Dinosaurs at Roebuck Shopping City!
Birmingham, Alabama - March, 1967
In March of 1967, a traveling dinosaur display sponsored by the Sinclair Oil Corporation (the dinos were originally from the 1964 Worlds Fair), made a stop at Roebuck Shopping City, one of Birmingham's earliest shopping centers. And we have the pictures to prove it! (courtesy of Birmingham Rewound)
Also see this: Jurassic Shopping Center!
Labels: 1967, Alabama, Birmingham, Dinosaurs, Roebuck Shopping City
posted by Keith @ 4/05/2007
18 Comments:
Those are probably the same Sinclair dinosaurs that were at the Worlds Fair. Maybe a promtional stop on the way?
Duh, I didn't even notice the date! Hey, it was early when I posted :-)
BTW, that 'Rewound' site is great! I'm from the Birmingham area so that's a real find for me now. Great link!! Got a few friends and family who are going to like that too.
There happens to be photos of this exact event at the former Greengate Mall in Greensburg, PA in 1968. I believe they're in the second and third pages in the gallery.
http://www.smugmug.com/gallery/2446880
Roebuck Mall was/is a tiny strip mall from the early 50's. I used to be a regional VM for McRaes department store who had a horrible branch there. If the dinosauers did stomp it into the ground...it wouldn't have been a loss...
Keith, you must really like dinosaurs. I recall another post you did with an event similar to this.
Myrtle: Don't worry about it. I've been there, too. Hehe.
Anonymous #2: I know... Psst! Some of those are already in the upcoming post queue here. So don't look at 'em yet or you'll ruin the surprise! ;)
Anonymous #3: Come on, be nice. lol
Didi said:
"Keth, you must really like dinosaurs. I recall another post you did with an event similar to this."
More to the point, I really like old shopping centers. :) The dinos, while never not cool, are actually just a bonus here.
And yes, I did another dinos-at-the-shopping-center post before. In fact, I linked to it in this one.
Roebuck Shopping City is barely surviving, but under the moniker "Roebuck Marketplace." I would concur that it wasn't anything special.
It's had various tenants over the years: Golbro, W.T. Grant, Olan Mills Studio, and the like. The Ad on Birmingham Rewound also lists places like S.S. Kresge (Kmart), Jack's Hamburgers, and the Pizitz Tire Center, however they were separate structures, across and down the street a bit.
The twinplex, among with other retailers mentioned in the Ad were in an adjacent, but distinctly different shopping center (can't remember the name), located immediately west of the Shopping City. The twinplex became a post office and a church.
W.T. Grant closed and that portion of the building was torn out and replaced in 1978 by Cobb Theatre's "Cinema City 8," complete with a basement gameroom.
The 8-plex was torn out in the 90's and refitted as a Winn-Dixie, which closed circa '04-05.
The longest-running tenants were Golbro (which replaced the Woolworth), J.C. Penny, and Pizitz (which became McRae's). Penny's closed in the 90's and was replaced by a Goody's. Golbro went out of business, and the space has since been refitted for several smaller stores.
McRae's was the last stand, it closed in '06.
The McRae's and the Winn Dixie both continue to be vacant.
Current tenants include the State Store (liquor), Dollar Tree, Goody's, Hibbetts Sporting Goods, and Rite Aid Drugs.
As for the separate stores listed - Kmart was razed to make way for a Super Wal-Mart. Jack's stood vacant for years, until it was razed to make way for the Wal-Mart gas station. The Pizitz Tire Center is now a Goodyear.
Not sure that anyone needed all that info, but there it is, for what it's worth.
Keith, thanks for the explanation.
And to Sagefats it is interesting to hear about the rich history of this center so it does matter.
My mom has pictures of me as a kid at the same exhibition at Colonial Plaza Mall in Orlando. There is a picture of me next to the brontosaurus and the sinclair sign. Wish I could find more memories of Colonial Plaza, it had a huge 4 level Jordan Marsh department store as an anchor, used to ride the escalators....
these dinosaurs seem to be real. This reminds me of a time I went to an amusement park and there were some similar "dinosaurs"
Excellent!! I think it's perfect in order to spending time in the city and doing something totally different.
Where did get all these vintage photos.I'm so curious about it!
Roebuck Shopping City was special to me as a kid. It had two movie theaters in the 80's. The Pizitz had a bakery. I used to walk over there from my house. I was born in the late 70s and I'm glad it was there. I loved getting frozen yogurt at FoodMax.....
Roebuck Shopping City was special to me, growing up in the '80s and the '90s. I was mesmerized by Pizitz Department Store, with the bakery on the ground floor and International Barbies in the toy department. The bakery had really good bon bons.
It did become a MacRae's that wasn't special, but I could walk to it. There were two movie theatres at one time, one of them was the Cinema City 8. I saw "Raiders of the Lost Ark" over and again there.
Roebuck Shopping City was a big part of my childhood. We shopped at the grocery store (it was a Food Maxx at one point) there and saw movies there.
I grew up in Roebuck late 90’s early 2000’s and frequented the Roebuck shopping center. That place is a shit hole. The people there are terrible. If you ever want to see a picture of it just look up “ghetto” in the dictionary. Nice to know at one time it was nice, disappointing to see what no-class locals turned it into over time.
Roebuck Plaza Theatre was on other side by Pasquale's. I remember the free summer movies down there and Corky Bell as the host.
Yeah, no one wants to admit why it's a shithole but it's pretty obvious why. They can't take care of anything and property values depreciate rapidly.... don't get upset. It's the damn truth
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