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On a Sunday drive today, I stumbled into entering Mountain Plaza Mall in Hamilton--all I can say is, it's the weirdest mall I've ever been to. It practically transcends itself.

Go there--as it stands, its days are numbered.
 
Mountain Plaza Mall is the "real" Hamilton, where folks prematurely aged by years of toil in harsh factory conditions gather for Tim Horton's coffee and free samples of various types of sausage.
 
And there's nothing whatsoever compelling any "outsider" to visit. It's ugly, it's gloomy, it's crude, it feels timewarped from some unpinpointable period or periods, it's got ancient horsey-rides and arcade games and oldies muzak and it smells weird in a saturated-cooking way...and yet, it feels intensely alive.

Something tells me, Jane Jacobs would understand. And Richard Florida wouldn't.
 
adma said:
On a Sunday drive today, I stumbled into entering Mountain Plaza Mall in Hamilton--all I can say is, it's the weirdest mall I've ever been to. It practically transcends itself.

Go there--as it stands, its days are numbered.
Click to expand...

Another one to see is Centre Mall, the first modern mall in Canada (outdoor at first, opened 1954, anchored by Simpson-Sears, the first Sears store, and Morgan's). It's days as an indoor mall are numbered too. It's also the Toronto area's closest cousin to circa-1978 Dixie Square Mall.

I've been to Mountain Plaza. It's everything that adma says it is. Also, there's Jackson Square/Eaton Centre, not quite a dead mall, but not that healthy. It still did better than most Ontario downtown malls.
 
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Off topic, but does anyone know that mall that was closed down and was being replaced with outdoor shops? It was somewhere in Toronto. I'm thinking near Don Mills for some reason...
 
Actually the best part of Stonegate isn't clear in those shots; it's the back corner where it's still open air, flat-roof-on-pipe-columns early 50s community-plaza idealism...
 
phunky said:
Off topic, but does anyone know that mall that was closed down and was being replaced with outdoor shops? It was somewhere in Toronto. I'm thinking near Don Mills for some reason...
Click to expand...

It's Don Mills Centre...now called the Shops at Don Mills. There is a thread for it somewhere but I couldn't find it.

Here's the website instead...http://www.shopsatdonmills.ca
 
adma said:
On a Sunday drive today, I stumbled into entering Mountain Plaza Mall in Hamilton--all I can say is, it's the weirdest mall I've ever been to. It practically transcends itself.

Go there--as it stands, its days are numbered.
Click to expand...

I remember going to this mall a very long time ago. I used to have relatives who lived nearby. The Wal-Mart used to be a Woolco. The weird horse rides were there at that time.
 
small indoor mall in Brampton

this small mall is hidden away near Steeles and Hurontario, and opened in 1960.
apparently it used to have a roof, for some reason it was removed. its a strange and lonely place, but there's a funky old bowling alley in the lower level.
i haven't been out there in a while, but there was a serious fire there in the middle of may. i don't know how it fared.

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Considerably north of Steeles--more or less where the old core of Brampton ends and the postwar subdivision begins.

Wouldn't be surprised if the ex-roof was "semi-open-air" as well...
 
The Brampton Mall is at Hurontario and Nanwood, about halfway between Steeles and Queen Street (highway 7 - but not really highway 7. It's complicated).

The words "totally destroyed" were used to describe the damage to the bowling alley and some of the stores close to Shoppers.
 
I'm surprised when I go in Central Parkway Mall in Mississauga and actually see people in it.
The cheap theatres are gone now also. I'd love to see some kind of new development happen there.
 
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