Looking for info on old Wooldawn Mall..

[Aya_Akai]

I have been trying the last few days to try and find something on this myself, but I know someone here can work some magic, or at least point me in the right direction. A friend of mine is doing some renovation work at his store (Giant Robot Comics) in Woodlawn, I've been providing some assistance.. and in working on removing the old flooring, we began to see marks on the very bottom layer of the floor, identifying some of the old parts of what we figured was the original layout of the indoor Woodlawn Mall.

I'm curious if anyone has photos of what this shopping mall used to look like when it was original, and even better.. if anyone has any info on what the layout used to be like inside when it was an indoor shopping mall.. plans, a layout map maybe or even a little sketch by memory? If anyone would be able to provide ANYTHING on this, that would be awesome, I find the idea so interesting that the plaza in Woodlawn has changed that much, alas I've got no memory of it myself as I'm fairly certain it was renovated before I was born

[Colin May]

Originally Posted by HaliStreaks

I have been trying the last few days to try and find something on this myself, but I know someone here can work some magic, or at least point me in the right direction. A friend of mine is doing some renovation work at his store (Giant Robot Comics) in Woodlawn, I've been providing some assistance.. and in working on removing the old flooring, we began to see marks on the very bottom layer of the floor, identifying some of the old parts of what we figured was the original layout of the indoor Woodlawn Mall.

I'm curious if anyone has photos of what this shopping mall used to look like when it was original, and even better.. if anyone has any info on what the layout used to be like inside when it was an indoor shopping mall.. plans, a layout map maybe or even a little sketch by memory? If anyone would be able to provide ANYTHING on this, that would be awesome, I find the idea so interesting that the plaza in Woodlawn has changed that much, alas I've got no memory of it myself as I'm fairly certain it was renovated before I was born

Contact HRM Planning, or the Building Permits/Inspection section who may have the plans submitted for the original construction and for the subsequent alterations.
The Dartmouth Free Press is available at the Provincial Archives and you may find photos of the mall in articles. And contact the Herald, they have an archive and may be able to search for you. HRM Archives are in Burnside but the hours are quite restricted.
And change the title - Woodlawn not Wooldawn, we all make mistakes.
Good luck with the search.

[terrynorthend]

I remember that it was an L-shaped indoor mall, anchored by The Met (low-end dept. store) about where Fabricville is now, and a grocery store, can't remember if it was Dominion, Save-Easy or Sobeys at the other end (Taylor floor end) In the middle of the "L" there was a small court like space with a round lunch counter (maybe called "Stop n Go"?) It had those spinning stools fixed to the floor. Loved those as a kid. Oh, and sugar cubes for people's coffee, which I used to snag when my parents weren't looking The Woodlawn branch of the Library was an indoor storefront near this center court as well. As for stores, it seemed to me, an oblivious kid, to be average run-of-the-mill stores. A drugstore for sure up at the grocery store end, a number of clothing stores, Reitman's comes to mind, a bookstore, I think one of those t-shirt transfer stores, a record store, etc. There was a coin collector shop down by the Met entrance. It had a similar feel as Dartmouth Shopping Centre and Bayer's Road Shopping Centre at the time.

[HalifaxRetales]

Where Giant Robot is was always outdoor mall
the indoor mall didn't start until the next building
Where they are though I am pretty sure started as the back warehouse of Consumers Distributing, and then it was BetaLand

[Grav]

I would also be interested in information on this enigma of a mall. I cannot find anything on it other than history recalled by others on the web. If you do find any information, or better yet pictures please share! I'm also interested in the k-mart mall near by and the pre-Reno Penhorn mall.

From what I have seen written by others; the Woodlawn mall was very "dark" inside. In my experience researching mid 20th century design though "dark and dingy" usually just means little or no natural light and smooth lighting schemes inside. These places hardly were ever unwelcoming or "dingy". I imagine Woodlawn being similar to the crossroads center in downtown Toronto. Brown tile, brick , wood ect... Maybe some of those charming globe lights that are quickly disappearing from the world too

[HalifaxRetales]

Originally Posted by Grav

I would also be interested in information on this enigma of a mall. I cannot find anything on it other than history recalled by others on the web. If you do find any information, or better yet pictures please share! I'm also interested in the k-mart mall near by and the pre-Reno Penhorn mall.

From what I have seen written by others; the Woodlawn mall was very "dark" inside. In my experience researching mid 20th century design though "dark and dingy" usually just means little or no natural light and smooth lighting schemes inside. These places hardly were ever unwelcoming or "dingy". I imagine Woodlawn being similar to the crossroads center in downtown Toronto. Brown tile, brick , wood ect... Maybe some of those charming globe lights that are quickly disappearing from the world too

Woodlawn was a dark brick tile, I'd guess the ceiling hit was 11' tops in the hallway

anchored on Save Easy on the left, The Met on the right
in the middle on the L corner there was Chinese restaurant called the Green Pepper, and also in the ben were the Candy Bowl and the Woodlawn library

[msd1969]

My brother and I grew up in Woodlawn and spent a great deal of time at the old Woodlawn Mall in the late 70's and 80's. We have, to the best of our ability to remember, recreated the floor plan of that mall as it existed in the early 1980s. The outer dimensions are taken from an aerial photograph of the mall from 1975 and thus are fully accurate to scale. The interior walls are estimations only based on our recollection. We have labelled the spaces and stores as best as we can remember. Enjoy!

[alps]

Originally Posted by msd1969

My brother and I grew up in Woodlawn and spent a great deal of time at the old Woodlawn Mall in the late 70's and 80's. We have, to the best of our ability to remember, recreated the floor plan of that mall as it existed in the early 1980s. The outer dimensions are taken from an aerial photograph of the mall from 1975 and thus are fully accurate to scale. The interior walls are estimations only based on our recollection. We have labelled the spaces and stores as best as we can remember. Enjoy!

Thanks for posting this! I hadn't heard about this mall before. When was it turned into an outdoor plaza?

Anyway, the reason why I just came across this thread is that an old radio commercial for this mall was recently uploaded to the Internet Archive.