In the early 1970s, Federated Department Stores, owners of Bullock's of Southern California, decided the Bay Area was missing something. Not sunshine. Not warmer weather. But Fashion. They quickly unfurled plans to dazzle the region by bringing Bullock's north.
Bullock's opened its first store at Palo Alto's Stanford Shopping Center in 1972—polished, posh, and perhaps a bit puzzled. They brought SoCal's easy-breezy fashion vibe north, but Palo Alto wasn't quite ready for casual Fridays.
Yet the ambition didn’t end there.
In came Walnut Creek (1973), then Vallco (1975), Stonestown (1977), and Oakridge (1978), like a runway of retail hope. At Oakridge, we saw the latest in fashion, natural light in a department store.
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| The fiberglass roof debuted at Bullock's Oakridge, from 1981 Progressive Architecture. |
The stores were well-dressed, well-placed, and well… not very well visited. Despite fancy in-store restaurants and enough chrome racks to make Studio 54 blush, the magic never quite caught on. Still, each store had a certain charm—especially the one that looked like a spaceship parked in suburbia.
Ah yes, Fashion Island. The one with the tent.
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| Bullock’s Fashion Island in San Mateo—part spaceship, part style pavilion. |
That marvel invoked curiosity of all ages."is that a circus?" Honestly, it sort of was, except no lions, tigers, or bears, just handbags, slacks, and Mr. Coffee. Bullock's Fashion Island, which opened in 1981, was a fiberglass fantasia. Imagine a department store bathed in sunlight from its billowing, parachute-like roof, a marvel that felt half carnival, half moon base. People came from all over just to see it. During rainstorms, the roof would thrash and ripple like a living thing. It was wild. It was wonderful. And unfortunately—it was cold. Or hot. Sometimes both. Climate control and fiberglass don't make great partners.
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| A newspaper photo of Bullock's San Mateo Fashion Island. |
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| A newspaper photo inside Bullock's San Mateo Fashion Island. |
Always fascinated by the beautiful cursive "Bullock's" sign, I went to San Mateo Fashion Island in 1985 to obtain a Bullock's memento. My hands, going numb because it was winter, pulled out a dollar, bought a greeting card, and the resulting bag is now a cherished souvenir. This is the back of my Bullock's receipt.
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| One dollar. One greeting card. And a lasting memory in a Bullock’s shopping bag. |
But like all good things, Bullock’s North was not built to last. Nordstrom had arrived in the Bay Area in 1981, then Neiman Marcus in 1982. By 1983, Federated saw the writing on the (clearance) wall and put the chain up for sale. Five stores closed in 1984. Nordstrom moved in 4 of them with its sensible shoes and espresso carts. And by 1986, even the fabled Bullock's Fashion Island shut its tented doors.
There were whispers about why the Fashion Island store lingered 3 years longer—contracts, credit card holders, corporate stubbornness—but the truth is lost to time and possibly the dead mall's echo. Eventually, the building was razed. The tent was folded up for good.
Bullock’s faded into the collective memory of retail romantics. Like a dream you almost remember from childhood—sparkly, shapeless, and gone.
And yet… if you close your eyes and listen, you can still hear it:
“What's that? Is that a circus?”
No, kid.
That was Bullock’s.
Bullock's North stores
- Bullock's Stanford - Opened March 2, 1972 in Palo Alto. 150,000 sq. ft., designed by Welton Becket & Associates. Closed January 1984 and replaced by Nordstrom.
- Bullock's Walnut Creek - Opened November 8, 1973 at Broadway Plaza. 180,000 sq. ft., designed by Welton Becket & Associates. Closed January 1984 and replaced by Nordstrom.
- Bullock's Vallco - Opened September 25, 1975 in Cupertino. 150,000 sq. ft., designed by Welton Becket & Associates. Closed January 1984 and replaced by Emporium-Capwell.
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| Former Bullock's at Vallco Shopping Mall in Cupertino, later rebranded as Emporium-Capwell, then Macy’s before being demolished in the 2010s. |
- Bullock's Stonestown - Opened November 3, 1977 in San Francisco, closed January 1984, Replaced by Nordstrom.
- Bullock's Oakridge - Opened September 1978 in San Jose. 150,000 sq. ft. Closed late 1984 and replaced by Nordstrom.
- Bullock's Fashion Island - Opened September 24, 1981 in San Mateo, closed around November 1986. Demolished.
Comments
I just don't see Nordstrom closing stores, though I'm sure they've done it. BTW, I think the Stanford Nordstrom is an ex-Bullocks, too.
Nordstrom bought quite a few Bullock's locatons and plain knocked the buildings down. Stonestown, Broadway Plaza, and so on (I think the complete list is on Wikipedia). Come to think of it, they replaced the old Nordstrom at Valley Fair with a new one and now plan to do the same at Stoneridge. Seems excessive.
Scott
Ironic that the stores Nordstrom replaced(or plan to) with larger buildings are ones that they DID build themselves (Valley Fair and Stoneridge)
As I said, Macys was scared to death of Nordstrom then and ended up buying a few Liberty House stores in response. The Macys Mens Store in downtown SF was one, Sunrise Mall in Sacramento was another.
But the one that really showed their desperation was Coddingtown in Santa Rosa. Macys had just built or was building Santa Rosa Plaza across town, and I remember thinking at the time that Santa Rosa wasn't big enough for TWO Macys.
Still, Nordstrom was not yet in either Downtown SF or Corte Madera, and I'm sure there were a lot of affluent folks in Marin who would gladly make the trek up to Coddingtown had Nordstrom went there.
The only thing Macys had then was a small store in Downtown San Rafael. But Nordstrom had to be stopped, so two stores in Santa Rosa it was. And still is!
And thanks for posting to my blog. Great comments.
I'd bet Nordie's tore Oakridge down because it was too small (just one story). The new(er) building is two floors (Sears, now).
Oh, and hey, the Nordstrom in Pleasanton will be 10 next year. I've heard construction workers say those big-box stores are only meant to last 10 years. Gives some creedance to that theory. Nevertheless, it's still odd. The new Nordstrom will only be two floors instead of the current three. I guess the two-floor concept at Walnut Creek and Corte Madera seem to work well. You know, I have no idea *what* they are thinking!
It's funny that Santa Rosa has two full-scale Macy's stores just a few miles apart? I was reading the other day that a mall in Houston will have two full-scale Macy's (and not separate Men's and Women's stores like elsewhere). Can you imagine? "Can you call the other store and see if THEY have it?"
Scott
I know that Emporium used to own a lot of their store buildings and Coddingtown might have been one of them. If that's the case Macys has very little overhead there(they probably own it free and clear by now) and doesn't need to do that well to keep it in the black.
....while still keeping Nordstrom out of the North Bay as well.
Part of the fiberglass roof also arched down to form the roof over the mall where the Bullocks mall entrance was. In fact, from the mall, you could see into the second level of Bullocks, kind of like a loft if you can imagine. Also, there was a really 80s tube-shaped elevator that went from the ground floor of the mall up to the second "loft" level of Bullocks. The best part of all is that the elevator shaft was tube shaped and covered in almost neon-orange high-gloss ceramic tile! Ah, sweet memories...
Finally, the original building is still there. Nordstrom did renovate extensively but they left the original structure of the building sans fiberglass roof. Sears did the same thing when they took over from Nordstrom.