Mall Sign: Vineland Shopping Center

Vineland, New Jersey - 1973

The Vineland Shopping Center and its swanky signage, in this fantastic vintage snapshot taken back in 1973. Photo is courtesy of this flickr photoset, which also contains an interesting side-by-side shot of this image, along with an updated one of the same sign (yes, it's still there) at the Vineland Shopping Center, taken much more recently. (Surprise! Though similar, the vintage version's still cooler.)

See more mall signs here!

Oxford Valley Mall 1973

Langhorne, Pennsylvania - circa 1973

Oxford Valley Mall interior circa 1973, around the time it first opened. Man, every time I feature this mall I fall in love with it all over again! Its vintage self looked so beautiful and sexy! Well maybe you should marry it, Keith?

Maybe I will...

"(via Wikipedia) The Oxford Valley Mall is a two-story Simon Properties shopping mall located next to the popular amusement park Sesame Place in Langhorne, Middletown Township, Bucks County, Pennsylvania. Its department stores are Sears, Boscov's, J.C. Penney, and Macy's. There is a food court on the second floor. The food court was originally the second floor of a Woolworth store.

The mall itself acts as an anchor for the huge local conglomeration of shopping centers, such as Target Center, Lincoln Plaza and The Court at Oxford Valley."

Mall history: 1973 - present
Current website: here
Current aerial view
Info from Wikipedia
Previous entries: 1, 2, 3

Willowbrook Mall Interior 1973

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

Chess At Lloyd Center Mall

Portland, Oregon - April 21, 1973

A Chess Master visits Lloyd Center Mall in the early-seventies for an all-day exhibition match. The photos here and accompanying quotes below, are from the May 1973 edition of Northwest Chess Magazine:

"At 10:08am on Saturday April 21,1973. Senior Chess Master Jude.F. Acers of San Francisco made his first move on board 1 of a 117 board simultaneous, a World Record for number of players played all at the same time. It was 13 hours and 4l minutes later when he shook hands with the last player to resign.

The event was held in the open area of the Lloyd Center North Mall and drew lots of spectators. One could tell just where the master was by looking for the largest crowd of onlookers.

It got dark about 7:00pm and the lighting was not the best from then on. The rain gods held off until the event was over but it was rather on the cool side for last couple of hours. Bob Slayton of Lloyd Center Corp. did a lot of work to setup and promote the exhibition. He also played and was one of the last ones to finish."

Mall history: 1960 - present
Current website: here
Info from Wikipedia
Current aerial view
Previous entries: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11