million.

A study released shortly after the opening of Brookfield Square still showed strong growth for Southgate. In the period from 1958 through 1963, every retail shopping district in the city showed losses except for Bay Shore, Capitol Court, Point Loomis and Southgate. Most of the losses were attributed to the new freeway system which made it easier for shoppers to get to outlying shopping centers. In the study period, the Downtown area lost 8.2% in retail sales dollar volume and the Mitchell Street district lost 6.4%; while Bay Shore gained 75%, Capitol Court gained 22%, and the Southgate-Point Loomis area gained 51.5%.

The Brookfield Square project was backed largely by their anchor store, Sears, Roebuck and Company, and this may have prompted other large retailers to explore mall development. Around the time of the Brookfield Square opening, the owners of Kohl's Food Stores had already announced the planned development of 2 even larger shopping malls: Southridge and Northridge. Both malls would be bi-level and were planned to have 4 anchor stores on 150-acre sites on the north and south sides of the city. Southridge would be completed in 1970 and Northridge in 1972, but the threat of them in 1967 gave Southgate serious thought about the future of their own shopping center and how they could stay competitive in the Milwaukee market. By the end of the decade the answer became clear: expansion of the shopping center and conversion to an enclosed mall.

The 1970s through 1990s

Southgate Mall conversion

In May 1970, the first indication of anything new happening at the shopping center was a short teaser slipped into Southgate’s monthly print advertisements: “Watch Southgate grow in 1970”. By July of 1970, the teaser changed to “First, the new Southgate logo”, and in August the Southgate 19th Anniversary ad actually showed the new shopping center name “Southgate Mall”.

Plans were announced and construction was ready to begin by October of 1970. The shopping center would be converted to an enclosed mall by the next summer at a cost of $1.5-million. The conversion would involve adding a new structure along the entire east side of the original 2 buildings (the area that was currently being used as a drive-up loading zone). The new structure would consist of 40 shop units in 6 groups, and the shopping units could be combined to provide larger rental spaces if desired. The mall would be carpeted and air-conditioned throughout. The 20-foot wide space between the new structure and the old buildings (the existing canopied sidewalk) would be enclosed and become the main mall walkway. Froedtert Lane, the driveway which previously connected the east and west parking lots, would also be enclosed with a redwood ceiling to match the mall walkway, and would contain a large fountain, seating areas, and 5 retail kiosks. Building 4 on the south end and the Gimbels building at the north end would remain unchanged except for an extension of the enclosed walkway across the front of Gimbels to connect their existing entrance to the enclosed mall. The conversion would add a total of 52,000 square feet of floor space to the shopping center, including 16,000 square feet of rentable space, and only 53 parking spaces would have to be eliminated. Long range plans also included a new multistory office and medical building in the west parking lot, but this would never be built.

Officials from Froedtert Enterprises, the shopping center’s owner, noted that “Southgate is here to stay … we are in a trading area that is stable and will continue to grow”. Around 80% of the new space was already rented before construction even began, adding about 25 new retailers to the mall. The new construction would practically double the number of stores, and Froedtert Enterprises anticipated that this would keep Southgate competitive with the newly opened Southridge Mall. Southridge was located a mere 5 miles to the southwest, and was more than 10 times larger than the original Southgate. Froedtert also announced that their Mayfair Shopping Center would undergo a similar mall conversion in response to competition from nearby Brookfield Square which had just opened 3 years earlier. (The conversion at Mayfair would finally be completed in 1973.)

As the new mall construction began, several store closings and realignments occurred within the shopping center. The W. T. Grant store, one of Southgate’s first tenants, closed and moved out of the center. Grant’s had built a much larger store at the nearby Spring Mall in 1967, and consolidated their inventory there. Southgate quickly found a replacement as Woolworth's left Point Loomis to take over the larger 2-story space vacated by Grant’s. Just as construction was nearing completion, Kroger Foods announced that they would be closing all of their Wisconsin stores in June 1971 leaving Southgate without a grocery store, but space was in demand at the new mall and the store would be replaced by a National Food Store within the year.

By July 1971, most of the building construction was nearing completion, and the first new stores would be announced: Bresler’s 33 Flavors, Carousel Snack Bar, and Evenson’s Hallmark Card Shop. The new mall celebrated their official Grand Opening on August 4, 1971, with opening ceremonies featuring Miss Wisconsin and Gordon Hinckley of WTMJ radio. Promotions included hourly free gifts from the treasure box (installed near the new indoor waterfall), Mickey Mouse and Minnie Mouse characters with balloons for kids, style shows, a Rock Fest in the center mall, free Coca-Cola, the Artistry in Youth band concert, a live broadcast by WMIL radio, a polka party featuring Don Fleury, and an indoor art fair. The new mall was very well received, not only by older customers who had come to rely on established stores such as Gimbels, Kresge’s, and Three Sisters, but also by the younger shoppers who now had more updated, modern attractions such as Daisy Jewels, The Record Shop, and Moon Fun Shop.

Making full use of the new mall space, Southgate began sponsoring weekly “Events at the Fountain”, including pottery making, Naval displays, and magic shows. In September 1971, Southgate celebrated the 20th Anniversary of the shopping center, with the entire event being held inside the mall. With the new mall Southgate now had the space to hold all of their special promotions indoors without having to erect tents in the parking lot, or to be at the mercy of the weather.

With the new mall open, Southgate could concentrate on other updates to the shopping center. In April of 1972, Walgreens was moved to a new area in the mall. The new space was over twice the size of the original store which had been in the same cramped location since the center opened in 1951. The new store had 8100 square feet of sales area on the east side of the mall for pharmacy and retail space, and they also opened a new 108 seat Walgreens Restaurant on the west side of mall.

In July of 1973, the First Wisconsin National Bank of Southgate moved to a new location 10 blocks south of the mall at 27th Street & Coldspring Avenue. The bank had outgrown the location and had long desired a site with drive-thru banking capabilities, but this option had not been available at Southgate. Although they moved out of the immediate neighborhood, the bank retains the Southgate name to the present day.

Shortly after the mall opening, the waterfall feature in the center of the mall began to leak. The central mall, which had originally been Froedtert Lane, slopped downwards towards the west entrance and the water trickled out of the fountain towards the doorway. Several attempts had been made to repair the fountain, but it was eventually removed. In January of 1977, the mall experienced more water problems, but with a different cause. A small electrical fire near the front door triggered the overhead sprinklers. This wouldn’t have been that much of a problem but it was later discovered that a frozen fire line had burst inside the vacant Daisy Jewel store, causing 2 to 6-inches of water to spread throughout the mall. Almost all of the stores in the mall received some water damage.

Water problems aside, Southgate had managed to stay afloat and even thrive throughout the 1970’s. Shopping center managers and analysts believed that the Northridge Mall which opened in August of 1972 would be the final shopping center to be built, and that the market was saturated since major shopping centers now encircled the entire Milwaukee area. Census figures had shown a decline in Milwaukee’s population between 1960 and 1970 as the suburbs and surrounding counties took up the growth. The mass exodus of retailers and shoppers from the Downtown area and the decaying central city that had begun in the late 1950’s, had also continued through the 1960’s and 70’s. In 1972, the Brills/Colony menswear store closed both its 3rd Street and Downtown stores, citing that shoppers required “easy parking, well lighted lots and adequate police protection”. By the mid 1970’s, both Upper 3rd Street and the Vliet Street district had lost nearly all status as shopping areas. Several Downtown merchants such as Gimbels, Chapmans, and Boston Store had established branch stores in outlying shopping centers to maintain and boost sales and profits, but Downtown business continued to suffer at the hands of suburban sprawl. An analysis of consumer retail preferences from 1964 to 1974 showed that the Downtown area had dropped from 46.8% to 29%. Southgate had managed to remain relatively stable and recorded only a slight drop, from 25.8% to 23%. This drop could be directly attributed to the opening of Southridge, which had managed to climb from 29.1% to 32.1% in only 3 years of operation. Even though Southgate appeared to be holding its own against the competition, the conclusion of the 1970s would begin a long period of flux for the mall.

Mall sale

At the beginning of June 1978 came the surprise announcement that Southgate Mall was being sold to an unidentified buyer. Froedert Enterprises had been the original owners and developers of the shopping center since its inception, operating Southgate Mall, Inc. as a separate subsidiary to distinguish it from their other interests. Upon Kurtis Froedtert’s death in 1951, 46% ownership remained with Froedtert Enterprises and the 54% majority interest was transferred to the Froedtert Memorial Lutheran Hospital Trust, a trust fund set up at Froedtert’s request for the construction of a new hospital in Milwaukee. The hospital had finally been approved and a groundbreaking was held in September 1977, so the sale of Southgate would essentially amount to a cash-out to pay for the hospital’s construction.

The buyer was finally announced at the end of June. Southgate would be sold for $9.45-million cash to Sarakreek Holdings NV, an Amsterdam based investment company whose stockholders were primarily Dutch and French pension funds. Southgate’s rental agents, the Robert A. Polacheck Company, identified the sale as “the first large foreign real estate investment in Milwaukee”, and it was believed to be one of the largest single real estate transactions ever in the area. The trust portion of the proceeds, an estimated $5.1-million, would go toward construction of the new Froedtert Memorial Lutheran Hospital which was expected to be completed in 1980. Sarakreek Holdings retained Froedtert Enterprises as managers of the shopping center, and the Polacheck firm would also continue as exclusive rental agents. The Northwestern Mutual Life Insurance Co. which had financed the original Southgate and Mayfair operations, also provided $6-million in financing when Southgate was bought by Sarakreek.

The sale of the mall had little effect on the daily operations of the center, and for merchants and customers alike it was business as usual. One trend that began to occur around this time was mall walking. Many senior citizens had discovered that walking back and forth from one end of the mall to the other was great cardiovascular exercise, and that the air-conditioned mall offered a safe comfortable space to walk and socialize. Southgate encouraged the retired seniors’ use of the mall since they typically walked in the early morning hours when other customers were at work, and many of them had been patronizing the businesses there since the shopping center’s inception. One such retiree was 75 year old Edward Waldoch, who the merchants had affectionately nicknamed “The Mayor of Southgate”. As a young boy, Waldoch bought ducks and geese at the farm that had originally stood on the site, and as a retiree he treated everyone he met at the mall as his family. When the mall was being enclosed, Waldoch was there to offer coffee to the construction workers, and after the opening he waited at 7:00 AM each morning for the doors to be unlocked so he could walk the mall and chat with merchants and customers.

While most of the retirees found Southgate a pleasant place to walk, many other customers had complained about the mall’s dark interior. The redwood ceiling and inadequate lighting combined to make the mall area dim and indistinct, so Southgate planned several renovations for the mall. Skylights would be cut through the canopy ceiling to allow more natural lighting in the mall-space, and other updates would also be added in the upcoming year, including new signs and parking lot maintenance.

Another reason for the remodeling at Southgate was the announcement of yet another mall to be built in Milwaukee. The Grand Avenue Mall would link together 4 entire city blocks of existing buildings in Downtown Milwaukee along Wisconsin Avenue (originally known as Grand Avenue). The buildings would be joined by new crosswalks and skywalks and would be anchored by the original Gimbels and Boston Store buildings at each end of the mall. The new mall would also include the Plankinton Arcade building, a 1916 shopping arcade that had at one time housed 60 specialty shops and restaurants, with bowling and billiards in a basement entertainment area. The Grand Avenue would provide a long needed shot in the arm to downtown businesses and was expected to be open in March 1982; but construction was postponed by an electrician’s strike, delaying the opening until August.

With the opening of Grand Avenue and the prospect of little or no population growth in the Milwaukee metro area, the competition for retail dollars increased greatly. Management at Southgate and Point Loomis believed that the new Grand Avenue Mall would not directly reduce their business volume. A 1981 newspaper survey of shopping preferences showed that Southgate had maintained a 23.5% rating, almost unchanged from 5 years earlier. Other ratings included Mayfair at 35.8%, Southridge at 35%, Northridge at 32.3%, Brookfield Square at 29.8%, Downtown at 27.3%, and Point Loomis at 19.2%. The new downtown mall was expected to have more of an effect on north side malls such as Bay Shore, Capitol Court, and possibly Northridge. The shopping districts closest to Downtown were already some of the lowest in the ratings, with Capitol Court at 23.4%, Bay Shore at 20.7%, and Mitchell Street at 15.1%.

Through the early 1980s, Southgate continued remodeling and updates to the mall in an effort to remain competitive. The final renovation in the summer of 1985 was the replacement of the original 1951 Southgate sign with a new smaller sign featuring the mall logo. Thom Joyce, the general manager of the mall, remarked that “the sign is so old it’s gone out of fashion and come back in”, and although many people were sad to see the familiar sign changed out, there were bigger changes to come.

In Southgate’s first year, the center ran several promotions to attract customers including a Mother's Day contest and a Miss Southgate Contest in May, and a Father's Day Bait Casting Tournament in June. In September, a weeklong 1st anniversary celebration was organized to rival the Grand Opening gala, and included polka dancing, square dancing, and a jingle contest with a 1952 Plymouth as the grand prize. The anniversary also included the return of flagpole sitter Dixie Blandy who pedaled a bicycle on top of a 50-foot pole for 120 hours. The weeklong event was attended by 27,000 people.

Christmas promotions

The Christmas season had been big business at Southgate since the opening of the center, with the number of customers more than doubling during the holidays.

Santa's Arrival
The season was always promoted with a grand entrance of the man-in-charge, Santa Claus. Only 3 months after the grand opening, Southgate staged a publicity stunt that drew thousands of people to their west parking lot. Since Santa was typically expected to come down from the sky, Southgate did not disappoint the crowds when their “modern” Santa arrived in a small helicopter. The helicopter promotion was so well-received by the crowds that Southgate repeated it every year from 1951 through the late 1960’s. The arrival was always held on a weekend in mid-November to kick-off the busy holiday shopping season, well in advance of Thanksgiving.

After the mall conversion, Southgate opted for a Christmas parade to celebrate Santa’s arrival. In 1971, the parade included the Heritage Flags, Conntinental Youth Band, two fire engines, the Imperials of St. Patrick, the Candettes Baton and Drum Corps, the Mukwonago Indianettes Drill Team, Jimmy McFarland’s Carpetbaggers with a 26-foot long Dixieland showboat float, and finally, Santa on a fire engine at the rear of the parade. The fire engine arrival was very popular and was repeated in subsequent years, with variations in other parade attractions. In 1976, the parade featured Sesame Street characters such as Cookie Monster, Big Bird, and Oscar the Grouch. In 1978, Santa’s fire engine ride was preceded by 5 marching bands, and 11 storybook characters.

In response to the 1979 energy crisis, the fire engine was abandoned in favor of public transportation and the entire parade was scaled back. The new “energy-conscious” Santa encouraged customers to use public buses to get to the mall, and he arrived at Southgate riding the “Santa Express”, a Milwaukee County Transit System bus following a mini-parade with several Wizard of Oz characters, Peter Pan and Tinker Bell, and 5 marching bands.

The Santa parades continued with slight variations in succeeding years. In 1985, Santa arrived in a horse drawn sleigh behind the Pulaski and Bay View High School bands. Most of the subsequent parades featured marching bands, drill teams, radio celebrities, clowns and various costumed characters.

Santa's Home
After Santa’s arrival, he was always whisked-off to a special abode for the holiday season. In 1954, Santa’s headquarters was a travel trailer set up in the parking lot of the shopping center. By 1956, a specially constructed Christmas House in the east parking lot became Santa’s home, complete with Santa’s throne and mailboxes to handle his mail. From 1959 through 1963, a new gingerbread and lollipop house in a Christmas fairyland area was created. In 1964, Santa moved to a new Christmas home on the west parking lot, just north of the theatre and adjacent to the Kiddieland amusement area. (The permanent out-building at Kiddieland was also used as a storage building for all of the shopping center’s seasonal decorations). In 1966, a tall A-frame house was built in the front parking lot, to mimic an alpine chalet in a north woods evergreen forest. The A-frame was also used in the following years with the addition of some of the gingerbread and lollipop decorations from previous houses.

With the mall conversion, Santa’s domain was moved indoors to the climate-controlled warmth of the center mall area, and the theme was changed every few years. In 1973, Santa presided over a Snow Castle; in 1981, the focus was Christmas in the Forest; and by 1985 a gingerbread house theme returned.

For a number of years, Southgate had required many of its Santas to be skilled in conversing with deaf youngsters. A Santa for the deaf was available at the mall 4 out of 5 weeknights, so it was not uncommon to see a signing Santa.

Decorations
In 1956, to draw the attention of travelers on Highway 41 during the busy holiday season, Southgate constructed a huge Christmas wreath around their 50-foot tall shopping center entrance sign. The wreath itself was 45-feet in diameter and built out of Masonite over a rigid aluminum frame. The wreath’s green leaves and red bows were painted on, and the wreath was illuminated by clusters of red light bulbs to simulate holly berries. The sign used 1,000 red 25-watt light bulbs (for the berries) and 10 red 150-watt bulbs (for the 15-foot long bows), producing 26,500 watts of light. The wreath was affixed to the sign so as to allow the Southgate lettering to appear in the center of the wreath, bringing the overall height of the sign to 60-feet when installed. For many years, Southgate claimed that it was the “world’s biggest” wreath. The illuminated wreath was used every year from 1956 through 1985, when the entire sign was replaced with a modernized Southgate Mall sign.

In 1958, Southgate added to the decorations by erecting a 40-foot tree in the rear parking lot, and installing 12-foot tall stylized aluminum Christmas trees on each of the parking lot’s lighting standards. The annual lighting of the Christmas decorations was always held on the evening of Santa’s arrival at the center. In the 1970’s, most of the decorating was done inside the enclosed mall, usually in a theme matching that used for Santa’s throne area.

Other Promotions & Attractions
As if the helicopters, parades, and giant decorations weren’t enough, Southgate included several other attractions throughout the years. Beginning in 1954, Southgate had 2 Santas on site every year: one Santa hired by the merchant’s association, and the other hired by the new Gimbels store. In 1957, the shopping center hosted a Live Windows display, with living models and animated lighted signs in every window of the center.

In 1962, Southgate hosted an appearance by the Pops character from the popular children’s “Pops Show” on WISN-TV, along with the Our Lady Queen of Peace Drum and Drill Team. Pops returned in 1963, this time with a performance by The Candettes Baton and Drum Corps. In 1966, they held a “Southgate Plays Santa” prize contest, with giveaways including a new 1966 Ford Mustang, G-E portable 12-inch TV’s, electric knives, and shopping center gift certificates. In 1967, the children were treated to an appearance by puppeteer Bob Trent and Lippy Lucy, from WISN-TV's “Breakfast with Lippy Lucy” show.

In 1981, Southgate hosted a mannequin modeling show. In 1986, a giving tree was erected at the mall in conjunction with the Volunteer Center of Milwaukee. In both 1988 and 1989, a candy and gingerbread house decorating contest was held with $75, $50, and $25 gift certificate prizes.

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