1981 saw a first portion of an enclosed mall to the complex open with a Kmart opening as an anchor on one end and a movie theater (opened as CinemaNational, converted to USA Cinemas, Loews and finally ending its run as a movie theater as Hoyts) on the other. The existing plaza remained a plaza during this time, but did eventually convert into a part of the mall in 1984. This resulted in P&C moving to the edge of the mall property opening alongside an Eckerd. The P&C and Eckerd buildings still stand today as a Tops supermarket and a Rite Aid respectively. Also, Witherills became Hess during this timeframe. Sears, having relocating from the nearby former Fairmount Fair, became a fifth anchor by having a store built at the mall at some point.
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| A 1995 satellite view of the layout of the mall with added anchor names and placements. |
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| 2003 satellite view of the complex. |
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| 2006 satellite view of the complex. |
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| Former P&C now Tops. |
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| Commons Sign |
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| Former Eckerd now Rite Aid. |
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| Half of the former Kmart building. |
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| As of March 2016, this is also now the only remaining Bon Ton in the entire Syracuse and Rochester metro areas. |
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| Wendy's is the newest addition to the complex having opened in September 2014. |
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| 2015 satellite view of the complex. |
The mall was built in three stages, first the K-mart wing, then the plaza was enclosed, then finally the last section between Penneys and the mall was redone and enclosed. IIRC they had to tear down what had been there to make it connect up the way they wanted. But I don't believe it ever hit 100% occupancy, or if it did that was short lived.
ReplyDeleteThe K-mart wing had the initial large Radio Shack (with a radio tube tester!), a product research survey outfit, a Subway, a Marjax (sporting goods), Kinney Shoes, Reeds Jewlers was on the corner of the hall where Sears was. This north-south hall had a chain dental, the Fairway (relocated from Fairmount Fair), an arcade, a small clothing store of some sort (I bought some stuff out of here too), and one exit of Regis Hair. Further down towards the main mall were another jewelry store (I owned four of their cases for a time), Record Town and Lerner NY, Kids World, 16 Plus (womens fashion), Anderson-Little, Gamestop (I still have a ton of their shelves) Cinema 1-2, a secondary post office with no staff, and a pretzel place. Radio Shack moved eventually to a smaller spot close to Cinema 1-2, then moved to Milton Ave. to the Staples plaza.
The main hall from north to south had Bon Ton, Burger King, the second arcade, Sbarro, Tape World, City Mattress (later a golf store), Cinema 3-6, Silo (later cinemas also), The Toy Box (became Kay-Bee when Fairmount closed, had to use a different name because they were too close together), Ups N Downs, a second Kinney location, Poor Richards Pub, Fanny Farmer on the corner, a GNC (possibly also 2nd location, several stores moved from K-mart wing to the main wing), there was a Deb that was all mirrors and pink shag carpet, an Arbys, a Things Remembered, another clothing store at the bend, and up by Penneys another hair place (which also moved to Milton Ave. by Staples).
I'm leaving out lots of stores, just what I remember.
Where the Wal-mart is was once Grants, then Price Chopper, then Hills, then Ames used it as a warehouse when they took over rather than break the lease, they had their store in the former Sears spot at Fairmount Fair. Goldbergs furniture was in that side, in what had been Carls Drugs, there was a Great American in that wing prior to Price Chopper. At the end a Salvation Army store was on the end.
The next group of buildings had what was a Goodyear Auto Center with a showroom, but the service bays became Monro Muffler and the showroom was divided with one half a Chinese restaurant. Seems like the north side of this was the initial Fleet Bank (Bank Of America) location, and the actual post office was there for a time too.
The out lot that's now Topps was P&C and Carls/Fays/Eckerd. The drug store portion was later torn down to make way for a moved entry road.
Believe it or not, the part of the K-mart that remains is the front portion with the auto center, the part that was removed was the rear of the store. It was easy to separate because there were doors to the parking lots on both sides of the K-mart entrance.
The K-mart wing was torn down first, leaving the Sears store for a while. It came down I think finally for Lowes, they left it up as it was the newest built building on the site and they thought maybe they could lease it as a stand-alone.
It's some irony that the small plaza on the other side of Kasson Rd. outlasted it.
I also recall that either during construction or demolition - most likely the former, as you could walk through while they built - the Toy Box/Kay Bee went in where P&C had been. When the facade of the plaza was removed, there was the original P&C sign, never removed, just covered over at some past point, with the old fashioned lettering. That was why that store had the peaked roof inside.
Very cool! Thanks for sharing your memories of the mall!
DeleteI just posted to the Fairmont Fair blog about its earliest days (1960s). I grew up just down the road from Camillus Plaza road my bike (and walked there often). I remember it before it was a plaza (we went to the drive-in movie that was located there, and my brother got his first job (at 16) at Nolans shoe store when the 'plaza' only went from the west entrance (Kass on Rd) to where Walmart is now located. Besides the shoe store, the plaza was anchored on the west end by an A&P. The east 'wing' of the U-shaped plaza was later constructed (but was missing the bottom of the United that was later filled (by a JC Penney, I believe). The east end of the you was filked with another grocer (P&C?), which was great because it was a 5 min walk there & back to our high school (West Genny). I also seem to recall a 5&10 store with a restaurant toward the west end. I think we bankrupted them, since they had a couple of all-you-can-eat 99 cent dinners that we took advantage of after our high school sports practices.
ReplyDeleteThanks for sharing these memories!
DeleteWhen did e.w.edwards close in Camillus Plaza
ReplyDelete