Fast Fact
- — August 1, 2010
Did you know that Bellevue Square was the first regional suburban shopping center in the Pacific Northwest?
Built on what used to be strawberry fields, the shopping center got its start when Kemper Freeman Sr. began buying up Bellevue property with his father, Miller Freeman. On August 20, 1946, “Bellevue Shopping Square” opened amid pomp and pageantry including searchlights, an orchestra and a live radio broadcast. The new shopping center boasted a grand department store, Frederick & Nelson, as well as fifteen other outlets. Today the mall has more than two hundred shops, stores and restaurants, and sixteen million people visit it annually. •
Illustration by Regina Volpi Baerwalde for City Arts.
