ASU Partners With Developers To Preserve Park Central Mall History

Published: Saturday, January 27, 2018 - 5:05am

One of Phoenix’s first shopping malls is being redeveloped, and workers have found some interesting historical items along the way.  

Microfilm reels, news clippings and photos from the 1950s were just among the artifacts at the Park Central Mall property.

Stan Shafer is with one of the companies working on the development. He said the findings led them to create a partnership with Arizona State University to collect and digitize the material.

"They will sort of tell the story of Park Central from the early years to the middle years. And then another part of the project that we’re going to be engaging later is that they’ll find people who were involved with the project and create an oral history of the project as well," Shafer said.

The project’s history will also be memorialized on-site near Central Avenue and Osborn Road as part of the renovation process.