Monday, May 09, 2011

Liberty House Southland Mall Grand Opening 1972


A vintage advertisement from The Daily Review newspaper on July 28, 1972, celebrating the grand opening of Liberty House at Southland Mall in Hayward.

Although July 30, 1972 was the official grand opening date of Liberty House at Southland Mall, the store actually opened its doors to the public at noon July 2, 1972 (Liberty House Grand Opening Set, 1972).

The Southland Mall location was Liberty House's third location. The Eastridge Mall store had opened a year earlier in 1971 and the City of Paris by Liberty House opened between the Eastridge and Southland openings. A fifth location, Sunrise Mall, would open later in 1972.

Reference:
Liberty House Grand Opening Set. (1972, June 30). Daily Review. Retrieved May 09, 2011 from http://www.ancestry.com.

5 comments:

Randy said...

Liberty House also operated City of Paris's Stonestown branch, until closing it in either '74 or '75. Do you have the closing date of that location? It was later opened by Bullock's North (their 4th location) in November 1977.

Scott Parsons said...

Hi,
I've been researching exact dates. Harder than I thought!
The City of Paris Stonestown opening and closing dates are sketchy. I'll keep looking!
Scott

Scott Parsons said...

For sure 1974. In late 1973, Liberty House and Rhodes starting running combined ads and stopped listing all their locations. I finally found an October 1974 ad that listed their locations and it was minus Stonestown. I wouldn't at all be surprised if the closing coordinated with the opening of the new Liberty House in Union Square (when it moved from the old City of Paris location to next door).

Randy said...

I'd agree with that possibility. Makes perfect sense. Of course, it's now the Macy's Men's Store. When Macy's had electronics, they had it on the entire 4th floor.

Anonymous said...

Our local Liberty House was at Southland. My mom reminded me that in the center of that store there were glass display cases that featured life size mannequins wearing the latest fashions. The glass displays moved up & down, independently, around the escalators. Also my aunt worked there and I remember visiting with grandma to get a picture taken with Santa. We ate at the cafeteria (breakfast) and my omelette came with “yucky green peppers”. I was 6 or 7 at the time. 1978-79. Tangentially I remember watching the skaters carve the ice rink that was built in the basement level at Southland. There were circular window sills that protruded from the interior wall near the mall entrance and I was small enough to sit within the circle and watch “the big kids” skate. Oddly my final memory of that area was purchasing stereo wire at a Goodguys who took up residence where the skating rink once stood. That was probably 1988.(sigh)