Wanna Mall Crawl?

August 7, 2005 8:35 PM

Malls of America - Gone (some of them) but not forgotten (well, maybe). Vintage photographs and postcards of malls of the 1960s and '70s. For more personal stories, check out Deadmalls.com.
posted by deborah (19 comments total)

Double post? Maybe, but I'm too lazy to check...and hey, I love pictures of 60's and 70's malls. The mall remodelings of the 80's/90's ruined everything, and recently built malls ain't got no soul.
posted by cloudstastemetallic at 8:44 PM on August 7, 2005

love these : >
posted by amberglow at 8:51 PM on August 7, 2005

double?
posted by badger_flammable at 8:53 PM on August 7, 2005

Deadmalls.com has probably been linked here before... but oh man, what a great site. Good post.
posted by killdevil at 8:56 PM on August 7, 2005

Triple
posted by caddis at 9:10 PM on August 7, 2005

[At least the deadmalls.com is triple, and this is essentially the same. However, MallsofAmerica is better formatted and less depressing.]
posted by caddis at 9:15 PM on August 7, 2005

I liked this a lot. I just downloaded the linked 60s muzak. So thanks, deborah!
posted by carter at 9:49 PM on August 7, 2005

Neat. I miss Ames (which I never knew of until I was based in upstate New York), and of course the Woolworths are nowhere to be seen in the states, and I will probably never be eight years old and staring at a turtle at a Duckwalls again.

Ah Walmart, the death of America. Absolutely disgusting.
posted by buzzman at 9:52 PM on August 7, 2005

I had forgotten just what the King of Prussia mall looked like before it became the sprawling behemoth it is today. Thanks!
posted by jrossi4r at 9:57 PM on August 7, 2005

Here in Mexico City, there's a huge mall that was built in the early nineties, and (as I remember having it explained to me) was slated to open some time in 1995, but the '95 economic crisis bankrupted the corporation developing it. So it sits there, unused. It's been a couple of years since I went past it, but as far as I know, it's still there. I've always wanted to get inside and take a look around, it would probably be very interesting.
posted by Joakim Ziegler at 11:35 PM on August 7, 2005

Thanks Deborah! Right before moving to SF, I lived 3 blocks away from Lloyd Center; this was a nice glimpse of its earlier days.
posted by Frisbee Girl at 12:25 AM on August 8, 2005

Lloyd Center in Portland. Wife and I bought our wedding rings there in the 80s. Place was cracked and chipped on every walkway. It was partially open-air, a brilliant move by the architects as it rains uh somewhat frequently there?
posted by hal9k at 2:16 AM on August 8, 2005

Apache Plaza, gone but not forgotten.
posted by gimonca at 6:00 AM on August 8, 2005

Sorry about the triple link to Deadmalls.com but I thought it a nice addition to the pictures at the primary link.

Thanks for being (fairly) gentle with my first FPP.
posted by deborah at 8:12 AM on August 8, 2005

If any apologies are in order here, I owe you one. Don't be sorry; it was a great post. The MallsofAmerica site is quite interesting. I was wrong about it being essentially the same as the deadmalls link. If you had mentioned that the deadmalls link had been mentioned before several of us might not have embarrassed ourselves pointing out a double or triple that really wasn't.
posted by caddis at 9:35 AM on August 8, 2005

Oh, these pictures bring back memories. I want to see pictures of malls from the Chicago area. : )

Old Chicago is my most-missed mall (not that it was the mall as much as the amusement park in the middle that made it special). It was just too far ahead of its time.
posted by SisterHavana at 10:24 AM on August 8, 2005

Ugh. Sorry, but I have no nostalgia for these spaces. And I am somewhat afraid that in thirty years we will lament the loss of the current 'new urbanist' shopping areas, as we now lament the loss of these.
posted by Dr_Johnson at 1:14 PM on August 8, 2005

Is Reisterstown Plaza in Baltimore still going?
posted by davy at 6:58 PM on August 8, 2005

and of course the Woolworths are nowhere to be seen in the states,
I still miss Woolworths. I followed his links to another: the Boat Lullabies is definitely worth a look too
posted by amberglow at 7:39 PM on August 8, 2005