Quote:
Originally Posted by sopas ej
This afternoon I was all into the Eastland Center. According to that link you provided, Scott, noted LA architect Albert C. Martin designed the Eastland Center, and it opened in 1957.
Here are a few more Eastland Center shots:
1958
westcovinalapuentebaldwinpark.blogspot.com
What I find interesting is that collection of retail: Clifton's Cafeteria, Thom McCan and the Harris & Frank. I would've expected a Florsheim and See's Candies. The family in the parking lot is great, too. And is that a guy in back of them tying his shoe on the bumper of that car? I'll assume that it's his car. There's also something I find contemporary about the aisle number sign.
Here's downtown Covina in 1952, Christmastime. My assumption is that the malls that were built in West Covina left downtown Covina languishing for some decades afterwards? Today, downtown Covina is a cute area, and also has a Metrolink station. That Covina theater is now the Covina Center For the Performing Arts, though to me, the outside of the building looks remodeled; I don't know what the inside looks like.
westcovinalapuentebaldwinpark.blogspot.com |
See's Candy was on the north side of Eastland, right next to May Co. I'm pretty sure there was a Florsheim's, but I definitely remember Comar's, which is where Mom bought all my shoes. (Incidentally, they had one of those notorious foot X-Ray machines in Comar's for years.)
Downtown Covina did get a bit run down after Eastland and West Covina Plaza got built, but it never completely lost its ability to attract shoppers. (As opposed to places like the Pomona Mall, which became an effective ghost town in the '70s.) And Eastland itself suffered when West Covina Plaza expanded in the mid-'70s to become a regional mall. Eastland became so deserted in the 1980s that I fully expected the entire site to be razed and developed into condos. Seeing what the mall there looks like now, though, I almost wish that scenario had come true.
Thanks for those old hometown pics, sopas_ej! I'd thought about posting them here myself, but ya beat me to it. ^^
-Scott