Crossroads Mall

[bdub02]

I don't know if anybody has posted this, but Crossroads is now at the top of the list at Labelscar Retail History blog.

Oklahoma » Labelscar: The Retail History Blog

[SoonerDave]

The sad thing is that I don't think many people realize just how big a deal Crossroads was for its time. It was a *huge* (and, I guess, for that matter it still is) mall, and you coudn't turn on the radio or TV without hearing their original jingle..."Come to Crossroards, Come to Crossroads, Come out to Crossroads Mall..It's the latest, greatest, up-to-datest, shopping center of all..."

KWTV used to do the MDA telethon from Crossroads' center court, and ol' Ronald McDonald would host the "fishbowl" for people bringing donations in during the night or Labor Day. Heck, that was back when Chik-Fil-A was on the west end of the mall next to the erstwhile Wards location. That history blog doesn't note the fact that Juilus actually closed for a time several years ago, then reopened.

There used to be a Baskin Robbins 31 flavors next door to OJ; there was also a Farrell's Ice Cream Parlour upstairs where Eyemart is now. Geez, I'm remembering a lot of them now - Emmer Brothers occupied two floors on the west wing, Napoleon Nash was on the south wing going into Dillard's, and the north anchor was John A. Brown's....and the only toy shop was Toys By Roy. And they had some COOL toys in there, too!

Sorry, sorry for the waxing-nostalgic. My mom lamented the demise of the ol Capitol Hill shopping district, most of which ironically enough vacated that area for Crossroads. I guess history is just repeating itself.

I think its kind of ridiculous that ODOT is essentially putting (re)development of that entire area on hold for the next decade while it counts the lint crumbs in its bureaucratic navel. Crossroads had enough troubles to deal with before the I-35 rebuild a few years ago, and I guess in hindsight it's a miracle the place survived that. Lots of business didn't. The pitiful thing is that the defunct Burger King on the west entrance just off I-35 is a desperate hovel for transients and drunks (to be generous), with an accumulation of (at best) random trash, broken beer bottles, and heaven knows what else (I try not to think about it). That place ought to be razed, even if nothing else happens there for a decade.

-sd

[Oh GAWD the Smell!]

My 3rd birthday party was at Farrell's...It's one of my earliest memories. That air-raid siren that they spooled up for birthdays scared the bejiggers out of me. It's a good thing that they let me sit at the player piano for a few minutes or I'd have cried a lot longer

*sniff*

[Karried]

I had my birthday party at Farrells too! It was in San Jose CA. I'll never forget it.. I was much older - 11 0r 12 but we were pretty poor ( single mom) and my neighbors must have felt sorry for me and took me for my first party there ...

That was so special. I'll never forget that.

Have any more room at the piano?

*whhhaaaaaa!*

[jbrown84]

Living on the far northwest side, we rarely visited crossroads, but I used to love the hobby shop that was on the first floor I believe next to JC Penney.

[SoonerDave]

That hobby shop shut down only a year or so ago. Amazingly, it lasted a long time - only closed down about a year ago or so...it was a long-timer.

Anyone remember Video Concepts? It tookover the downstairs space previously occupied by Emmer Brothers. It was a high-end electronics store just a bit before the "contemporary" video age really hit. VHS movies were $100 each. They sold this new video thing RCA had just called SelectAVision, which were large platters contained in a disk that made it look like a giant version of an ole 3" floppy disk. If I'm not mistaken, the media wasn't optical; it was in the vein of a vinyl record with picture info etched into the surface. They were always running the first Star Trek movie on one of their big projection big screens to demo it.

There was also an AWESOME-smelling bakery on the first floor, just to the right as you exited JC Penney's. I can't for the life of me remember the name. Sadly, I remember it pretty much went down the tubes after a local TV station ran an expose about it having failed a city health inspection, or something similar to that. It never recovered. Seems like it had a British theme to it, but don't recall for sure.

And who can forget the bumper cars at the original LeMans?? By the time I was tall/old enough to ride them, they had shut them down permanently.

[windowphobe]

Ah, yes, the Capacitance Electronic Disc. Some of us smartasses called it "Needlevision," and yes, it had a 12-inch vinyl platter played by a stylus shaped sort of like a sleigh runner. The plastic case was to keep the dust off it: if you've ever heard what a clod of dirt can do to a phonograph record, you don't want to see what it can do to video. (I had about 75 of the discs at one point; the latter-day discs had blue cases instead of off-white, which indicated - yes! - actual stereo sound. Video resolution was not appreciably higher than VHS, but colors seemed better.) RCA lost half a billion bucks on this venture and abandoned it within two or three years.

[Cid]

I worked in that hobby shop, aptly named The Hobby Shop, for YEARS. It shut down years ago, not one year ago. The owner and his wife opened another shop up in the Village called M&S Hobby Shop about two years ago and it has since closed down. I know that she still sells the models and game inventory on eBay.

I also worked in their Penn Square Mall location that used to be across the hall from the movie theater. We had tons o' fun super-gluing quarters to the steps and watching people in line trying to pick them up. By the time we stopped doing that, maintenance had put several chip marks in the tile from using a screwdriver and hammer to get them up over the course of several weeks.

[PUGalicious]

We had tons o' fun super-gluing quarters to the steps and watching people in line trying to pick them up. By the time we stopped doing that, maintenance had put several chip marks in the tile from using a screwdriver and hammer to get them up over the course of several weeks.

Ha, ha, ha... that's funny... damaging property resulting in unnecessary costs to the property owners, passed on to the mall tenants and ultimately passed on to the consumer... that's "tons o' fun" — for juvenile delinquents... bravo for being another burden on society.

[Cid]

Ha, ha, ha... that's funny... damaging property resulting in unnecessary costs to the property owners, passed on to the mall tenants and ultimately passed on to the consumer... that's "tons o' fun" — for juvenile delinquents... bravo for being another burden on society.

Wa, wa, wa... far too many crybabies that take themselves too seriously. Bravo for being a debbie downer for society.

[redland]

I also worked in their Penn Square Mall location that used to be across the hall from the movie theater. We had tons o' fun super-gluing quarters to the steps and watching people in line trying to pick them up. By the time we stopped doing that, maintenance had put several chip marks in the tile from using a screwdriver and hammer to get them up over the course of several weeks.

You must be very proud.

(Oh sure, I'm a "cry baby" too.)

[Cid]

You must be very proud.

(Oh sure, I'm a "cry baby" too.)

And...

You've got to be kidding me - you're defending that kind of nonsense? Someone who calls you out for defacing someone else's property is a crybaby?

I'll admit, it takes a certain kind of cojones to be proud of vandalism so much that they'll brag about it in a public forum like this, and then defend it when someone (rightly) calls them out for it. Unbelievable. Good thing you didn't work for me, because I'd have fired your sorry butt for it if you had so much free time that you could pull of crap like this. The repairs you laugh at end up coming out of the pockets of the people who pay the rent and, in turn, those of us who buy the merchandise.

We get to the point where we're all supposed to be conditioned to think every kind of behavior is acceptable, so I guess this is not surprising. I'm glad someone called you out for it.

I'm going to TRY not to argue with you folks, after all this is the Internet. All I really have to say is that if anyone can go through life and say they've never done ANYTHING as bad as gluing quarters to the floor in a mall then they are obviously a much better person than me. I guess I'm supposed to be ashamed.

*shrug*

I do have to wonder what kind of people get inflamed over a silly little story like this. Is this what this forum has become?

Seriously folks... LIGHTEN UP.

[Taggart]

This is all because Wiggie's left!!!

[oneforone]

This is all because Wiggie's left!!!

I take it Wiggies was not all that great after all because there place in Edmond is now closed.

[CuatrodeMayo]

lighten up, people.

[okclee]

I thought it was a funny story / prank.

[Easy180]

Sounds pretty funny to me as well

Sat near a guy with a red glowstick on a string at a music fest back in May...Sad to say I laughed everytime he yanked it away from each idiot stopping and grabbing for it...Pretty hilarious watching a bunch of drunk and shroomed out people trying to figure out how the glowstick disappeared

But then again it doesn't take much to entertain me

[Oh GAWD the Smell!]

Sounds pretty funny to me as well

Sat near a guy with a red glowstick on a string at a music fest back in May...Sad to say I laughed everytime he yanked it away from each idiot stopping and grabbing for it...Pretty hilarious watching a bunch of drunk and shroomed out people trying to figure out how the glowstick disappeared

But then again it doesn't take much to entertain me

I'd probably pay money to see that.

[CowboyConservative]

Macerich Co. has refinanced $61.2 million of debt on Crossroads Mall with a 10-year, fixed-rate loan, said Mark McGovern of CB Richard Ellis-Melody Capital Markets in San Diego, who arranged the financing through Bear Stearns. Crossroads Mall, built in 1974, has 1.1 million square feet of rentable space with tenants including American Eagle Outfitters, Victoria's Secret and anchors J.C. Penney Co. Inc., Foley's and Dillard's.

Maybe they have something planned for Crossroads if they are refinancing debt. Such as renovating or better yet tearing down and rebuilding.

They demolished the Boulder, Colorado Crossroads Mall and they are building this.

http://www.twentyninth.com/about/index.jsp

The 240/I-35 interchange reconstruction is not to far down the road. From what I understand construction is expected to begin in 2007.

[ETL]

Crossroads problem is The Valley. Unless OKC can do something to fix this city, them this area is doomed. Why can the city put gates to check who goes in and out. Maybe those people will leave the city and it will just go away. Death Valley to Crossroads

[mranderson]

Crossroads problem is The Valley. Unless OKC can do something to fix this city, them this area is doomed. Why can the city put gates to check who goes in and out. Maybe those people will leave the city and it will just go away. Death Valley to Crossroads

Valley Brook was there LONG before Crossroads. The problem is gang bangers. The mall is fuill of them.

[ETL]

The city is nothing but a nuisance. Why do people live there?

[BricktownGuy]

Sorry, please tell us out of towners, what exactly is Valley Brook?

[soonerliberal]

Valley Brook is a small quarter-mile by quarter-mile town completely surrounded by Oklahoma City. It is basically at the corner of SE 59th and Eastern.

Here's a map.

Valley Brook is known for its line of strip clubs along with lower-class housing and borders Crossroads Mall. It is literally from the wrong side of the tracks.

[BricktownGuy]

SL, thanks.