Happy Holidays Blog World. It only seems appropriate to write this post about a mall as the holiday season winds down.
Recently, the local news mentioned that Lloyd Center (an urban mall) is slated for redevelopment and probably the wrecking ball. This mall is an icon and it was explored a few years ago by my pal Drunk Fox.
When it opened in 1960 it was the largest mall in the Pacific Northwest, (and the mall owners claimed to be the largest mall in the US at the time), Richard Nixon was at the opening and the mall it did a heck of a business until 2015 or so.
Now the mall is pretty quiet (even during the Christmas season).
Another entrance to the mall that is basically dead. This courtyard used to be near Nordstrom, a fancy department store, and Stanford's restaurant which had an amazing happy hour.
Most of the doors are boarded up for protection.
More emptiness.
Inside, it's a little livelier. Emphasis on the word little. Although I do appreciate the time taken to decorate for Christmas.
By January 2021 there were 37 empty store fronts in the mall, all the anchors were gone and most of the food court was closed.
The mall opened in 1960 and was open air. Around 1988 it was remodeled to an indoor mall.
This staircase is pretty modern looking (edit: this staircase was part of the 2015 remodel). It seems to flow nicely from the remodeled portion while still maintaining that 60s vibe.
There used to be 2 movie theaters in Lloyd Center. One in the mall, one outside. Both have been closed for many years.
The food court has two operating restaurants, a chicken place and a Dairy Queen. Both doing a heck of a business. About 12 food court stalls closed and/or abandoned.
The good news...there is a little life left in the mall. Some people out shopping and/or hanging out.
The mall also has an ice rink....go figure. It's kind of cool and it's one of the more popular things happening at the mall.
Stores have come and gone.
Some popular store over the years include JJ Newberry and Co (a five and dime), Nordstrom, Old Navy, Sears, JC Penney, Macys, Bests dept. store, and Woolworths.
One store has survived and is till going strong. A local place, a food establishment, and they sell one heck of a good product.
Joe Brown's Carmel Corn. Joe Brown's store has been since the mall opened in 1960. In fact, Joe Brown's has been around since 1932. George Brown and his son Joe opened a popcorn stand next to a movie theater. They did well, lots of locations around town and at the beach. During WWII all the locations closed and it wasn't until Lloyd Center opened up that Betty Brown (Joe's sister) opened up the location. Now, the location serves over 300,000 customers a year.
The popcorn is sold in a variety of flavors. Kettle corn, carmel corn, Oregon carmel corn, cheese corn and regular popcorn. All is good, but this fox got a fresh warm box of carmel corn.
Not a bad treat for $5.00.
What's next for Lloyd Center? This fox isn't sure but hopefully the new development will pay some honor to the past (and hopefully Joe Brown's stays in the neighborhood).
What's next for Lloyd Center? This fox isn't sure but hopefully the new development will pay some honor to the past (and hopefully Joe Brown's stays in the neighborhood).
Sad to see that..... I guess the pandemic has been the final death knell for a lot of those stores. We have a shopping mall near us (about a mile or so away) again built in the 1960s. Very much concrete brutalism style architecture but then in the 1980s - 1990s it started emptying and became a local shoot-up hang out for addicts/alcoholics/street drinkers. In 1997, a major rebuild was done to modernise (Andrea got a job at one of the architects that had an office on-site, for the Debenhams store) but now, it's starting to go downhill again. A lot of the stores have gone into liquidation/bankruptcy/take-over in the last five years.....
ReplyDeleteI know similar story for Lloyd cebter...but a Christmas miracle happened a local company bought the mall and is going to update it and try and make a go of it.
ReplyDeleteSad to see some great malls slowly die off. There's nothing like a Build A Bear store in person, though online shopping is ok too...
ReplyDeleteThat is sad. The ice rink is a nice touch...there is a very upscale mall called the Galleria in downtown Houston which has a rink as well. We don't get out that way very often, but my human has a memory of skating in it as a youngster...
ReplyDeleteWe have one big mall that is still quite vibrant. The other one lost Sears as an anchor a couple of years ago and now there are lots of empty spaces. Although... the Covid testing and vaccine centres are in there, so it's seeing way more activity now!
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