Comments on: Rotterdam Square; Rotterdam (Schenectady), New York

By: Walter Clark

Walter Clark — Sun, 10 Jan 2010 05:23:07 +0000

Now Rotterdam Square Mall is beginning to be like another Mohawk Mall, because of some of the stores gone. Borders books is now going out of business, which puts that mall in an even more difficult situation.
When that mall opened in 1988, there were balloons everywhere, and old photographs of Schenectady and Rotterdam hanging where the store would be. I remember the carousel near the food court, which played the circus-style music. I rode on it at least a few times.
I like shopping at that mall. I would be disapointed when a store I like to shop at goes out of business at that mall. I take a bus there. Years ago at that, mall, thae fountain, in the center of that mall,made a loud noise, now it is quiete.

By: Walter lark

Walter lark — Wed, 16 Dec 2009 00:33:29 +0000

I remember the day when The Rotterdam Square Mall opened in1988, 21 years ago. Before the stores opened in that mall, it looked like a museum , showing old photos of Schenectady. There were balloons everywhere.
I now glad that thay made the noise of the fountain, which is at the mall, a bit quieter, before it was loud and noisy, that you couldn’t here what that person says to you when you’re talking to him or her. (it was over 100-110 db,, now it is between 60-70 db.)
When he mall opened in 1988, it had three anchor stores (Sears, Hess’s, and K-Mart), Today it has four anchor stores (Sears, Macy’s TJ, Maxx, and K-Mart).
Now, there are some stores that were in that mall since it opened, had moved, or gone out of business. With that, I don’t want to see Rotterdam Square Mall end up like another Mohawk Mall, which had no stores at all. like it did years go, before it was torn down. (I don’t want that to happen at Roterdam Square Mall).
.

By: Mike

Mike — Mon, 18 Feb 2008 21:31:14 +0000

The mall was planned by Wilmorite since the late 1970s, but there was ferocious opposition in Schenectady County because:

1. the mall would be built on or near an aquifer that supplies much of the region’s drinking water. It was feared that the mall would damage or pollute the aquifer.

2. millions of federal and state dollars were being spent (successfully, for a time) to lure merchants to Canal Square in downtown Schenectady, which had suffered severely since Mohawk Mall was opened in 1970. It was feared that a second mall, in Rotterdam near downtown Schenectady, would doom downtown Schenectady as a viable retail destination.

Wilmorite fought legal battles for years, well into the 1980s and long past the planned opening date, before construction finally began.

By: Derek

Derek — Thu, 11 Oct 2007 14:20:32 +0000

This mall wasn’t built until 1987 or 1988.

By: Jonah N.

Jonah N. — Wed, 20 Jun 2007 22:15:12 +0000

I emailed the mall. Here’s my original message:

Hi, I have a few questions about Rotterdam Square Mall. I recently
read http://www.labelscar.com/new-york/rotterdam-square and from what
I read, the place looks and sounds pretty neat. However, I have a
question. The author of the blog entry wrote that the mall has a
“massive (nearly Olympic-sized!) swimming pool”. Is this true? Do you
have any pictures? Another thing is that the pictures proved the Kmart
is a Big Kmart, however the website reads that it is a regular Kmart.

Thanks
——
…and got back:
——
It’s a large pool-type fountain, but is only about 3 and a half feet at
its deepest. With sitting areas around the outside. The K-Mart is about
87K sf and it’s titled as a regular K-Mart.
——-

So, did the Super Kmart become a regular Kmart somehow?

By: Mark

Mark — Fri, 25 May 2007 04:16:09 +0000

Sears logo looks actually looks good in red!

I’m getting tired of the blue already,red for Sears!

By: Steven Swain

Steven Swain — Sun, 25 Mar 2007 06:25:49 +0000

The ‘84 Sears logo came in all sorts of colors at first, usually to match the mall’s color scheme, and occasionally to match the architecture of the store. Sears didn’t standardize the colors until they did the “softer side” and even then there are some interesting relics that weren’t changed.

I was just at a Sears in Christiansburg, Virginia, opened in 1988, that never had its brown exterior signs changed or even a re-tiling at the entrance, much less changing out the old white mall sign for a new blue one.

By: XISMZERO

XISMZERO — Sun, 25 Mar 2007 00:53:50 +0000

Yes, I was reffering to the classic thin red logo used widely in the 70s and early 80s. I also remember last seeing it on the Sears at Corbins Corner in West Hartford, CT which they finally took down sometime in the mid-90’s replacing it for 1984-debuted one. That logo still dons itself on an appliance center in West Haven, CT.

The chunky all-caps logo which debuted in 1984 appears to be one of Sears longest used logos and was recently phased for a lowercased version today as we all know. I don’t see most stores getting the lowercased version anytime soon, so those, albeit their newest logo, is rare as well as far as channel signage goes. I’ll surmise the thicker red version was a short-lived prototype as is the equally rare dominate white logo which appears to have been used in the early 1990’s.

By: Jack Thomas

Jack Thomas — Fri, 23 Mar 2007 23:48:35 +0000

Actually, Wilmorite opened up Rotterdam Square in 1988, same year as Great Northern, so that would explain both Sears stores having the red logo like that.

It’s a shame the carousel was removed. Also, the TJMaxx store indeed took up smaller stores, as well as a mall hallway/entrance.

By: Matt from WI

Matt from WI — Fri, 23 Mar 2007 20:41:57 +0000

By ‘thin-lettered’ logo, I’ll take you mean the old ‘Times Roman’ (not the same font, but it’s close enough) logo we always used to see prior to 1984. From what I remember, Sears debuted the new logo on their 1984 Wish Book. That was the first time I seen it.

Thing is, older stores never really updated their sign package until starting in 1995-1996. Before then, in the late 1980s/early 1990s, you could clearly tell which stores were outdated and which ones were built from 1985 onwards.

For my neck of the woods, these signs were not red…must have been a rare color. They were blue…at least for the mall interior entrances to the stores.

The pic of that fountain just reminds me how much I miss seeing them in malls.

A K-mart anchoring a mall in the New England region is rare.