The History of The Piedmont Neighborhood and The Shoppes at Piedmont

In the 1930’s Charles Stuart, head of Stuart Investment Company purchased 112 acres of land “12 minutes from downtown Lincoln” for a “restricted residential” development. The neighborhood would be called Piedmont and was bounded by the streets of Randolph Street to the north, A Street on the south, 50th Street on the west and 56th Street on the east. 
 

Stone and Brick Arches of Piedmont

Stone and brick arches to mark the development of Piedmont were built on the corners of 52nd and Randolph, South Cotner Blvd. and Randolph, South Cotner Blvd. and A Street and 56th and Ellendale Drive. At 52nd and Randolph is the sole remnant of the four arches and is a beautiful stone entrance arch marking the northwest corner of Piedmont. It was recently rebuilt and moved further from the intersection after an automobile damaged it some years ago. The South Cotner Blvd. and Randolph arch was razed for the addition of a home site and adjoining park-like land. The 50th and A Street arch became the Lincoln Fire Department station, while the 56th and Ellendale arch was lost when traffic at 56th and A Street became too congested. 
 

Piedmont Community

The new development of Piedmont offered “A community of beautiful homes amid spacious surroundings”. Streets in Piedmont purposely avoided the grid system of Lincoln and offered spacious lots three times larger than the regulation-sized lots of Lincoln. The lots were also designed so that no home would be directly facing one across the street. 

In the southwest corner of Piedmont was a proposed community center with a large park to its north. The park was originally considered for a high school but ultimately become the site of Millard Lefler Junior High School. The proposed community center is the current site of The Piedmont Shopping Center now known as The Shoppes at Piedmont. 

Piedmont Shopping Center

The Piedmont Shopping Center was originally built in the 1950’s by the Kimball family. The final layout for the center as it exists today was completed in the mid 1960’s. The center was the first shopping center in Lincoln and was a major neighborhood shopping center during the 1970's and 1980’s which included tenants such as Safeway, Ben Franklin and K's Restaurant. The center was also the backdrop for the movie, “Terms of Endearment” filmed in 1983 staring Debra Winger, Shirley MacLaine, Jack Nicholson, Danny DeVito, Jeff Daniels, and John Lithgow. 

In 2013, Steve Glenn, the Glenn Family, Mike Owens and Jeff Fortenberry led a group of investors to purchase the center with a commitment to redevelop it into an upscale retail and service neighborhood shopping center.  Assisting with the redesign was the team of Archi+ETC. LLC lead by owner Cristy Joy. Ayars and Ayars, Inc. along with owner Mike Ayars lead all construction and redevelopment. With construction completed in 2014 the center was the re-launched as “The Shoppes at Piedmont”.