Wednesday, May 03, 2006

Winter Park Mall


Winter Park, Florida - 1966

This venerable old shopping mall hit on some very hard financial times in the '80s, and was completely overhauled and redeveloped, beginning in 1997, and has since been transformed into the, Winter Park Village Marketplace, an outdoor open-air lifestyle/market complex, complete with loft apartments, stores, restaurants, hotels, and more. So, alas, the Winter Park "mall" is no more (including that incredible fountain). Long live the real WINTER PARK MALL!

Winter Park, Florida - late '50s(?)

Now prepare to have your breath taken away by this stunning shot of the towering Winter Park fountain! Since even the source had no exact date for this photo, I'm gonna guess this picture of two businessmen (or developers?) looking at a mall directory map, was probably taken around the time the mall opened, which I believe was around 1959 or so. Just an amazing photograph!

Mall history: 1950's - late '90s
Current website: here
Previous entries: 1, 2

[images © & courtesy of: State Library and Archives of Florida]

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15 comments:

  1. Kitten wtwWed May 03, 06:59:00 PM

    It looked a nice peaceful place.

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  2. ChrisWed May 03, 07:04:00 PM

    You can all but hear the fountain and the hushed conversations of bee-hived ladies pushing strollers, happy to be alive in Eisenhower's America.

    Time it was and what a time it was, it was...

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  3. AnonymousWed May 03, 08:38:00 PM

    Does anyone know what happened to the fountain? Was it tossed or preserved to be placed somewhere else?

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  4. LivemallsWed May 03, 10:38:00 PM

    I absolutely love that fountain.

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  5. AnonymousThu May 04, 12:44:00 PM

    I used to go to this mall with my step-grandmother when I was a kid, her daughter worked in the office of Iveys, the main dept. store there and we would visit her. I found it really exciting to see the inside of this office for some reason. I really felt like I was going behind the scenes. It had a great McCrorys or Woolworths from what I can remember

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  6. AnonymousThu May 04, 01:54:00 PM

    Been there, done this mall too! Guess when? Yeah, the 70's! It's such a blast to come here and visit the malls of my youth! Keep up the great work!

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  7. Scott ParsonsThu May 04, 02:48:00 PM

    It's really hard for a mall that size to survive. I can see why it fell upon bad times. On the new shopping center's Website, it looks like the original anchors are gone. Guess that was the final blow. Now there is a Regal Cinemas and Albertson's and the good old fashion downtown look.
    Thanks for posting such wonderful and historical pictures!
    Scott

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  8. czeltic girlThu May 04, 06:56:00 PM

    I think my favorite part of the top photo is that everyone looks like they're sitting there, paying homage to that sad little plant in the middle of the benches. It looks so lost.

    Or maybe it's a very special plant that serves as the ambassador to the fountain.

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  9. AnonymousThu May 04, 07:50:00 PM

    wasn t this time in america a really great time

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  10. Chris SobieniakFri May 05, 05:40:00 AM

    It looks like they've turned it into one of those "lifestyle centers" I keep hearing about, as Toledo's already going into that mode. Most of this developing is occuring outside the city limits in the southernmost part, and we so far have one opened up in Perrysburg named "Levi's Corners", one expected to openin in Maumee will be "The Shops at Fallen Timbers" and Southwyck is being redeveloped into one I hear.

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  11. AnonymousWed May 10, 01:57:00 AM

    It's pretty unlikely that the second photo would date from as far back as 1959, since it has a '60s-era "Penney's" logo on the anchor space.

    As for the first photo, I was wondering -- What was that boxy thing with the circle on it next to the trash can (to the right of the fountain)? It reminds me of something that would be a recycling receptacle today, but I know that can't be it!

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  12. AnonymousThu May 18, 01:20:00 PM

    When I moved to Orlando in 82, this was a happening place with a Penny's and an Iveys as anchors. There was a woolworths, a bookstore, a radio shack, and even a COIN store! It hung on quite a while, and then Penny's went out and the death spiral began.

    For a year or so, it was the 'Arts Mall' with hokey displays by the sorts of local artiists that end up having shows in near dead malls. A local theater troupe did shows there as well.

    The place was run by a guy who owned two other dead plazaa in the Orlando area. Eventually they were all redone. Now it's a hip, happening place with insufficent parking.

    The fountain? Gone. The weird boxy thing? A trashcan, I belive. The 60's vibe? Well, it's trapped on the internet.

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  13. AnonymousFri Feb 06, 07:47:00 PM

    I used to pick up my high school sweetheart from work at the Winter Park Mall.

    ...That Mall will never leave me.

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  14. spenser1058Thu Aug 06, 08:56:00 AM

    The Winter Park Mall opened in 1964 - two years after Colonial Plaza added the mall to their existing strip center.

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  15. TDLThu Sep 16, 03:58:00 PM

    We used to shop at this mall in the mid sixties when I was a kid! We were a Navy family stationed in Sanford and would come here all the time. I remember picking my halloween costume at this mall. I went as Casper the friendly ghost! Many nice memories of this mall. We moved in 1968 from Fl. when my Dad retired from the Navy and moved to Texas.

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