Garden State Plaza Transformation

On of my previous posts mentioned the shopping malls in Paramus NJ.

CaptKirk42 mentioned that there is a mall near him that was once and open air mall and is now enclosed.

The Garden State Plaza was like that as well.  When my parents first moved to NJ in 1974, The Plaza, as it is affectionately known looked like this.

I'm not sure if it was this section, but there was a baseball card store that had space in this mall.  They originally started out in another mall (Bergen Mall) but out grew their space and relocated here.  I remember standing in line at this mall to get an autograph from Roy White.  That store still exists, it is now known as Buddy's Sport's Corner. It has moved several times and is now located in his 3rd Paramus Mall, Paramus Park.

Here's another exterior shot

You can tell these are pretty old, Bambergers changed their name to Macy's in 1986.  The company was actually owned by Macy's.  My impression is that Bambergers was a more suburban store.  Macy's was a  little more upscale and urbancentric.

Even to this day I remember this,

When Santa went up, you knew Christmas was close by.

Here is what the mall looks like now.

All enclosed and very upscale.

Now the interesting thing is that I hardly ever go to this mall.  It is now probably double or triple the size of the original open air mall.  For me, that's too big.  I can hardly remember where anything is and the parking is  a nightmare.  I stick to Paramus Park, it's smaller and has a more welcoming feel to it.

So, if you're ever in Bergen County, stop in one of these malls and look around.  If you let me know ahead of time, I might meet you there.