Tacoma Mall
Tacoma, Washington - circa 1960s
The Bon Marché anchor at Tacoma Mall, looks very regal and classy here. I always liked the flags on top of these stores, too. Nice touch. Many thanks to Tyler Kaye, for this great photo! He added some helpful info, too:
"The Bon Marche opened in August 1964 before the rest of the mall was built. J.C. Penney and the main concourse opened in October 1965, and Nordstrom-Best opened in 1966. That was Phase One. Liberty House (later Frederick & Nelson and now Mervyn's) and a west wing was added in 1973. Sears and the northeast wing came in 1981. Nordstrom expanded in 1983.Boo, indeed. :(
A significant remodel came in 2000, which added a food court. More changes will come next February when Mervyn's goes out of business and their store will be demolished to make way for a new Nordstrom. The very dated current Nordstrom will be torn down for an outdoor lifestyle center--BOO!"
(Ugh, Blogger's giving me all kinds of trouble (and errors) trying to post this! Hope it gets through OK.)
Mall history: 1964 - present
Architect: John Graham
Current website: here
Current aerial view
Previous entries: 1, 2
posted by Keith @ 7/27/2006
6 Comments:
From the looks of it, the classic entry colums from the mall will be history. someone needs to get current pictures of it.
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/business/263976_nordstrom23.html
That's one swanky looking Bon. I love it.
If you look at the map of the mall from the Seattle P-I story, the columns aren't in the construction zone. For those who aren't familiar with the mall, the anchor with "TACO" over the top of it is Macy's (formerly The Bon). The mall concourse directly in front of and the mall entrance are where the columns are. Taking the columns down would be well-nigh impossible unless that whole part of the concourse was to be demolished. Not going to happen... it's completely rented out.
From the looks of the map, none of the interior mall space will be lost. (Considering that the mall has a very low vacancy rate, I can see why.) The part of Phase III that intrudes into the mall is part of Nordstrom. I would imagine that Nordstrom will be converted into both in-line mall space and outward-facing lifestyle center space. Phase I is entirely an expansion onto the existing building. (On the exterior facade of the food court, there's a very, very faint Lucky labelscar dating from the days when the mall had a supermarket. It will definitely be gone.)
I support the demolishion of the current Nordstorm because it was renovated in the 80s making it feel like crap. Instead of building a lifestyle center, however, they should add a new tenent like Sears.
Uh, I hate to break it to you, Anonymous, but Sears has been a tenant at the Tacoma Mall for 25 years!
A few Tacoma Mall questions that I hope anyone can answer for me:
1.) Anyone remember the name of the tavern that used to be on the southern exterior of the Mall? I want to say it was the Robin Hood or something like that. I remember meeting my dad there when I was coming home from WSU (91/92) for break, and my roommate (both of us were Tacoma natives, but by this time I was living in Port Angeles) was dropping me off there, and we had a drink with the old man before he and I headed home.
2.) This one goes back even further. Who remembers the store that had a lunch counter/snack bar that was close to the JCPenney's? If I remember correctly, it was on the same side of the main walkway as Penney's, pretty much where the Forever 21 and Zumiez stores are now.
Cheers!
Post a Comment
<< Home