Retro Mall Video - Columbia Mall ad
Columbia Mall commercial (1980)
Here's an old Columbia Mall (Grand Forks, North Dakota) TV commercial spot from 1980.
Unfortunately it's pretty dark, rather low quality footage (and the volume is really low so you'll want to turn it up a lot for this clip), that was obviously ripped from someone's old videotape, but I still think it's neat to be able to see it today. Here's a little bit of the mall's history from its Wikipedia entry:"Columbia Mall is an enclosed regional shopping mall in the city of Grand Forks, North Dakota and is located at the intersection of 32nd Avenue South and Columbia Road. It is the largest mall within 120 km. It opened in 1978 and was developed by the Dayton Hudson Corporation (now Target Corporation). The company anchored the mall with one of its Dayton's department stores as well as one of its Target discount stores. The Columbia Mall Target store was the first Target that was built as the anchor of an enclosed shopping center.Mall history: 1978 - present
Today, Columbia Mall houses three department store anchors (Macy's, J.C. Penney, and Sears), a 460-seat food court, and over 70 smaller stores. GK Development, Inc. of Barrington, Illinois is the current owner of the mall and is in the process of updating it and expanding its offerings. The new Dakota Cafe food court and a children's play area both opened in the fall of 2005 and there has been discussion of a multi-screen cinema possibly opening in the future."
Developer: Dayton Hudson Corporation
Current website: here
Current aerial view
Info from Wikipedia
Previous entries: none
posted by Keith @ 2/05/2007
8 Comments:
No mention of what happened to the Target that was orginal to the mall. Anyone know?
Now I'm curious about the Grand Cities Mall just up the street (from the aerial). I don't think I've looked at North Dakota on the Google Earth yet. Trailers on large lots is baffling to me.
Scott
A co-worker of mine said I was "weird" for looking at a commercial of a mall from 1980 that is very hard to see. This is a man who's interests include the anatomy of wood, dead body organs being sold on the blackmarket and geological rocks. He thinks I am the one who's weird. Hmmm...
I've lived in the Grand Forks area all my life and have very fond memories of shopping at Columbia Mall. I remember vividly what the mall looked like back in the 80s. It had sunken courts in the center and a big waterfall. The mall's displays at Christmas were simply magical to me.
As far as the old Target space, it currently sits empty.
I just watched the old commercial. That brings back many memories! At Christmas, the mall's slogan became "Christmas at Columbia Mall" and they had commercials with a special version of the "Meet me at Columbia Mall" song.
Target opened a Super Target across the street in 2000. The Target space in the mall was empty for several years, until a Scheels sporting goods store relocated there in the mid 2010s.
I remember those center courts and the fountain! The sunken seating areas were carpeted in gray and orange, and little kids would run around the inside perimeter. And the fountain had three multi-spout water sources, which reminded me of dandelions with their seeds. It also had shiny orange, rectangular tiles. Speaking of little kids, do you remember the sculptures in the anchor courts? Kids were always playing and climbing on that dark metal double slab in front of Target. I remember the security guard chasing me off of it once or twice.
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