Centre Mall: Hamilton landmark gives up the ghost
November 19, 2008
Paul Wilson
Executives at the Morgan’s department store chain said it was “a once in a lifetime chance.”
They just had to be part of Canada’s largest retail complex, the Greater Hamilton Shopping Centre — better known as Centre Mall.
At a press conference in 1955, Morgan’s said it would build a store here. It would be their largest branch, a stylish place with chandeliers, fieldstone accents, 3-D murals.
The historic Morgan’s name didn’t last long after that. But the two-storey 140,000-square-foot building the chain erected still stands.
Not for much longer, though. It is a Zellers now and is soon coming down.
If you’re old enough to have fond memories of those Morgan days, or even the Bay days that followed, hold onto them. Don’t go back. There’s no lustre left.
Henry Morgan set up shop in Montreal in 1845. It was not until a century later that the family ventured into branch stores. It opened four in Montreal, then expanded to three cities outside Quebec — Toronto, Ottawa and Hamilton.
Morgan’s said the store here would employ 500 and be done up smartly, with touches such as pink and green terracotta trim, in what the company called “the Morgan manner.”
The store opened May 14, 1957, the Union Jack flying from the rooftop.
Just three years later the Hudson’s Bay Company bought Morgan’s, and the name came down right away on the stores in Ontario. In Quebec, they left the Morgan’s badge in place for another dozen years, before the switch to la Baie. Under that name, the huge Morgan’s flagship store still looms large on Montreal’s main drag.
The Centre Mall Bay store eventually became Robinson’s. Then, when that chain was put to sleep in 1992, the store went down-market, to the Zellers brand.
The story of what happened to the shopping miracle that was Centre Mall is well-known by now.
The mall was once surrounded for miles by families where the breadwinner was bringing home a good factory cheque every week. But those companies died or moved away and the mall declined.
It changed hands five years ago, and the new owners eventually decided the way to the future was to blow up Centre Mall and turn it into a sea of big boxes.
They’re rising now, amid the mud that was the parking lot. They rudely back onto Barton, which does little for the streetscape.
At the east end of the mall, dump trucks and big shovels clear the final debris of what was the largest Sears store in the land. It moved over to Eastgate Mall a few months ago, in a space that became available when the Bay decided it didn’t need to be in Hamilton’s lower city anymore.
The concourse of Centre Mall is a dim and eerie place now. Just a handful of businesses left, the ones waiting for space in the stand-alone structures under construction.
The man at the Rogers booth hopes the move comes soon. Sales this month are way down. At the banks, not a customer in sight. Seniors, the ones who visit a teller most, can’t be happy about the changes.
The big gold letters are still up at Peoples Jewellers. “Visit us at our new store in Jackson Square,” the sign reads. Ironic, because the birth of this mall was all about using free parking to divert shopping dollars from downtown.
The only place where the lights still shine bright is at Zellers. They’ve brought in truckloads of clearance merchandise, from aisles and aisles of cheap shoes to Easter ware galore — bunnies, baskets, eggs, grass. Meanwhile, on the sound system, it’s Joy to the World.
Everything goes, every shelf, every case, every perfect figure. You can take home an attractive mannequin with a steady gaze for $350. Or a two-stall, twin-turreted kid’s castle change room for $300.
There have been nostalgic buyers for the booths and chairs in the restaurant upstairs. That salmon-coloured Naugahyde must go nearly back to the Morgan days.
It’s too late for a final plate of fries. The restaurant closed Saturday. Though still subject to change, the store is set to shut down Dec. 3 and open the next day in a new one-floor-with-groceries Zellers directly behind it.
And that really will be old Centre Mall’s last gasp.
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