Old Austin Malls and Shopping Centers

[LoneStarMike]

Originally Posted by Mopacs

This thread is fascinating to say the least

I had a feeling of Déjà vu and then I remembered why.

You've been here so long that you can remember that?

[Scottolini]

At the corner of Stassney and Manchaca there was a place that sold hamburgers for $0.39. I actually think the name was '$.39 Hamburgers'. I think it was popular with Crockett High School students from across the street. It was a Laredo National Bank for years afterward until it recently became a Compass Bank.

[KevinFromTexas]

^I barely remember that place. I live nearby there. That location seems to not have much luck. It seems to be doing better as a bank though.

[texastarkus]

I'm sure we all remember Burger Chef. There was one south of Handcock Center. How about Royal Burger, Holiday House and 2J? Speaking of Holiday House each one had its own attraction. The one on Barton Springs Road had an osterich, the one on Burnet had an allegator and the Airport Blvd store had a huge fish tank. The 2J on Lamar had the coldest soft ice cream...aaawww BRAIN FREEZE

[arbeiter]

Originally Posted by texastarkus

I'm sure we all remember Burger Chef. There was one south of Handcock Center. How about Royal Burger, Holiday House and 2J? Speaking of Holiday House each one had its own attraction. The one on Barton Springs Road had an osterich, the one on Burnet had an allegator and the Airport Blvd store had a huge fish tank. The 2J on Lamar had the coldest soft ice cream...aaawww BRAIN FREEZE

I remember 2-J's. There was one across from what is now Central Market (I think it's E-Z's.) That might be the most remembered 2-J's, but who remembers that there was in fact a 2-J's standalone location on 183 north near Anderson Mill/Balcones Club? Roughly 1/4 of a mile or so further up the road from Pavilion Lincoln Mercury.

I remember the Holiday House on Barton Springs, but for whatever reason, I have no memory of any of the others. For some reason, Hancock Center is a big blank to me until I was an adult - I think it's because there was nothing there that my family would ever have needed that wasn't already somewhere else in town. I remember the Sears pre-facelift but don't remember the Phar Mor.

I do, however, remember looking with my mother at a rental house at 38th and Duval right near Hancock which was disgusting inside - this was probably 1988 or so. I have no idea why my mother looked at it, I think it was just to be nice to the real estate person. We also looked at a house on Isabelle Street just behind Highland Mall which I recall REALLY loving and begging my mother to pick, as it had an intercom system and different colored rooms with matching colored carpet. We ended up living off of Anderson Mill Road, however.

Looking back on that old thread, I also mentioned Tokyo Steak House. God I miss that place! I wanted to have my prom dinner there but it had just went out of business.

[arbeiter]

Originally Posted by Scottolini

At the corner of Stassney and Manchaca there was a place that sold hamburgers for $0.39. I actually think the name was '$.39 Hamburgers'. I think it was popular with Crockett High School students from across the street. It was a Laredo National Bank for years afterward until it recently became a Compass Bank.

The .39 cent hamburgers sounds very familiar. There was a similar place on Pond Springs Road in Northwest Austin called Bud's, but I think it was a .39 cent hamburger place first.

[arbeiter]

Wow, upon reading that other thread, it really is deja vu. The weirdest part is that I feel like a broken record, as I mentioned a bunch of the same things twice and don't recall that thread at all!

[arbeiter]

This is what killed the last thread:

"
austin still does not have talll buildings ,,
and the ones rising r midrise,,
for the pop of the metro ,,austin is still behide in ,tall skyscrapers,,but its trying"

[arbeiter]

Some other old Austin things I can remember:

I remember Harris Branch advertisements on TV (the subdivision in East Austin.) I never understood why that area never exploded with more growth, even pre-Highway 130.

I also remember how Austin Cablevision used to be an all-capitals logo then switched to a lower-case logo with a line running through the middle (don't ask me why). And does anyone remember Cablemaxx? It seemed to be something only exurban people had, but I knew some families that had it in Cedar Park. It was cable, only with these wierd aerials you had to stick on your roof. I never understood what kind of technology that was.

This is somewhat unrelated, but now that I work in South Austin, can anyone tell me who William Cannon and Ben White are?

I know Ed Bluestein was the former head of TxDOT or something similar.

[LoneStarMike]

Originally Posted by arbeiter

This is somewhat unrelated, but now that I work in South Austin, can anyone tell me who William Cannon and Ben White are?

From the City of Austin Street Name Origins

Ben White Boulevard

Named to commemorate Ben White ("Uncle Ben") who served sixteen years on the Austin City Council (1951-1967).

William Cannon Drive

Named after the 1836 "Battle of San Jacinto" hero who owned property in that area.

[bluedogok]

Originally Posted by arbeiter

I forgot about TG&Y (I don't remember the ones in Austin but when I lived in Virginia there was one.)

TG&Y was a staple growing up in OKC where they were based, once they sold out to a much larger corporation they changed the name to McCrory's and went downhill pretty quickly and closed up at a fairly rapid pace. Anthony's was another regional chain based in OKC, they had one in Monahans when my wife was growing up and I was wondering if there were ever any here? They sold out to the group that owns group that owns Stage, Beall's-Texas and Palais Royal when the son didn't want to take over the family business. Guy Anthony was one of the nicest gentlemen that I ever knew, I used to deliver landscaping supplies to his house and he seemed like a genuinely nice person.

Originally Posted by arbeiter

And Gibson's as in the Oklahoma chain that still exists?

There are a few scattered around Oklahoma, Texas and Kansas. I remember the multi-floor one in downtown OKC and the large one that closed around 1990 in NW OKC. There were two in Lawton, OK as recently as 8 years ago. I had an aunt and uncle that lived in the neighborhood behind the one on Cache Road which closed when they sold the land to a developer for a Lowe's. There is still one in Lawton and I have seen one in Kerrville that was still open a couple of years ago.

Originally Posted by arbeiter

It was before my time, but Joske's was bought out by either Dillard's or Foley's, right?

Joske's was bought by Dillard's in 1987 but it had changed hands a few times before without changing names according to this website. I remember Sanger-Harris stores in Dallas and OKC before being bought by Foley's. When I lived in Dallas we did some tenant spaces in the One Dallas Centre building which was the land that it sat one was owned by the Sanger's of Sanger-Harris fame.

[arbeiter]

Originally Posted by bluedogok

There are a few scattered around Oklahoma, Texas and Kansas. I remember the multi-floor one in downtown OKC and the large one that closed around 1990 in NW OKC. There were two in Lawton, OK as recently as 8 years ago. I had an aunt and uncle that lived in the neighborhood behind the one on Cache Road which closed when they sold the land to a developer for a Lowe's. There is still one in Lawton and I have seen one in Kerrville that was still open a couple of years ago.

I only know Gibson's from the one in Duncan, Oklahoma, where a branch of my intermediate family resides. Ironically they're the one eighth that is multi-generational American, the rest are English/South African/misc. Commonwealth.

It used to be the same size as the old Wal Mart, but then they put in a Supercenter in Duncan not 2 blocks from where Gibson's was, so I doubt it survived.

Have you heard of Goodner's? It's a local Duncan store but it might be a small chain for all I know. My only connection to that store is that the daughter of the family who owns Goodner's married my 2nd cousin. (They're new money and rather well off for OK standards - I swear there had to be 5,000 white roses at their wedding!)

Edit: upon further research, Goodner's looks to be just one supermarket and one steakhouse.

[Lady Jaye]

Well I don't recall how I fould this thread or this site, but glad I did. Love reminiscing of how Austin used to be, and my childhood!!! Yes, Austin used to be a cool place to live and play. I think it's gone now, replacing the old hip community is this cold money driven market! Gone are the hippies and colorful people, replaced by the yuppies and to coin a movie, their yuppie larvae.

I grew up in the heart of Austin, befoe the McMansions, Hyde Park, so Hancock Center and Highland Mall were near and dear to me!!!

At Hancock I remember the old Revco drug store!! In the early years it's where I got a lot of my Atari games for real cheap, and later on GI JOE toys, and finally baseball cards!
Dillards was once there, it's where I would get many a GI JOE toy there! Oh and of course the very important NES games and Swatch watches!!
Wyatt's Cafeteria was the best, and even though the chicken fried steak was a molded patty, dammit if it wasn't the best chicken fried steak ever. The people that worked there, were there till it closed.
I remember the pet store that was there, don't remember the name.
The Mexican restaurant that was there with the very high ceilings.
I remember the cool fountains.
I remember the Hallmark store I think, where I would get my stickers when I went through that phase!! Ha ha.
Oh and I remember vaguely the Murphy's store, with the food counter and the awesome toy section in the basement!!
Close to Hancock I remember the Delwood shopping center when it had a Winns. That was a goot toy spot and where I got the majority of my Garbage Pail Stickers!!

In Highland Mall I remember:

Mr Gatti's actually having a restaurant there, over by JC Penny if I recall correctly!
The old Baskin Robbins on the first floor.
The old Toy Box store before it became KB. That's where I bought my first ever action figures, Greedo and Princess Leia. Only reason I got Leia was to convince my mom I was buying a girl's toy, I was sneaky even at 4!!!
I remember Chik Fil A being there as well! This was before the food court, when it came so left Gatti's and Chik Fil A.
Before it became Dillards, I remember Joske's. Man did they have a uber cool toy section upstairs on the 4th floor. Pretty much all the department stores had cool toy sections!!

As you can see, as a wee kid, my life revolved around toys!!! Ha ha. Great thread, will remember more later!!!

[arbeiter]

I remember Wyatt's Cafeteria, at least the one at Anderson Square. I think that's a Hall Chiropractic now! There was also a Furr's somewhere near there I think. I guess cafeterias are a thing of the past (except for Luby's) - Marimount Cafeteria, which used to be the place to find doctors lunching back when I was a kid, looked like a formica museum last time I went (4 years ago or so). It's a shame that it's just an abandoned building now, its mid-century pavilion-esque design is unique for Austin.

[KevinFromTexas]

I remember the Toy Box at Barton Creek Square Mall. My brother and I and our cousin would go with our mom and aunt. I used to play with pocket cars, Matchbox and Hot Wheels, but The Toy Box sold European toys mostly, and I remember their's were always the coolest pocket cars.

Cafeterias are still around. There's the Furr's at at Lamar & Ben White, and there's another one on I-35 near Ben White. And besides Luby's, there's Golden Coral, which is very much a cafeteria style all you can eat restaurant.

[southsideatx04]

I got a new one, Circle K, they were all over the place.

[southsideatx04]

Does anybody remember Circuit City

[KevinFromTexas]

Circle K. Yep. I got plenty of junk food at many a Circle K when I was little. I remember going there with my dad on the way to, or back from the dump. Back then soda came in glass bottles.

We lived on South First Street until I was 4 years old. There was a Circle K down the street at South First & Stassney. My mom and aunt would walk down there with me. I remember getting those ring pops there. Anyone remember those?

[Mopacs]

Here's an obscure one....

When Barton Creek Mall first opened, there was a sub shop called Greatest American Hero.

Also, anyone remember Zinsky's (sp) sandwich shop? There was one in Highland Mall, in the early-mid 80s. While hardly obscure, there was also a Ruby Tuesday's on the 2nd floor in the Macy's/Foley's wing.

And....... a place i'd hang out at as a little kid........ Highland Electronics. There was one next door to Highland Mall (now a Specs), and another on Ben White (near Manchaca). They went out of business the same year Best Buy and Circuit City entered the Austin Market...1991

[Mopacs]

Originally Posted by KevinFromTexas

Circle K. Yep. I got plenty of junk food at many a Circle K when I was little. I remember going there with my dad on the way to, or back from the dump. Back then soda came in glass bottles.

We lived on South First Street until I was 4 years old. There was a Circle K down the street at South First & Stassney. My mom and aunt would walk down there with me. I remember getting those ring pops there. Anyone remember those?

Well I'm really starting to show my age... but there used to be a convenience store chain called U-Totem. There were at least a few up here in NW Austin. More recently there were Stop-and-Go's all over Austin.

Ok... one more restaurant I just thought of: Olga's Kitchen. It was located on the 1st floor of Barton Creek Mall, next door to Foley's

Austin also had Chi-Chi's Mexican restaurants in North and South Austin (both now Olive Gardens). They closed down long before they started serving up Hepatitis-causing enchiladas.