Park City Mall - "Spring Mall" wing
Lancaster, Pennsylvania. Early '70s.
This is some far-out color design! And I'd love some carpet like that. Be cool to do your basement in this whole look, wouldn't it? Really groovy.
posted by Keith @ 6/24/2005
36 Comments:
do you take reguests for malls to track down?
haha this site rules, awesome old malls,
This photo kinda looks like one of Park City's wings. I'm from Lancaster and I've never heard of the Spring Mall, but then again, Park City was built before I was born...
Love the site. Would you activate your RSS feed so I can subscribe to this?
I think that it might be East Towne Mall.
the more I look at it, the less I think that it's Park City OR East Towne. Looks like there is a Sears at the end. There is currently a sears at park city, my gut (with nothing to back it up) tells me that there wasn't one at East Towne. I've never heard of Spring Mall, but I've only been here for 11 years. Where did you get the picture? Is there any chance that it might be the mall in Lebanon? (Lebanon Valley Mall or something like that?)
Nice site. I visited my childhood home town of Toms River, NJ a few years ago and was amazed to find our '70s crown gem, the Ocean County Mall, was still pretty much EXACTLY the same inside with the exception of modern stores in it. All the horrid brown and white tile and cheesy fountains were still intact. Even the cinema was the old, stinky two-screen affair with a light-bulb light marquee(!).
[After some research]
It seems the theater may have been displaced or replaced by something more modern. I last visited in 2000.
One small pic of the mall here:
http://www.simon.com/mall/default.aspx?ID=115
My only guess is that the town became something of a preserved ghost town after cancer clusters began surfacing in the 80s due to chemical companies routinely dumping into the local water supply. Good stuff!
Both this and your old haunts blog are totally awesome. Thank you.
Its not East Towne Mall. That mall had slopes in its aileway and no Sears. Also had some carpet, but tiles also.
Just looking at the ceiling in this photo, makes me think its Park City. If you look at the mall today, there is a CVS in the Sears wing in the same spot as this photo. Its gotta be Park City...
This is the site of my dreams.
Great site.
Regency Square Mall was the first mall I visited.
Awesome. Keep it up.
Here's a great collection of photos you might enjoy.
http://groups.msn.com/OhioGrocery
Also.
http://theimaginaryworld.com/groceryA1.html
wgahfl?
like you, i grew up in a suburban detroit mall - Northland to be exact - do you have any pictures of it? It's in Southfield (hmmmm, ironic). I continue to dream about malls...
thanks for the website - i feel less alone now :)
I also think it is Park City
I also vote for Park City -- I don't recall a Spring Mall in Lancaster, but Park City was the 'it' mall back in its day. Gimbels, Penneys, Sears, Watt & Shand were the anchor stores.
I used to live in Lancaster, and I'd have to say this looks like Park City. But the name baffles me, since there were 8 spokes to the mall, 4 were named after the anchors, and the other 4 were called N,S,E, & W malls. Great Blog, BTW!!
And if you like the carpet, I have pretty much the same carpet in my basement. I'll be replacing it soon, so if you like I'll send it to you!
Great notes, memories, and links, too! Thanks guys! :)
I do think this was Park City. That was my feeling, just wasn't positive. But yep, I think it is.
David: I'm admittedly still new to blogging, so I'm gonna have to look into the site feed thingie later. I'll get right on it, though, as numerous people have now asked me the same thing. Funny, I looked at my settings and I did/do have it enabled and "published". Guess you need a link now or something? (Heh, newbie here!)
Mango: Hey, nothin' wrong with ghetto malls if they look like this! Maybe that's where I need to go looking... :)
JM: Thanks for the offer on the carpet! LOL. One man's junk...
This is an FYI for all who asked about the RSS feed and haven't been able to figure it out. Somehow I was able to subscribe using firefox & bloglines, although I admit that it doesn't seem like I can reproduce the steps right now.
In any event, the actual feed URL is http://mallsofamerica.blogspot.com/atom.xml
You should be able to copy that URL and enter it into your newsreader.
Thanks, Kaufman. I'll add a handy feed link later.
Since I did have it enabled and "published" in my blog settings, I didn't know I had to do anything else. :) Many of the popular blogs I like and frequent daily, don't have any feed listed. Why wouldn't everyone do this?
This has to be Park City Mall and I actually remember when it looked something like that, but I recall green carpet, but who knows I was a small child then (late 70's-early 80's). There were all these funky TV tree things in the center of each of the malls, along with a fountain. Am I remembering this correctly, did it not have a fairly large arcade, farmers market and channel 15 in the basement?
the 'spring mall' is of one of the wings in Park City Mall. the wings were split into the seasons, summer, spring, winter, fall. this was only around the time the mall opened, approximately 1970.
also, an ice rink was inside the mall.
also fyi- the mall is in a major upgrade stage, multimillion dollars are being poured into it, so expect someone to post an updated picture in about a year or so
Boss of Sad: Thanks for visiting and sharing those pix! Very cool. And yeah, I need to butter Sarah up more, cuz I have two other blogs that are looking for that "big break", too! ;)
And thanks, Kevin and Jonmonji, too, for the further details on the shot! Jonmonji, you solidified what an earlier poster said about there maybe being "wings" in the mall (which is what I was starting to suspect, too). Thanks! Park City it is then! I'll update that entry.
Good detective work, guys! :)
Thanks Kevin, I had forgotten about the TV trees until you mentioned them! And the basement which contained the skating rink and arcade was leased by the someone I knew, which I had also almost forgotten. I think the Farmers Market went in after the skating rink failed. In the intital version of the mall, you could look down at people skating as you walked through the wall through windows on the main level. And Channel 15 was there as well....last time I was there most of that area had been turned into a Kohl's store. Now, if someone could only turn up some pictures of "The York Mall".
You gotta love interior shots of old malls such as this.. I mean, back then, the term "food court" was nonexistent. All they had was the occasional Orange Julius kiosk, KarmelKorn and maybe a Baskin and Robins. The late 70s to early 80s was such a relaxed atmosphere to live in and a welcome departure from the post 9/11 society we live in today.
Hi. I work in Park City Mall - and in this "mall" actually. This is definitely a picture of Park City. Park City is set up in spokes, like a wagon wheel. Unlike the malls of today, each wing of the mall is called a "mall." The "Spring Mall" is now the "Sears Mall." It was fun looking at this picture and seeing all the store that are no longer there and saying "that's where...is now..." LOL. I do remember the hideous carpeting. Although, my recollection also has TONS of cigarette burns in the carpeting also - so this must have been right after the mall opened. I believe Park City was built in 1970, and opened in 1971. It was the largest mall (square foot?) in America until the Mall Of Americas came along.
Kevin,
You are right. This is definitely Park City Mall. Lived here all my life. The lower level was originally an amusement park with a small roller coaster when it first opened. Then came the ice rink with the windows above it so mall walkers upstairs could gaze down on the skaters. Then the arcade went in across from the skaters. The arcade then closed and a cruddy farmers market went in. Then finally everything was torn out, and Kohl's built their store in the whole lower level.
I also recall a twin cinema that believe it or not, used to show X-rated movies. It is now a Lenscrafters--just across from the Kohl's.
This is WITHOUT A DOUBT Park City Mall. In the early 70's, my family would go to the amusement park located on the lower level every Saturday night after dinner. There was a glass maze, a roller coaster (clown-themed, I think), miniature cars to sit in and drive around a "terrain" of sorts, and yes, I even recall a dark ride (I seem to remember a fireman theme). Anyone have pictures of this place? Or remember the name of the park? And yes! There was indeed an X-rated theater (I think it was called Century Theaters)that went out in the mid 80's.
That is Park City, for sure. When it was first built in the 70's, each mall was named after a season. The fake trees & flowers in each mall reflected the the season in which they were located.
The main "spokes" of the mall are now named after the anchor store at the end. The smaller spokes are named North, South, etc. Park city looks NOTHING like this anymore. The carpet was replaced with brick tile after just a few year as it was quickly stained from food & burned from cigs. They just completed a major indoor upgrade in 2007 with new tile, lights, decor...everything! Pretty nice there now.
Great site!!
Yeah, it is Park City. Originally there was an ice skating rink downstair which later went to roller skating. Also the was a small amusement park with a baby roller coaster and like another has already posted, a dark ride: Keystone Cops. There was even a small go-cart track and pinball arcade and pool tables. I also recall a miniature golf course too.
Much of this did not last and was replaced with the "Farmers Market"
As a child, I was sorely disappointed. I first played "Space Invaders" at the arcade. Yikes I'm older than dirt!
Yep, I remember the nasty cigarette burned and stained carpet. I probably put out my share of butts in it as a teenager!! LOL!!!! This was a really cool mall in its day. One guy posted about Watt & Shand and that brought back memories too!! I had totally forgotten about that store!!!! Peach, now in Easton, PA
This was an awesome mall in it's early days. I loved the Island Zombies at the Jade Tiki Inn. Downed 5 of them during one visit and stumbled across the little bridge on the way out.
It wasnt an ice rink it was a roller skating rink we used to go there every Sunday.
When Park City first opened, it was so revolutionary that BUSLOADS of shoppers were brought in from NY and other areas. It was a major tourist attraction. I grew up out in the rural area to the east, but all of us ended up at Park City to do our shopping, see our friends and be seen.
yo this mall had dem amish hos chillin there. they fux like rabbits and when you want them to leave you shine a light at them and they go running back to caleb or ishmael or whoever that fuk is. and they fux 1 1/2 times more than the regular ho
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