Westfarms Mall
This article and photos are courtesy of Nicholas DiMaio who runs The Caldor Rainbow
A buddy of mine, Marc Bramhall, extended the courtesy by presenting something of interest to me for my twenty-second birthday; a piece of relevant history. What better way to extend my 22nd year on earth to look back on one of the cultural influences of my lowely Farmington life such as Westfarms?
Scouring eBay one day, Marc stumbled upon this vintage Westfarms post card, presumably predating to sometime in the mid-to-late 1970's around it's conception in 1974. A post card of a mall you say? Well, here's a testament to lost times and how much shopping malls and centers were the pride of American culture when my generation's parents were my tender age. Sadly, you're not going to find these like post cards of malls in any rest stops or [gasp] gift shops. Instead you might find one antiquated stock image of the Hartford skyline with some bad MS-paint job of the city's name written in magenta, a park (not Kinney Park I'd hope), maybe a bridge or something (as usual, clogged with all day and night traffic). All cultural divide aside (and "rising star" kerplunking), booming indoor malls of the 1960s and 1970s are been-there-done-that today; most of which have since submerged into the commonplace of everyday life of my product Gen X'ers. Kids today! They just don't appreciate these climate-controlled centers of past!
Westfarm Mall circa 1970
One of my grandest laments, in particular, is the absence of the fountain today. Those who remember the fountain remember not only it's wonder but also that mysterious gaping hole into nowhere where all the water recycled! Well at least that's what we thought as kids (and a little beyond; the mystery still lives). In 2002, Taubman ceased and removed the original atmospheric 1974-built fountain in favor of more, rather questionable spaced seating and couches for people to carry on mall banter.
The stage, frontage to the since gutted fountain, is present at Connecticut's other Taubman; Stamford Town Center, has become a table-and-couch lounge area which complements the new Starbuck's kiosk. An area which once displayed the ginormous, annual Christmas tree, still does a holiday theme, not quite to the same magnitude.
Westfarm Mall 20060
While the center court hasn't changed drastically beyond some minor cosmetic enhancements like most leftover Taubman malls still around: the removal of some of the signature Taubman "seating pits" like one seen here to the left which is understandable given the climate and failed socio-experimentation of the seating pit since. Others include newer, brighter center court tiles, plastic-ridged lining over the mid-levels, reflective silverish railings to replace the wood; all of which became a coming millennial template for all their centers no more than a short decade ago. The basic mold of the center is quite the same; generally unchanged, like the terrazzo tiling, and true to the classy earlier design.
Knowing my bend and fascination with '70's-era Taubman malls but specifically the junior one in my hometown; Westfarms. I've seen the mall adapt through the ages throughout my time, not quite as much as friends and family. My father also worked here shortly sometime around the vintage of this postcard (1975), in a department store Silverman's; since occupied by Brookstone and The Discovery Channel Store. Furthermore, my best friends' parents actually met here, dated and later married during a time this mall had a movie theater (now occupied largely by a restaurant; California Pizza Kitchen)! While I've only been here since '85, Westfarms' tenants have changed greatly into the widely preserved mold of the center today; not having stripped too much of its origins.