NJ Mall Memories & Discussion

[Retriever]

Originally Posted by scrantonscrambler

B. Altman opened in East Orange in 1931 at the corner of Central Ave and Evergreen Place. Mom worked there in the middle 50's. Next to that store was Kress dept store and going up the block at the corner of Central/Harrison St was Wiss Jewelers. I bought Susan a pink pearl ring there for 40 bucks on the lay away plan in '65 and she still wears it today. I think I paid 'em $5/wk, picked the ring up after 2 months of payments. I was making $1.88/hr at Ma Bell as a Lineman.

Across the street from Altmans was a full service Sears Roebuck and they had an auto service facility in the basement on the Sanford St side. Next door to it was the Singer Sewing machine store and up at the end of the block toward Harrison St was the Hamburger Express, a diner style restaurant where once you ordered, your meal would be delivered down the counter to you on a big electric train with your plate on a flat car !!!

Up the street was the Hollywood movie theater, the nicest one in town, had to pay $.50 extra to sit in the balcony. And goin' down Central Ave the other way was Robert Hall's men's clothiers. There were many fine shops on Central Ave before the '67 riots and before 280 and the GSP quartered the city, when it was once known as "The Cleanest City in The US".........not so much anymore.

Thank you for filling-in some of the blanks in my knowledge of East Orange!

Regarding department stores in that city, somebody told me that there was also a large store in East Orange by the name of Boop's. Do you have any recollection of that store, or was the woman who told me that story just pulling my leg?

[sjinnj]

Originally Posted by Dole-McCain Republican

As you may have suspected, Sears is doing this because the chain is in severe financial trouble; in fact, a number of Sears stores throughout the country are being downsized. At two other NJ malls, Sears has cut (or will soon cut) its selling space even more drastically. At the Freehold Raceway Mall, the upper-half of the Sears building is now occupied by Irish clothing retailer Primark. And at the Paramus Park Mall, Sears has also agreed to sub-lease half its building to other retailers.

At Willowbrook Mall in Wayne the 2nd floor of Sears is becoming a Dave and Busters.

[Retriever]

Originally Posted by sjinnj

At Willowbrook Mall in Wayne the 2nd floor of Sears is becoming a Dave and Busters.

Somehow, in view of their poor sanitation practices and the crappy food served by Dave & Buster's, I don't see this as a sign of progress.

[G1..]

Originally Posted by Retriever

Somehow, in view of their poor sanitation practices and the crappy food served by Dave & Buster's, I don't see this as a sign of progress.

I happen to agree with you.

[scrantonscrambler]

Originally Posted by Retriever

Thank you for filling-in some of the blanks in my knowledge of East Orange!

Regarding department stores in that city, somebody told me that there was also a large store in East Orange by the name of Boop's. Do you have any recollection of that store, or was the woman who told me that story just pulling my leg?

You are very welcome! I sure don't remember a Boops store, but in the 30's-50's East Orange was one of the premier shopping locations in the region, Central Ave became known as the "Fifth Avenue of the Suburbs."

Of course, over on Main Street was Muirs, which had 10k sq ft of shopping just on the first floor, and 2 other floors of shopping, too + the basement........had an elevator to get to the different floors!! Main St also had Woolworths, Lofts Candy, the EO Toy Shop, and the great Big EO Tobacco and Pipe shop, we were there the night it burned down in the summer of '66, and man, did it smoke !!

Down Main St near the EO diner and across from the firehouse were all the new car dealers, Ford, Star Chevy, Pontiac and Plymouth. Remember when the new car dealers had room for maybe 4 cars in those small showrooms and they would whitewash the big windows right before the new models came out to get the people all excited to see 'em !!

I forget what went in B. Altmans after they moved up the line but it was fancy, pricy ladies stuff. By the 70's everything was closing up fast due to urban blight.

We took the trolley cars to Newark when we were kids, there was a line up Central and another up Main St but the last runs on them were in 1952. Dad used to take us down to the "car barns" which was a round house for turning 'em around and where the cars could be serviced. That was at the bottom of Main St (EO) where it connected to Orange St in Newark, near the Brookdale Soda bottling plant.

here is an interesting link to that


Colorful History of Newark's Street Trolley Cars: From Birth to Death