Comments on: Worcester Common Outlets; Worcester, Massachusetts

By: Sorcie

Sorcie — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 02:05:51 +0000

Sure would be great to see the “Galleria” back as it was in its glory in the 70s and I guess early 80s its such a beautiful building inside, even after all this time it seems such a shame to see it destroyed…..just my opinion

By: Jim

Jim — Sat, 24 Oct 2009 18:08:33 +0000

The restaurant: Before it was Plum’s, it was called Finnian’s.

The nightclub: It had at least two previous incarnations before Rendezvous, the second being an all-ages club called something like “Firestorm”. This would have been around 1976 or 1977.

By: marisa

marisa — Sat, 25 Jul 2009 18:24:30 +0000

@Anon,

Does anyone remember “BROWNIE” the famous bum in Worcester…sat on the stone wall next to UMASS every day………i think that was his name??

By: marisa

marisa — Sat, 25 Jul 2009 18:19:19 +0000

@mikael,

Auburn mall is the WORST……….awful mall………….back in teh 80’s the worcester Gallerian was the place for all us head bangin types(at the time) to hang around……. Pap Gino’s deep pan pizza did the trick and Wilt Tops had the best iron on tshirts…lol…………it was cool at the time but we are too advanced now and I think they need to start from scratch……update to the times…………..

By: mikael

mikael — Sun, 19 Jul 2009 02:31:17 +0000

@Peter, i think that the greendale mall is suffering the same fate but the auburn mall is thriving

By: mikael

mikael — Sun, 19 Jul 2009 02:27:42 +0000

@Jenni, shabooms was the night club your thinking about and i am currently 14 and i still have some memories of wen i was a lil’ youngan and going to that mall with my mother personally i miss it.

By: Justin

Justin — Fri, 17 Jul 2009 18:56:19 +0000

This mall used to an a kindergarthern center in the basement and a rare central mass outpost of ubonpain

By: Galleria Mall Rat

Galleria Mall Rat — Thu, 18 Jun 2009 17:59:44 +0000

Lots of people have mentioned the nightclub located nect to the “Galleria 123″ cinemas in the basement of the former Galleria. .

When the mall originally opened up, the nightclub space was originally a restaurant. I think it was a steakhouse of some sort (J.C’s?) and think it was fairly upscale. I assume the mall’s developers were making some attempt to create their version of an “entertainment disctrict” within the new mall: Dinner and a Movie – all in the basement!:
,
The name of the restaurant escapes me – but it only stayed around until the mid-1970s. Circa 1978, (and probably anticipating Worcester’s bid to become “‘The Paris of the ’80’s”) the restaurant space became a ‘disco’ called “Rendezvous” – which lasted about as long as the disco-craze did,

Sometime in the early 1980s, I think they renamed the club “Sanctuary” and turned the disco into a “rock-club” but by the mid 1980s “Sanctuary” was gone and the club became a country-western bar called “Texas” which lasted all of three seconds.

I think after “Texas” closed, the space was turned into a club for the “under-21″ set which we jokingly referred to as “H.R. Pufinstuf’s” which may have made it into the 90s – but by that time, the theatre had been closed, Jordan-Marsh, which also maintained basement access into their store, closed, and the Galleria went into its death-spiral.

By: Anon

Anon — Fri, 10 Apr 2009 11:20:26 +0000

True story:

There was an elderly homeless man who lived in the old Jordon Marsh space. He was a junkie too. We (being security) found Polaroids of him and some other younger homeless man having sex, and some spoons and heroine needles and such.

The homeless loved that mall, we’d find their condoms all over the place, well, when they were good ebno0ugh to use condoms…

By: Theresa

Theresa — Fri, 03 Apr 2009 12:31:01 +0000

OMG. What a disaster. I belong to the HIstoric Preservation Society of Worcester. We have some really great buildings here. I remember that night club in the lower level. I can’t remember the name. There was a restaurant called Plums. My friend George was the manager of an arcade there and my brother worked at the movie theatre. They made him rinse the brains of an unfortunate public inebriate, who fell off that high concrete wall by the stairs, off the side walk and he was only sixteen. What a crazy place. I did learn to disco at that club when the drinking age was still eighteen. Can’t say I miss any of it, especially the lovely smell of urine that permeates all the stairwells in the parking garage.