A dead mall
The date was October 26, 1985. The time was 1:16 in the morning. The place was the parking lot of the Twin Pines Mall in the town of Hill Valley. It was on this rather small plot of real estate where timelines would diverge changing the future and the past forever.
1- Just inside Puente Hills Mall’s western upper level mall entrance. 2 & 3- The entrance to the former Sears store. 4 to 8- The interior of the upper level of the northwestern wing.
These events, of course, occur in the beginning of one of the greatest science fiction franchises of all time, Back to the Future. To this day I still enjoy a good viewing of the movies and it’s become a personal traditional to watch the entire trilogy every Christmas day.
Puente Hills Mall Mallmanac ca. 1974. View the full PDF version here.
But behind the famed DeLorean and a chase scene involving a van full of terrorists as well as a lucky Fotomat-style booth, was, as far as I was concerned, one of the unsung stars of the film. With a brightly lit JCPenney label along with the less obvious logos of J. W. Robinson's and Ross Dress for Less, the monolith in the background commanded just as much of my attention.
1 to 6- Inside the upper level of the corridor leading to the former Sears. The lower level of this area has been closed off to the public. 7 & 8- The stub of the corridor once leading to JCPenney and was later home to Round One and Ross.
That major player watching over these early morning events was the Puente Hills Mall located in City of Industry, California, a bedroom suburb just to the east of downtown Los Angeles. The double tiered, cross shaped retail facility was a mere decade old when it took on its most famous role.
But recent years haven’t been as kind to the aging retail complex situated just to the south of the Pomona Freeway. It seems that its past glory hasn’t been enough to save it from the so called Retail Apocalypse that has claimed so many of its peers.
1 to 3- The upper level of Puente Hills Mall’s northeastern concourse. 4 to 8- The northeastern most portion of the corridor is home to the food court and AMC theaters.
It was a sunny and warm spring morning when I disembarked the number 280 bus at the rather unkept eastern entrance to the monolith. There was a small gathering of patrons just outside of those doors and I was disappointed to see that the entries were still locked.
Puente Hills Mall Mallmanac ca. 1982. View the full PDF version here.
As I was planning my visit on Easter Sunday, I had confirmed with mall management that the common areas would still be open. So I stood outside in the relentless Southern California sun with everyone else until a lone patron exited. I joined the flood of bodies entering soon after and made my way into the confines of Twin Pines Mall.
The mainly empty food court.
What I saw just inside of those doors brought both excitement and dismay. To my chagrin, what was once at the center of the alteration of the space time continuum was now a somber and desolate shell of what it used to be.
1- The AMC theaters from the food court. The two are not directly connected. 2 to 5- The northeastern corridor upper level moving toward Puente Hills Mall’s center court. 6 to 8- The lower level of the former Broadway corridor.
I soon found myself in the main concourse just outside of the former second level entrance to Sears. I could see that the most recent renovation had brought a spectrum of earth tones to the interior, all brightened by a narrow skylight running the full length of each concourse.
I continued my walk past more empty storefronts and the occasional patron and found myself at the rather extensive, wide open center court at the junction of the two main corridors. Reminiscent of the oversized central areas of places like Lynnhaven Mall and Coquitlam Centre, I love these airy, oversized center courts of the past that haven’t yet been filled with more leasable spaces.
A stroll around the lower tier of Puente Hills Mall’s center court, complete with the Easter Bunny’s throne.
Though I wanted to continue down the second level hallway leading to the former J. W. Robinson's then Macy’s building, I was disappointed to be greeted by a wall of sheet rock blocking my egress. Just past this disappointment was where the concourse once leading to JCPenney lay. That section was now occupied by Round One, one of a handful of tenants still bringing in paying customers.
A loop around the mezzanine surrounding the expansive, old school center court of Puente Hills Mall.
That left only the second level corridor leading to the AMC Theaters and food court as my only options. Once punctuated by a Broadway outlet, the AMC Theaters have a single mall entrance located on the first level, cutting off the now empty food court from much needed traffic.
Puente Hills Mall lease plan ca. 2011. View the full PDF version here.
I proceeded down to the lower level at center court, exploring the expansive area with only a mall janitor preventing me from being completely alone. The corridors leading to both the AMC Theaters and Sears on the lower level were blocked off, leaving the southwestern corridor once leading to Macy’s as the only option.
Puente Hills Mall lease plan ca. 2014. View the full PDF version here.
It was in this concourse where I located my most anticipated feature of the Puente Hills Mall. In a small alcove and nearly unnoticeable among all of the vacant storefronts was the replica of the famed Twin Pines Mall sign that Marty McFly runs towards mere minutes before his fateful trip. The time perpetually set to 1:16 am, I was absolutely giddy to find that it was still on display.
1- The walled off upper concourse of Puente Hills Mall’s southwestern concourse. 2- Looking toward the former J. W. Robinson’s anchor. 3- The replica of the Twin Pines Mall sign. 4- The lower level of the southwestern corridor once leading to Macy’s.
At the end of the corridor was the exit leading to, perhaps, the most famed piece of parking lot to exist outside of a shopping mall. I was facing the carpark where, on October 26, 1985, fans of the movie gathered to see if a DeLorean would indeed return back to the future.
1- Just outside of the mall entrance leading to the southwestern wing. 2 to 9- The famed patch of asphalt where some of the most iconic scenes from Back to the Future were filmed. 10- The southern entrance to the parking lot. Both the Twin Pines Mall and Lone Pine Mall signs stood against the yellow railing.
Though the façade of the highlighted JCPenney store remains much the same to this day, it is now labeled with the logo for 24 Hour Fitness. And while no longer in operation on my visit, the sign for Ross Dress for Less occupies the wall just to the west of the former JCPenney, the retailer having moved from their 1985 location across the street.
The exterior of the J. W. Robinson's had, thankfully, not been changed although it was in need of some major repair. Of the two other anchors not shown in Back to the Future, only Sears retained its original exterior with its nineties logo label scars still visible under a half-hearted attempt at a paint over.
1- The southern mall entrance. 2 & 3- The former JCPenney and its corridor. 4 to 7- The exterior of what was once J. W. Robinson’s. 8- The southern façade of Puente Hills Mall.
As I hopped into my Uber to return to my accommodations downtown with the Puente Hills Mall behind me, a sort of dismay nearly overrode my happiness at finally having visited that remarkable piece of real estate. It was obvious that the center would no longer exist in its present form sooner rather than later.
1 to 5- The former JCPenney’s exterior has changed little from how it originally appeared. 6- The upper level entrance to Round One and the former Burlington outlet. 7 to 10- The east facing edifice of Puente Hills Mall.
Puente Hills Mall opened in several waves spanning 1974 and 1975. The northeastern anchor, Los Angeles based The Broadway, was the first department store to makes its premier. Soon after, the southwestern anchor J. W. Robinson's, made its debut. Mall standards JCPenney and Sears, the southeastern and northwestern anchors, respectively, commenced operations in 1975.
Puente Hills Mall pamphlet ca. 2018. View the full PDF version here.
By the end of the decade, the four department stores were joined by over 150 inline shops. Puente Hills Mall saw much success through most of the following decade until making its motion picture debut in Back to the Future.
1 to 3- The upper level mall entrance leading to the northeastern concourse. 4- A view of the former JCPenney store from the north. 5 to 7- The AMC Theaters stand where The Broadway once stood. 8- The north face of the Puente Hills Mall.
The nineties saw a decline in the center’s fortunes as J. W. Robinson's was rebranded as Robinsons-May while JCPenney and The Broadway made their exits. Faced with only half of its gross leasable area occupied, Puente Hills Mall embarked on its first major renovation.
In the aughts, Robinsons-May was relabeled as Macy’s while several junior anchors including CompUSA and Circuit City vacated their spaces. It was at the end of the decade when Round One and Ross Dress for Less moved into what was once the mall concourse area leading to JCPenney, which by then had been taken over by 24 Hour Fitness.
1 to 5- The northern façade of Puente Hills Mall. 7 to 10- The lower level exterior of the former Sears store.
The 2010s saw more churn as Toys R Us came in 2011 and left in 2018. Sears, only at the beginning of what would become a precipitous decline, vacated their building as the final remaining extant anchor. Though the AMC Theaters had been built where The Broadway once stood, droves of inline stores rushed to the exits.
Puente Hills Mall Mallmanac ca. 2024. View the full PDF version here.
Macy’s, the sole remaining department store anchor, cut their losses in 2022 while a more recent anchor, Burlington, announced their departure not long after. With just a scattering of local names occupying the vast interior of Puente Hills Mall, some portions of the interior were then made inaccessible.
The upper level view of the former Sears leading to the western mall entrance, the one from which I entered.
What’s left of what was once known as Twin Pines Mall and later Lone Pine Mall seems to no longer have a place in this timeline. Perhaps somewhere in the multiverse Puente Hills Mall still exists as a relevant retail destination, but the version we know seems to be going the way of the DeLorean.
1- Puente Hills Mall’s upper level entrance leading to the Sears concourse. 2 to 8- The exterior of what was originally J. W. Robinson’s, followed by Robinsons May and finally closing in 2022 as Macy’s.
No comments:
Post a Comment