| The Palo Alto History Project |
| Bloomingdale's & The Banana Republic 680 Stanford Shopping Center |
| Stanford Shopping Center Gets a Little Swankier When Emporium closed its doors in 1996, The Stanford Shopping Center solidified its slow progression from neighborhood mall to swanky shopping center. This was the first Bloomingdale's to open west of the Rockies, and Bloomie's pulled out all the stops to create a buzz. "The Ultimate Premiere" (do store openings really have names?) in November 1996 featured a sold-out concert that included Liza Minnelli in the parking lot. Doling out between $250 and $1,000 got you inside the tent party (don't worry --- it went to charity), which featured a cocktail buffet catered by Paula LeDuc. 100,000 shoppers showed up the first weekend and overwhelmed the parking lot, causing shouting matches --- and in one case, some actual fisticuffs. The Stanford Shopping Center solution offered the next week --- valet parking, of course. The Stanford Shopping Center (don't call it a mall!) has changed a lot since opening in 1956 with 45 stores. Not only has expanded and expanded and expanded again, its stores now make it more of a European street market than a neighborhood mall. But in an earlier era, Stanford Shopping Center was not quite the ritzy Rodeo Drive that it has become. For instance, where the Banana Republic store now sits, once stood that five & dime icon of a bygone era: F.W. Woolworth's. These days it would be hard to imagine strolling past the L'Occitane and La Belle Day Spa to pick up a Tupperware container at Woolworth's, but there it stood until 1990, as the clientele and ambiance of the "center” changed around it. -Matt Bowling |
| A walk toward Bloomie's |
| Bloomingdale's from the parking lot |
| A Greg Brown mural outside Bloomingdale's---a bear consults with his doctor |
| Inside: Models large and small |
| Bloomies, from across the tracks |
| The Banana Republic store |
| Sources: Palo Alto Historical Association, Palo Alto Weekly |
| I remember this mall in the mid 60's to early 70's as I went there every Saturday with my family. My mother got her hair done at the Emporium, and my Dad and I went to breakfast at Sandy's Kitchen across from Macy's. Sometimes we'd go to Woodland's which was on the El Camino side of the big E. I remember Woolworth's, and Lerners, and the shoe store with the monkeys in the window (Somer and Kaufman I think). I. Magnin, Joseph Magnin, Blum's for special occasions (coffee crunch cake). Purity Market was there, and a bakery next door. Saks and Bullocks were on the other side, and the Stanford Barn where you could choose from several different cuisines and then have candy from the place with the huge Stanford Indian mascot on the wall. The Perfect Recipe was a little earthy restaurant on the north side of the center mall. -Lori |
| Memories added by readers: |
| My mother worked at Emporium, which is also gone, and there was a hardware store, and a supermarket. It was a family-kind of place. Emporium was definitely family-style purchases. Nothing fancy, nothing trendy. Now it's a Bloomingdale's. My mother worked there in the 1970s in the wig department and we'd head down there on our bikes to borrow money. -Mal |