A shopping court is a type of

neighborhood shopping center A neighborhood shopping center (Commonwealth English: neighbourhood shopping centre) is an industry term in the United States for a shopping center with of gross leasable area, typically anchored by a supermarket and/or large drugstore. Versu ...

that developed, particularly in

Greater Los Angeles Greater Los Angeles is the second-largest metropolitan region in the United States with a population of 18.5 million in 2021, encompassing five counties in Southern California extending from Ventura County in the west to San Bernardino ...

, in the 1920s. Most had a few boutiques, themed shops (as today in a

festival marketplace A festival marketplace is a European-style shopping market in the United States. It is an effort to revitalize downtown areas in major US cities begun in the late 20th century. Festival marketplaces were a leading downtown revitalization strategy ...

), and cafes, up to a dozen and sometimes included offices and studios. A linear walkway or patio connected the units, which was relatively new, as up to then, collections of shops under a management or coordination were connected by a public sidewalk, as in

Westwood Village Westwood is a commercial and residential neighborhood in the northern central portion of the Westside region of Los Angeles, California. It is the home of the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA). Bordering the campus on the south ...

Country Club Plaza The Country Club Plaza (often called The Plaza) is a privately-owned regional shopping center in the Country Club District of Kansas City, Missouri. Opened in 1923, it was the first planned suburban shopping center and the first regional shop ...

. Patios of buildings in Mexico, Latin America and the Mediterranean inspired the design on the shopping court, as those regions also inspired much of the Southern California architecture during that era, e.g.

Spanish Colonial Revival architecture The Spanish Colonial Revival Style ( es, Arquitectura neocolonial española) is an Architectural style, architectural stylistic movement arising in the early 20th century based on the Spanish Colonial architecture of the Spanish colonization of th ...

. Shopping courts proliferated in the 1930s in affluent residential areas such as

Hollywood Hollywood usually refers to: * Hollywood, Los Angeles, a neighborhood in California * Hollywood, a metonym for the cinema of the United States Hollywood may also refer to: Places United States * Hollywood District (disambiguation) * Hollywoo ...

Beverly Hills Beverly Hills is a city located in Los Angeles County, California. A notable and historic suburb of Greater Los Angeles, it is in a wealthy area immediately southwest of the Hollywood Hills, approximately northwest of downtown Los Angeles. ...

, and

Pasadena Pasadena ( ) is a city in Los Angeles County, California, northeast of downtown Los Angeles. It is the most populous city and the primary cultural center of the San Gabriel Valley. Old Pasadena is the city's original commercial district. Its ...

, and in resorts like

Palm Springs Palm Springs (Cahuilla: ''Séc-he'') is a desert resort city in Riverside County, California, United States, within the Colorado Desert's Coachella Valley. The city covers approximately , making it the largest city in Riverside County by lan ...

and Santa Barbara. They were limited in impact as the scale could not accommodate larger stores and store windows did not draw attention of passing motorists.

Examples

Carmel-by-the-Sea Carmel-by-the-Sea (), often simply called Carmel, is a city in Monterey County, California, United States, founded in 1902 and incorporated on October 31, 1916. Situated on the Monterey Peninsula, Carmel is known for its natural scenery and ric ...

–

Carmel Plaza Carmel Plaza is a self-described "upscale, outdoor lifestyle shopping center" in Carmel-by-the-Sea, California in the block bounded by Ocean, Junipero, Mission and 7th streets. It is currently anchored by Sur la Table, and Anthropologie and is hom ...

Carthay Circle Carthay Circle is a neighborhood in the Mid-City West region of Central Los Angeles __NOTOC__ Central Los Angeles is the historic urban region of the City of Los Angeles, California. Geography The City of Los Angeles The Los Angeles Departmen ...

– Carthay Center (planned, mostly unbuilt * Downtown Los Angeles –

Olvera Street Olvera Street (also ''Calle Olvera'' or ''Placita Olvera'', originally Calle de los Vignes, Vine Street, and Wine Street) is a historic street in downtown Los Angeles, and a part of El Pueblo de Los Angeles Historic Monument, the area immediat ...

(in form a

pedestrian mall Pedestrian zones (also known as auto-free zones and car-free zones, as pedestrian precincts in British English, and as pedestrian malls in the United States and Australia) are areas of a city or town reserved for pedestrian-only use and in whi ...

, but the selection of shops, restaurants and stands were selected as for a themed shopping court) * Fairfax District – **

Farmers Market A farmers' market (or farmers market according to the AP stylebook, also farmer's market in the Cambridge Dictionary) is a physical retail marketplace intended to sell foods directly by farmers to consumers. Farmers' markets may be indoors ...

(not a true farmer's market) **

Town & Country Market Town & Country Market was a shopping center in the Fairfax District of Los Angeles, at the southeast corner of Third and Fairfax, across Third from Farmer's Market. it incorporated elements of a farmer's market but profiled itself as a "small t ...

* Hollywood –

Crossroads of the World Crossroads of the World is an open-air mall on Sunset Boulevard and Las Palmas in Los Angeles. The mall features a central building designed to resemble an ocean liner surrounded by a small village of cottage-style bungalows. It was designed by ...

* Southwest Los Angeles – Producer's Public Market * Santa Barbara – El Paseo *

Ventura Ventura (Italian, Portuguese and Spanish for "fortune") may refer to: Places ; Brazil * Boa Ventura de São Roque, a municipality in the state of Paraná, southern Brazil * Boa Ventura, Paraíba, a municipality in the state of Paraíba, in t ...

– La Floreira In Mexico: *

Pasaje Polanco Pasaje Polanco, originally Pasaje Comercial, is an architecturally significant open-air shopping court with apartments on the upper levels along Avenida Masaryk in the Polanquito section of the Polanco neighborhood of Mexico City. It opened in 1 ...

in Mexico City, 1938; Colonial californiano style

References

* {{History of Retail in Southern California Culture of Los Angeles Architectural terminology Shopping malls by type