Watertown's Public Square: The Oldest Covered Mall in America

Watertown's Public Square has been the center of city life since the first settlers arrived around eighteen hundred. In eighteen oh five, several landowners donated their parcels to create a common public ground. It became the business heart of this North Country city, hard against the Black River, and developed steadily through the nineteenth century.

After a devastating fire swept most of the square in May eighteen forty-nine, it was rapidly rebuilt with substantial brick and stone. The Arcade, built in eighteen fifty, claims to be the oldest continuously operating covered mall in the United States. A fountain went up in the square's central park in the eighteen fifties, and the square has been a gathering place for civic celebration ever since. The historic district is on the National Register of Historic Places.