Diamond's Department Store: Additions and Alterations, 1959-1960

This collection houses photographs, negatives, reduced-format blueprints, microfiche copies of blueprints, scrapbooks, and other materials documenting Park Central Mall between 1955 and 1995.

Series I: Photographs consists primarily of color photographic prints and negatives showing Park Central Mall. Among the views included are the mall during its initial construction; aerial images showing the growth and change of the mall and its surrounding areas between the 1960s and the 1980s; such architectural features as the mall's parking lot, roof, tiling, and lighting; and various of the mall's stores as they appeared in approximately the 1980s. Also included is a set of photographs depicting the mall's overall condition in 1988.

Series II: Blueprints houses reduced-format blueprints and microfiche copies of blueprints showing the mall's original layout and construction and date from approximately 1956. These materials document buildings A, B, C, D, E, and F as well as Goldwaters' Department Store (also referred to as building G) and Diamond's Department Store. In the cases of Goldwaters' and Diamond's, blueprints documenting later additions and alterations are also present. The vast majority of the mall was designed by Welton Becket and Associates. The exception to this pattern is Diamond's, which was designed by John Graham and Company. Both firms used a letter prefix in their sheet numbers to indicate what function the blueprint documents. Their abbreviations are as follows:

The microfiche appears to be a precise copy of the reduced-format blueprints, although it is unknown whether it was created from the reduced-format blueprints or from the original blueprints.

Series III: Printed Materials houses periodicals, printed items found loose in scrapbooks, an investment proposal by the Lehndorff Group, and a report titled Park Central Mall, Phoenix, Arizona discussing possibilities for Park Central's sale and/or redevelopment in 1995.

Series IV: Scrapbooks consists of twenty scrapbooks documenting promotions and other events hosted at and/or by Park Central between 1957 and 1989. Annual and recurring events include Old Fashion Value Days, the American Road Show, Thrifty Scotch Days, Disney on Parade, the Ice Capades, the Phoenix Mobile Home and Travel Trailer Show, and anniversaries of Park Central's opening, which often featured a giant balloon parade. Also shown are one-time events, for example a demonstration of Bell Aerosystems' Rocket Belt (1964), the You and the Atom exhibit (1960), a display of L. Gordon Cooper's Mercury spacecraft (1964), a display of the X15 experimental airplane and a USAF-Martin Titan ICBM (1961), and an air conditioner exhibit titled Cool ... Calm and Collected (1958). The majority of these scrapbooks consist of newspaper clippings from Arizona-based publications. Occasional non-newsprint printed matter and original photographs are present as well. Detailed information regarding the content of each scrapbook is provided in the container list.