Thursday, October 26, 2006

Ala Moana Shopping Center Interior 1971

Following up on yesterday's Ala Moana entry, MOA reader, T.C., kindly submitted these great family photos. Many thanks, T.C.! I really appreciate you taking the time to share these with us here on the blog! The following are T.C.'s snapshots (nice views of the Koi fish pond), as well as the memories that go with them:

Hello, Keith,

I enjoy your "Malls of America" blog and thought you might like to have these three interior shots of Ala Moana shopping Center, Honolulu, taken in 1971.


When we lived in Hawaii, it was still the largest shopping mall in the United States...it still claims to be the largest open-air shopping center...when we were there, the anchor stores were Liberty House (now Macy's, it looks like from the directory on their current website) and Sears. Another favorite for clothes & such was McInerny's. (I hope I spelled that right!)


There was a store called Indian Imports on the lower level that was really popular for posters, black lights, etc., and all the wannabe hippies hung out there. And there was a two-story Woolworth's store, with a cafeteria that served the best strawberry shortcake on the planet. The year before we moved, they opened one of the island's first McDonald's...they had one of those "voice boxes" at each table where you could place your order.


I also remember that at Christmas they always brought in all of Santa's reindeer for a couple of weeks, which was a real novelty! And they always put a giant inflatable surfing Santa on top of Liberty House.

Take care,
T.C.

Mall history: 1959 - present
Architect: John Graham Jr.
Current aerial view
Current website: here
Info from Wikipedia
Previous entries: 1, 2, 3

36 comments:

  1. What is that last pic? Indoor hand fishing?

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  2. Those are beautiful photos. I especially love the water features.
    Scott

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  3. What replaced that JCPenney? I do know that Penney's no longer has stores in Hawaii (or is that Hawai'i?).

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  4. Bobby, Looking at the current directory (on the website), it looks like maybe the Barnes & Noble is where Penney's used to be...it's hard to tell, though. That would be on the main level. On the next level, all the storefronts are really narrow, so I guess they chopped it up into smaller stores. The biggest change to me is that there aren't as many local stores now; back then, Sears and Penney's were about the only national chain stores in the mall, but now all the stores are the same as the ones all over the mainland.

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  5. Beautiful!! I'm happy to see more interior shots of this mall. Gorgeous water features, cool fish...

    The big blocky fountain in the center photo is a George Tsutakawa, made and installed in 1966. It's called the Waiola Fountain. It appears to be one of his designs based on his paintings and sculptures of "Obos", in turn representations of the real obos, stacks of balanced rocks built in the mountains by travellers, as a sort of meditative act.

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  6. sculpture is still there. that is outdoor carp or koi fish pond. feeding frenzy when ya threw food in.
    India Imports wasn't just for wannabe hippies. it was a fave of real ones too. where old navy is now. there was also party center. Vim and Vigor.
    many cool old tropical decor "tiki' laden stores. thankfully we took pics too.

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  7. sculpture is still there. that is outdoor carp or koi fish pond. feeding frenzy when ya threw food in.
    India Imports wasn't just for wannabe hippies. it was a fave of real ones too. where old navy is now. there was also party center. Vim and Vigor.
    many cool old tropical decor "tiki' laden stores. thankfully we took pics too.

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  8. Great memories centered around those fountains and carp ponds at Ala Moana. Right near the pond I recall a fine art gallery. In the early 70's a female painter made a portrait of my late father. If anyone remembers the name of that gallery, I'd sure love to know it. I hope to track down my dad's portrait one day. Mahalo! Joe

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  9. Ala Moana is my favorite shopping center in Hawaii. It's the biggest open-air mall in the world and the seventh biggest mall in the United States.

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