ROCHESTER, N.Y. -- A quarter century ago this week, the nation's first urban shopping mall opened its doors to welcome droves of suburban housewives.
The women, following the fashion lead of Jacqueline Kennedy in their white gloves and pillbox hats, were the first customers of Midtown Plaza.
Today, suburban housewives and their children shop in the suburbs. But the 53,000 people who work in downtown Rochester have kept Midtown and its 100 stores thriving.
Some say the mall, built by Austrian architect Victor Gruen and opened April 10, 1962, saved downtown from urban decay.
'We have the healthiest, best-balanced city in New York state,' says Angelo Chiarella, president of Midtown Holdings Corp., which owns the sprawling two-level mall.
The mall clearly was revolutionary in its day. Built atop a 2,000-car city-financed underground parking garage and below an 18-story office tower, the $15 million Midtown mall was financed by two Rochester department stores -- McCurdy & Co. Inc. and B. Forman Co.
As the cornerstone for downtown redevelopment, Midtown attracted Xerox Corp., Lincoln First Bank, Security Trust Bank and Marine Midland Bank to erect high-rise buildings within a block of the mall.
Although the mall was a great success, it quickly became the gathering place for 1960s peace protests, grape boycotters and hippies, recalls Chiarella.
The mall's 40-man, radio-equipped security patrol spends most of its time today trying to reduce loitering by teenagers and homeless people.
Midtown is still struggling to balance problems of private property and public access. A year ago, a City Court judge ruled that Midtown is a 'partially public place,' so security guards cannot exclude people just because they created a disturbance in the past.
Chiarella, who has managed the mall since it opened, is defensive when people complain it is unsafe. 'Downtown is what it is. I can't change it. You can't change it,' Chiarella said. 'I think we manage very successfully to serve a very large and diverse mix of people.'
Police made 101 arrests at the mall last year, but most were for petty crimes, said Rochester Police Sgt. Louis D'Angelo.
Merchants in the mall, while complaining about loitering youths, concede the addition of a 'food court' three years ago and a glass atrium last year have had a positive impact at the cash register.
'It's improved immensely,' said Dorothy Wirtz, 62, who has managed the Hot Sam pretzel kiosk for 14 years. 'The working people really hold this mall together.'
