1970’s Shopping Malls

Fairlane Shopping Center Dearborn, MI
bay state west springfield, MA
Some people that you randomly come across like Jason Cawood just go around and collect, take, and share great vintage images that i’ve probably had on my computer for awhile now and I don’t know which images are his or if they’re from someone else, either way these 2 from shopping malls always caught my eye. I feel silly tagging this post “1970s malls” hah! if someone actually searched for that i’d be pretty amazed, now the ISO50 blog has that covered. On a side note, I never remember Fairlane looking soo impressive.

20 Comments

  1. ray says:

    wow Fairland Mall!

    i remember seeing RoboCop there and feeling a huge sense of pride. haha

    and that shit store Pazazz which was all about selling the worst neon crap ever.

    wow

    thanks for posting that.

  2. Eric says:

    So very great!

  3. Neil Hamilton says:

    Boards of Canada hail these old 9mm Canadian Film Board flicks as a big inspiration behind their music. (hence their name)

  4. whoa!
    hand me my corduroy pantsuit, the one with the flares –
    I’m there!

  5. very says:

    Looks a bit like lobby of Koryo Hotel in Pyongyang, North Korea. Built around same time and kept in good shape since. Actually hotel lobbies were the only things in good shape on my visit…

  6. mike cottone says:

    I’ve never actually been to Fairlane (don’t get to Dearborn much), but Lakeside Mall in Sterling Heights looks like it may have been designed by the same architect. I remember it having the red carpeted “steps” and stage setup like that which was the play area for kids. It still has the angular black stone walls and planters as well. I’d love to see more of these!

  7. Jamie says:

    Going to Fairlane as a kid was like stepping onto the set of our own sci-fi TV show. My friend Eric and I would pretend the car was a transport and we were heading to “the station” for starship supplies.

    The monorail to the Dearborn Hyatt, the waterfall and sculptures, the lightbulb and glass elevators, everything about Fairlane felt like the future in the present to this kid. Thanks a lot for posting this.

  8. Mark C. says:

    That first image is **off-the-charts** retro–I love it!!! Soooo very 70’s, for sure. Great post.

  9. Josh says:

    I just watched Logan’s Run for the first time last week, so this is timely. At first glance I thought these were stills from the movie.

  10. grey says:

    Any chance that you have these in higher resolution?

  11. Jakub says:

    grey –

    I wish 🙁

    I do have them at about 800px wide though

  12. jason cawood says:

    i have a 922 X 629 scan of the below image if anyone wants it . . .

  13. grey says:

    A late response, but if you’d send me those, I’d appreciate it.

  14. Elizabeth Cassidy says:

    Can you believe I actually Googled “1970’s Malls”? Yours was the first to come up. We’re doing a play set in the 70’s, hopefully your images will be incorporated.

  15. Ricky says:

    great place and all showroom inside it are amazing, I am requesting the buyers please just visit once to enjoy the shopping here…

  16. Daryl says:

    Wow!! I can’t believe you have a pic of inside of the old Baystate West!! Love it! Many fond childhood memories shopping there with the family on weekends. Do you by any chance have a pic of “The Shops-Baystate West” sign that used to be outside on the front of the building?

  17. Reading your blog has really opened my eyes to alot. Many thanks.

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