Store Front Remodeling on Main Street

Bibliographic Data

ID12145471
AuthorsRichard L Mattson (University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, corresponding author), Richard Mattson
Year1983
Volume3
Issue2
Pages41-55
Publication date1983-03-01
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenueJournal of Cultural Geography (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0887-3631 • E-ISSN: 1940-6320
PublisherTaylor & Francis (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1080/08873638309478593
OpenAlexW2001771283
LanguageEN
Citations received5

Since 1935, store front designs on Main Street have been shaped by an interplay of different design strategies and changing social, cultural, economic and technological forces. Store fronts have adopted vernacular versions of prevailing architectural styles, but more than anything else they have been remodeled to promote store identity, enhance store image and entice passers-by. In the 1930s Main Street modernized in response to the severely depressed economy. Later, remodeling took place as Main Street faced the mounting commercial challenge of auto-convenient shopping centers. An analysis of Sweet's Architectural File reveals rapidly changing trends in store front designs and remodeling materials since the mid-1930s. Not illustrated in Sweet's Architectural File, but prevalent on Main Street today, are so-called "nostalgic" facades which typically display a panoply of Early American motifs

Advertising · Aesthetics · Architectural engineering · Architectural style · Art · Business · Front (military · Identity (music · Vernacular · Visual arts · Architecture, Design, and Social History · Architecture, Modernity, and Design · Engineering · Urbanization and City Planning · Architecture · Mechanical Engineering

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