Mall Hall Of Fame Blogspot

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Mid Century Mod

Mall Hall Of Fame Blogspot

Post by Mid Century Mod »

I have recently created a retail-related blogsite (on Blogger.com) which chronicles a cross section of America's "classic era" shopping malls. The url for said site is http://mall-hall-of-fame.blogspot.com .

Thus far, I have posted articles on twenty-three mid-20th century shopping centers. These articles include a written history of the respective center, and a "mall map" layout drawing (showing each mall's corridor configuration, anchor stores and parking lot orientation). These drawings often depict a particular shopping center as it was when first opened. Moreover, when feasible, I have also posted vintage photo images with mall articles.

Some of the classic era malls featured in my Mall Hall Of Fame include Seattle's NORTHGATE, America's first (quote/unquote) "shopping mall"; Boston's SHOPPER'S WORLD, the nation's second; Southern California's LAKEWOOD CENTER, the third; and Minnesota's SOUTHDALE CENTER, the first enclosed shopping mall in the land.

There are other lesser known centers included, such as Cincinnati's TRI-COUNTY, Washington, D.C.'s IVERSON MALL, Cleveland's SEVERANCE CENTER or Miami's MALL AT 163rd STREET. Eventually, I would hope to have an inclusive compendium of America's early, trend-setting, centers.

At present, the Mall Hall Of Fame is enjoying its Grand Opening. Do stop by for a visit, and leave a comment, or two, or ten.

Happy -mid-century- shopping!

Mid Century Mod
J-Man
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Joined: 07 Jul 2006 00:14
Location: Duarte, CA

Great site!

Post by J-Man »

Love your blog! I tried to leave a comment there, but couldn't figure out how to do so without creating a blogger account. Anyway, one correction with respect to the article on Lakewood Center: Sav-On is a drugstore chain, not a supermarket. Although with the recent purchase of Albertson's by SuperValu, all of the Sav-Ons not located within an Albertson's have been converted to CVS.
Jeff
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Joined: 21 Nov 2005 21:44

Post by Jeff »

Excellent blog!

A couple corrections though.

Please feel free to contact me (jmarellano (at) gmail (dot) com )with anything to do with Southern California ( I know the entire area, including San Diego and can try my best to help). I would be happy to help with malls in this area.

CORRECTION #1: LAKEWOOD MALL
Was expanded in the 1960's to include 2 freestanding department stores, Buffum's and Bullocks.

Both closed in the 1980's with the Buffum's becoming a 9 screen movie theatre (still there today) and Bullocks being torn down for a Home Depot.

CORRECTION #2: HUNTINGTON BEACH MALL
On the map, JCPenney and The Broadway are flipped. The Broadway was three levels, and the JCPenney 2 levels. JCPenney moved in 1992 to the nearby Westminster Mall. Broadway closed in 1996. Kohl's took over the former Broadway anchor spot. Mervyns is still there, along with the Burlington Coat Factory in the former JCPenney store, and the Montgomery Ward store still sits there Vacant.
Mid Century Mod

New & improved Huntington Beach/Mall Hall Of Fame articl

Post by Mid Century Mod »

Hello Jeff & J-Man,

I cannot thank you enough for the kind comments concerning my newly-grand-opened Mall Hall Of Fame blog. It's been a lotta work.....and I am so happy that someone out there in cyberspace has stopped by.

Concerning the HUNTINGTON BEACH MALL article and "mini-malmanac", I -just today- did SEVERAL very necessary revisions. A couple of people on another blogsite filled me in on the actual anchor store orientation at the olden-days HUNTINGTON.......They concur exactly with what you are relating, as to the accurate placement of The Broadway and J.C. Penney. I am also pleased to get an actual year-date for the moving of the Penney's over to WESTMINSTER MALL. I will incorporate this new info into the HBM article asap.

As you might imagine, I never visited the HB Mall....and my article and artwork were done using the VERY limited information available over the internet (there was a whole, heckuva lot of guessing involved, I regret to say). Thanks for giving me an accurate picture of how this mall was layed out.

I gotta add that you So-Cal people are the GREATEST. If only I could get so much VERY USEFUL information about "gray area" malls such as Cincinnati's SWIFTON CENTER or Baltimore's HARUNDALE MALL, work on this blog would be so much easier.

By the way, here is a link to the latest, revised, HUNTINGTON BEACH mini-malmanac:

Image

Now onto LAKEWOOD CENTER:

I am really quite in the dark about how the original mall was anchored upon its 1952 grand opening. We all know that there was a HUGE May Company in the middle.....but the occupants of the north and south anchor stores (now Target and Penney's) remain a mystery.

So, all of these outparcel stores at LAKEWOOD came about in the 1960's? I am going to do a later day "mini malmanac" of LAKEWOOD CENTER, as it appeared in, let's say, 1968 [this will be posted along with the circa-1952 drawing]. This 1960's plan view will include the Buffum's and Bullock's outparcel stores (I've also been told that there was an Akron's store around then).

I need to get a look at one of the outdated (circa 1970's) US Geological Survey maps of LAKEWOOD [such maps have been invaluable in my quest to do early-days plans of several malls].

By the way, thanks J-Man for the word-up on Sav-on as a drug store chain...I was thinking that that store (just to the south of the present-day Target) was a bit small to be a supermarket. The reason I got sidetracked on thinking that Sav-on was a supermarket (never having spent a lotta time in/around LA) was that I read a quote (somewhere) that stated that "there was a supermarket at either end of the 1950's LAKEWOOD".
I am beginning to doubt the validity of this statement.....Hopefully, I will be able to find out what stores were in these locations in those days.

Also, I believe that, when I used to not have an "identity" on Blogger.com, I was able to post a message as "anonymous" (I had a terrible time trying to get the site to "register" my identity...so I gave up & just did it as "anonymous"). I dunno if this will still work, but it might be worth a try.

Again, thanks guys....Have a great week!

Mid Century Mod
Jeff
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Joined: 21 Nov 2005 21:44

Post by Jeff »

Also on Lakewood. The original 80's expansion included a wing east from the May Co to a two-level Mervyn's store. This store was replaced by a one level store I beleive in 2002. The original Mervyns became mall shops connecting to a new Macy's store (that lasted only a few years) and today sits vacant.

Like I said, you can look on live local or even google maps and see the old Buffum's store. just south of what is street level shops (these were later additions). According to Wikipedia:

in late 1992, in addition to assuming the management of the Bullock's stores and the Macy's locations in Texas. Bullock's closed locations in Lakewood, Le Mesa and Santa Ana, California at this time, while the I. Magnin group shuttered eleven more stores of its dwindling franchise

The Buffums chain shuttered I beleive in 1991.
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