Rainbow-Striped Milestone

New York's last remaining brown-roof, rainbow-striped Toys "R" Us store is about to turn 20 years old. Having little to no significant renovations since its opening in 1988, the lone Clay store is also the only store left in the Syracuse region within the fallout of a closed location in nearby suburb, DeWitt last year and 57 miles apart its other active New Hartford store.

Upon the various delays of my yearning to come back to Clay, I've searched for Toys "R" Us on Flickr ever since hoping to find some intriguing photos of Clay. What really comes up (in droves)? A whole pack upon thousands of shots relating to a neon-wild ferris wheel with the huge backwards "R" plastered in the middle. Its from the Times Square location, which is one of the many mesmerizing attractions apart of the company's established "flagship" store in the heart of New York City. Yeah I saw it. It's a nice attraction, sure and is ever crowded as the City itself usually is. So crowded, in fact, that I decided to skip it upon my December visit because of the outrageous mob just waiting to get inside the store.

What better way to show the exuberance of your store; a company image all in one than the one in Times Square? I don't know, it really doesn't seem to be a big deal. I mean, this really didn't encompass the Toys "R" Us I experienced on Saturday afternoons in my homely suburb when I was a kid.

DO YOU "Я"EMEBER BEFORE THEY WERE STARS?

The real attraction, all the while, is one not too many really know about, far up in the Northern nosebleed of the (up)state, in a whoknowswhat town of Clay, a quiet suburb which houses an ever growing strip of big box retail beyond the region's Great Northern Mall, just north of Syracuse and south of another town you've never heard of where people do live called Oswego.

Recently, I made another excursion up that way, like one last Summer which ended early when I dropped my late Sony subcompact cutting what amounted to a roughly four-and-half hour-trip from Farmington to Clay short. Unfinished business had me wait almost a year later to return and fully capture the essence of a genuine Toys "R" Us store, unlike all remaining ones surrounding it, succumb to hideous or uninspired embodiments of bland corporate imagery all around it.

A VINTAGE GEOFFREY STILL MASCOTS THE CLAY STORE

Earlier this year, The Caldor Rainbow did a report on these original stores existing today, left in various forms (mostly repaint jobs) across New York and one in Woburn, Massachusetts. However, the Clay store is the most special of them all. It has (almost) of it all. The faux-shingled brown roof, rainbow-striped wood planks along the front in their original colors, wickedly vintage plexiglas Geoffrey, and the orange-black portrait "Entrance" signage above the rickety, aging doors. The inside, still draped in yellow and blue stripes never saw the doctrinaire "impossible mission" layout (which is much phasing in favor of simple, traditional aisles) and still contain glass-casing and pull-ticket equipped aisles for video games, consoles and other high-priced merchandise just like the glory days of the 80's and 90's.

A COUPLE OF BIRDS FLUTTER ABOVE AN "EXIT ONLY"-LESS DOOR

Age has treated the Clay store rather well but not without some diminishing factors. A peeling roof revealing some stuffing and no shortage of stale beehives and birdlife harvest under and within the somewhat deteriorating roofing with shoddy scaffold lighting barely working. There was also, like noted last time around, an absence of one of the "Exit Only" plate above the side exit and some older decals and 90's-era blue-clad aisle signs from 2006 have largely been replaced for flimsy homogeneous signs seen at up-to-date stores of today.

OH, SO COLORFUL!: NO LAZY PAINT JOBS HERE

Upon my last group of shots taken at the fascinating Clay location, shortly before closing, a red-shirted manager wearing some headset who first appeared to be collecting stray shopping carts scattered about the parking lot upon a dusk, chilly evening saw my person, then soon makes way over to my jet black Honda which I just slithered back in (ain't that suspicious?) upon the sighting as I knew what he was really coming out to do: reprimand! Peeking inside the passenger window, he warned me to shelve the camera and that I wasn't permitted to take photos of the store for those security reasons.

But why? This is it. This is the true face of Toys "R" Us in its prime - not New York City! It may not have a ferris wheel, Godzilla-sized Barbie houses, flashy lights or what such but that's not quintessential Toys "R" Us magic. This is. Listen up corporate, how washed over do you think kids are today that stores must be white-out? It was shortly after I got penalized verbally when I was reminded how much Toys "R" Us is not quite its former self and how seemingly forgotten stores like these contain vestiges reminiscent of what children of the 80's and 90's cherished and what this household brand of toys stores were all about.

Well there's, of course, security reasons which, being a hobbyist photographer of all that includes malls, understood completely as I know the drills. Doesn't mean I have to like it, nor do I have to comply, but we have to respect those just doing their jobs. Did this manager care that Clay was a rarity of its class banking on two decades and was a unique experience one might have to seek miles of travel to see? This should be a smalltime tourist attraction! But New York City is.

KIDS "Я" US LIVES INSIDE THE CLAY STORE

Satisfyingly, I left the next (humid) morning on a long trip back easterly on I-90, in between pesky construction zones and a $7 toll gladly acknowledging myself with plenty of photos that night manager didn't know just how many my overzealous spirit allowed me to take earlier that day.

Thanks to much research and pictures by Daniel Fife and his own travels, a few others, including friends of ours at the Ames Fan Club forums like HudsonValleyJack have been keeping tabs on many Toys "R" Us stores in the Northeast region of the country and the state of many stores in New York. With their help, I'm able to provide you with these images.

THE "PULL-TICKET" VIDEO GAME SYSTEM AT THE CLAY STORE

Apart Clay, New York, most upstate and southern-tier New York remain to be lasting netherealms of places to discover such antiquities and other stores that seem to have fallen through the cracks with some stores cosmetically lagging behind and Toys R Us stores are not much exception. As of late, many stores have seen the brunt of lazy, shameless remodeling or paint jobs all across the land, and they extend to ones in west of Clay in the Buffalo and Rochester regions; Amherst, Willamsville and another in Hamburg.

THE HORSEHEADS STORE; JANUARY 2007

Down on the southern-tier, there appear to be lone servants remaining within the fallout of the 2006 closures. Survivors like a pitifully repainted, but immaculately retro Horseheads store (with rainbow-colored walls inside!) within a suburb and shopping haven west of Elmira and another in Johnson City, whose in the midst of its third renovation, speculatively ensuing a flooding which occurred there not too long ago as well as the addition of a Babies "R" Us store, oddly leaving the Kids "R" Us on the other side standing vacant.

I continue to wonder why some Toys "R" Us, and stores in general, but especially Clay, never received any renovation while every store around it has been touched-up in some form. Why have they been left behind in facades of yesteryear, beyond previously updated stores? We've looked into possible reasons for why stores with older decor and facades exist far beyond their years, even when surrounding locations get the fixins. I usually pass up on speculation but we'll entertain a few reasons why Clay might remain timewarped the way it is.

• Financial troubles or stores that don't pull in enough revenue usually damn themselves excusing modernizations leading for stores to look old or distressed. The Clay store is located approximately 57 miles from its next store in New Hartford. When the company announced the 87 store closures and conversions of 2006, Clay managed to survive while one to the immediate south in DeWitt, located far-off from Shoppingtown Mall didn't make the cut. It appears the company favors the strategy of keeping stores close to regional malls vital as they know it keeps sales steady unless there's a crowding of them. It is very possible that for years the company has noticed declining sales within the Clay store and have yielded renovation efforts for fear they will decide to shutter it in coming year(s).
  
• Familiarity helps with customers. The former DeWitt store was built in 1992 and obviously didn't perform as well as Clay, which was built in 1988. The areas of both locations, however, are identical with just a small factor: the Clay store being located directly off Interstate (and State Route) 481 and DeWitt well off the highway. Despite the DeWitt store being newer in design, Clay may have been more well-kept as well as excelling in sales.
  
• Area, like familiarity, is certainly a player. Located next to a regional shopping mall, Great Northern Mall (also built in 1988) and along a strong, growing retail strip helps the store survive despite its somewhat isolated position of being apart of the mall's property. To access the Clay store from Route 31, you'll have to enter the mall grounds. Also, if an area is meshed with crime, it could cause a ripple effect with sales, traffic, and overall cosmetic image of the store not wanting to see change. Clay's older look continues to baffle within most of Route 31 retail looking fresh and continually expanding with new business. Crime, as it is, is not a problem in Clay. As a matter of fact, the town itself is about as country bumpkin as Farmington, Connecticut.

• Year Built could have explained why Clay is steeped in its 1988 colors, but it's hard to buy that now. As we found before, 1989 was the last year the company rolled out the classic brown/striped model (still evident on the Bangor, Maine store albeit roof repainted white). At this point, Clay wasn't in need of renovations while times may be coming close now for the store's fate. Johnson City remodeled its store shortly after the millennial bend, when "Concept 2000" was reaching out to some falling behind stores when just recently the chain has remodeled the store again no more than three years later following the post-Concept 2000 renovation for a Babies "R" Us annex, whilst leaving a vacant Kids "R" Us store aside it.

We'd like your input and possibly stories and pictures of your own to share with us. Maybe you can explain how the company or retail industry works in general when it comes to renovating stores. If you've got anything, shoot it over to me at XISMZERO@yahoo.com or leave a comment. We greatly appreciate anything of the sort!

Also, check out our complete photo set on my Yahoo! Photos. I also apoligize in advance; you'll have to chug through most of the rather snoozer Great Northern Mall pictures to see them.

Vintage SEARS Uncovered in West Haven

A few months ago, upon the sunset of my venture from shooting various procrastinated sites in the New Haven area, I was trekking northbound on I-95 and noticed nothing short of a marvel; a red-lettered Sears building.

Around Exit 42 on Interstate 95, on the West Haven (Connecticut) border, I peered off to the right and noticed in all caps, a red-clad, thinner "SEARS" logo shimmering (in its age) from behind skeletal shrubbery. Knowing of no malls in these areas, flabbergasted in surprise, I immediately veered off the highway, attempting to make ways to finding out more of this estranged Sears building, located a good distance from Westfield Connecticut Post, who has its own, well up-to-date Sears anchoring the mall. Unfortunately, my flawed navigational woes trumped my finding of it (how hard could it be to find something visible just off the highway?). Pressed with time, I made my way back to Farmington.

Upon a recent trip out that way, I made it a bulletpoint to find it, and grab an elusive photo of 1970's-era Sears signage in all its glory. We probably couldn't have arrived in worse timing seeing as a West Haven Police patroller was camped in the rear of the lot and workers (one of which apparently screamed at me as I grabbed that close-up) flanked the sides of the building. Nonetheless, I exercised a journalistic drive of "leave no(t too many) image(s) behind!" Despite its visibility from the highway, it takes a good couple minutes of making a huge loop around to actually arrive at it among the sea of an industrial sector it's located within Frontage Road.

Upon doing some research, we found this facility is actually a Sears Appliance Outlet which also serves as a Home Central. It's rather isolated, which explains its neglected appearance and equally rare red-lettering dating back to the early-to-mid 1970's, when the signage was common on many mall fronts, lastly phasing out to the brunt of many mid-to-late 1990's renovations, long beyond its (commonly known) "chunky pinstripe" logo which debuted in 1984. Over the years, other variants released in this style consisted of red, white and black over its time (much like the 1984 logo seen in excess today, also phased by the company's new "lowercase" version) which now find themselves either scarred on older locations or almost extinct on many Sears locations across the country.

I don't know what it is but I've recently become fascinated with many Sears storefronts which really haven't changed in mold over the years with a staple-framed interior entrance who've since been faced uniform into tiled and trimmed designs today (with more sale and clearance signs than the company would've liked to see in their futures). Those exteriors, however, have certainly been left behind or appeal heavily vestigial appear to be overwhelming at many of today's malls.

Here's a collection of some favorite oldies we've captured ourselves in travels, which don't even strike a match at some wickedly old ones around middle America and mirrored on the ever-resourcefulness of the pictorial Ames Fan Club forums. Don't forget about Malls of America, who has their assorted collection of respective era shots of better times for Sears and even our pals at Labelscar who've recovered many images of the company's today looks.

SEARS (EXTERIOR SIDE ENTRANCE) AT THE MALL AT WHITNEY FIELD (FORMERLY KNOWN AS SEARSTOWN MALL); LEOMINSTER, MASSACHUSETTS, BUILT IN 1968.


SEARS (ANGLED MERCHANDISE PICK-UP ENTRANCES) AT DANBURY FAIR MALL; DANBURY, CONNECTICUT, BUILT IN 1986.


SEARS (EXTERIOR FRONTAL ENTRANCE) AT EASTFIELD MALL; SPRINGFIELD, MASSACHUSETTS, BUILT IN 1968.


SEARS (INTERIOR ENTRANCES) AT THE HOLYOKE MALL AT INGLESIDE; HOLYOKE, MASSACHUSETTS, BUILT IN 1979.


SEARS (INTERIOR UPPER-LEVEL ENTRANCE) AT WESTFIELD CONNECTICUT POST; MILFORD, CONNECTICUT, BUILT IN 1993.

Danbury Fair Mall Renovation Updates

Following a few e-mails I received just last week regarding the Danbury Fair Mall from a couple readers but one, Joseph, informed us about the progress of the impending renovation going on now. Since we last visited at March's end, the fountain was still operating but other parts of the center were slowly showing evolutionary results, including the removal of the staircases by the anchors.

No more than a short month plus later, The Caldor Rainbow returned and retrieved many images, thanks to a recent report by Joseph that the center is transitioning. Along with this revelation, Joseph made particular note of a few changes happening, upon a night visit with his own "poor cellphone picture quality" accompanied images. Here's what Joseph had to say:

1.) Removal of the fountain and it's walls
2.) Removal of the fountain (part deux)
3.) Transition of green rafters being painted tan
4.) One of the last stair cases (plant bed under was removed, but not stairs)
5.) One of the last stair cases (part duex; both 2 stair pics were taking near Lord & Taylor)

And plans for the year plus vacant Filene's? New anchors or not? He also supposes in a rumor that "Macerich recently bought the former Filene's [at Danbury], and they plan on leveling it and putting a split level parking garage with a "grand" entrance."

Ever since the beginning of renovation changes, as far back as December 2006, the Sears wing appears to have been the forecast showcase area of all the new hatchlings which will become of the new renovation including the replaced fabric-shaded lighting fixtures in favor of the (former) marquee globe bulbs, new flooring; now sampled in the vacant Filene's area. Upon our visit in early May, the center is draped almost halfway in its new tan colorings as most of the rest of the center is slowly becoming peeled away including the monochromes of the former tiling.

Here's some notable changes with accompanied pictures from our recent visit on Monday, May 7, 2006.

A WAR-TORN LOOKING CENTER COURT


ACCORDING TO THE CONCEPTUAL IMAGE, MACERICH PLANS TO KEEP THE FORMER STAGE AREA FOR (YOU GUESSED IT!) SEATING.




GREENS WILL SOON BECOME HISTORY AT DANBURY FAIR


A NEWLY RELEASED CONCEPT IMAGE OF THE FUTURE "PANORAMIC" FOOD COURT SEEKS TO DRAMATICALLY ENHANCE THE ATMOSPHERE


PORTIONS OF THE CEILING HAVE ALREADY BEEN PAINTED TAN; THE CENTER'S FUTURE TONES


EARLY ADAPTATIONS OF FABRIC LIGHTING FIXTURES AND BROWN POLES REVEALED IN THE SEARS WING, UPPER LEVEL

A SAMPLE OF THE FUTURE FLOORING; QUITE A 180 DEGREE TURN


"STAIRS"; AND THE LAST REMAINS OF MANUAL STAIRCASE TO SOON BE UPROOTED


ORIGINAL 1986 ROAD PYLONS HAVE YET TO BE REPLACED

We'll likely return by July for updates. Until then, if you've got news, information or images, please send us your stuff. The site itself is sharing a few conceptual renderings (as well as photos) of the center's future look in high-resolution, as well as our complete gallery of images taken on May 7, so don't miss those for perspective.

ARCHIVES

Danbury Fair: "Reinventing a Classic" (March 30, 2007)
Danbury Fair Mall Renovates by 2008 (December 2, 2006)

YAHOO! PHOTO ALBUMS
Danbury, Newtown (March 29, 2007)
Danbury Fair Mall (May 7, 2007)

Eastfield Mall; Springfield, Massachusetts

Continuing what we've decided to proclaim our malls of(f) I-91 series beginning last week with Hampshire Mall, we've decided to present another of the few malls located on or around I-91, weekly in conjunction with procrastination and Spring, a time for rejuvenation! So it's Spring and just about time to unveil another gem located in the state's southern metropolis, Springfield with Eastfield Mall!

Eastfield Mall opened in 1968 and was the earliest indoor shopping mall in the region containing three major anchors, a handful of shops and a twin-screen movie theater. Today, the mall contains three filled anchors; JCPenney Outlet Store, Macy's and Sears, a larger Showcase Cinemas movie theater, food court, chain restaurants, a few junior anchors and claims 85 stores and was purchased in 1997 by its current owners, MDC Retail Properties Group.

Located within the Easternmost region of Springfield, along Boston Road/US-20, the city's self-proclaimed "Boston Road Shopping District" and on the brink of smalltown Wilbraham, the area consists of a retail and related business corridor who found its identity within the fallout of an eventual collapsed business bleeding out of central Springfield. Eastfield Mall began large and in-charge, serving most the suburban portions of Springfield offering three prime anchors; (Albert) Steiger's, Forbes & Wallace, and Sears; who remains authentically vestigial to this day.

EASTFIELD MALL ANCHORS (LEFT TO RIGHT): JCPENNEY OUTLET STORE, MACY'S, AND SEARS

Like many of these smaller shopping malls who never pursued become mammoth status, Eastfield Mall accepted its fate to the changing market of the malls and interstate vitality located well off major Interstates: I-91, I-291, and I-90 (Mass Pike), along US-20. Almost damned to become enemies to future malls, Eastfield continues to do well despite it having fallen on hard times, managed to rebound, and stays closely in-touch with the community and flourishes today with much thanks to the extraction of the downtown marketplace, trickling onto and around Eastfield territory.

To get an idea where all of Springfield-area malls stand today, let's look at a brief history of the area.

A few years after Eastfield Mall established, another mall, Baystate West came about in 1970 as a downtown mall in the heart of the city whose frontage faces millions of motorists along Interstate 91 and grandiose retail showplace (or, what was commonplace definition for mall then) for the city. During the decade, more malls began to pop up shortly after; Enfield Square opened in 1971 with its corridor-length mall right over the Massachusetts border in Enfield, Connecticut with like prestigious anchors Hartford-based G. Fox and Steiger's. In many regards, Springfield, the city, shared (mal)success and has followed dreadfully with neighborly city Hartford, and its own troubles with maintaining the vitality in its own failed city mall built after this one, The Civic Center Mall.

Unfortunately, Baystate West, once a prominent indoor shopping mall, has since collapsed due to its prime anchors becoming bankrupt or other mall developers stealing the thunder of Springfield's since declined industry by pulling in power players, reconfigured and became diminished to just a handful of stores, a food court, fine restaurants, and mostly office space under the new name: Tower Square.

No doubt the elegant Baystate West trumped or largely challenged Eastfield Mall, which was once a palace of wonder, and a pride of its day right on the city limits of West Springfield (later known as the host of The Big E), but both shared the same challenge in 1975, when major anchor and Springfield-originated Forbes & Wallace shuttered all its locations when they became bankrupt, leaving many empty spaces at all the malls in the area including one newly-established locations at a 1974-built smaller enclosed Fairfield Mall in Chicopee (which could be considered the legendary darling small indoor mall for us northeasterners with its once rainbow-era lifetime Caldor and Bradlees anchors in its latest days), just miles away. Eventually, spaces were filled at both malls quickly, causing for a steadfast rebound all around.

By the mid 1970s, the greater Springfield region became, understatedly, overmalled in what contested for a survival of the fittest situation of our time! So why not just blame The Pyramid Companies' for building Holyoke Mall?!

When it comes to tentant selection, Eastfield Mall is relatively bland and homogenized like most malls, but doesn't entirely feel like it because of the humble looks of it. Surpassing the somewhat nearby, underdeveloped Enfield Square in Connecticut (whose website creates a facade of image), a megaton nearby Holyoke Mall at Ingleside, who came in 1979 and quickly determined the shape of all the region's nearby malls soaking up the landscape, pulling in people from hours away with it's unstoppable, growing volume, appeal and continual success to this day.

A TYPICAL CORRI-DECOR-IOR LINED WITH FOILAGE AT EASTFIELD MALL HAVING A FEW CHARMING SURPRISES WITHIN

Over at Eastfield Mall, there are fewer interesting, unique stores surviving here that you won't find over at Holyoke Mall, but like the Holyoke Mall, as the days go on, not many more. Those who appear to be hanging in there like Batteries Included; an indie Radio Shack type, and sadly, a recently departed gem of a comic book/collector store are becoming liquidated with the heavily conformist merchants at most of the malls, bleeding onto these centers squeezed by heftily performing rivals along the I-91 corridor and around areas.

These stores, many of which left or didn't fit into Holyoke Mall and its recent metamorphosis of seeking to focus onto upper-class tenant homogeny, make Eastfield a charming atmosphere apart the usual bombast of Holyoke Mall. However, don't write it off just yet. To us enthusiasts, Eastfield Mall should be considered special apart from the mediocrity-driven, supplemental tenants, most of which can be found at all the other malls around 91.

So, I'll admit, I'd rather do my shopping over at a generally better center like Holyoke Mall, but when it comes to long-phased architectural vestiges and interesting touches here and there, Eastfield Mall has a lot still in tact to appreciate, not that Holyoke Mall doesn't but come on, this was a 60's mall!

ANCHOR HISTORY

FORBES & WALLACE; 1968-1975, became JCPENNEY OUTLET STORE; 1975-CURRENT
STEIGER'S; 1968-1994, became FILENE'S; 1994-2006, became MACY'S; 2006-CURRENT
SEARS; 1968-CURRENT
EASTFIELD MALL CINEMAS; 1968-mid-1980s; replaced for FOOD COURT
SHOWCASE CINEMAS; 2000-CURRENT; replaced parking lot

VINTAGE "SEARS, ROEBUCK & CO." LOGO ABOVE THE DOORS

If there's any reason to pine over Eastfield Mall, it's all about this old-fashioned, stucco-faced and brick constructed Sears who looks in part much like a fellow obsession over at The Mall at Whitney Field (formerly Searstown Mall), not having changed too much more than the generational signage out front. Apart from a vintage store; one-level (excluding basement) interior with high ceilings department stores used to be all about and a staircase to the basement, which is eerily like stepping right back in time even just to go to the bathrooms.

There's also some shuttered entrance around back of the store in some dank corner, seemingly sealed off and forgotten with a faded sign. Could it have been a former entrance? Showroom window? Merchandise pick-up? A cafe, perhaps?

Steiger's; since become Macy's has its own interesting court and surrounding area. While tiling has seen the brunt of the later renovation, gaudy drapes still mask themselves over skylight glass panes above. Next to the entrance, you'll find some spiffy old-fashioned showcase display protrusions.

Forbes & Wallace; currently (and since closure) a JCPenney Outlet Store. An Outlet Store?! I thought all JCPenney were outlets! Jokes and bias aside, Eastfield Mall has the only one of its kind (that I've ever heard of at least), in something of a rich, vintage husk from the earlier anchor with a humped scaffolding over the sidewalk. Interestingly enough, the mall's amazingly flourished court doesn't don the "Outlet" identity; perhaps a bygone trend later phased, now simply calling it JCPenney mallside.

While two of those three original anchors are gone, like many shopping malls shaped by the various department store Pac-Mans adhering to a long-gone May (and Federated for that matter) Companies, their building origins are still mostly there, not having succumbed to cookie-cutter designs of today beyond some minor facade touch-ups and usual paint coats.

It's believed Eastfield Mall has undergone two significant renovation periods; one profound one in the mid-1980's and one minimalist one in the later 1990's, presumably in 1997 when the mall signed on with the new ownership. Ultimately, the mall appears to have a spackle of times stained all about.

And Huey Lewis and the News said it best; It's hip to be square!

Decor, in and out, remains to hearken back at Eastfield Mall whether it be original or later eras, including a decidedly 1980's-inspired set featuring neons galore. Throughout, the mall adheres to a square-theme along it's humble, little-altered-with-time "L-shaped" layout which has been toyed very little with over the years. Containing variously placed and sized square-shaped courts with vertical paned skylights, presumably from the 1960's mold, with later added neon square hoverings along the lower-ceilings of tight, often dimly-contrasted corridors and an array of ramps and steps which could remind Connecticut natives of one Crystal Mall in Waterford.

A FOUNTAIN NO MORE: INSTEAD FOLD-OUT CHAIRS AND TABLES ARE SET FOR COMMUNITY-RELATED EVENTS OR A CRUDE DEPICTION OF A JEDI COUNCIL RE-ENACT FROM STAR WARS WITH ACCENTUATING DECOR ABOVE IT.

The central atrium is something of a small-time marvel, or at least shows it was.

Today, the court retains itself, however altered quite a bit cosmetically over the times with a square-shaped concourse containing a grandiose fan-blade drape arrangement which covers the entirety of the central's heights, creating a nice interrogation room-style contrast upon those peak sunlight hours whereby it showers skylight. Bizarre, simple but stripped display was likely the product of the mid-80's liquidation and entry to a blandness-uninspired renovation which scaled down the showcase from a once festive gazebo court as seen in a wayback photo from 1970, which Malls of America hosted a while back. Once including a larger fountain and a jungle-centric look evident from the historic image, was later decimated during a later renovation to a relatively small sprouting fountain feature(ette) in the center, followed by the addition of a food court behind it, added during the 1980's period renovation.

ALTHOUGH TONED-DOWN, YOU GOTTA LOVE EASTFIELD MALL'S UNIQUE CEILING FAN-BLADE DRAPE ACCENT.

Following that renovation around the 80's, which sought to remove many overdue yesteryear trends; including those darker colors, wood-paneling, the gazebo itself, marquee bulb lights, and various ramps across the central, any vestige of a fountain display has been shelved ever so recently and is rarely if at all operative today. The concourse has sadly been scaled back and is now largely absent apart cafe-style seating, and meager porta-planters, mainly used for community events.

In addition, the basic "L-shaped" layout hasn't changed much over the years with the [typical] addition of adding a food court in the 80's, replacing an aging two-screen movie theater right at the L-split, adjacent the concourse.

During a millennial rebound, the mall sought to reinstate the theater concept that took command of most centers in the 60s and 70s it had birthed with by adding a 16-screen Showcase Cinema to the mall's rear, replacing much underused parking area in 2000 further setting Eastfield apart from nearby Holyoke Mall, who does not contain a theater and keeping it competitive with a rather distant Enfield Square, who also has a [smaller] theater. The mall also adopted junior anchor clothier, Old Navy, who drove out of Holyoke Mall by the rebound period as well as Steve & Berry's.

In spite of times changing, there's plenty to look back on today like the JCPenney court area which adheres to a quaint, park-esque setting of mass foliage, vintage stone frontage, and more of those hanging square lights. So much, in that you can barely get a nice view of the entrance without being blinded by the landscaping. The corridors also contain lined planters along the ramps and stairs, maintaining that quint feeling of man's inability to deny nature, albeit faux nature. A nice contrast, especially in such malls today who seek to strip almost every vestige of water features and fake plants for uncomfortable steel bench seating and portable planters, Eastfield Mall isn't entirely lobotomized yet.

The last few times we visited, we couldn't secure any interior photos with my conventional, subcompact digital camera for fear of being hurled out of the mall. As you may or may not know, this mall takes its written anti-photography policy seriously and has an overstock of looming security and police officers to make sure you don't! Actually, they've been drafted in response to Springfield's known riff-raf also to coincide with the YEP (Youth Escort Policy) rule whereby minors must be accompanied by adults after specific hours on weeknights to tone down the usual unruly teen crowds at malls but also in the area.

Luckilly, upon a recent visit to Eastfield this past week, we managed to score a congratulatory gob of images in a largely underpatrolled interior enough to capture the essence of a mall I've been dying to document for some time now. On another, rather funny note, anyone whose been here a few times will know of the security SUV who stakes out, flashing-lights wildly next to the mall's undeniably rad (neon-crazed) road pylon.

Make sure you visit their homely, unique, slightly outdated website where you can see an older Showcase Cinema logo and past anchor Filene's still on the roster apart from some of their other quirks like their inability to settle with one corny tagline and celebrity appearances from town and out-of-town!

Furthermore, if any locals or those with historic perspective regarding Eastfield Mall would like to chime in and shed some light on questions we have, like specific renovation dates, what this place was like then, or anything, let us know!