Southcenter, Tukwila, WA.
Lloyd Center, Portland, OR.
Fair Haven Shopping Center, NJ.
Lakewood Center, Long Beach, CA.
South Flint Plaza, MI.
Monroeville Shopping Center, PA.
Santa Fe Springs Shopping Center, CA.
Tabet Center, Belen, NM.
John Wanamaker Dept. Store, Cross County Mall, Yonkers, NY.
Coral Ridge Center, Fort Lauderdale, FL.
Rogers Plaza, Wyoming, MI.
Love seeing all those 2 tone cars. Had a 55chevy green and white. 210 painted like a Belair 2 door sedan. You could put 6 people in that car and be comfortable for a trip.
The Coral Ridge Center in Fort Lauderdale is great, I am from South Florida,if you look closely that is a Publix in that picture also. There is nothing better than a Publix grocery store.
I take it you’ve never been to a Wegmans…
Amen, Wegman’s is routinely voted the best grocery store in the USA and one of the best places to work, no doubt one follows the other. They act like they truly care for their employees and the results are impressive. We shop no where else, except in Vermant where there aren’t any.
Love these shopping center pics, here’s Towson Plaza circa 1960s. Sorry its b&w.
Congressional Shopping Plaza in Rockville, MD circa 1959. It’s still there, although that awesome sign unfortunately isn’t – indeed it was already gone by the mid-’70s when I first remember going there. The Giant Food store moved to another location, later a Tower Records and now a Container Store occupy that space. Peoples Drug was biggest pharmacy chain in the DC area; they got bought out by CVS. There was a Hot Shoppes Jr. in the plaza, a Marriott-owned cafeteria chain that was later rebranded Roy Rogers. Before the shopping center was built, this location was Congressional Airport; I can’t imagine an airport operating at this busy residential/commercial area.
A correction on the Yonkers’ caption: the store was “John Wanamaker”, a NYC suburb branch of a Philadelphia-based store chain. A few weeks back, the old Philadelphia flagship store, still with the bronze eagle and the organ, was closed by Macy’s.
Thanks. Many of the formerly major store brands in these pix are gone, but I wasn’t sure about Wanamaker.
Wanamaker’s was our main department store when I was growing up (we lived in Philadelphia). It was a good middle-of-the-road department store. I recall they went downhill after they were sold to Hecht’s in the mid 1990s.
After the buyout, I bought a jacket at the local Wanamaker’s closeout sale – cost something like $20. Amazingly, I still wear it as my winter jacket. 30+ years of frequent wear and it still hasn’t worn out. That was probably the best-value purchase of anything I’ve ever made.
When I was a kid my family would travel to Seattle or occasionally Portland for a vacation combined with back to school shopping. I remember South Center and Lloyd Center well.
I think South Center is still a going concern, but a visit to Lloyd Center a few years ago was an eye opener. Time has definitely passed that place by, to put it politely.
I’ll take the early model Corvair parked at South Center please!
Lloyd Center was new-ish when we visited in about 1972-73. I remember an ice rink? Anyway, it was very cool for a while.
My girlfriend (now wife) worked at Southcenter in the early ’80s. It was a clothes shop called “5-7-9.” We also made the trip to nearby Longacres, where I won about $100 on a horse called Mondolu. Huge money back in ’82. I never went again, so I’m still a winner.
Here one picture showing the Place Belvedere at the corner of Galt and Belvedere streets in Sherbrooke from the late 1960s-early 1970s.
https://www.facebook.com/photo/?fbid=726401219524990&set=a.549355690562878
The main anchors of the era Steinberg, a supermarket chain and Miracle Mart are long gone…
Steinberg’s had a large presence in Quebec, and Eastern Ontario, until the early ’80’s. Bought out by either the Metro or Provigo chains. I lost track, given all the regular buyouts, in the grocery chain field. lol They had several very large stores in Ottawa. Including an expansive twenty-four hour store at Elmvale Mall.
One of my Graphic Design professors, talked about working in the Marketing Department of Steinberg’s in Montreal, in the late 1960’s. Preparing art, for their flyers. No computers, all by hand.
Steinberg was everywhere in Montreal when I used to go there every summer, until the the early ’90s when they suddenly disappeared. They had a real estate division Ivanhoe that proved more profitable than grocery stores and they concentrated on that and sold off their supermarkets.
Light blue Datsun 411 in front of Penny’s in Washington. Also a ’60 Valiant and a ’61 Dodge…is it a Seneca ? And that red Corvair looks like it might have custom exhaust.
Monroeville shopping center kind a got “usurped” by “Monroeville Mall”. “Miracle Mile s/c” hung in.
(East suburban “Pgh”.
“Monroeville Mall”, pretty sad now adays.
I’ve been to two of these places. The Lloyd Center shot is an unfamiliar angle, I’m more used to seeing it from Halsey St eastbound.
I have vague memories of Wanamaker’s at the Cross County Center in Yonkers, but much stronger images of Gimbels in the same shopping center since it was visible from I-87 whenever we were headed to NYC or New Jersey via the GWB.I grew up near White Plains so we normally shopped there or Eastchester rather than trek to Yonkers.
The first mall, appears as much like a busy international airport, as a shopping centre.
Ironically, Southcenter is only a few miles from Sea-Tac airport.
I and another sign guy removed those “M&F” letter signs at Portland OR, Lloyd Center. Back around 1989. They stood for Meier and Frank stores. Those signs were built to last 100 years, galvanized dip steel frames, stainless steel skins with porcelain faces behind the neon lighting. Built like a Cadillac.
I’m disappointed. No mention of Brookdale in Minnesota. It was only the first indoor shopping mall in the country. But, it’s in fly over country.
At Monroeville Shop. Ctr. in PA —
How about that “Triple Plymouth Sandwich”:
A dk. green ’46/’48 in between a pair of turquoise ’55’s.
(or maybe the old one is a ’46-ish Chrysler)
Is there only an 8-9 year difference there?
The ’46 looks thoroughly Ancient‼️😮
Boy, how quickly time & design moved in the ’50’s.
I believe the one in the middle was a ’46-’48 Dodge. Plus there was a ’51 or ’52 Plymouth Concord 2 door sedan parked in front of S. S. Kresge.
When I was growing up in Philly in the 60s, John Wanamaker’s was no middle of road department store.It was on par with any store in the nation. You didn’t just go to shopi it was a outing, you walked around the checking out the different displays visited the bronze eagle, listened to world famous pipe organ and had lunch. Also in Philly there 3 other department stores, Gimbels, Lit Bros. and Strawberry Bridges, all were located in downtown Center City on Market St.
So many memories brought back by these photos .
I greatly miss the lighter colors on most cars but they only make what sells these days .
-Nate
I remember John Wannamaker’s very well. We lived in Scarsdale, and I believe that the store was in White Plains. A number of the major departmwnt stores, such as Best & Co., had branches in White Plains.
Shopping Center in Fair Haven, NJ holding up nicely after all those years
I remember that John Wanamaker’s in Yonkers. I was just a child then. It was a very upscale store. My mother never shopped there to buy anything. I remember having lunch there with my grandmother & my mother & I was in awe! Back then upscale department stores had restaurants inside the store. The smell from the kitchen would waft from the store. It was delicious. I remember my first time seeing candied fruit slices there.
In the back of the Cross County mall. (It was an outside mall). They had a hospital on the grounds. That’s the taller building in the backround on the post card. It later became Mercy College. They had a kiddie train ride. It was an actual train with an engineer. He sat at the controls. The children rode one behind the other in open cars. I believe 2 children could ride 2 to a car. It only lasted a few more years & that was gone forever.
Those days were special to me because I was young & impressionable!
Long before Mall of America in Bloomington, Minnesota, there was an equally bold shopping creation in suburban Edina. The first fully enclosed, climate controlled center,
Southdale. Although it can be argued that this first of the “Dales” in the Twin Cities began the exodus of retail in downtown Minneapolis (and St. Paul), most think it was inevitable.
Dayton’s and Donaldsons department stores signed on as anchors before construction even started. When completed in 1956 much of the surrounding area was open land. The architect Victor Gruen even suggested a library and post office should be incorporated in the design. That didn’t happen. For a look at the parking and automobiles visit the Hennepin County Library’s Digital Collection. The pictures (black and white) can be enlarged: https://tinyurl.com/56v5ujvs
More: https://libguides.mnhs.org/southdale
Fond memories of growing up around scenes like these, much nicer than today’s landscape, in every way. For those who might not know, S. S. Kresge is what later became K-Mart