Sunday, June 14, 2020

Old Towne Mall

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'''Old Towne Mall''' was a shopping mall in [[Torrance, California]] that did not have department store anchors but was focused on a mix of shopping, amusement and entertainment. It opened on October 9, 1972 and cost $30 million to build, and launched with 142 specialty shops, individual food vendors and artisans.
==Features==
Different parts of the mall were themed, for instance the Old West, or turn-of-the-20th-century U.S. The mall featured:<ref name=dbre/>
*”Artisan Way”, a wing with glassblowers, weavers, potters, clockmakers and jewelry craftsmen

*Turn-of-the-20th-century-themed Wax Museum

*Old Towne Mall Little Theater

*Antique streetlights from Long Beach (placed indoors)
*A singing security guard
*A refurbished cable car
*A working carousel
*Indoor forest-themed ride
*Special events like
**Dance marathons, frog jumping contests, bingo games and armwrestling tournaments, civil war reenactmen
**Christmastime elves
**Arts festivals
**Concerts
**Puppet shows
**Costumed bands and Old Towne Singers performing at an old-fashioned gazebo

==Decline==
The mall could not effectively compete with nearby [[Del Amo Fashion Center]] and the [[South Bay Galleria]]. By 1982, the owners remodeled the mall for $3.8 million remodel and added two big box anchors, [[Marshalls]] and [[Dayton Hudson]]’s then-new “Plums”, which opened in Sept. 1983. The name was changed to Old Town Place. The Federated Group electronics store closed in 1989; the electronics and appliance store Silo replaced it but out of business in 1995.<ref name=dbre/>

==Conversión to power center==
By 1989 the mall was roughly a third vacant and the city approved its conversion to an outdoor power center format.<ref></ref> Only the carousel remained from the earlier attractions after the 1990 remodelwhen the remodel. In 1994, the carousel was moved to the [[Eastwood Mall]] in [[Niles, Ohio]]. The center was renamed first Torrance Citiplex, then Torrance Promenade. [[Trader Joe’s]] was added in November 2002.<ref name=dbre></ref>

==References==


[[Category:Shopping malls in the South Bay, Los Angeles]]
[[Category:Buildings and structures in Torrance, California]]
[[Category:Demolished shopping malls in the United States]]


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