Carousel Mall; San Bernardino, California
Long ago, on the not-so-distant planet called California, a mall opened as part of an urban renewal project in downtown San Bernardino. The year was 1972 and the mall was Central City Mall (later Carousel Mall). It opened to popularity and fanfare with anchors Harris’, JCPenney, and Montgomery Ward. Not too long passed before the mall began to encounter problems. In 1978, it was noted that gang violence was on the rise and shoppers fled.
Despite the gang problem, the mall limped on. Throughout the 1980s gangs used the mall as a local gathering place and prevented the mall from being as successful as originally planned. Also contributing to this was a lack of follow through on the city’s part. Shortly after Central City Mall opened, the city developed a master plan of revitalizing the entire downtown, complete with commercial skyscrapers, a fourth anchor store for the mall, a large central city park, and even an aerial tramway connecting to nearby shopping destination Inland Center and recreational Silverwood Lake. None of these plans ever came to fruition.
By the 1990s, the mall was still limping along and not anything spectacular. The developers and the city felt ashamed that their half-assed downtown redevelopment plan failed and the mall was renamed Carousel Mall in 1991, after a large carousel was added to the center of the facility. Meant to be the new centerpiece of the mall, it was also intended to attract traffic. It attracted some people, but again it did not live up to the hopes and dreams of those who wished for bigger and better things.
Through the 1990s, Carousel Mall went steadily downhill. Competition from nearby Inland Center took traffic and the Harris anchor away as it merged with Gottschalk’s. Inland Center positioned itself as the successful mall for San Bernardino, with all the popular chain stores. The anchor stores all eventually left Carousel Mall, and parts of the mall were turned into office space. Carousel Mall’s days as a retail center were over. Today, there are a handful of stores, mostly local, and the carousel still runs at only a dollar a ride. But not for long.
Plans are currently underway for the mall to be slowly deconstructed, and replaced with a mixed-use development consisting of lofts, townhomes, office space, about 120,000 square feet of shops, and a man-made stream. Wow! Sure sounds exciting. Construction should begin by early 2007, and the mall will be taken down in phases. The new development is tenatively called Court Street West, and will end up reopening streets the mall blocked as the mall is disassembled.
I wish San Bernardino a lot of luck with this redevelopment. Hopefully they’ll follow through and make a concerted effort this time, and the development won’t fall flat on its back and lie fallow for years.
In the mean time, take a look at the pictures I took of the mall in March 2005. Enjoy the amazingly wide open first floor, dated tiles and fixtures, globe lights, and neon. There sure weren’t many people in the mall that day (or ever, apparently) so I’m happy to share the mall with the world before it bites the dust.
Bob
March 18th, 2007 at 12:55 am
Thats a nice looking mall!
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Liz
March 20th, 2007 at 4:43 pm
What’s going to happen to the carousel?
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Abdu Kishk
May 24th, 2007 at 11:58 am
It’s a shame the mall will be torn down. I’ve had a lot of happy memories there with my family. Haven’t seen it since 1996…been out of the country ever since.
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jaime
June 28th, 2007 at 5:27 pm
its pretty sad im 19 i remember those good memories as a kid at the carousel mall (mongemory wards, riding the carousel, the little train, the buffet, ill be sad to see it gone but we still got those memories
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TERESA
July 12th, 2007 at 6:53 pm
INLAND CENTER MALL ROCKS!
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MetroRiderLA » A big steaming piece of Shig
September 14th, 2007 at 4:58 am
[...] Two of the five are here in Southern California. And it’s hard to argue with San Bernardino earning the top of the bottom. It has a downtown that would best be desribed by World Wrestling Entertainment commentator Jim Ross as “bowling shoe ugly”. Here’s Shigley: Where to begin? Downtown San Berdoo has been a depressing and dangerous place for a long time. The Carousel Mall (originally called the Central City Mall) opened during the early 1970s, helping kill off mom-and-pop businesses. Before long, the mall itself started to decline and for two decades it has been a white elephant surrounded by empty parking lots in the midst of downtown. For years, developers have been interested mostly in freeway frontage elsewhere in town. During the last 10 years, the city and developers have cooked up numerous schemes to revive downtown, ranging from wiping out part of downtown with a series of lakes and canals, to re-using the mall for housing. But it has been little more than talk. [...]
Janette
December 6th, 2007 at 3:19 am
I am also saddened by the shape of the downtown area ever since the low lifes have taken over the Mall. I wish you luck in rebuilding the downtown area and running the gangs out of over great city.
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Billy
January 6th, 2008 at 12:57 pm
I like the lake idea. It’s so hot there it could be called the lake of fire.That place is like a hell on earth anyway. I have never seen soo many gangbanging thugs, so many murders, and so many fearful people in my loife. The place is a pit of lawlessness and it is nearly helpless because the people who run the place are just as corrupt as the gangbangers themselves. I think the best way to describe the region is, “got dope”.
The mountainous landscape is beautiful though, it would work as a place of beauty if only the leaders would leave back to wherever they came from.
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Jonah Norason
February 24th, 2008 at 2:36 pm
The property has been sold. The housing market was bad, so the project was scrapped:
http://www.pe.com/localnews/sanbernardino/stories/PE_News_Local_S_mall10.345c06b.html
Is the mall still open for business?
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jesse
March 6th, 2008 at 7:43 pm
i miss that mall..good times with my mom. i love you mom.
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Ed
April 10th, 2008 at 11:02 pm
I found a stupid entrance on this mall on Wikipedia, but i think they’ve deleted it ever since, it was under the name “Metrocenter Mall” so far fetch! it said that it had Dillard’s at one time, 2 Macy’s (One Robinson’s May, one Macy’s), a skate park, AN ICE RINK?! A cinema, even a Chick-Fil-A! It said that the Sears is still working, HA! As If, i drive by almost everyday and the only sears i see are the bums and gangs all over the area, it was so dumb! It said Target is going to replace Penny’s! Target would not oven in down town Berdino, it’s just…terrible, man! They also said that a High school to be called “MetroCentre Academy” was going to open! I wish they had done all those nice things to the mall!
but i think it’s just like a dream, San Berdino is a nice county, largest in our US of A, but their county seat is just awful! I wish them luck trying to fix THAT mess! If it was legal, i’d bet money they can’t 
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Jonah Norason (Pseudo3D) Reply:
August 17th, 2009 at 4:49 pm
Umm…Metrocenter Mall was/is a real mall in Phoenix, Arizona with everything mentioned.
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RedaBob
August 30th, 2008 at 5:01 pm
It appears the new owners of the mall have an idea: turn it into what it already is, but ethnically centered for hispanic residents.
http://www.pe.com/localnews/sanbernardino/stories/PE_News_Local_D_mall15.2ae96c3.html
City of San Bernardino doesn’t get to say who owns the place, but they do get to approve what happens to the buildings… I smell another stalemate.
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Denise Cole
November 8th, 2008 at 10:12 pm
I was born and raised in Berdoo and when I was in high school Central City Mall was always the place to hang out. I graduated in 1990 but if you wanted to shop we always usually went to the Inland Center Mall. I am not sure why that is just the way it was. Maybe in the late 80s they should have kicked some of the looky loos out and maybe they would have attracted a spending crowd. I had a lot of fun days there though meeting up with schoolmates just talking to people we were loitering for sure.
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Mike
November 10th, 2008 at 8:09 pm
I’m a Latino who grew up with Central City Mall. I remember there were a lot of good times at the AMC Theaters and Walden. They should’ve made dress code for gangs. I don’t care if it was considered discriminatory. It’s simple: If you don’t look like a gangster, you can get in. Gangs in Berdoo have made my entire race look like filthy rats and roaches. If you have family who don’t have gang members then you shouldn’t be angry at what I’ve written. In other words: RAISE YOUR FAMILY WITH DISCIPLINE. It worked on me.
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Dylan
November 15th, 2008 at 1:09 pm
Accultly there not tearing it down..And why is everyone saying its dnagerous cause its not, there acculty alot of people eho go there and they have security guards everywere!!Its not in a bad area its the better part of town..And mike your right they should have a dress code and i think if they keeps those kind of people away more people wont be so scared to go in!!
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Dylan
November 15th, 2008 at 8:19 pm
INLAND MALL DOES NOT ROCK THERESA CAUSE IT TOOK CAROUSEL MALLS BUISSNESS!!:(((((((
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DesertEagle
December 12th, 2008 at 1:04 am
I remember the best haunted house I’ve ever been to was at the Carousel Mall, the hollowed out several stores where Wollworth’s use to be.
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nevermind
December 21st, 2008 at 6:30 pm
ive stolen soooooooooooooo much shit from there it would be a shame if they left. besides that chinese food place has the best orange chicken in the city
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Dylan
December 28th, 2008 at 4:27 pm
I have contacted the mall and they are not closeing it down!!! They are just going to re furbish it.. LOL Nevermind this is your lucky day i am a detective and the San bernardino Police Dpt. is trasing what you said to yuor computer!! HAVE FUN IN JAIL
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Brent
December 29th, 2008 at 5:22 am
Gee whiz I loved that mall. We used to ditch class and catch the Omnitrans bus across the street from San Gorgonio and we’d ride it to the Central City Mall and hang out all day. We’d go into the Carl’s Junior and order 1 thing and some cokes and we’d sit there refilling the cokes over and over, and then when that got old we’d maybe go see a movie or go watch that old guy play the piano. Once we started stage diving off of his little 8″ high stage and then we did a mosh pit (4 guys) right in front of his piano. I guess maybe it’s idiots like me who are responsible for the mall’s failure.
I remember we’d go there late at night on Fridays and Saturdays to go to movies because it was one of the only things in SB that kids could do late at night. First the knocked over the Pussycat Theater and Lier’s Music, now this. San Bernardino is dead to me.
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cindy rivera
January 5th, 2009 at 3:25 pm
its a shame it will be torn down
im 18 & i grew up in these mall
i moved to a diff state an went back this summer
and its so empty and the caurasal isnt ever one
and so many shops out of buisness
i love this MALL
and the INLAND CENTER MALL is not great at all
its like one block sux ass
at least this mall at 2 floors
inland center u go up and u go down and in less then 3 minutes u seen it all
im gonna miss you MALL!!
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Dylan
February 22nd, 2009 at 1:54 pm
THE MALL IS NOT CLOSING DOWN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
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Joe
April 3rd, 2009 at 11:23 pm
I’m from the san gabriel valley and happened to be in the neighborhood today, so I popped in for a looksie. And man, I have to say, that might be one of the spookiest places I’ve visited in the last ten years. You’ve got this huge mall and it has maybe a dozen shops…maybe…and then office spaces along the perimeter? I even noticed that the San Bernardino City USD has an office in there. WTF? And everything is in pink and blue pastel and it’s empty. A ghost town, surrounded by an enormous empty parking lot. It actually depressed me, because you can see the desire to attract families and there’s practically no one. I haven’t seen anything like it.
Out of curiosity what’s it like living out there right now? Particularly for you other young people around high school age? I hear that the violence and racial tension puts L.A. to shame. Is it as bad as it sounds?
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Boogie Town
May 7th, 2009 at 3:30 pm
Im moving my business which does very well online in to this mall… Great lease rates, and because people seek out my type of store I hope it will bring more business to the mall. I also have such good memories of that place from the past. I was manager or Jarman shoes, then Champs for awhile… I miss that place. Watch for Boogie Town in the main entrance.
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dylan Reply:
August 17th, 2009 at 4:26 pm
@Boogie Town,
What are there leasing rates
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Highland-Rialto Native
June 7th, 2009 at 11:58 pm
I grew up in the San Bernardino area and the Central City Mall was always the ugly step sister of the Inland Center Mall. But it has great bones and a pretty interesting distinguished pedigree. Downtown San Bernardino had been in decline since the 50’s as busnisses fled the downtown core for outlying areas, The mall is built right over third st. which was the retail street in SB. It basically replaced a dying downtown business district to begin with. Plans were drawn up in the 1960’s only to be beaten to the punch in 1967 by the Inland Center. The Inland Center from the start was always the “nicer” mall, it was closer to the freeway and easier to get to. Central City opened in 1972. It was designed by the firm of Victor Gruen and Associates, the firm that basically perfected and spread the mall throughout the country. In the late 1960’s they were concerned how their earlier projects isolated the shopping experience from the surrounding community and so by the time the central city mall came around they were trying to be sensitive (in a 1960’s sorta way) to the adjacent uses, so the central city mall incorporated 1920’s buildings and included a skywalk that connected to the new convention center/city hall/hotel site across E-Street. It was fairly sophisticated for a backwater like San Bernardino. But dispite these ambitious plans they always seemed to be a day late and a dollar short. To be fair though it was a fairly busy place until the department store consolidations of the 1990’s. While there were percieved safety issues that established its reputation as the seedy SB mall it didnt start to dry up until the anchors packed up. The bankruptcies of Montgomery Ward, and the merger and closure of Harris are what doomed this mall, not gang members or the inland center. Without anchor stores a mall will cease to be viable or thriving it is only through “mixed use” solutions like this that keep these places alive and open. Many areas had malls to serve multiple department stores, as the department stores have consolidated or faded from the scene they have taken the malls with them. The Carousel Mall facelift worked for a while, (hence the pink and pastel colors) but it simply could not survive without anchors, they should have put in a Wal-Mart in place of the Wards and that might have saved the pennys(which ended up moving to Redlands) but there really was too much redundancy in tenants between Carousel and Inland Center.
The architecture is great vintage 60’s though with those suspended clocks and wooden veneered beams, such a rich contrast to the pseudo victorian wrought iron post modern greenhouse malls so poular in the 80’s and 90’s.
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J. Thomas
July 6th, 2009 at 8:33 pm
I lived in San Bernardino most of my life. as a kid running between our house ( my Parent’s & us kids), I remember when Inland Center was built. Then a number of years later the Central City Mall.
As a young man in High School, I really wasn’t thrilled when Central City opened.
I grew up going downtown to walk up & down “E Street” & go to the diffrent stors.
Woolworth had a small burger/soda shop in it bthat had honest to goodness “Cherry Cokes” with cherrys, cherry syrip in a large glass & then the coke from the fountain sprayyed on top of it. We had National Dollar store north of there abour half a block & half a block north of that was JC Penny.
Then the Mall came in & distroyed the fun of downtown.
Then a few years later the Gang problems hit downtown. At first the PD did a little to keep it under controll, but that ended quickly & nothing was being done. After all the Gangs had more rights to take over the city then the honest citizens had to enjoy downtown.
In so taking over downtown the mall was also taken over, larger stores left & so did the smaller ones.
So here San Bernardino is now known best by it’s frequent mentiones on TV shows like “COPS” what a thing to become famouse for
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