Lloyd D. Jackson Square history
 

I flipped through the clipping scrapbook about Jackson Square at the library's Local History & Archives department the other day...

Here are some interesting excerpts from the Hamilton Spectator concerning the opening of Phase I in 1972:

"It’s no ordinary mall - ‘It’s the most beautiful thing of its type in the country’" Aug 22, 1972
“Crazee Legs, Eye Patch, Very Very Terry Jerry, Suzy Shier, Thistletown and Iroqrafts – they’ll all be appearing in Hamilton this week. Avant-garde rock groups? Football teams? Belly Dancers? Not likely.”

“20,000 join in the big stompin’ Square dance” Aug 23, 1972
"The new Hamilton soared into life last night amid fanfare, feasting, dancing and midnight fireworks.
Lloyd D. Jackson Square, described by Health Minister John Munro as the “new psychological heart” of the awakening steel city, was born --- and about 20,000 citizens played the corporate role of midwife.
It was a girl watcher’s delight. The beautiful people appeared in see-through blouses, bare-backed gowns, deep-cut dresses and meticulous hairstyles, and were escorted through the mall by their attentive men. The women might have stepped from the boutique windows, the men from Playboy.
Fifty cases of liquor were taken care of --- and they had sent for more.
A spokesman for Yale Properties, the Montreal-based developer who threw last night's party, indicated today that about $20,000 was spent on the festivities"

The shopping concourse retail area covered 110,000 square feet and had 54 retail service outlets where “Shoppers can buy anything from fresh bread and bratwurst to eyeglasses and greeting cards. And there are several speciality shops dealing in a multitude of things from English China to Eskimo carvings.”

The list of stores included:
Birks
Dalmy’s
Disney’s Mens Clothes
Suzi Shier
Royal Trust
Toronto-Dominion Bank
Hill’s Foundations
M.U. Photography
Lucas & King
Pet Fair
Wright’s Laundry
Cole’s
Grand & Toy
Music World
Winemaster
National (Baker)
Denninger’s
Super Save Drug Mart
Peppermill Dining Lounge
Big Boy Restaurant
Ostrander’s Jewellers
Very Very Terry Jerry
Iroqrafts
Crazee Legs
Flagg Shoes
Hetherington’s
Young Sophisticate
Lindor
Shirley K. Maternity
Town & Country Shoppe
Tip Top Tailors
Mayfair Shoes
Bank of Montreal
Japan Camera Centre
D’Allaird’s
Agnew-Surpass Shoes
The Eye Patch Shop
Coutt’s Card & Candle
Florsheim Shoes
Laura Secord
Benson & Hedges
Bowrings
Wig Mart
Hy-Way Boutique
Belinda & Brother
Thistletown House of Spectacles
Thrifty’s Just Pants
Reitman’s Smart Set
Bata Shoes
Fairweather - Big Steel

Phase II
 

Phase II opened March 23, 1977
“Indoors, an excellent system of sky lighting provides an airy outdoorsy effect – gone is the feeling that you’re making like a mole when you’re prowling around the bottom floor.
The expansion brings the number of stores in the two phases of the square to a nice round 120, and every one has a tenant.
For a city that was once almost written off, Hamilton is coming to life in a big way. And Lloyd D. Jackson Square is playing a big part in it.”

New stores mentioned:
Eames (two-level, family fashions)
Marks & Spencers (largest this side of London, England)
Liquor store (self-serve, to stock a minimum of 1,240 different brands)
J. Michael
Penningtons
Pantimonium
Le Chateau
P.3 (like visiting a disco, where you’ll see the newest from California, Europe and Canada)
Discovery (everything the name suggest with Levis from size 2 to 38. The word is that Levis for feet are on the way!)
Coat Factory
Smart Set
Breamar
India Fashions
Agnew
Calderone Shoes
Florsheims
Kinney Shoes
Mankind Shoes
Classic Books (spacious, two level)
A & A Records
Juliana’s Salon
Elks
Contempra
The Tub
Loubills Hobby Shop
Flower World
Alexanders (totally devoted to the mystique that surrounds the Ports International fashion collection)
Kinsie Wool
Tuxedo Junction
O. B. Allen Jewellers
Cojana
Gourmet Garden
Carriage House restaurant (joins Murray’s)

1978 "Square adds 10 stores"
 

"Only five locations among the 132 existing or newly-leased spaces remain to be filled"

Tall Girls' Shop
Dapper Dan (unisex clothing)
Melinda (lingerie)
Home China and Gift (European crystal and tableware)
Ming Tree (Oriental furniture and decorations)
Den for Men (executive games and gifts)
Ava Electronics (stereo and television systems)
Candy Counter (imported candies)
Tropic Sun and Fruit (dried fruits and nuts)
Cultures (health food restaurant)

I remember a lot of these stores, I wish there were pics of the stores too.

Funny lists. Had no idea there was ever a Big Boy in JS. A complete year-by-year directory would be neat. Hard to imagine but when the Eaton Centre first opened there were three record stores inside the combined complex. Three book stores too. Pantdemonium cracks me up. Did that go on to become Bootlegger, I wonder?

Damn you Limeridge Mall!! Why must you kill all that is good?

was any of this really that good? Pretty much a history of stupidity and failure as far as I can see.

when you look at the relative success of urban malls in toronto and montreal, you really see how much limeridge mall stole the glory from JS.

I suppose to a certain degree. But Toronto does have highly successful suburban malls at par to Lime Ridge (Yorkdale, Bayview and Fairview) yet they did not suck the life out of their urban counterpart. IMO the success of urban malls in Toronto and Montreal probably have much more to do with the entrenched urban lifestyle present in those cities.

It wasn't Limridge that sucked the life out of downtown so much as it was the removal of the department stores from downtown. Rather than rebuild the older stores that were downtown they opted to close them and rely on people moving to the suburban malls. If we could entice a few of the large department stores back into the downtown I think it would go along way to reviving it. Just like suburban malls need anchors to thrive so to does the downtown.

Few of the major department stores that closed downtown -- Zeller's, Robinsons, Woolworth and Kresge's -- seemed to do so to gain tactical advantage in a suburban location or a new mall environment. They were mostly dissolved or relocated by edict of their parent companies (in both Zeller's and Kresge's case, I think it was HBC that pulled the trigger during an aquisition-happy '80s-'90s), much as JS-afilliated stores like Marks & Spencers and Eatons had no power of self-determination. I believe only the Birks Building was a direct transfer from downtown to Jackson Square.