Meier & Frank (Now Macy's) At Lloyd Center Mall

Portland, Oregon - circa early '60s

Early-sixties photo of the Meier & Frank department store (the chain is now Macy's) at, once again, Lloyd Center Mall--they sure produced a lot of postcards back in the day! Thanks loads to reader, Brian Neuroth, for the cool find! One of the few Lloyd Center shots I don't recall seeing before (somehow).

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,
12, 13

Lloyd Center Mall Open-Air Interior

Portland, Oregon - photos August 8, 1962

More vintage looks today, at the center court promenade in the Lloyd Center shopping mall (before it was fully enclosed many years later), including that groovy winding staircase, which I've showcased in previous Lloyd Center posts (especially this one, and this one).

And here are a few Wikipedia notes regarding the mall's original major anchor store lineup, in case anyone's curious about that:

"The original anchor stores were Meier & Frank at the center, Lipman & Wolfe anchoring the west end, and JC Penney and Woolworth anchoring the east. Nordstrom initially opened as shore store in 1963, before expanding into a full-line apparel store incrementally in the mall's west wing."

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, 12

(Study images courtesy Salem (Oregon) Public Library Historic Photograph Collections)

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

The Daily Mall Reader: Lloyd Center Consumer's Cornucopia

A daily dose of mall-related reading...

"The Cowboy's Dream"

TIME Magazine - Monday, Aug. 08, 1960

(Excerpt) To the blare of bands and the fluttering of banners, 700 pigeons winged into the sky over Portland, Ore. last week to carry the good news to 29 Oregon and Washington cities. The news: the opening this week on the east bank of Portland's Willamette River of the sprawling (50-acre), $100 million Lloyd Center, the largest urban shopping center ever built in the U.S.

Only five minutes away from the traditional downtown "core" shopping area of Portland, Lloyd Center is a consumer's cornucopia. Its more than 100 retail stores are carefully clustered in competing groups (e.g., hardware, dresses) so that bargain hunters can save shoe leather. The sculpture and mobiles of Northwestern artists dot the landscape, and no flashy advertising or jutting store signs are permitted. Lloyd's has an ice-skating rink with live music, professional offices, seven restaurants, is dominated by the new 300-room Sheraton-Portland Hotel.

Read the full article here.

Lloyd Center Mall aerial view

Portland, Oregon - circa 1960s

Aerial view of Lloyd Center Mall and surrounding area back in the swingin' sixties. The Banfield Expressway (I-84) is also visible here running just south of the shopping center. A few notes via Wikipedia:

"The mall opened August 1, 1960 in its original 100-store, open-air configuration. At the time it was the largest shopping center in Portland and in the Northwest region, and claimed to be the largest in the world. (Actually, it had already been surpassed by the Lakewood Center [1951] and the Roosevelt Field Mall [1956].) Although very close to the downtown retail core, Lloyd Center was the first major retail development to seriously challenge it, aimed almost exclusively at commuters utilizing Portland's then-growing freeway system.

The original anchor stores were Meier & Frank at the center, Lipman & Wolfe anchoring the west end, and JC Penney and Woolworth anchoring the east. Nordstrom initially opened as shore store in 1963, before expanding into a full-line apparel store incrementally in the mall's west wing."

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

'70s Easter at Lloyd Center

Portland, Oregon - circa late '70s

What's Easter without a shopping mall Easter Bunny photo, right? Only way to sweeten that deal is when it's one from the 1970s, and it's from Lloyd Center mall! That's just about everything you need right there. It's everything I need at any rate. Save maybe a chocolate bunny and colored egg, of course.

The groovy snapshot above, comes courtesy of, Meegan Blue, and is an old family photo taken at Lloyd Center, around 1977 or 1978.

"...I do know that we were at the Lloyd Center. Nowadays it's just a regular, enclosed, everyday mall, but back then it looked like this. Oh, if only they had embraced its open-air Mid Century coolness and left it alone, just think of the fun we'd have!"

Amen, Meegan.

Finally, allow me to take this opportunity to wish everyone out there who's observing it, a very Happy Easter! To those who aren't, hey, Happy Sunday! :)

PS: Don't forget, the Easter Bunny's in that 1986 Universal Mall Boat Show video I shared here recently.

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