Fashion Place Mall; Murray, Utah
Thanks to Jay for these more-than-ten-years-old photos of the Fashion Place Mall in Murray, Utah. Far from a dead mall, Fashion Place is one of the most dominant shopping malls in the Salt Lake City area, with Macy’s, Dillard’s, Nordstrom, and Sears as anchor stores.
Jay took these photos in 1997, though the mall has changed fairly significantly since and is in the process of changing again. In the summer of 2007, it was announced that the 876,000 square foot Fashion Place would get a 230,000 square foot expansion. Nordstrom and Dillard’s would get brand new stores, and the mall area itself would be expanded to add new stores and restaurants, and the interior of the center will be renovated.
I’ve never visited the center and am not too sure of much of its history, but I do know that the mall opened in 1972, and the Dillard’s store (which is pictured in the link above) was opened as a Weinstocks and then later became The Broadway. The existing, 4-level Dillard’s is going to be demolished as part of the mall’s renovation to make room for more mall space.
In 2006, Fashion Place was one of a dozen American shopping malls to open on Black Friday at 12:01a.m., and experienced crushing crowds. Reportedly the earliest Black Friday ever, the mall was open for 22 hours… placing a great strain on employees and managers throughout the center. The gimmick seems to have been a success.
Also, check out this undated photo from the University of Utah’s J Willard Marriott Library–it showcases a much-older Nordstrom logo! Any guesses on when it’s from? I didn’t have Nordstrom in my area until about a decade ago, so I’m not as familiar with their older logos.
thatbeegirl
March 25th, 2008 at 12:12 am
the last time i saw that logo was in the 80s. judging by the cars in the lot, it looks like maybe early 80s. nordstrom’s handled shopping bags during this time used the same logo on a dark brown background with the typeface in a cream/light tan color.
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Mark
March 25th, 2008 at 10:46 am
Does the 70’sreffic big tall mall entrance still exist?????
Did those big large modernist skylights survive the renovation???? I gotta know!!!!!
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Steven Swain
March 25th, 2008 at 7:16 pm
The lowercase Nordstrom logo lasted into the late ’80s. I think the Tysons Corner location (their first East Coast store) originally opened using it, but it was removed shortly after they opened.
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mallguy
March 25th, 2008 at 10:34 pm
The lower case Nordstrom logo was also used in NJ when the first three in the staet were being built (GS Plaza, Menlo Park, Freehold….Short Hills didn’t come until 1995) on “Coming Soon” signs, but was not used when the actual buildings were complete and open for business.
I do remember it on the Tysons location.
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BIGMallrat
March 26th, 2008 at 5:24 pm
These photos brought back a whole new set of memories. I frequented Fashion Place in the mid-Eighties. Nordstrom was the big deal, there. I typically shopped at Castletons, the junior department store in the middle of the mall (it’s a T-shaped mall).
The ZCMI II concept didn’t last very long. I didn’t even realize they tried it at Fashion Place. Hmm.
This mall was always considered the best mall in the valley, least until South Towne in Sandy took over in the late Eighties. Nevertheless, I’ll still remember it fondly.
Scott
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Randy
April 2nd, 2008 at 3:40 am
You have the Broadway and Weinstock’s stores in vice versa order. It was orginally The Broadway (from Los Angeles) in 1972, then their parent company Carter Hawley Hale Stores converted it to their Sacramento-based Weinstock’s nameplate in 1978. I once had some Nordstrom annual reports saying that their store at Fashion Place opened in 1981.
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Trevor
April 19th, 2008 at 12:49 pm
Nordstrom officially changed their logo from lower-case block letters to upper-case in 1995. Some stores, such as San Francisco Center and many East Coast stores used an upper-case style similar to the current logo. I never understood why, since it wasn’t an ‘official’ logo.
Slightly off topic, has anyone noticed that the Von Maur stores in Iowa seemed to copy the logo and interior design/decor from Nordstrom? No wonder people say it’s the Nordstrom of the midwest!
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Allan
April 21st, 2008 at 10:53 pm
Funny, I was about to say the same thing as Trevor about the similarities between Von Maur and Nordstrom’s older vs. newer logos!
That aside, interesting write-up about this mall, as I very strangely had initially missed this post about Fashion Place, until I was browsing through more recent entries tonight. And just so I get the future plans for this mall straight, is the Dillard’s gonna be rebuilt in a different part of the mall, or is it leaving this mall for good? (I’m guessing the latter due to its size, but who knows)
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Bree
May 14th, 2008 at 1:21 am
We always drove to the Salt Lake City area from southern Idaho to get some real shopping in. Fashion Place was an awesome mall second only to the giant Crossroads Mall in Salt Lake proper, which was a thriving mall which was curiously repurposed recently. Neat to see a mall I’ve actually visited on this site!
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jimmy
February 13th, 2009 at 10:14 pm
Today(in 2009) the new Nordstroms is finnaly done, I think Macy’s might buy the old Nordstroms remodel it and vacate their cottonwood location Even though I live closer to their cotonwood location it is pretty small and I wouldn’t be suprised if it closed down, I know they are keeping the coulumbs on the outside of the mall and I think they are keeping the skylights or at least the ones in the food court
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Jon
March 16th, 2009 at 5:22 pm
Cool site!
I was just at the Fashion Place mall for the first time in nearly ten years, and I noticed a PILE of changes. One thing I was able to do was Go into the old nordstrom building during the first day of the fixture liquidation sale. I got LOTS of pictures, so feel freeo to contact me if you want to see them.
One thing that was really cool was the weather marks showing the evidence of the old logo now that the new sign had been removed.
I had not realised how dated that store was until seeing it with all the merchandise removed. but very cool to see.
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Smokedaddy
March 31st, 2009 at 9:55 pm
The Fashion Place Mall was briefly notorious when a University of Utah student named Ted Bundy left one of his victims in a dumpster there.
With the ongoing billion-dollars and years-long metamorphosis of ZCMI and Crossroads into City Creek Center, Fashion Place has attracted a lot of traffic from areas that used to be serviced by the downtown malls. The planned expansion is a good thing, as the area has grown more upscale. Salt Lake City can expand only to the south, and the mall’s location is becoming ever more central.
Even though I’m in the Avenues, I generally avoid the Gateway and head down to Fashion Place in Murray when I need to visit a mall; it’s less hassle, parking is easy, and I can usually find what I’m after.
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Jenster
June 12th, 2009 at 12:31 pm
Ok, so I grew up going to Fashion Place Mall and I vividly remember climbing on this huge, yellow, brick “sculpture” type thing in the middle (?) of the mall. I guess sculpture isn’t really a good word for what it was, as people could sit on the edges of it. It was very 70’stastic! Does anyone else remember this thing?
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Robert
August 17th, 2009 at 4:43 am
Fashion Place Mall opened in 1972, and I arrived in Utah that year for college. I went to Fashion Place Mall all the time from 1972 to 1976, and it was easily the best mall in the area during those years, which means that it was the best mall in the state and maybe in the entire region (Idaho, Nevada, Wyoming, Utah). One of the original anchor stores was Auerbach’s–nobody has mentioned that. I assume it’s long gone. I believe it was the western anchor of the mall.
Some of the other big malls in the Salt Lake valley back then were Cottonwood Mall, Valley Fair Mall (on the less fashionable west side), and Trolley Square (which was considered really innovative at the time). University Mall (Orem) opened around 1974, and I know that it’s still around and thriving.
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Jeff
January 12th, 2010 at 6:44 pm
I think Auerbach’s was where the old nordstrom was. It will be a shame when they tear down dillards expandtion, I have always loved the exterior of dillards/weinstocks/the broadway.
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Chad E Willoughby
March 5th, 2010 at 12:58 pm
A few months ago, while walking to the Dillard’s department store, I was harassed by a man and a woman from Israel selling their worthless “Dead sea soap”, hand and facial products. The man and woman were verbally abusive and spoke to me in a manner that was offensive and degrading. Although I filed a complaint at the mall management office, nothing was done. The workers in this mall (from Israel) are abusive, cruel, mindless and rude. these people make shopping at Fashion Place Mall an unkind,awful, miserable and unpleasant experience. I WILL NEVER RETURN TO FASHION PLACE MALL. GO HOME ISRAEL, YOU’RE NOT WELCOME HERE.
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Prange Way Reply:
March 5th, 2010 at 2:22 pm
@Chad E Willoughby, I wouldn’t castigate all people from Israel due to these people. However, these people do suck. A lot. Interestingly, many of them are here on tourist visas and not work visas, and are culled in their home countries at kiosk job fairs. I find them terribly annoying and aggressive too, and sort of wish the INS would get involved.
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Chris Reply:
March 16th, 2010 at 9:33 pm
@Prange Way, I always wondered where they recruited these people from… They all seemed to have the same accent in every mall I have ever been to. I have gotten tired of saying “no thanks” that I just down right ignore them now as I walk past as quick as possible..lol.
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