BIGMallrat | Retail history of Northern California

Published June 2, 2026 Fashion Island opened in 1981 as San Mateo's newest enclosed mall, anchored by Bullock's, Liberty House, JCPenney, and Montgomery Ward. These two surviving directories offer a snapshot of the mall just a few years apart—one showing Fashion Island near its peak, and another revealing the first signs of change. 1983 Fashion Island directory: a mall in its prime Just two years after opening, Fashion Island was packed with retailers. The 1983 directory shows a healthy mix of department stores, fashion chains, restaurants, and specialty shops that reflected the mall's upscale ambitions. Among the tenants were The Limited, Miller's Outpost, Thom McAn, Waldenbooks, Walgreens, The Wherehouse, Oshman's Sporting Goods, Things Remembered, and See's Candies. The mall's four department store anchors—Bullock's, Liberty House, JCPenney, and Montgomery Ward—were all operating, while the Ice Capades Chalet ice rink and Red Robin Restaurant added...

Published August 8, 2025 In 1982, Hillsdale Mall in San Mateo unveiled a sleek new identity. What was once a postwar, open-air shopping center had just completed a massive 1981 transformation—fully enclosed and remodeled to compete with the newly opened San Mateo Fashion Island mall just down the road. This wasn’t just cosmetic. The remodel signaled Hillsdale’s evolution from a neighborhood mall to a full-fledged suburban shopping destination. And central to this new era? The 1982 Hillsdale Mall directory—a compact, graphic time capsule that captured the mall’s modern two-level layout, new design, and most importantly, the retail names that shaped its golden age. Mall map & directory Scan of Hillsdale Mall’s 1982 directory, showing major stores like Nordstrom, Sears, and the newly enclosed layout. The 1982 directory featured anchor stores that reflected Hillsdale’s upgraded ambitions: Mall enclosure and expanded with a new second-level Nordstrom, which had just opened as pa...

Published August 6, 2025 In September 2006, Tanforan Mall in San Bruno, California, proudly presented itself as “ The New Shape of Shopping .” Just one year after a massive redevelopment project transformed the aging mid-century mall into a sleek, two-level shopping destination called "The Shops at Tanforan," the mall was riding a wave of optimism—anchored by Target, JCPenney, and Sears, and bolstered by an upgraded food court and an influx of national brands. Today, we’re revisiting that era through a rare 2006 directory and kiosk guide that captured Tanforan at the peak of its early-2000s reinvention. Front cover Front of the September 2006 directory, promoting gift cards, shopping club, and services—popular mall staples of the 2000s. The front of the September 2006 directory touts the mall’s stylish credentials. Hollister Co., the beach-themed Abercrombie offshoot, was set to debut in Spring 2007, while Justice (the preteen girls’ fashion brand) had a grand opening planne...

Published July 27, 2025 Once a quiet symbol of suburban prosperity, Westlake Shopping Center in Daly City has entered a new chapter—one defined by open-air promenades, national chains, and a distinct shift away from its traditional mall roots. While this redevelopment brings a fresh look and renewed energy, it also reflects the evolution of a unique mid-century retail experience. A mid-century landmark in Daly City Opened in 1951 as the Westlake Town and Country Center , Westlake was a cornerstone of the ambitious, master-planned Westlake community developed by Henry Doelger. Nestled among curving streets and tidy ranch homes, it stood as one of California’s earliest large-scale suburban shopping centers, built to embody the postwar ideals of convenience, modernity, and community. 1950 newspaper clipping showing the proposed layout for Westlake Shopping Center. The design featured covered walkways where classical and semi-classical music played through speakers, shifting in tone to ...

Published: March 8, 2008 · Last updated: September 22, 2026 Few places on the Peninsula have been reinvented as often as Tanforan. Over more than a century, the San Bruno property has served as a racetrack, wartime detention center, regional shopping mall, and transit-oriented retail center. Now, the 44-acre site faces another transformation through a proposed mixed-use redevelopment. Each chapter reflects the changing priorities of the Bay Area itself. Tanforan Mall in the 1970s, showing the Sears anchor and the original enclosed mall architecture. Annotated Apple Maps view of San Bruno showing the location of Tanforan, positioned off I-380 at El Camino Real. From racetrack to retail center (1899–1970) Before it was a shopping mall, the site was home to Tanforan Park racetrack, which opened in 1899 and became nationally known as a venue for thoroughbred racing. The racetrack is remembered not only for horses such as Seabiscuit, but also for its use as a temporary detention center...

San Mateo Fashion Island opened in 1981 at the height of the American mall boom. Anchored by JCPenney, Montgomery Ward, Bullock's, and Liberty House, the project represented decades of retail thinking: build a bigger mall, add more department stores, and shoppers would come. But Fashion Island arrived at a turning point. Within just a few years of opening, two of its four anchors had abandoned the Northern California market entirely. Meanwhile, nearby Hillsdale Mall reinvented itself and captured much of the attention Fashion Island had hoped to command. The result was one of the Bay Area's earliest major mall failures—a shopping center that opened at the peak of department-store dominance only to discover that the retail landscape was already changing beneath its feet. Grand opening ad from September 1981 for San Mateo Fashion Island mall with the slogan "look to us." Annotated Apple Maps view of San Mateo showing the location of Fashion Island mall, positioned o...

Published: October 10, 2006 · Last updated: September 20, 2026 Once a quiet dairy farm on the edge of San Mateo, California, the site of Hillsdale Mall would grow into one of the most recognizable shopping destinations on the San Francisco Peninsula. From its sun-soaked, open-air roots in the 1950s to its glossy, two-story expansion in the 1980s, Hillsdale mirrored the rise of suburbia, mall culture, and regional retail identity. Today, we look back at Hillsdale’s transformation—through archival detail—with a few personal glimpses of what it was like to experience the center during its retail heyday. 1954: A mall grows in San Mateo When Hillsdale Mall officially opened in November 1954, it marked more than the debut of a shopping plaza—it reflected California’s postwar suburban boom. Developed by David D. Bohannon on what had once been a dairy farm, the center was anchored by a brand-new Macy’s, which opened on November 19. Hillsdale’s retail story had begun earlier, however, with a...