Post by REoL on Dec 27, 2009 23:25:33 GMT -5
Partial view of Mall at Whitney Field
Source: Under the Glass
In the mid '60's, plans came about to build "Searstown Mall", right in downtown Leominster, but that faced a lot of opposition, in spite of just some demolition. Instead, in 1968, they moved the project to an abandoned recreational area called Whitney Field, Searstown was born, with a Sears, and a detatched Demolouas (Grocery Store, which became Toys 'R' Us when they moved across the street in a new building), and Bradlee's Department Store (for non-locals, it's like a WAL*MART, but cheaper). Those two stores had entry between them.
In 1972, a new mall was built, extending from the back of Sears, towards Bradlee's, but never connected. At the other end of this tiny mall, was an anchor store called R.H. Whites (a local version of a Macy's), which failed 10 years later. On the West side, was a third anchor, Woolworth's, and Anderson Little (Men's clothing store), and a jewlry store. R.H. White's failed, and became mall space, and featured Dream Machine: it's first arcade. Before then, video games were strewn about the mall.
In the late '80's, an expansion was added to the south side, which stretched the building to it's current .35 mile length, and a J.C. Penney. The Penny's was to be 2-story, but was disallowed, due to the swamp land the mall was built on. Later on, where this and Bradlee's was attached, a mall entrance was created, and long overdue (especially in the cold, Winter months, or bad storms).
In the early '90's, another addition flanked the west side, adding more stores, and another anchor: Service Merchandise. When that store failed, the mall was cut off at the central exit (West addition). That space was turned into an Old Navy (still present), and Circuit City (gone).
In 2000, Bradlee's (the whole chain) went out of buisness, and that piece was demolished, leaving the Toys 'R' Us all alone.
Lastly, in 2002, a 2-story Macy's was built (then Filene's), with two service corridors separating the store from the mall, because they thought the store would settle faster than the mall (which it didn't). The 2-story store houses a KONE hydraulic elevator, and Leominster's first ever escalators (which was VERY BIG NEWS in the local paper).
Here's the normal run videos I have of the elevator:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=fn_Zbhesyno <--- Elevator: First take
www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xh_wMlAZZc8 <--- Elevator: Retake (Minus shakiness)
There's a bunch of other "State of the Elevator" videos, but this is not the forum for such material: it's to highlight the elevator.
