Fulton Mall (Fresno)


Fulton Mall was a six-block pedestrian mall located in the central business district of Fresno, California. The Fulton mall ran from Inyo and Tuolumne Streets and was home to a wide variety of shopping, restaurants, offices and public art.
Originally called J Street, it was renamed Fulton in honor of prominent local financier Fulton G. Berry after his death in 1910. As part of a major urban renewal effort in the early 1960s, Fulton was transformed into Fulton Mall under the supervision of pioneering Austrian architect Victor Gruen and American landscape architect Garrett Eckbo. The mall was dedicated on September 1, 1964, to much fanfare. During this time the mall contained major retailers such as Gottschalks, Montgomery Ward, Woolworth, and JCPenney.
The Fulton Mall declined in the late 1980s with the growth of the city to the north, noted example in 1988 when Gottschalks, corporate HQ moved from Downtown to Woodward Park. The Fulton Mall was nominated in 2008 to the National Register of Historic Places, but was not placed on the register due to objections from a majority of property owners.
In September 2013, the City of Fresno received a $15.9 million TIGER Grant from the US Department of Transportation to reintroduce traffic to Fulton. On February 27, 2014, the Fresno City Council decided the fate of Fulton Mall with a 5-2 vote in favor of putting traffic back on Fulton street,
and a groundbreaking ceremony was held on March 3, 2016.

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC0nLSWCdZUKLbE6mRuDIrEQ/featured ''Look Around, Follow Me: [The Art, Architecture, & Politics of the Fresno Fulton Art Mall''], 2016 Documentary Film Archive

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