Exton Square Mall
Exton, Pennsylvania - circa 1970s
Beautiful fountain and interior of Exton Square Mall. Looks like a pretty tall plume of water there! Impressive scale for an indoor fountain. Actually, this fountain court, looks very similar to the one that was in Cinderella City Mall. Almost an identical setup, even down to the apparent water spray height (40-foot plume Cinderella City had--not sure this one is quite that tall).
Mall history: 1973 - current
Current website: here
Current aerial view
Previous entries: 1
posted by Keith @ 7/29/2006
18 Comments:
This looks like the Old Faithful of mall fountains, if I do say so myself! Stunning!
The only problem is that its footprint looks to be so large, it appears to squeeze down the access to Strawbridge's quite a bit. You'd have to go out of your way to walk around it.
Oh yeah, what's this about "A NEW FRIEND" hanging down from the banners? We could all use one of those. It must've been the mall's grand opening marketing campaign.
No matter the mall, the Stawbridge & Clothier court always seemed to be the most striking.
...which causes me to ask.... in the "old days" of malls, did anchors have much control over the court area in front of their stores?
I need new friends also, I wish I could go back in time to this mall to find them. Maybe they would be swimming in the fountain.
Strawbridge & Clothier is still around? Or destined to be another Macy's?
This is a cool mall. A mini-Mall of America.
Scott
Strawbridge & Clothier is about to turn into Macy's.
oh, how terrible.
Generica
This mall has been totally revamped in the past ten years. I started going to Exton Square in 1997 as a college student. It had a really strange layout before they renovated it and added a parking garage as well as more retail space around 1999. The mall is quite generic now, but the floorplan makes a lot more sense. Previously, Strawbridges was bordered on two sides by the mall portion. It is now the center of the mall, with stores all around and a food court on the second floor. Unfortunetly, Macy's has gobbled up all the May Company stores, just as it did my very favorite, Marshall Fields...
I remember Exton Square back around 81. Strawbridges had a Wizard of Oz theme in the girls department and shots of old race cars hanging on the walls in the boys department. There was also a generic restaurant upstairs in Strawbridges. The kids play area upstairs in the mall had huge movable toy dinosaurs of different colors that we would climb on. They were also dangerous because the bullies would shove the kids underneath the dinosaurs, sit on top of them, thus, trapping th poor kid underneath. Ahh memories!
Man...I miss the old Exton Mall. I wish they would've just left it alone. Now it's just a boring white wanna-be King of Prussia. I remember they had a really huge round indoor playground where all the parents and kids would hang out. The few fountains were nice and the little octagonal sitting areas in the corners of the mall with the big elephant ear plants. Remember that. My uncle used to give me free tokens at the arcade back in the early 80's. I miss that place
Exton Square used to have a black theme with white indirect lighting on all the outside signs. It looked really cool. It was kind of like doing your shopping on the Death Star!!! Shame to hear its gone all magnolia. There was a great model and crafts store there. I was shocked to find out my 5th grade teacher owned it.
Wow. I remember Strawbridges was the only store in the mall. It was one floor and dark but it was awesome!
I used to hang at ESM back in the 70's-early 80's. My parents would go to the Jade Garden a lot. I didn't like Chinese so I would go to the Pizza place whose name I forget, and play pinball @ TimeOut. My fav stores were Merry-Go-Round, Deerskin Leather, and that "new" store the Gap where they first started selling Levi's blue jeans. They were in direct competition of the Wrangler Ranch which I loved because of the wooden floorboards & walls and had that western-y feeling. Strawbridges was where I got my first credit card and I loved shopping there for their Gunne Sax clothing line. Mostellers, next to the Jade Garden and the baby clothing shop had the best boots.
Strawbridge was bought out by Macy in 2004 if I remember correctly. It was one of the best department stores out there. The inside of the store hasn't been redone probably since it opened in '74. The mall was completely redone in 1999, adding 3 more department stores. There are currently plans to demolish the 16-year old former JCPenney and the Kmart in the parking lot to add another section to the mall. The remodel really killed the character of the mall, but it is still recognizable from the picture!
Does anyone remember KB Toys?
I remember Exton Square Mall from the 70's & early 80's.
I loved the odd kinda mysterious "square" configuration. Strange was the way you had to go up the escalator at the end of the bottom floor where the bookstore was. There was an upper floor which had an arcade and play area.
The layout of the ESM was like a C shape around Strawbridge & Clothier in the center. I have awesome memories of friends asking me "why didn't they finish the mall part?".
It really did have "charm".
Scottos pizza probably
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