Alpena Shopping Center
Alpena, Michigan - circa 1963
A quaint little shopping center plaza (not an enclosed mall) in Alpena, Michigan. Besides it just plain looking nice, I'm really posting this one for that great, beautiful star-topped sign! Classic era piece of signage for sure.
I also dig seeing an old Cunningham Drug Store here, too. Remember those well growing up in Michigan back in the good old days. Our family was always running over there for some Towne Club (or Faygo) soda or something (like we do CVS or Walgreen's nowadays). But man, I miss Cunningham's.
Previous entries: 1
posted by Keith @ 9/28/2006
9 Comments:
I love the sign!!! It should remind people that signs like these were really works of arts back then. Now I am sure it is probably sitting in a landfill somewhere.
The building design is classic and classy for a shopping center. Is this place still around and more importantly, does it still look like that?
BTW, Keith, I was having trouble posting on the blog just a little while ago so I hope this goes through.
This shopping center did have a small enclosed arcade in it. It's still there too, and still doing pretty well. The former Cunningham's became Perry and then Rite Aid; it's now a Dollar General. On the other side was another strip featuring Kresge (later McCrory's, then Smart Valu, now empty as Smart Valu has moved into Alpena Mall), an enclosed arcade, and Kroger (later Glen's Market, now Save-A-Lot). The center is now called Harborside Mall too, but it doesn't look very much like that.
To the right of Cunningham Drugs was Kotwicki's department store, which would later move to the north end of town, and then into the Alpena Mall before disappearing.
I noticed down at the end is some sort of two story structure, about where a string of shops is now. Don't know what that was.
By the way, that Wiki link isn't the right Cunningham's. The ones we had in Michigan were based IN Michigan, and died out way after 1970. They were bought out by Perry in Michigan, and by Gray Drug in Ohio.
Ah, I just assumed it must be related to the ones we had in MI. I'm no Cunningham's scholar--just enjoyed shopping there, heh. Anyway, I removed the link to avoid confusing anyone.
Thanks for that, as well the info above on this shopping center, Bobby!
Didi: Blogger's been on the blink lately. I apologize. I almost couldn't even post what I did manage to this morning. At the last minute it calmed down enough to do a little. What a pain.
I love the sign,and the building has a slight bit of the mid-'70s Kmart flavor (must be the arches) but nicer.
You're welcome.
And the building does retain those quasi-Kmart arches to this day, but it's all blue now. I go to Alpena semi-frequently so I'll try to get some pics.
...nice sign....but how in the world are those traffic lights being supported? ;-))
Yes, does anyone else notice that the traffic signals' cable is not held up by anything at the far left end? Methinks some airbrushing was done here, for reasons I cannot fathom. Look on the ground at lower left, the shadows continue (the support pole itself is, I think, out of the shot on the left)
There is no arcade at the Harborside Mall. There is a barber shop called Arcade Barber, but there is no Arcade there. This place is just down the road from my deli.
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