Cary Street Park and Shop Center, designed by Richmond architect Carl Messerschmidt in 1938, and developed and built by forward-thinking Richmond coal merchant Julian H. Dillon, was the first shopping center in the city of Richmond and one of the first in the South. It occupies a two-block area on the north side of West Cary Street in a linear, mile-long retail area now known as Carytown. The Cary Street Park and Shop Center combines architectural elements of both the Art Deco and International Style genres. The two-acre complex contains about 16 shops (the number varies) to form a horizontally elongated “U” around the parking lot. The shopping center is a well-preserved example of the “Park and Shop” paradigm for suburban retail complexes that appeared in the 1930s and changed the face of urban America.