Kendall used to look like that? See the early days of the mall and some favorite places

When it opened on Oct. 1, 1962, on Kendall Drive off U.S. 1, Dadeland was dubbed ‘Deadland’ because North Kendall Drive was called called the road to nowhere.

Built as an open-air strip center, Dadeland started with 62 merchants, including Burdines as its only anchor.

But Southwest Miami-Dade’s explosive population growth — with the construction of thousands of affordable units of tract housing, the opening of the Palmetto Expressway, the expansion of Kendall Drive into a four-lane highway and the appearance of Baptist Hospital — radically transformed ”horse country” into a flourishing community.

Dadeland became a thriving retail center. By the end of the 1960s, a rapidly expanding Dadeland was enclosed and converted to a mall.

And by the 1970s and ‘80s, Kendall had become Miami-Dade’s fastest growing community, with this trend accelerating into the 1980s.

Let’s take a look at Kendall’s early years through the photo archives of the Miami Herald:

DADELAND MALL

STREET SCENES

TOWN & COUNTRY

HOME DEVELOPMENTS

COMMUNITY LANDMARKS