Another day for a visit to the shopping centers and malls of the past. A true mid-century phenomenon, these places were hubs of activity and novelty, capturing the imagination whenever a visit was in order. Today’s gallery of vintage postcards takes us from the earlier shopping centers to the sprawling behemoths that became fixtures of major cities, with their acres of parking and promise of finding just about everything under one roof. About which, the opening image is at Chris-Town Shopping Center, in Phoenix, AZ.
Whittier Quad Shopping Mall, Whittier, CA.
Lloyd Center, Portland, OR.
The Plaza Shopping Center, Palm Springs, CA.
West Gate Shopping Center, Bradenton, FL.
South Yarmouth Shopping Plaza, South Yarmouth, MA.
Heights Plaza, Natrona Heights, PA.
Northtown Shopping Center, Spokane, WA.
Park Central, Phoenix, AZ.
Escondido Village Shopping Center, Escondido, CA.
Winter Park Mall, Winter Park, FL.
Eastland Mall, Detroit, MI.
Olean Center Mall, NY.
North Park Shopping Center, Davenport, IA.
The postal card of North Park Shopping center in Davenport seems to be more like early-to-mid 1970s with the presence in the top photo of a Ford Maverick and possibly a red Datsun 510 and at the lower photo, there seems to see a yellow green or yellow mustard with a black top vinyl 2-door 1971-72 Chevrolet Chevelle.
The picture of Northtown in Spokane surprised me. I’ve lived here since 1990 and never realized Northtown was an open mall before it was a closed-in mall! The older open malls were basically Downtown with better parking.
It remind me of how Place Laurier, one of the first shopping centers in Quebec City, looked back in the 1960s.
https://www.quebecurbain.qc.ca/2008/03/28/voyage-dans-le-temps-place-laurier-vers-1965/
Also, here a picture found by luck of Centre d’Achats Sherbrooke now known as Promenades King in Sherbrooke along with some hisory in French. https://mhist.org/actualites/il-y-a-65-ans-un-premier-centre-dachats-a-sherbrooke/
It still exist but it go some facelifts and the part where the former Provigo supermarket and before that a Dominion supermarket was replaced by a little office building with a restaurant at the main floor. https://maps.app.goo.gl/2PAR34hXJMZ8WawHA
I prefer the closed in malls but these days I mostly shop online .
-Nate
The Eastland Mall postcard shows the mall heating plant’s chimney. I came across this picture of the mall as it was being demolished a few years ago where that chimney was the only thing left standing:
The Lloyd Center looks different from my memories in the 90s and 2000s and is poignant because it is about to be demolished.
I could still find value in an enclosed mega-mall and was vastly entertained by them at their height. Amazon is great but having a central local source was also a good thing. My Super WalMart is doing brisk business. I’m suspicious of the excuse that malls became obsolete. I think the owners realized how much money could be had by selling off the acreage. There are towns smaller than the parking lots of Chris-Town Shopping Center in Phoenix. They would make for a safe and comprehensive training site for autonomous cars and student drivers.
I lived near Chris-Town when it was being built. I remember the parking lots being full on weekends. It’s nothing like it used to be. My GF remarked that she wondered why it is still open.
LLoyd’s Center, Portland, (3rd photo), shows cars from late ’40’s to 1960.
I’m fixated on the ’54 Olds 98 2-dr. hardtop in white over orange.
From this angle, only a chrome stripe down the center of the trunk, distinguishes it from a ’55.
Lookin’ good at age 6, in the north.