Wayne, New Jersey - 1973
Groovy interior shot of lush (and very Avocado Green-ish) Willowbrook Mall in 1973. Many thanks to, Charles Freericks, for the head's-up on this vintage postcard! Some Wiki notes:
"The opening of Willowbrook Mall came at a time when many shoppers were avoiding trips to downtown areas to shop over safety concerns. Early radio spots for the mall called it 'the new downtown', and it featured anchor stores that were also located in nearby downtown Newark, or within the city limits itself. (Bamberger's, Ohrbachs, and Sears). The large branch of Bamberger's opened in the fall of 1967 (before the rest of the mall), and with Newark just having dealt with race rioting in the summer of 1967, many shoppers defected to the Willowbrook location."Mall history: 1969 - present
Current website: here
Info from Wikipedia
Current aerial view
Previous entries: 1, 2, 3, 4
Those are great looking discs hanging from the ceiling. I want some of those in my house!
ReplyDeleteSomehow, I still prefer this to the sterilized, white, bland freshening that followed, even if the disks look like they came from a BP station of the future.
ReplyDeleteReally lovely. I wonder what the shop with the archway entrance in the lower righthand corner was.
ReplyDeleteDoesn't having plants like that everywhere just have a way of making you feel more at ease in a place? I remember how all the plants of the malls here made the places seem inviting and mystical. Now going to the mall is a lot like visiting a hospital.
ReplyDeleteGotta get a picture of the fountains at Willowbrook. They lasted until the late 80s renovation and were a site to see.
ReplyDeletethat shop was micahel anthony jewelers
ReplyDeletej.t. said it exactly right. There were some stores (like Spencer Gifts) that have that "den-like" feeling.
ReplyDeleteThe whole of Willowbrook in the early 70s had that feeling to it.
It was the type of mall that made you want to smoke a pipe while walking about!
Growing up in 70s and 80s northern NJ, my thoughts often return to the weekends we spent at Willowbrook. My family would get lunch at "Casey O'Tooles" (before they moved it to the foodcourt) and I would go play video games in the "Purple Room".
ReplyDeleteGosh, sure wish there was a picture of No Name and Smuggler's Attic!
ReplyDelete