Hampshire Mall; Hadley, Massachusetts

Ever since those guys over at Dead Malls did a report on a few rivaling Hadley area malls a couple years back; Hampshire Mall and nearby Mountain Farms, I deemed to do a full-scale updated report on them both myself. As the months kept scaling back, it was apparent that Mountain Farms had turned inside out, so I then put my focus on Hampshire Mall, which was always my original focal point after viewing such alluring images.

I originally made to Hadley half a year ago, time cramped, unable to do the job. Factoring in my frequent trips up I-91, it was decided when weather was finer, to do a true, much deserved expose on a gem of a mall for a few, particular interesting reasons you'll discover, nestled outside the bounds of space-time in Hadley, Massachusetts.

Hampshire Mall opened in 1978 by Pyramid Companies, in the small college-farming town of Hadley, Massachusetts within Hampshire County (granted the namesake) and in between "affluent towns Amherst and Northampton". It's located on MA-9; on Russell Street, about four miles off Interstate 91. The center is adherent to the basic interior today [imposed by town bylaw to stay below 42 feet and at] one-level, with a boomerang-shaped layout originally containing two major anchors on opposite ends. Being the only recognized indoor mall in the county and within a good atom-bomb blast in a many mile radius outside, seemed only necessary to deem it Hampshire(‘s) Mall.

Several years after Hampshire Mall, Pyramid Companies finished construction on its kingpin; Holyoke Mall at Ingleside and what’s now the dominant servant in regional malls for miles along the Northeast I-91 corridor.

Owning two malls within approximately 15 miles away? Shooting themselves in the foot? Not quite.

As a matter of fact, both malls fates have depended and survived largely based upon them serving their niche markets and the spectrum in demographic. Though it seems the gap is closing in as Holyoke Mall just seems like the better choice unless you're looking for local digs; which is exactly what factors into keeping Hampshire Mall vital today.

As an outsider, you’ll almost have to have stumbled upon Hampshire Mall if you’re not integrated into the nearby area, unlike Holyoke Mall whose megaphone regional-status visibly rises over the highway like bloody sunrise. You won’t find Hampshire Mall entirely easily accessible off Interstate 91, but instead, you'll trail about four miles off the highway, on Hadley's rather cramped MA-9. As we all know, lack of interstate access usually cripples the fate of malls who survive solely on their interstate arteries to garner mainstream traffic.

Serving the surrounding areas is what they do, which has grown much over the years due to the mall’s [somewhat isolated] presence, Hadley has also been designated the shopping district shotgun to nearby Northampton and US-5 (King Street), whose patronage is also mostly influenced today by droves of an overwhelming "Five Colleges" population; University of Massachusetts Amherst (UMass), Hampshire College, Mount Holyoke College, Amherst College and Smith College.

More than ever, the mall keeps in lock-step with not only the college town mold with its decidedly "discount" and trend bend but also the humble nature of the towns and surroundings like originally proposed, keeping things outside the bounds of neighboring juggernaut Holyoke Mall. After all, Hadley is a town consisting mostly of homebrewed business (some of which are frighteningly abandoned) and as-far-as-the-eye-can-see-farmlands which includes the breeding of pine trees.

Hampshire Mall, unlike its younger brother Holyoke Mall, serves today as more of a supplement to Holyoke Mall, while not originally intended, this one passes for a quaint, local indoor shopping mall who could only have concepted in 1978 whose original anchors were clothiers; Steiger’s, JCPenney, a discounter Kmart and a 6-screen Movie Theater. Today, the focus has changed with the market but sticking largely intact with the original offerings of discount-centric, trendy selections of stores. Luckilly, there aren't any contenders beyond northbound for many miles, so the mall is able to control the area.

ANCHOR HISTORY

JCPENNEY; 1978-CURRENT
STEIGER'S; 1978-1994, became MEDIA PLAY; 1994-2005, demolished; subdivided into exterior-access only BEST BUY; 2005-CURRENT, and interior only parcels; AMERICAN EAGLE OUTFITTERS, PAC-SUN and STEVE & BERRY'S UNIVERSITY SPORTSWEAR; 2006-CURRENT
KMART; 1978-2002, demolished; became expanded exterior-access only TARGET; 2003-CURRENT
HAMPSHIRE SIX THEATER; 1978-1999, became expanded 12-screen CINEMARK; 2000-CURRENT
DICK'S SPORTING GOODS; former REX TV, CVS/pharmacy closed 2002 (unconfirmed)

JCPENNEY SIDE ENTRANCE COMPLETE WITH ROCKFACE FACADE

Steiger’s closed when the May Company shuttered the Springfield, Massachusetts-based chain in March 1994 gaving way to Media Play, a once beloved Sunday afternoon time-trap dealing with everything from video games to books to movies which finally shuttered all remaining scrap locations of its brand in 2005 and as part of parent company Trans World Entertainment's centric branding of all existing stores as "f.y.e.".

Meanwhile, the mall's other anchor Kmart almost instantaneously drafted plans to expand their existing store an additional 25,000 square feet. Unfortunately, it wasn't soon later before Kmart finally closed its doors after 24 years in 2002 trailing the company's various post-millennial cutbacks. The space, almost immediately up for grabs was proposed to accommodate today's big box-centric, discount market by adding appealing, trendy Target (no complaints here, admittedly better than Kmart), whose nature has saved many staggering centers built in the 70's small mall boom-era. Undoubtably, the move was picture perfect to battle it out with Wal-Mart, who was opening across the street, originally planned to boost Mountain Farms.

The 6-screen Hampshire Six Theater was replaced by Cinemark on November 22, 2000; a size-doubled 12-screen stadium-seating theater, originally slated in 1998 to include 24 screens, then bogged down to 16 and finally 12, to replace an aging, faltering theater which was under prolonged negotiations from the late 1990's, finally completed in 2000. The former, was once drafted to compete, which it did and helped quickly seal a ghastly (in final years of its life) AMC Mountain Farms Four Theater next door, which the Dead Malls crew also managed to snag photos of before the clearing shortly after the millennial bend.

A RENOVATED MALL ENTRANCE ADJACENT TO THE GROUND ROUND

Ever since Hampshire Mall began, developers over at a neighboring development, Mountain Farms, have been at it trying to trump Pyramid's spotlight into becoming the premiere center for the area, seeing as the two where isolated, neighborly rivals for miles. But it was always Pyramid that was bringing people in while many shifts over at Mountain Farms kept it troubled with on-and-off vacancies for decades. Today, that's almost flipped around where as Hampshire Mall's minor, mostly cosmetic agings are slowly passing the torch to Mountain Farms, anchored by the ever-crippling Wal-Mart.

Following a wave of reprisal by Mountain Farms, Pyramid proposed their own expansion in 1998 for their Hampshire Mall in response to nearby notorious long-struggling Mountain Farms; whose reprisal drafted for a vastly expanded outdoor lifestyle center. In today's world, the lifestyle homogenization is just enough to threaten the lives of any aging, indoor mall enough to scare it inside out (quite literally)! Pyramid had a plan; to partially give in to the enemy to keep things hot and competitive with a trend of lifeless lifestyle adaptations which aren't going away anytime soon. Unfortunately, an expansion sought to include a 16-screen theater and another anchor, Sears, which was only overzealously hoped but was scaled back to just an expanded theater.

To get an idea of the fierce battle between Hampshire Mall (right) Vs. Mountain Farms (left), you must understand how close these guys are to each other. As you can see, Google Maps doesn't recognize Mountain Farms as a mall (to the left of Hampshire Mall via the map), even though it once was indoor, but not quite to the scale of Hampshire Mall. (Courtesy: Google Maps)

Following the demise of K-Mart in 2002, and pressures to conform to the nearby, vastly developing Mountain Farms, Pyramid quickly signed on for the mall to undergo a lifestyle-oriented expansion, seeking to add trendy, discount anchors before their rivals could snatch 'em up. Target ended up replacing, demolishing a further expanding the ghost of a short-lived K-Mart. Best Buy replaced a fallen Media Play in 2005 (when that arm of Musicland chain finally folded) and Dick's Sporting Goods; whose placement developed within a newly-etched corridor, in the shadow of departed stores whose access extends to both in and out of the mall unlike the others.

Inexplicably, this Target (and Best Buy) doesn't open into the mall like past anchors once did, and like their store over at Holyoke Mall and other, comparable sized Pyramid Mall of Ithaca (also known as Triphammer Mall) does. Still, it's not unlike the Target Corporation today to build stores disassociated to malls they serve at. At one point in time, discount department stores would require interior only access, to cut down on thievery while today the store's would rather keep things on a micro level.

DICK'S SPORTING GOODS WING SPORTS TILES THE REST OF THE MALL WISHES IT HAD.

Recently, the mall has decided to anchor other trends at malls in recent years with hopes to attract an exuberant influx of college demographic adding other homogenous chain clothiers American Eagle Outfitters and Pac-Sun to contrast to the mall's otherwise left-behind decor. Ever so recently, Steve & Barry's University Sportswear, whose presence is popping up at many regional malls, has opened next to them, across the center court.

A WHITE-WALLED TARGET WING DISPLAYS AN ENORMOUS PLEXIGLAS LOGO SUGGESTING CUSTOMERS WALK OUTSIDE AND AROUND TO ACCESS THE STORE.

While the mall has been through a lot over the years, it certainly doesn't look like it's changed with those times--in part. Hampshire Mall is stuck in a rut; as well as within the bounds of adhering to a twilight of times whose decor and a handful of dark storefronts keeps it nestled within the disco-ball realm of 1978, struggling to see the white light of the 2000s.

THE JCPENNEY WING, AND A VENTURE BACK IN TIME

Pyramid malls have become synonymous in their category with leftover centers built around the 1970s which hearken back into those realms today. Like many other Pyramid, the company's suspected financial tight spots have largely halted their attempts to modernize many aging centers built around the 70's including Sangertown Square in New Hartford, New York to which it mirrors according to an Ames Fan Club poster. Aviation Mall in Queensbury, New York; a mall whose Bon-Ton (former Caldor) court is legendary among the Pyramid malls, comparable to Hampshire Mall's JCPenney court, and even the nearby regional mammoth Holyoke Mall, you're in for, at best, something of a timewarp experience.

Because of the companies woes, the company has even aborted the scale of expansion projects, like one proposed at Aviation Mall, and left many older amenities inside the malls. Like the others, architectural treats at Hampshire Mall will feed the need to shop at the same mall with the same amenities your parents might've had in their time--and they've basically keep it all the same! Just for you!

From trends long past, something of a wooden-trimmed, globe-lit, hexagonal-themed, brown-draped paradise exists in a dimly-lit shadow realm of where ever you came from. While not scaled quite like its neighborly brother Holyoke Mall, Hampshire Mall exceeds the bounds of grandiose, expressively themed design centered around decadent Euro influence that seems to have been a mainstream influence in much 1970's design (although none of those Italianesque aqueducts are to be found). Heck, even their arbor tree logo, presumably original, is plenty groovin'!

So take an odyssey into the past, right here at Hadley, Mass!

THE MAJESTIC, GROOVIN' JCPENNEY COURT AT HAMPSHIRE MALL, TAKEN IN 2007!

Visuals must express the unique vibe Hampshire Mall gives; it's a marveling historic experience that makes the mall, beyond the purpose of shopping, a true museum for the charm and bombastic showcase malls once were all about rich, flavorful and experimentative nature of the 1970's. Enthusiasts looking for an interesting experience are urged to make a hours-length pilgramage to Hadley, if for anything, for the incredible JCPenney court which bleeds to for post card imagery.

That's only until you've seen the food court. Not just a food court but one that contains a stage, "Laster Storm" laser tag facility, "Interskate 91" roller skate rink which circles and balconies around almost entirely over the mall's central!

The court itself is modeled after a country flair of New Orleans-style heritage complete with a faux-forced perspective cityscapes, with silhouette wooden cut-outs of trumpet players atop the second-story windows with accentuated neon-expressives coming out the ends of the brass instruments (like frickin' laser beams!). Meshed with the amentites of a European cafe-court, in the center lays a grandiose multi-tiered fountain structure, which has sadly, but not entirely disappointingly since become sterlized as a planter display.

A MARVELOUS CENTER COURT DISPLAY AND HOLYOKE MALL-MIRRORED SEATING

MYSTERIOUS OVERLOOK WALKWAYS ABOVE ENTRANCES

It's a busy scene almost indescrible, even when the quaint setting is largely absent of people, the mall manages to create an atmosphere always ready to put on a grand show. Certainly, this is a unique atmosphere vacant from many malls of today. There's also something of an upstairs portion, along with other visible nooks and crannies in the central. While I attempted to get up there, I ended up running into a set of closed doors, and mall office hallways, unable to find the passages to a pair of mysterious walkways over the theater entrances.

Behind the Cafe Square is Cinemark, whose managed to stay associated with the mall, with two entrances on both ends for those who simply want to slip in for the theaters.

No, they sure don't make them like this; heavily-themed and equally bizarre, anymore.

Sadly, most of the rest of the mall has a bit of a scarsity problem coupled with many vacant, aged storefronts towards and around the JCPenney sector. The revolution of mall kiosks (and cellular peddlers) have remedied that in part, but all the side corridors stay mostly empty or walled off, like the Target wing, which dons the chain's logo against a whitewall instead of an entrance as you won't be able to access from the mall itself.

As I cautiously wandered the chrono corridors, I was awaiting the vision of an apparition Rod Sterling, welcoming me into a starfield-draped realm, better known as The Twilight Zone within the dark hollows of Hampshire Mall.

Time just seems to roll back as you make it closer to JCPenney, you'll notice the neglect at first hand: lower ceilings, vacancies, often dark spots and "UFO" blub-equipped hexagon crafts hovering over typically Pyramid uncomfortable wooden seating planters, streetlight globe lighting (though a few have been removed from the JCPenney area), and bizarre floor-emerging, tiled planters dressed in brown. All around the mall features assorted wayback flooring too; glazed cobblestone tiles contrasting with terrazzo hex-tiles both of which plenty shaded in lighter browns and random spots of carpeting, unmistakenly 70's. Oh, and you can't forget the Pyramid-seal wooden-draped fantasy which extends to even the trash recepticles, like one evident over at Holyoke Mall.

You'll also find another wormhole marvel adjacent JCPenney: The Ground Round; a restaurant chain who appears to be just hanging on in Massachusetts, having almost completely vacated neighboring Connecticut with recent closures found in the homestate itself; Stoneham and Springfield to name a few.

HALF OF HAMPSHIRE MALL ADHERES TO BIG BOX INVASION

Exterior the mall is quite the same story, one that adheres to mismatched-eras, and forgotten against today's largely soulless design. A facade whose look complements the big box age with the homogeny of Dick's, Target, and Best Buy unmistakably mirror each other all across the land while the other half, JCPenney, gives a window back into earlier times with leftover half-hexagon scaffolds over the entrances; the very same ones which also onced hovered over other parts of the original anchors before the big box expansion efforts in the recent years.

There's more vestigial charm to be found around back with a commonly aged glass-skylight covering, which must be a few decades old, over the Cafe Square entrances adjacent to an expanded Cinemark. Behind Target you've got some forgotten vacant storefront next to Jo-Ann Fabrics and its own oddly-placed outside access.

Throughout at least half of the exterior, mostly extending around JCPenney, the mall appears to have had a ripple-plated theme adherent to what's left on JCPenney, who may have influenced the original design of the mall's exterior, has since been two-tone painted; oddly-justified pair of clay and tan hues contrasted from an otherwise interesting combo on a facade who resembles one seen at Arnot Mall in Horseheads, New York.

Hampshire Mall has also benefitted well by clustering, placing a newly-built Trader Joe's on the outskirts of the mall's lot who contrasts well with the Whole Foods Market over in Mountain Farms.

Doing a News Library search on the mall turns up some interesting bits; talks of an early expansion in 1991 to bring in a "fourth anchor", possibly uncovering the two stores; Rex TV and CVS, who eventually made way for Dick's. There sheds some light on the mall's flourished center court display once holding true to fountain origins as the report leads one to suppose an E. Coli outbreak in the water supply sealed its fate around 1997.

Around the time of the late '90s expansion efforts, Sears was proposed for the mall, but never happened along with adaptation of the proposed 16-screened theater (which eventually became 12), likely due to the company's own inability to expand to unnecessary markets and proximity to the Holyoke [Mall], and decades-old Eastfield Mall locations. There's even a report of a brutal stabbing, where such related yet isolated crimes are sadly not alien within the histories of many malls.

If there’s ever a reason to chug off course to Hampshire Mall, it’s all about the décor; and not much has changed since ’78. This mall is a classic, a gem and a quintessential Pyramid mall and portfolio for the feel of a one such mall built in the late ‘70s. In the end, we decided not to shoot any of Moutain Farms; if you've seen one cookie-cutter lifestyle clone, you've surely seen them all.

Go check it out before Pyramid Companies reads this and decides to paint the entire place over in a rush of brights! Until then, gander the complete photo album of Hampshire Mall.

As an added bonus, we found the original AMC Moutain Farms 4 Theaters sign, circa late 1970's, is still standing! The Dead Malls crew shot this one upon its last days, as seen on their Mountain Farms page. I almost felt bad for this lonely forgotten relic, who toppled under Cinemark in 2001. While the theater itself is history, once accessible from inside the now-demolished indoor portion, the pylon stands, sharing a current backdrop to the vastly expanded big box center today. Part of me wants to urge the developers to put it out of its misery, while it's an amazing, lost artifact from times long gone, nestled in the greens.

THE CALDOR RAINBOW SEEKS TO KEEP THE RECORD STRAIGHT. IF WE'VE REPORTED ANY ERRONEOUS INFORMATION, LAY DOWN A COMMENT OR CONTACT ME VIA XISMZERO@YAHOO.COM FOR CORRECTIONS. ADDITIONALLY, WE ALSO HOPE YOU WOULD PROVIDE YOUR OWN COMMENTARIES AND GENERAL COMMENTS.

EDIT: June 10, 2007; ANCHOR HISTORY edited, cleared up thanks to a few posters including MIKE I.

Flooding At Six & Mix

Route 6; Farmington Avenue, Bristol and Mix Street crossroads submerged!

A road closed, parking lots flooded as Bristol Police redirect traffic due to cause and effect of what appears to be record rainfall for 2007.

It all began before last weekend, barely letting up since.

If you were driving down Route 6 in Bristol early Monday afternoon, you witnessed roads closed and detoured due to a relentless rainfall which plans to keep the Northeast stricken for a few more days within submersion.

I pulled off 6 into a parking lot across the street from the beacon Dunkin' Donuts located at the intersection of Farmington Avenue and Mix Street in Bristol to see a gaggle of people; some employees to nearby business and a pedestrian photographer to witness and capture the natural phenomenon within mid-30 degree chill mixed with calm rainfall. Rushing water from the outermost portions of the mighty Route 6 and Mix Street overwhelm sewers as excess water finds sanctuary within the nearby businesses; Dunkin' Donuts and Staples parking lots.

Minutes later, we all watch on as an unyielding handicapped SUV driver chugs through the multiple-foot submerged lot, hoping to get his usual afternoon coffee via drive-thru only to find the store's area was vacated due to the result of extreme weathering.

It might seem like a micro story but it ultimately symbolizes the washing of the Winter months and a renewal before we can closet the jackets and release the moths from our shorts pockets. That could happen as early as next week, as weather is predicted to reach back into the steady 50's, sun 'n clouds and beyond. We could only hope for May flowers.

And it continues to fall.

Just last May, the state was hit hard with almost a week plus of continuous, often heavy rainfall which caused the usual bodies of water to overflow, but also a forecast that saw no end to the seemingly endless showers. Luckily, and unlike the year past, nothing has been monumental enough to cause any level of great distress on the macro level.

But we should only be so lucky.

Further north, as far as southernmost New Hampshire is getting slammed with snow while Syracuse and all points north of New York and areas surrounding it are experiencing a continuum of winter weather with snowfall up to 12 feet, which can only be considered dreadful on these opening weeks of Spring.

Two managers talking in on the sidewalk, frontal to a flooded Dunkin' Donuts parking lot are hoping to open the store as soon as the flooding ceases, which they hope will be within hours. A nearby CVS/pharmacy had its business nearly unscathed, with only a small fraction of its lot underwater, while Staples across the way, faced similar problems due to their proximity to a nearby creek.

COME BACK SOON: DUNKIN' DONUTS HOPES TO OPEN WITHIN HOURS

BEHIND DUNKIN' DONUTS; THE DRIVE-THRU


DUNKIN' DONUTS THE DRIVE-THRU

AT STREET LEVEL; SEWERS NOT ABLE TO KEEP UP IN THE PARKING LOTS


STORMED: A STORM DRAIN CREATES A WHIRLPOOL

Meriden "Hub" Mall Coming Down

Marc Bramhall recently informed me of an article from the Record-Journal regarding the demolition of The Meriden "Hub" Mall. We did a photographic story on the Hub earlier this year trailing one done by Labelscar, reporting the somewhat grim, and once impotent nature of the city's ability to make a future of site which appears to be finally coming along.

To mirror the article's focal points; the Hub, a proclaimed brownfield, will receive its demolition permit on Wednesday ensuing a power collapse at nearby vacated Canberra Industries facility and former owners of the mall which brought the attention right back the city. The site will hopefully be cleared away, rather silently (without explosives or ten-ton wrecking balls), and to begin immediately, again, hoping to have the site kaput by the end of May. In its place, the city further hopes the establishment of a "greenfield" or a park on the long-troubled flood-prone property will help revitalize the somewhat dilapidated downtown Meriden.

The mall, concepted in the late 1960s was similar in its era and fate to another pending-destruction downtown mall in Bristol; The Mall at Bristol Centre, whose similar case has been juxtaposed by Labelscar and to which we've reported here and elsewhere historically seeing as this phenomenon is practically in my backyard.

The Hub, as its been referred since the 1980's, originally Meriden Mall, sought it best to undergo a name shift after losing the city's prominent standing and title to flourishing Westfield-owned Meriden [then Meriden Square] entered the city limits just a year later in 1971. While not too close for discomfort, Meriden Square rose to fame opposite an already trumped, and slumping downtown mall when shortly after the Meriden Mall was renamed "Meriden Hub" to disassociate any grandiose mistaken identity, for better or worse on Westfield's behalf.

The Westfield-owned Meriden "Shoppingtown" mall, an enclosed mall which has expanded twice since and continues to grow serving its region well, is a story opposite the dire Hub property, which has been historically flawed due to it's very foundation and the flooding that has haunted it as it continues to degenerate. The very problem of the land its on is what caused former owner Canberra to flee - leaving its mess behind.

Needless to say, the mall and title given, in Meriden, certainly didn't belong to The Hub.

The site, which likely closed around 2003, with a staggering vacancy rate including the loss of prime anchorage, according to a flurry of local papers, has been boarded up for years now and has since been slated for a rather slow, hurdled demolition process.

But downtown malls and the inability to integrate them into urban settings have all shared a history of dark clouds and grim fate, especially in Connecticut. From the since turned-inside-out Chapel Square in New Haven (and thankfully fended-off then proposed Long wharf Mall to combat it), the completely reformatted "Hartford 21" former Civic Center Mall (a doomed-at-birth mall which undoubtedly had its already fate evermore sealed when we lost the Whalers), to the long-gone Lafayette Plaza/Hi-Ho Center in Bridgeport, will soon follow into a black hole of doomed downtown mall history as the Meriden Hub reduces to rubble in just over a month according to the Record-Journal.

Unlike the Bristol Centre Mall, which languished outside the bounds of space-time for many years after locking its doors in mid-2006, Meriden Hub has been a long-standing, vacant eyesore for the city for a while now. Should the city of Bristol repeat the woes of Meriden is yet to come as they themselves are estimating a gloomy forecast beyond legal battles for the mall's future.

Never having been here before late 2006, there's more information about the Hub on the aforementioned Labelscar and, of course, resourceful local and historic input on Dead Malls. You can also read the article on the Record-Journal's website; won't know how long the page will last before becoming inactive.

In spite of the monsoon season we're currently drowning through, we hope to visit the mall this week at the earliest and provide a few more updates before the mall's clearing for a more complete gallery, hoping the city hasn't fenced off the property yet.

Stew's in Newington: Arriving Fresh in April

In 2006, long unfinished plaza along the Berlin Turnpike in Newington, Newington Fair, would share its last year as a borderline ghost town.

Motorists passing up or down the Berlin Turnpike, whose had a shuffled past few years of in and outs most recently being Roy Rogers, might've wondered when that empty Caldor would be filled, if ever. The years chugged by as uninterested buyers shrugged off the plaza down the hill; one who's pavement was crackled, tenants and layout were disjointed and the plaza anchor was dead silent, running on seven years. Just last year, a slow emerging change happened at the site as it was finally claimed by a future tenant to end a long, vacant chapter in the plaza's life.

DECEMBER 7, 2006

Early on in it's conception, Newington Fair had a plan. With a newly anchored Caldor, a drug store; Heartland Drug, a relocated, larger Sam's Club beside Caldor; which currently operates right over the Berlin line, and Service Merchandise, whose since shuttered in 2002. Times dictated the fate of most of the anchors, now all of which finding future tenants in time.

FEBRUARY 6, 2007

A list of belly-up retailers flocked the Fair by the mid-later 1990s. Heartland Drug vacated for one of Connecticut's smaller, off-mall Toys "R" Us locations, Service Merchandise ceased all store operations for online retailing but have recently disappeared (like other once booming catalog-based retailers including Montgomery Ward) but soon made way for a upscale furniture gallery, Stickley, Audi & Co. While Sam's never happened, heaping portions of the plaza continued to degrade and overgrow while Toys "R" Us and Caldor kept parking spaces filled - but not for too long.

FEBRUARY 6, 2007

Caldor, which opened Newington in their company's brand-new look in 1994, didn't last long when they went bankrupt and out of business in late 1999. Ever since then, a plague of fallen retailers spread. Toys "R" Us, who slipped into the plaza hoping to capitalize off a magnetic Caldor, was soon swept by the closure only years later.

FEBRUARY 6, 2007

With many anchor shifts around it, Toys "R" Us managed to do well all these years serving it's area well, and still does, despite the plaza's own black sheep syndrome; one which has kept the plaza down and deemed largely unattractive by unwilling prospective tenants for many years and criticized for it's location, (lack of) visibility and isolation status. Clearing away a once juggernaut retailer wasn't ready to be taken on by the usuals; Kohl's; who hasn't a location along the mighty strip while Home Depot, Wal-Mart, Target already stand prominently on the Turnpike. A flurry of rumors surfaced about the site; a subdivision including a fitness center and smaller retail, but they died quickly as the building continued to languish.

Then Stew's came along. Along with a new plan for the Newington Fair; one pushed aside for years but also one, if seen through, could become one of the more stunning revival prospects for Newington's retail market which looks to be finally coming together on behalf of a vital, new anchor; fresh to the central Connecticut market: Stew Leonard's.

MARCH 1, 2007

Stew Leonard's, a Norwalk, Connecticut-based, self-proclaimed customer service champion and local grocer chain brings its values along with it to Newington, slated for Early 2007. Caldor, who was also Norwalk-based, picked up early with vast expansion before its fall while Stew's is humbly working to open more than its three stores across two states; Connecticut and New York. With hopes of opening other stores in and outside Fairfield County; Stew's has drafted stores in Orange, Connecticut and Farmingdale, New York; two of which have been red lit for awhile now.

From CALDOR to STEW'S...

April 26, 2006: Caldor sits vacant for the last months of its long, empty life.


September 25, 2006: In a twilight of conversion.

Even before we established The Caldor Rainbow, we've been keeping a pictoral track record (see: Resources below) of the status seen on the site ever since before ground was struck on a vacant Caldor. We've watched it from the very beginning; from the fencing arranged around the building to the slow dismantling of a Caldor husk to the skeletal structure of Stew's advent. We've even been inside the hollowed out building, and continue to watch its progress today.

MARCH 1, 2007

So when will Stew's open? A source suggests the chain is pushing for April 23, 2007 as a grand opening date, even if the current look of the store might conflict with it, there's still weeks to go.

APRIL 9, 2007


APRIL 9, 2007

What was once a staggering property will surely soon become the thing to see on the Berlin Turnpike; a fresh offering which hopes to revive once filled the hearts of everyone with glee like those once standing in snaking lines for doughnuts right off the belt at the short-lived, now long-gone Krispy Kreme.

Even after Stew's opens this month, the plaza itself still has quite a ways to go. Sam's Club has not yet broken ground aside Stew's site and most of the plaza is in still in shambles. Toys "R" Us, who continues to thrive despite all around it, is also looking in need of some improvements, not having received much of a touch-up since their opening in 1996. Hopeful from traffic garnered by the ever revitalization of Stew's, it would seem the story of Newington Fair will be an onward success and hopefully a brighter chapter in a somewhat muddled history.

Earlier last year, I had a chance to visit the Danbury location full of amazing looking foods, animatronics and other unusual findings (including two defunct Ames shopping carts) at a grocery store. The closest comparison to their approach might be similar to another chain of new-age trendy markets like [a decidedly organic-centric] Whole Foods Market, Stew's isn't any ordinary market (lord no!), and soon enough you'll see why.

Join us soon as we cover the grand opening of Stew Leonard's in a few weeks. In the meantime, go catch a glimpse of what's to come if you're around their other Connecticut locations Norwalk, Danbury and Yonkers, New York.

"Now Hiring In Newington"

RESOURCES
November 27, 2006 "Newington Fair-ly Coming Along"

October 7, 2006 "New Comers In Newington"
The Newington Fair
On The Site: Volume 1 (April 26~May 23, 2006)
On The Site: Volume 2 (May 27~June 4, 2006)

K-Mart "Red Light Specials"

Already half a decade past former rival regional retail failures. What's keeping a future for K-Mart?

Following a trend set last month on a story of a soon-to-be-demolished, formerly occupied K-Mart site in Derby, Connecticut; we're going to offer some more talk about K-Mart and their vacancies remaining all around the state.

Red Light Specials!
Currently, there are three vacant, remaining K-Mart sites in Connecticut; two of which leftover from the fate of a statewide purge in 2003, where by the company sought to close under performing locations in light of their recent Sears-K-Mart Holdings merger. Orange; Bull Hill Lane, Derby; New Haven Avenue and Manchester; Spencer Street, are the latest remaining locations that have not been demolished or occupied. While not as troubled as other retailers since past, like Ames; who has a slowly declining number of vacant properties around Connecticut, K-Mart, who actually still an active retailer is having trouble getting rid of these lingering husks.

A vacant K-Mart in Manchester on Spencer Street as of March 14, 2007

Manchester; an original location built in the early 1970's, once like most K-Mart stores then included an auto center, since converted into an expanded Garden Shop, shuttered in 2003 along with Derby; who occupied that location after Jordan Marsh and their closure; both underperforming stores in somewhat shifted areas.

Orange; on Bull Hill Lane, is one of particular spotlight in that it's been vacant since 1988. That's right, a nearly twice-decade vacant, withering away, boarded-up store sitting silently in the back of a widely occupied, yet somewhat dilapidated strip mall neighboring a once long-vacant Bradlees which has since succeeded and bloomed into vitality as Kohl's less than a couple years ago. This location in Orange resembles a few others Vernon and Milford; the latter built in 1980.

A 27-year, active orange-accented "Big Kmart" in Milford on Boston Post Road disagrees with its road pylon which has since dropped the "Big" one

The fate of closure occurred in two directions influenced by the Sears merger in that a handful of existing stores were converted into Sears Essentials or Sears Grand stores. Essentially, these existed as concepts; products of a Sears-K recipe no more than simple market uppers; rebranded, slightly tweeked (by offering some Sears exclusive products), heavily marketed-based focus of former K-Mart stores. Unlike rival discounters Wal-Mart and Target, K-Mart; a countrywide retailer, has been falling behind cosmetically, struggling to find a new identity for many years now.

A Sears Essentials; of a former K-Mart in Nashua, New Hampshire (one of their marketed states).

It's inarguable; one who walks into a K-Mart these days feel exactly what we felt when we stepped into a Bradlees - almost ten years ago. Musty odors abound, off-colored flourescents and floor tiles, bunkered foam-board ceilings, hive-like ventilation ducts sum up to an overall distressed, tired environment which contrasts darkly on its rather energetic television adverts. They certainly don't match that of Wal-Mart and Target; the latter who distinguishes itself with equally trendy stores and ads to match for an overall successful package.

One might even think who keeps these stores alive? Who shops here anymore? Wal-Mart haters? Those detered by Target and its exuberant trends? Certainly, catering to a largely unchanged market and one that died with the Caldor, Bradlees, Ames and Woolworth deaths around the millennial turn.

But K-Mart doesn't want to be Wal-Mart (an otherwise heavily "targeted" retailer). Doesn't want to be Target. They can almost sell themselves, right? After all, when you've got a largely household Americana name and have been for over half a century, attention K-Mart shoppers, you've got to simply adapt and shape up beyond their antiquated charm. That, of course, is a bit more complicated when the money's not flowing like the current peaking discounters who, unlike old K, is currently in expansion years. So when K-Mart sought the opportunity to add Sears, an equally prominent American company, to its family, they saw yet another opportunity to get right back up there. Like K-Mart, Sears is currently, and has been for years, trying to revive the flourish and appeal stores had in the 60's and 70's by offering their own concepts beyond the decades' old cosmetics of their stores.

Influencing Sears with the identity-K-risis, K-Mart has since attempted conceptual exterior designs in past years, more so than any time in their history; lime green paint, and other hollow cosmetic marketing strategies beyond their Essentials and Grand couples added the trafficking of formerly Sears exclusive products to prop up staggering, and or lesser performing K-Mart sites. Most store interiors are aging, featuring mere Sears associations, signage updates to pass off for tired decor. However, none of these concepts struck the Connecticut market as it did in neighboring New Hampshire and Pennsylvania markets, especially the latter where K-Mart stores still are near dominate in the landscape. Both Essentials and Grand labels were concepts, one of many the zeal of a Sears' influence had when it first merged with K-Mart. Like so many attempts before it, both brands, which have launched over the years, have died, now leftover from those years.

Photo Galleries
Below is a bunch of galleries from all the reported vacant stores in Connecticut.

Manchester
In there, you'll find an earlier set from Summer 2006, which was stretching it's third year of vacancy in July. March turned out to be a relatively unaltered set of photos, finding a new set of realtor signs and a perimeter fence closing off the access to the store frontage from a March 2007 revisit. Since I didn't take as many upon the revisit, enjoy a bunch of other sites of interest in there...

July 2006
March 2007

Orange
March 2007 (If only you could've heard those seagulls that day!)

Derby
March 2007

Danbury Fair: "Reinventing a Classic"

"Reinventing a Classic": Macerich welcomes guests in on the enthusiasm of their redevelopment plans for Danbury Fair Mall.

Late last year the Macerich Company announced, marking the celebration of the then 20-year Danbury Fair Mall, a plan to undergo, like many other of their decades-old centers a long-overdue redevelopment project over the course of 2007. Some of their centers will be receiving radical redevelopment which seek to literally blow the top off the center (including one which hopes to disassociate its largerly clone status to Danbury Fair with a new lifestyle identity at Freehold Raceway Mall), while some, like Danbury, will go for a richly traditional, mild cosmetic makeover. The mall, one of Connecticut's unique, wide-open, indoor shopping malls, was constructed and completed in 1986 in tribute to the Danbury Fair Grounds. At the oversight of former ownership; Wilmorite Company, who was acquired by Macerich just a few years back, Danbury Fair has dodged significant renovation efforts remaining largely original to the late 80's design but mostly tones.

Well, it's 2007 and Macerich has a campaign: to Reinvent [what they call] a Classic.

A widely-public artist rendering now on display at the mall will seek to add many interesting touches to a primarly 80's draped mall as one can see. Amongst many things attributing to the overall decor, the center and food courts will see the most flash; in particular the central court will be reworked entirely for additional seating and lounge space and coffee kiosk, replacing the common Wilmorite-era "olympic-sized" fountain which has basked proudly in the center since opening.

As we reported just a few months ago, Danbury Fair is also to receive a largely updated facelift including what they claim will become a "panoramic" food court, new paint and flooring, while hanging onto some of the center's mahogany tones along most of the currently bland white along the center's walls. One unsurprising update will also include a removal of the soulful center fountain, which will become an downscaled, updated "water feature".

So, yesterday, I took a crunch-time drive to Fairfield County on a wonderful (albeit windy) afternoon to see how the renovations are coming along not having seen much since my last trip in January 2007. The center, which aims for a tenative Spring 2008 completion date, hasn't broken too much ground (literally) just yet, but seeks to do so, and it shows, in coming months as our exclusive images show.

Astoundingly, the signature fountain was on showcase today where onlookers would sip Gloria Jeans within a cafe-style overlook from displaced table sets from the currently redeveloped food court. Much of the progress was on the down-low; Filene's was still vacant but promises a new experience, some of the manual zig-zag staircases with accompanied planters on each end of the center are now gone, in the process of reworking with a possibility of escalators.

But the greatest absence, and what appears to be the earliest breaking ground, is evident in the now half-walled-off food court area, which will soon hold the most of Macerich's ambitious restructurings with a "panoramic" style arrangement where guests, to an emphasized degree, would be able to chat, relax a little. The open-airy food court, like most of the center itself, historically accompanied by the landmark Danbury Fair double-decker carousel, and a continuing effort to include it, along with a cacaphony of usually crowded surroundings, will hope to promote a conversational atmosphere within the prospects of the remodel.

Construction in front of the Macy's anchor includes a removal of the zig-zag staircase.

Away with the brown-and-green hues of the past. Primary mall anchors; Macy's, a conceptual original which entered the mall roster in 1987 and Sears, who opened with the mall, will be the first areas to feature the brightely contrasted, admittedly smooth new tiling.

Manual staircases removed. The center might seek escalator access, which there are already a few featured throughout the mall's runway corridor stretch.

As reported earlier, there are currently no plans for exterior renovations like this respective era Sears and midget-block parking lot lighting who anchored the Danbury Fair Mall since 1986.

We hope to do monthly reports to closely track the status of a beloved Connecticut mall. Jack Thomas has also done a recent update with some images of the center at night (alluring!) on his page Retail Stories Dot Com. Until then, go shop Danbury Fair Mall before they change their rapidly adapting-with-times image. All images were taken March 29, 2007.

Way Back Westfarms

Usually I'm not overt about the celebration of my own birthday. So I'll allow this comical image of Adventures of Batman & Robin from Sega Genesis convey the mood (although I don't currently wish to see any metropolis in flames)! Crispin Glover should be playing The Joker in an upcoming Batman movie.

So a buddy of mine, Marc Bramhall, extended the courtesy by presenting something of interest to me for my twenty-second birthday; a piece of relevant history. What better way to extend my 22nd year on earth to look back on one of the cultural influences of my lowely Farmington life such as Westfarms?

Scouring eBay one day, Marc stumbled upon this vintage Westfarms post card, presumably predating to sometime in the mid-to-late 1970's around it's conception in 1974. A post card of a mall you say? Well, here's a testament to lost times and how much shopping malls and centers were the pride of American culture when my generation's parents were my tender age. Sadly, you're not going to find these like post cards of malls in any rest stops or [gasp] gift shops. Instead you might find one antiquated stock image of the Hartford skyline with some bad MS-paint job of the city's name written in magenta, a park (not Kinney Park I'd hope), maybe a bridge or something (as usual, clogged with all day and night traffic). All cultural divide aside (and "rising star" kerplunking), booming indoor malls of the 1960s and 1970s are been-there-done-that today; most of which have since submerged into the commonplace of everyday life of my product Gen X'ers. Kids today! They just don't appreciate these climate-controlled centers of past!

Westfarms; circa 1970's

Just look at this image! Oooh, to have a time machine... It's sure nice to see some oddly justified twin-totem polls featuring minature globe lighting the central of the walkways instead of those gaudy kiosks! Many natives who've frequented the mall in the past might take particular note at this time machine shot for minutes trying to inspect every pixel of it and compare it to the place we know today. One of the most alluring aspects, beyond the now-removed fountain are these certainly out-of-this-world store frontages which are all sadly long-gone within the alpha years of the mall. Have times changed or what?!

From the top-left; Susie's, which looks be a women's clothing store is now Cache; a prom-dress merchant, whose recently drawn live-model publicity. Herman's World of Sporting Goods; seen in the left corner, which was likely one of the last sub-anchors, and top of its game before any Sports Authority, or Dick's showed its face. A memorable, quaint sporting goods chain was among the last seen here to leave the mall in the mid-1990's; shortly before the 1996 Nordstrom wing expansion (and the company's own bankruptcy by this time). The former Herman's has changed its [preferably lacy, stringy] underwear many times but most recently to none other than Victoria's Secret.

Sights-Sounds; neighboring Herman's, likely a record (and 8-tracks!) vendor, seems to have cut into Herman's space since is now part of an expanded Victoria's Secret, relocating from a former downstairs configuration from the '90's. Downstairs to the left is Bakers; presumably another clothing store and next to it, with some time-respective, multi-window display facade since decimated by huge glass panes of Godiva chocolates today.

Thom McAn; a frequent shoe store chain (along with Kinney Shoes, who was upstairs near G. Fox) around the 1970's throughout the 1990's save since sold their stock to Wal-Mart, once had prosperous storefronts now occupied by Build-a-Bear Workshop. Susan Terry has become likewise upscale twenty-something women's fashion boutique; bebe while Brooks; hiding behind the jagged manual staircase with those curvy showcase windows has since become drywalled over having recently been home to a bevy of stores; seaonsal, Sephora (since relocated), and a ill-fated filler sports memorabilia store.

Those others; Worth's; with a groovin' brown facade and flower-shaped bulb-lighting must've catered to the hip crowds and the nearby The Gift Showcase; both with the swanky script writing have since become many things in it's subdivided form; once a maternity outfit and Polo Company Store but now all home to a generational revival; Abercrombie & Fitch.

Flashforward: Westfarms; September 2006

One of my grandest laments, in particular, is the absence of the fountain today. Those who remember the fountain remember not only it's wonder but also that mysterious gaping hole into nowhere where all the water recycled! Well at least that's what we thought as kids (and a little beyond; the mystery still lives). In 2002, Taubman ceased and removed the original atmospheric 1974-built fountain in favor of more, rather questionable spaced seating and couches for people to carry on mall banter.

The stage, frontage to the since gutted fountain, is present at Connecticut's other Taubman; Stamford Town Center, has become a table-and-couch lounge area which complements the new Starbuck's kiosk. An area which once displayed the ginormous, annual Christmas tree, still does a holiday theme, not quite to the same magnitude.

While the center court hasn't changed drastically beyond some minor cosmetic enhancements like most leftover Taubman malls still around: the removal of some of the signature Taubman "seating pits" like one seen here to the left which is understandable given the climate and failed socio-experimentation of the seating pit since. Others include newer, brighter center court tiles, plastic-ridged lining over the mid-levels, reflective silverish railings to replace the wood; all of which became a coming millennial template for all their centers no more than a short decade ago. The basic mold of the center is quite the same; generally unchanged, like the terrazzo tiling, and true to the classy earlier design.

Knowing my bend and fascination with '70's-era Taubman malls but specifically the junior one in my hometown; Westfarms. I've seen the mall adapt through the ages throughout my time, not quite as much as friends and family. My father also worked here shortly sometime around the vintage of this postcard (1975), in a department store Silverman's; since occupied by Brookstone and The Discovery Channel Store. Furthermore, my best friends' parents actually met here, dated and later married during a time this mall had a movie theater (now occupied largely by a restaurant; California Pizza Kitchen)! While I've only been here since '85, Westfarms' tenants have changed greatly into the widely preserved mold of the center today; not having stripped too much of its origins.

"A regional retail development to be the most complete marketplace of its kind in New England. Westfarms site spans the boundaries of three outstanding Connecticut communities; West Hartford, Farmington and New Britain."

This card appears to be within a series of two known; one of which has been displayed on Malls of America (and a day before my girlfriend's birthday last year) and taken at an earlier time when the mall had an estranged, short-lived green-clad flooring and features the since removed the iconic "information" tower doning the pinwheel "W" logo which lasted into the 1990's. There are some other noticable differences here; flowers, mini-bulb lit towers, and even a art display on the stage which is closed off by a roping barrier and a walled-off Lord & Taylor wing added in the early 80's.

In the meantime, I'll have to recover a picture of that "rolling ball structure" in it's respective time since it's still here. Here's to hoping one of you keen-eyed, razor-edge memory readers can pinpoint the exact year of this card.

Visit our Flickr set and see why Westfarms couldn't look any classier today.