Over the holiday break, Stoneham high school students Kayla Walsh (r) and Arianna Sarro (l) visited the FHC to learn more about Shoppers World as part of their National History Day project.
Our National History Day project is on the evolution of shopping representing how the creation of the shopping mall was a turning point in American history.Shopping malls enabled people to come together in one place and make shopping an all-day affair. We chose to spotlight Shoppers World in Framingham because it was the first mall in this area and the second in the entire country.
Upon visiting the Framingham History Center we met with Charlene Frary who helped us discover the uniqueness of the mall. We learned that the mall was designed after a necklace with the stores in a circle with a pendant representing the dome of the Jordan Marsh anchor store. The mall also contained 44 smaller specialty shops; we were strangely drawn to the cute button Shoppe. We feel the uniqueness of Shoppers World is slightly overlooked by outsiders. We learned that it had 5000 parking spaces and because of the popularity many shoppers were waiting in their cars for hours waiting to exit on opening day. We would like to thank Charlene and the Framingham History Center for allowing us to visit and learn about this great place.”
Kayla Walsh and Arianna Sarro
Stoneham High School