The history of the Old Pueblo Museum in the Foothills Center in Tucson,
Arizona is a case study in the benefits a museum can bestow on a mall and
the dangers of success when the standard is profitability rather than
service.  In 1984 the Foothills Mall was a financial wreck with a 50%
occupancy rate.  Federated Stores abandoned its half interest in the mall
leaving the remaining owner, the AT&T Retirement Trust, with the choice of
dumping the property at a loss or trying to save it and possibly throwing
good money after bad.  They opted for the latter but had the good sense to
hire a brilliant real estate manager, Don Baker, who realized that the
entire character of the mall had to change if it was going to compete with
other larger, more favorably located malls.  He spent $2,000,000 creating a
dramatic 6,000 square foot, two level museum in the center of the mall and
focused the entire advertizing campaign of the mall on the cultural aspects
of the exhibitions and programs of the Museum.  Opened in 1986, the Museum
was named Old Pueblo because that was the original name of the settlement
that became Tucson.  We were looking for a link to something beyond the
mall.  Even the name of the mall was changed to Foothills Center.

Admission was free because the objective was to bring more people to the
mall to spend their money in the shops.  Half of the Museum was devoted to
two long term exhibits, a hypothetical Paleo-indian cave with butchered
mastodon bones and other artifacts, and a display of exotic, but local, gems
and minerals borrowed from the Arizona Sonora Desert Museum.  The main
portion of the Museum was for changing exhibitions, ranging from "Classic
Navaho and Hopi Textiles" to "25 Years of Space Photography" and "Antique
Bicycles and Bicycle Posters" to "Dogs: Magical, Mystical, Inspirational" (a
contemporary art exhibition).  Over the next four years the Old Pueblo
Museum became the second most popular museum in Tucson (the Arizona Sonora
Desert Museum stayed far ahead), attendance at the mall doubled, the empty
stores were rapidly being rented, and Don baker transferred to another
project (and sadly passed away shortly afterward.)  The new mall management
took stock of the success of the mall and its museum, and determined a
museum was no longer necessary.  Advertizing reverted to traditional
merchandise based appeals.  Funding was withdrawn and the Old Pueblo Museum
was closed in 1994.