Quite a day! The Porsche Brotherhood and exploring a dead mall.

[Retroman1969]

My apologies, this is going to be a rather photo heavy post....
At Penn Square Mall (a live mall) I drove around forever looking for a parking spot, when an older gentleman came up to my window and asked if I wanted his space as he was leaving. I thanked him and he pointed to his car, smiled and said "hey, from one Porsche to another".

Cool.

I was seeing an unusual number of Porsches on the road so I started taking snapshots of them to see how many I ended up with:
















Just a cool spot:


Continued.....

[Retroman1969]

With some free time I decided to visit Crossroads Mall for the first time in 30 years. I heard it went under. I remember going there every weekend in the 1970s when it was the one of the largest and most modern malls in the country.
Old pictures of it in the 1970s:






It was a fun exciting place to go with barely enough room to walk from the packed crowds.
Today I explored it's mostly dead hulk. Makes ya' feel old!















I guess things change and go out of vogue.

Continued.

[Retroman1969]

Continued.

[Retroman1969]

At the end of the day, my friend Jim helped me pick up my weekender Boxster from the shop from getting a brake job. he drove my daily driver and I followed him in the weekender.
I love watching one of them going down the road.


Ended up eating at 50 Penn Place Tower and garnered some looks and questions.


When I pick up a car at the shop, I always have to sneak in back and see what he's working on!




All original Turbo.


All in all, a full day.
Thanks for checking it out with me.

[BIGJake111]

Many great shots, I have to agree nothing is better then seeing your own car out on the road, that's the main reason I offer the keys to my dad at times.

It always looks good going up the road.

[grc0456]

Thanks for sharing, Retro. I was happy to see another 986 in the Longhorn Steakhouse parking lot today, right after my wife said we probably have the only one in town!


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

[Pdwight]

I think the early 1990's was the pinnacle for malls, online shopping and ever rising rent and other features was like tree trimming and cutting off the limb you are sitting on. The young lady who used to cut my hair and my family's I might add opened a small 6 chair shop in our local mall in the late 90's. She ha been there a year and one day while getting a cut she told me she was going to have to leave the mall as her year lease was up. I asked her why as the place was always busy and you needed to make an appointment ...she proceeded to tell me that the mall got 8% of her bottom line and this was going up to 11.5%. That was not the main reason, the mall wanted her to spend 20 grand remodeling her shop to match the remodel going on in the mall, she said there was no way to do it..so she closed her doors and moved to a standalone building.

[jdraupp]

Was that mall still open and unlocked or did you "find" your way in? Looks cool. I'm kind of a geek when it comes to abandoned and dead malls. Just the nostalgia and the underlying theme of our shifting economy.

I spend way too much youtube time watching tours of guys who go into abandoned malls (according to my wife) so this was neat to see. Thanks for sharing.

[itsnotanova]

Now lets see pics of you driving inside the mall. Blues Brothers style

[BIGJake111]

@Jdraupp on a similar note, the local newspaper press is freshly abandoned, it's a joy to explore inside.

[Chuck W.]

GREAT photos as usual.

Oddly, in the area I live there are two malls within 10 miles of me. One north and one south of me. Not only are they thriving, they are expanding. And, one in at least 50 years old and the other is 40 years old. (The Oaks in Thousand Oaks and the Westfield Topanga Mall) Both are always busy and always remodeling and expanding.

[Retroman1969]

Thanks guys,
LOL, I really pictured roaring through those halls, but there are way more obstacles than in the Blues Brothers (stone planters, winding stairs, railings, columns). I believe the mall they used was completely closed and they could basically run over whatever they wanted (with compensation I presume)
Crossroads is still open to the public for now, even though it really quit being a mall back around 2008. There are a few small local Mexican-based shops around the center section keeping the doors open amid the rapidly increasing dilapidated conditions. It's mostly an indoor playground for the kids of the surrounding neighborhoods at this point.

Jdraupp:
You are probably familiar with YouTuber Dan Bell and his "Dead Mall" series. I ran across him when trying to find ghost town videos, and it inspired me to go look up the big malls I spent much of my youth in. It dawned on me that the old indoor malls are the ghost towns of my generation. Dan adds echoing vintage musak to his vids and it makes them really creepy.

Chuck W:
It seems to be luck of the draw based on location. OKC had 4 major malls built between 1959 and 1982. Penn Square (in the first pic above with the 911) is the oldest, but has always been expanding and busy because the area it was built in developed as an upscale area because of the close proximity of the posh Nichols Hills addition.

Quail Springs, the last, built in '82, was put out in the middle of nowhere and everyone thought they were nuts! But they had the last laugh as that was squarely where the new yuppie expansion developed more than 20 years later. 15 years later in the mid '90s, the new turnpike connecting NW OKC with Tulsa was built right next to it. Quail lucked out. They almost shut their doors many times during the interim.

Crossroads was not as lucky. It was built on the outskirts at the time in a developing area in 1974. Unfortunately by the 1990s that area devolved into a cesspool of industrial buildings, titty bars, and gang wars. It was a gang shooting, involving one death, in the mall itself in 2001 that was the final blow causing the remaining major stores to begin vacating. Now it's so dead even the gangs won't bother with it.

Shepherd Mall (1964) was built in an older part of town near OCU, and was popular in the 1960s-1970s, however all but dead by 1990. The update and expansion of Penn Square in 1987, a mere 15 minutes away in a nicer part of town, pretty much killed it. It is now an office park.

PDWright: the 1990s seem right, as the beginning of the online boom. The malls that suffered also suffered from insanely poor management decisions like you say.


Sorry to ramble, but the history of things always gets me going.
I'd love to hear any other stories from you guys.

[thstone]

Originally Posted by Retroman1969

As a longtime previous owner of a 1971 Triumph TR-6, I can confirm that this is the ONLY way that you'll actually see a TR-6 on the road.

And thanks as always for the interesting photos and great stories!

[Bald Eagle]

Nostalgia isn't what it used to be.

Back in the '70's and '80's I owned six stores in four major regional malls. Two of those malls are now closed, the other two are thriving. Change happens. Glad I've been out of retail for 30 years but it was good while it was good so I've got better things to think about!

The Boxster comes out of hibernation in six days!
Larry (the bald eagle)

[Retroman1969]

Originally Posted by thstone

As a longtime previous owner of a 1971 Triumph TR-6, I can confirm that this is the ONLY way that you'll actually see a TR-6 on the road.

And thanks as always for the interesting photos and great stories!

LOL!!
I had a Land Rover years ago that literally spent more time in the shop than in my driveway. I had a photo of it on the back of a tow truck that I labeled: the Land Rover in its natural habitat.

Larry... I agree, nostalgia can often be heavy on the rose tint.

[Coaster]

I learned "to drive" in Crossroads mall. Like a little electric car with stop signs an everything. I was about 7, my dad was stationed at Tinker. Now my family lives up near Quail Springs in Edmond.

[Santafe]

Once again, many thanks Retro, I just love the information & photos you post, most interesting , keep them coming.
Drive safe & take care.

[JayG]

Originally Posted by thstone

As a longtime previous owner of a 1971 Triumph TR-6, I can confirm that this is the ONLY way that you'll actually see a TR-6 on the road.

And thanks as always for the interesting photos and great stories!

LOL

Back when I was in High School, a friend of mine had a trash 6. It was always being fixed, especially with electrics by Lucas, the Prince of Darkness.

We had a guy driving a Spitfire at our "My Other Car" AX back in December. You could almost walk faster that it went

[grc0456]

It would be nice if they could have worked the electrical and other gremlins out of the TR-6. A friend of mine had one in high school. BRG. It was a cool car.

Or perhaps they could even come up with a modern day TR-6 with current mechanicals and retro look.

[geraintthomas]

Amazing! Thanks for sharing