Comments on: Norwichtown Mall; Norwich, Connecticut

By: Holly

Holly — Sun, 15 Nov 2009 01:36:52 +0000

@Melanie,

This mall never had a movie theater. I have lived here all my life and there has never been one.
I am trying to see if I have any pic of me and friends hanging out at the Norwichtown mall as a child in my early teens.

Hmmmm…I will keep you all posted.

By: Bonnie

Bonnie — Sat, 24 Oct 2009 16:22:38 +0000

Ahhhhhhhhhh….my first job. What great memories. I was “the candy girl” in the evenings at W. T. Grants from 1973 to 1976. That is if anyone rembers bulk candy departments, where your candy was taken from large bins and weighed for you. I trudged many a cold dusky afternoon from NFA wearing a skirt and boots in snow with my friend Keith who also worked there in the mens department. The store was eventually renamed Grant City and then closed after the company filed for bankruptcy. I believe Grants closed their doors sometime in 1976 and was transformed into that pit they called Caldor. As former Grants employees we were all promised jobs after resubmitting applications, but that never happened. Just as well I might add. But, as for the mall in general. It was awesome. It had everything you could want. Big box (Grants) at one end, grocery at the other, better mens and womens clothing in between. There were a few eateries, books, cards, jewelery, shoes and even appliances in the mall. It was kept clean and bright and quite frankly people were not as complicated or needy back then. I will never forget the flooded parking lot every spring, learning to count back change (as this was before computerized registers), the first calculators coming out and opening the latest albums to spin on the turn table to draw the teens into the record department. Thank You Norwichtown Mall.

By: Angel

Angel — Thu, 08 Oct 2009 20:01:05 +0000

You’re right Crowe, there was something off about the Norwichtown Mall, maybe just the fact that it was located in Norwich, which has been an economically depressed area since I can remember.

Once in the late 70s when I was about 18, I was wandering around Caldor by myself, and a young guy started following me very closely, insisting that I had drugs on me … and that he wanted to buy them. I kept telling him I didn’t have any drugs and to leave me alone, but he kept following me, until I was almost ready to cry. Finally he left me alone. I don’t know whether he was a narc or just a drug-crazed young person.

Anyway, that was the Norwichtown Mall for you …. although I did spend quite a number of hours there with my kids in later years, as depressing as it was. The bookstore was pretty decent, and we stopped often for Chinese food.

Now I live in Florida, and would give anything to go back to those days in old Norwich and New London, as seedy as they were in the 70s and 80s.

By: Bryan T

Bryan T — Tue, 18 Aug 2009 15:13:09 +0000

@Dave,
Two Legs was next to Puppy Love. You could look at the fish while your sister shopped for jeans The chinese food place was The Golden Star- I think it’s gone now. China House (aka Pings) is still there near the casino.

By: Dave

Dave — Fri, 07 Aug 2009 05:17:54 +0000

@Rebecca,

You might just have waited on me at some time! I remember being in there, and a customer was asking for vitamin advice. I remember thinking, Gosh, the young woman working there looks like she is in high school!
I remember the frozen soft serve things they served in there, too. At one point they had a sign at the front that said they served good food, not fast food. It was definately a better store than GNC.

By: Dave

Dave — Fri, 07 Aug 2009 05:11:54 +0000

Variety House,

OHmygod, how could I have forgotten the 95 house?
Speaking of places in NL area, anyone remember the Variety House in NL, kinda under the bridge and across from the tall housing project? I bought my mother a Chinese vase in there.
Then there was Vality, in Groton. They were cool because they sold groceries AND clothes.
We used to take trips to the Meriden mall, this is long before the Crystal Mall was built. My cousins liked to shop!
The Chinese place in the NT mall was actually pretty good. Is it gone now? I remember there was a Chinese place in an exotic building on the road up from New London near the Mohegan toll bridge (the name escapes me-maybe China House??) that I would go to for my birthday. I always wanted the Almond Duck.
Rebecca, I used to shop at that little health food store! You may very well have waited on me! I remember the sandwiches and cones and things they made in there, and the sign they put up that they made good food, not fast food. I used to like it that they sold herbal teas by the bag, this is when Celestial Seasonings was still fairly new, and expensive. Being able to purchase by the bag (or was it 5?) let me try an expensive tea for not so much cash. I remember other customers asking the young woman at the store for all types of vitamin advice. I used to think that gosh, the gal looks like she is in high school. I see that in lots of health food stores.
I can’t remember if Two Legs Jeans was in the location of the pet store or if it was next to it. Anyone know?
This is bringing back so many memories. Glad to have found this site!

By: Variety House

Variety House — Fri, 31 Jul 2009 22:42:47 +0000

@Dave,

I’m with you on the Christmas Shopping – the NL mall was awesome around the holidays. Once in a while we’d go to Meriden, but that was about twice the distance.

Dinner at the 95 house after shopping was a nice finisher.

By: Dave

Dave — Wed, 08 Jul 2009 08:42:42 +0000

I can shed some light on all this. I used to live in the area, and shop at NT Mall and the NL Mall.
There was never a cinema at NT. There was a jewelry store. I remember that octagonal display filled with jewelry. They had some nice stuff in there!
A nut and candy shop also had a large octagonal kiosk in the center of the mall.
There was a time when the NT mall was quite a busy place, with some nice shops. The Crystal Mall in Waterford, about 10 minutes down the road killed this mall, the NL mall and the once thriving downtown of a small nearby town.
The NL Mall had as its original anchors the Outlet and Two Guys. When TG went down, Bradlees moved from across the street (I-95) to the NL Mall. Outlet was replaced by another store-the area was eventually closed, and a Marshalls moved in, or maybe it was a TJ Maxx.
The NL Mall was once the premier place to shop at Christmas, back in the 1970s. This is way before the Crystal Mall. The region had little in the way of shopping, so it was packed. It became an abandoned shell of itself. How sad.

By: Rebecca

Rebecca — Wed, 01 Jul 2009 21:06:53 +0000

I’m another one who grew up in Norwich and actually worked at the mall. I worked at the health food store – before it became GNC it was called Nature Foods Center – and it was part of a chain. Before it was part of a chain, it was its own store (can’t remember the name). We had a small cafe where we made “healthy junk food” and had a frozen yogurt machine that required slicing up big tubes of frozen yogurt (or gross – frozen tofu) and putting the slices and nuts/fruits/tiger bars into a giant grinder – which would express it as “soft serve” into a cone or cup. I find it funny today that part of my job, as a high school senior, was to give advice to people with health issues as to which vitamin/mineral combo would actually help them out. I was 17 for crying out loud!

I also worked for the Waldenbooks for a while. And it was previously the Paperback Booksmith – which also had an outpost in the old New London Mall.

Besides Nancy’s Carousel outside of Burr’s, there was also another candy/nut stand down by Bruckners. Both places would let you buy $1 worth of bulk candy. There was also another shoe store – Pragues, I believe it was called, that moved a few times in the mall.

During Halloween, there would be indoor trick or treating at the mall, and I believe there was a parade around it as well.

And, R. Rosenberg, I think the Bee in Styles was some sort of bouncy thing. I vaguely remember a similar one in the downtown Norwich branch.

I bought my first lp at Caldor’s – Prince’s Purple Rain. Good times.

By: Melanie

Melanie — Wed, 01 Jul 2009 17:36:16 +0000

@Mark,

There’s never been a movie theater inside the Norwichtown Mall. That octagonal structure was a display case for a jewelry store. It’s only 4 feet in diameter.