Hillsdale Shopping Center

San Mateo, California - circa 1957

Dig this peachy shot of the Hillsdale Shopping Center way back when! Nice view of Macy's, J.J. Newberry Co., Hartfields, Leed's shoe store, and a store on the right that looks like it says "Douglas" (or Douglass) something or other. I'm sure someone out there will know which store that is/was, but I'm not readily familiar with it myself from the bit I see in the photo.

If you'd like to see this mall in action from around the time this picture was taken, see my recent "Shopping Can Be Fun" video entry, if you haven't already. It's pure retro shopping mall bliss to me! In fact, my brain goes on overload and melts down whenever I watch it.

History: 1954 - present
Developer: David Bohannon (1899-1995)
Current website: here
Current aerial view
Previous entries: 1

Palm Beach Mall

West Palm Beach, Florida - 1969

Though I find no mention online about this, I believe Palm Beach Mall may have originally been called "The Future Center", very early on when it first opened. At any rate, here's a nice aerial shot of the mall and surrounding environs--including the West Palm Beach Arena to the East, in the lower-right corner. And all that barren, open land there just beyond the mall to the West is now the Bear Lakes Country Club Golf Course. The changes to the area today are quite evident in the aerial view I link to below (zoom it out for some great views!).

History: 1967 - present
Current website: here
Current aerial view
Info from Wikipedia
Previous entries: 1, 2, 3

SouthPark Mall

All photos: Charlotte, North Carolina - circa early '70s

Here's a series of retrolicious old color photos that were taken inside of Ivey's (now Dillard's) at SouthPark Mall early in the mall's life! These shots have it all; that great, gloomy mall mood lighting, sexy-swanky '70s suburban housewives shopping, groovy technicolor clothes, and even some nekkid mannequins to boot (which are my favorite kind)! Enjoy.

Huge thanks once again to Pat Richardson, who submitted these great photos (you can too, just e-mail 'em to me)! Can't thank you enough for these great photos, Pat. Thanks for taking the time to share them with us!

History: 1970 - present
Current website: Here.
Current aerial view
Previous entries: 1, 2

Northland Center

Southfield, Michigan - 1950's

Sure is purty, aint it? Retro shopping at its best! Back of this great postcard reads:

"The world's largest shopping center", built by the J. L. Hudson Company and opened in March 1954. The center section, occupied by the J. L. Hudson Company, is surrounded by beautifully landscaped malls . . . Including modern statuary . . . Restful redwood benches, fountains, trees and flowers. This "fabulous" shopping center is located between 8 Mile road and 9 Mile road and bounded by Greenfield Road and Northwestern Highway on the northwestern boundary of Detroit.

Mall history: 1954 - present
Architect: Victor Gruen (1903-1980)
Current website: here
Current aerial view
Previous entries: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5

Lenox Square Mall

Atlanta, Georgia - circa 1960's

History: 1959 - present
Current website: here
Current aerial view
Previous entries: 1, 2

SouthPark Mall

Charlotte, North Carolina - 1969

I recently shared a cool photo of the fountain in SouthPark Mall. Well, here's a shot of that same fountain, in color, as it was being built in 1969! Great historical photo that was kindly sent to me (along with a few other gems) by Pat Richardson. Thanks very much Pat! :)

SouthPark fountain circa 1970

History: 1970 - present
Current website: Here.
Current aerial view
Previous entries: 1

Dixie Square Documentary Promo #2

Harvey, Illinois

Another nice promo video for the upcoming Dixie Square Mall documentary due out this November from Paw Filmworks. Here's their description of this clip and the project:

"Stills dating back to 1966 set to The Beatles 'In My Life' comprise this promotional video for the documentary film 'Dixie Square', currently in production.

Originally created as a special thank you for contributors to the film, we have decided to upload it here for anyone interested to take a look.

The documentary film 'Dixie Square' is currently in the editing phase and is on schedule for completion in November 2006.

A labor of love for all involved, the film documents the history of the mall, the history of the town it resides in and finally provides some answers as to how a structure some 800,000 square feet in size could have been abandoned for twice as many years as it was open for business.

Known as 'the Deadest Mall In America', Dixie Square has acquired a rabid following in the United States as well as many other countries throughout the world. Featured in the 1980 cult classic 'The Blues Brothers', the shopping center has become a point of interest not just among the fans of the film but with architecture buffs, urban explorers and website creators across the globe."

Mall history: 1966 - 1978
Architect: Hornbach & Steenwyk (Grand Rapids, Michigan)
Previous entries: 1

Note: Video is Flash format. If you don't see it, you must temporarily disable your ad-blocking programs.

Edison Mall

Fort Myers, Florida - circa 1960's

There's a Penneys anchor on the right and a Woolworth store in the center. I believe that's a Sears anchoring the far-left side. There's a really cool interior shot of this mall in my previous Edison entry. Check it out if you want to peek inside this baby.

Btw, posting here is rough for me this week as I have family staying with me from out of town (I'm not touching the computer much). So it's slow going at the moment. But the pace will pick up again soon, don't worry. Thanks for your patience, gang! :)

Mall history: ? - present
Current website: here
Current aerial view
Previous entries: 1

Cherry Hill Mall

Cherry Hill, New Jersey - circa 1960's

Neat shot of the Woolworth's Cherry Hill Grill restaurant outside of Woolworth's (where else?) in the Cherry Hill Mall! I think we all have fond memories of these great old greasy spoons so typical of shopping malls back in the day. I know I sure ate my share of cheeseburgers and fish platters from them!

The cafeterias in Kmart were a family favorite, too, for the Milford clan growing up. Very similar to the Woolworth joints actually. I especially loved their grease-laden egg rolls and their butterscotch pudding (Kmart), while my dad was nuts about their apple dumplings. And I do mean nuts about them! I never saw the attraction myself (at least at that age).

Mall history: 1961 - present
Architect: Victor Gruen (1903-1980)
Current website: here
Current aerial view
Previous entries: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7

Cortez Plaza

Bradenton, Florida - circa 1960

Nice aerial view of Cortez Plaza Mall. I'm currently researching this one. Don't know a lot about it yet.

Vintage Mays Discount Store TV commercial

New York - 1978

Yet another cool old Mays TV spot! According to the source: "Mays went out of business in 1982. The shot at the end which is used on several of these commercials is outside the Dutchess Mall in Fishkill NY, which has been vacant for quite some time (except for a flea market) and is scheduled for demolition soon."

Cool to finally know what mall these exteriors were shot at! Been wondering about that. Man, I love these old shopping commercials! Makes me feel like a kid again.

Note: Video is Flash format. If you don't see it, you must temporarily disable your ad-blocking programs.

Greece Town Mall

Greece, New York - circa 1968

Dig the dancing waters of this glorious fountain in Greece Town Mall, in 1968. Though dark (and if I lighten at all it quickly becomes flat and washed out, so this is pretty much the effect they were going for in the original pic), this photo manages to capture some of that cool nighttime shopping mall glow and ambience! And the sculpture/decorative fixture thingy in the middle (if I didn't know any better I'd say it looks suspiciously like a birdcage) looks very swanky, too! I just love moody shots like this.

PS: Hope you enjoy this one, Matt. :)

Mall history: ? - 1994
Current website: here (after merging)
Current aerial view
Previous entries: 1, 2

Nicollet Mall

Minneapolis, Minnesota - circa 1970

Lets get a little fresh air today! Here's a great view of the famous outdoor shopping and dining district, Nicollet Mall, in downtown Minneapolis (still there today), with an old W. T. Grant Co. store visible on the right.

Yeah, just a pleasant little scene here that I really would like to walk right into! You guys can all come along with me if you want. :)

Current aerial view

Golf Mill Shopping Center

Niles, Illinois - circa 1967

Quite a sprawling aerial view of the Golf Mill Shopping Center in Niles, Illinois. Note the huge cylindrical Golf Mill office tower in the middle, that was originally designed to look like the surface of a giant golf ball!

There's a closer view of it from ground-level at the left, along with some of the Woolworth store facade, too (this photo dates from around the same period I believe--late '60s).

Mall history: 1961 - present
Current website: here
Current aerial view
Previous entries: 1

Wonderland Mall

Livonia, Michigan - circa 1970's

Wonderland Mall began originally as an open-air mall (called Wonderland Center), was enclosed in the '80s, and then finally shuttered in 2003 (the opening of Westland Center in nearby Westland, Michigan in 1968 didn't help Wonderland at all in the ensuing years). Last I read, it was scheduled to be redeveloped back into another large, generic outdoor shopping district deal. I'm sure they'll call it "village" something or other, or something along those lines... You know the drill.

Rather than repeat it all, you'll find lots of great info on this mall at Dead Malls dot Com, and also at Water Winter Wonderland, where there's a bunch of pics, too.

Mall history: 1959 - 2003 (dead)

Vintage store interior

La Crosse, Wisconsin - circa 1965

Just an old shot I like a lot. The mannequins keep a watchful eye on us here in the Erickson Merrill Woolen Mill Store, "La Crosse's newest and most modern clothing store", as the back caption reads. Really love those swanky floor tiles, especially!

Northland Center

Southfield, Michigan - 1950's

Along the East Mall at Northland Center. Looks like a perfect day to be at the mall, doesn't it?

Mall history: 1954 - present
Architect: Victor Gruen (1903-1980)
Current website: here
Current aerial view
Previous entries: 1, 2, 3, 4

Vintage Mays Discount Store TV commercials

New York - 1979

"Every day is a sale day at Mays!" Can't get this little jingle out of my head lately! :) Kind of catchy. Here's two more fun old TV commercials (clip contains both) for now-defunct New York area Mays discount stores. These were actually recorded off-air from Betamax in 1979(!), according to the YouTube uploader. May not be a "mall", but man do these old retail commercials still take me back to that whole trip again just the same!

And dig on the classic Mattel handheld electronic football game in the first spot! YES!!! I actually got one of those babies my own self that year for Christmas (and then got a brand new one from Target for my birthday a couple years ago). I wistfully remember laying on my groovy waterbed playing it in the dark into the wee hours of the morning several nights in a row that Christmas. Definitely a member of the Numb Thumb Club here! Hehe.

Note: Video is Flash format. If you don't see it, you must temporarily disable your ad-blocking programs.

Westgate Shopping Center

Abilene, Texas - circa late '60s early '70's

Not a whole lot to see in this shot (another one of those taken from waaay out across a road, in a decidedly unphotogenic and unflattering way!), but trust me, the Westgate Shopping Center is over there. Heh. If you squint you can actually see the Wards signs, which is the store that sits here at the end we're looking at.

Admittedly, I don't know much about the Westgate, so I'm not positive about its lifespan yet. I'm digging around. I know it was around as far back as 1961, so I'm guessing it opened in the '50s, and I believe it was demolished sometime in the '90s or thereabouts (it's a dead mall now). At any rate, at least it's another one archived now. Hopefully more will come later on it, and better pictures.

Monroeville Mall

Monroeville, Pennsylvania - late '77 early '78

The Monroeville Mall TV spot I just posted inspired me to throw up a nice shot of the center court fountain in the mall. This is actually a video grab from DAWN OF THE DEAD (1979). The interior mall scenes for the film were shot from November 1977, through February 1978, so that's our timeframe for this photo here. No zombies in this shot, just a beautiful fountain.

Much, MUCH more to come on this, my favorite mall, soon!

Mall history: 1969 - present
Current website: here
Current aerial view

Vintage Monroeville Mall TV spot

I uploaded this to YouTube to share here. A vintage 1970's TV commercial for Monroeville Mall, the rural shopping mall in Pennsylvania where the original George A. Romero horror film (my favorite movie of all time), DAWN OF THE DEAD (1979) was shot. I'm guessing this commercial may actually date from 1969 or '70, around the time the mall opened. Not 100% sure, though.

Mall history: 1969 - present
Current website: here
Current aerial view

Old Orchard Shopping Center

Skokie, Illinois - 1960's

Nice shady view of the outdoor courtyard and fountain at the Old Orchard Shopping Center. Looks cozy and inviting in the summer, but I need to find a shot of it in the dead of winter! Do any intrepid shoppers sit out there then? I'm guessing it's a pretty lonely place through the winter months. I think I do have a photo like that now that mention it...

Mall history: 1954 - present
Architect: Richard Marsh Bennett (1907-1996)
Current website: here
Current aerial view
Previous entries: 1, 2

Colonial Plaza

Orlando, Florida - 1960's

Mall history: 1955 - 1995
Previous entries: 1, 2

Northland Center

Southfield, Michigan - Summer 1963

Busy shoppers inside Northland Center mall in 1963.

Mall history: 1954 - present
Architect: Victor Gruen (1903-1980)
Current website: here
Current aerial view
Previous entries: 1, 2, 3

Briarwood Mall

Ann Arbor, Michigan - circa early '80s

The beautifully designed terraced cieling, along with the lavender carpeting and multiple fountain arrangement, mixes to form quite the intoxicating retro mall coctail, don't you think? I could sure get drunk on it!

Mall history: 1973 - present
Current website: here
Current aerial view
Previous entries: 1