Stouffer's Restaurant At Eastland Center Mall

Harper Woods, Michigan - circa 1960s

Great vintage sixties interior postcard view of Stouffer's Restaurant at Eastland Center Mall (aka Eastland Shopping Center), in Metro Detroit. Eastland Center is still there today, unfortunately this swanky restaurant is not. The mall is currently anchored by Sears, Target, Macy's, Marshall Field's, Steve & Barry's, and Lowe's Home Improvement Warehouse. More vintage photos of Eastland Center Mall coming soon!

Mall history: 1957 - present
Current website: here
Current aerial view
Previous entries: 1, 2

Mall Sign: Wonderland Mall

Livonia, Michigan

The super-cool Wonderland Mall sign (via AmericaJR.com) as it looked a few years ago (before the defunct shopping mall was demolished), yet still reflecting its classic original retro design from the 1960s. I've always liked this simple, yet bold, power look. An interesting and solid sign design if you ask me. Here are a few notes via Dead Malls' Wonderland entry:

"Wonderland Mall, Michigan's third-oldest mall, opened in 1959 in the western Detroit suburb of Livonia. This 850,000 sq. ft. mall had Montgomery Ward as its original anchor. Later on Target, Foland's (a catalog store), Amazing Savings (formerly Mazel's), Dunham's Sporting Goods, and Office Max joined the anchor lineup. It also was the first mall in metro Detroit to offer kiddie train rides, and used that as a selling point in its promotions.

The layout of Wonderland was similar to a 'TTT' look. At the left end of the first 'T' were Wards and Amazing Savings. An AMC 6-screen multiplex was situated at the right end of the last 'T'. The three wings that spurred off the 'T's, from left to right, were Dunham's/OfficeMax, Foland's, and Target."

Mall history: 1959 - 2003 (dead)
Current website: n/a (archived site here)
Previous entries: 1

MOA Galleria - Universal Mall Vintage Decor

Warren, Michigan - circa 1980s

Since precious little vintage Universal Mall material has surfaced online (or in my inbox) yet, I'm reduced to recreating my own for this relatively obscure little cult mall I grew up with in Warren, MI. And that's what the above graphic is. It's my own Photoshop rendition of the forest-themed wall mural (or wallpaper) that hung in certain areas of Universal Mall's funky interior back in the early to mid '80s, and possibly before.

This design is based on my 1986 Universal Mall Boat Show video, where you can see quick glimpses of the mall's mural art in the background of certain shots. Obviously it was there in early 1986 (the time of the video), but my own youthful memories of this decor element go further back than that. How far back it actually does date in the mall I'm not sure, but it's possible it goes back to the late '70s at least (not that anyone on Earth really cares besides me). Either way, I just dug the design and thought I'd try to recreate it and document it here on the blog--for posterity's sake if nothing else.

More Universal Mall: 1, 2

Muskegon Mall Seventies Aerial

Muskegon, Michigan - circa 1976

Vintage aerial view of Muskegon Mall in the seventies, shortly after it originally opened. This sprawling shopping mall (created by throwing a roof over several existing buildings and also adding some new ones) located in the historic heart of downtown Muskegon, MI, opened in 1976, but began to struggle for its retail life in the '90s, until finally closing its doors for good in 2001. It has since been demolished and the area is undergoing an ongoing and long-term redevelopment/revitalization process.

I'll be sharing some interior photos of this mall as well in the near future. It had quite the funky look going on!

Mall history: 1976 - 2001 (dead/redeveloped)
Current website: n/a
Previous entries: none

The Daily Mall Reader: J. L. Hudson Company Customers King! (in 1961 anyway)

A daily dose of mall-related reading...

"No Embarrassed Customers"

TIME Magazine - Friday, Jun. 02, 1961

(Excerpt) Into the downtown Detroit department store of the J. L. Hudson Co. stomped an outraged customer, demanding to return a suit that he had bought a year before. He had just got around to taking it out of the box in which it was delivered. "Now look at it," he fumed. "It's wrinkled." Where most department stores might have offered a free pressing, Hudson's complaint department without a murmur refunded the full purchase price of the suit.

This attitude, the product of a scrupulously enforced rule that "the customer must never be embarrassed," has helped make the 80-year-old J.L. Hudson Co. a Detroit legend—and one of the nation's most successful retailers.

Read the full article here.

Northland Center Mall 1975

Southfield, Michigan - circa 1975

Here's a great overhead view of the Northland Shopping Center in Southfield, Michigan (suburb of Detroit) around 1975, a year after it was expanded and fully enclosed to become a true "shopping mall". Seen here is not only the four-level Hudson's Department Store looming in back, but also the mall's (then) newer JCPenney anchor store (lower-right corner), and the new Montgomery Ward addition, which I believe is the store just to left of Penney's, both of which were added in 1974.

Mall history: 1954 - present
Architect: Victor Gruen
Current website: here
Current aerial view
Info from Wikipedia
Previous entries: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11

Woodward Avenue Kresge & Shopping District

Detroit, Michigan - circa 1960s

Though not a shopping mall here, I'm posting this postcard photo I bought recently, for three reasons: 1. because I really dig the old Kresge five & dime stores, 2. because it's just so gloriously kitschy looking, and 3. because I paid good money for it so you're darn right I'm gonna use it! :)

This is a vintage view of Woodward Avenue's shopping district back in its glory days. The snazzy "DDD" flags you see here stood for Downtown Detroit Days, a regular Woodward Avenue shopping tradition where the merchants along the avenue would work together to offer special promotions and deals to shoppers--what a concept! Here's the card's short but sweet caption:

"Looking north on famous Woodward Avenue in the heart of Detroit's shopping district."

Yeah, Woodward Avenue's still there, and stores are still there, but this kind of swankiness isn't.

The Daily Mall Reader: J.L. Hudson's

A daily dose of mall-related reading...

"How J.L. Hudson changed the way we shop"

The Detroit News

(Excerpt) In keeping with the founder's 'more and better' philosophy, Hudson's opened the world's first shopping center, Northland, March 22, 1954, in the city of Southfield.

This huge suburban mall offered parking for 10,500 cars to shoppers who were lured to the mall by its 53 stores, including Hudson's. The complex eventually grew to more than 125 stores and helped transform the way the nation shopped. Other malls quickly opened in the Detroit suburbs.

But the downtown store still reigned supreme.

Read the full article here.

Michigan Mall in Downtown Battle Creek

Battle Creek, Michigan - circa 1970s

Great vintage view of a stylish and welcoming court area on the Michigan Mall (pedestrian shopping strip) in downtown Battle Creek, Michigan. You can make out part of a Kresge store sign on the left, and you just gotta love that retro clock sculpture in the center--though I'm not so sure "retro" quite describes its design, as it actually looks quite futuristic now that I think about it!

More Michigan Mall

(Study image courtesy of the Willard Public Library, Battle Creek)

Fairlane Town Center with Dearborn Hyatt & Monorail

Dearborn, Michigan - late '70s early '80s

Aerial view of both the Fairlane Town Center mall (top of photo), along with the nearby Dearborn Hyatt Regency (bottom). If you look closely, you can also make out the actual track for the famous shuttle monorail that I featured in my last Fairlane Town Center entry, as it winds its way across/above the shopping mall's parking lot, over to the adjoining hotel--a trip which took 91 seconds.

Mall history: 1976 - present
Developer: A. Alfred Taubman
Current website: here
Current aerial view
Info from Wikipedia
Previous entries: 1, 2