Also includes an early mall directory and JCPenney ad!

Some of my oldest memories are of Port Plaza…my brother was 15 years older than me, so when I was 4/5 he was 19/20 and Port Plaza was the “cool” place to go and he always had to babysit me…sooo along I went!

I remember Tilt the most…my brother had a friend who worked there, so all I had to do was say what game I wanted to play, and the machine was opened and…bam! 99 free credits! and when I got bored I moved onto the next one. 99 credits again! that was basically their hang out…he had a friend who pretty much owned the Mortal Kombat game…so he always played on other kids money. lol.

I couldn’t go to the mall, with anyone, without seeing the fountain, and I always wanted to dig the money out, like all little kids do. If there was a day it wasn’t on, i’d be upset.

When I was old enough to bicycle around town me and a few friends went there…I was bent on spending some time at Tilt…and was pretty much shocked at the emptyness. Being young with old parents who avoided big malls, I had no idea that the mall was crashing. The last memory I have was a security guard yelling at me for going the wrong way down an escillator. That was when the mall was Washington Commons.

I hate Bay Park. It has none of the feeling, none of the cool that Port Plaza had. If it wasn’t for being in a crappy location it would still be the number 1 mall.

I’d give anything for one last walk through…but B&E and Tresspassing is one thing I DON’T need on my record.

The arcade, known as “Gold Mine” became “Tilt.”

The “Fun-N-Games” arcade at Bay Park was across from the theater, which was gutted in the 1990s to become a food court.

Bay Park Square was owned by DeBartolo in the 1980s, up to the early 1990s when DeBartolo was merged with Simon Property Group.

Ever since Port Plaza died, our downtown just wasn’t as fun as it used to be. I’m waiting, like everyone else in Green Bay, to see the mall get demolished, and new developments to take shape. I think what killed Port Plaza was the demographic shift in our area to the more affluent suburban malls, combined with the extra expense of paying for parking, and in later years, a new name. I would call the 2002-2006 era of Port Plaza the “Washington Commons Era,” Port Plaza’s worst era ever. The managers in that era of Port Plaza’s history tried sprucing up the mall with an upscale remodel, a new food court, and a newly-reconnected Washington Street, but that only made things worse when stores kept leaving a few months apart from one another. Pop-up stores like the Calendar Club kept the mall busy along with the remainder of the inline tenants during the holiday shopping season. At least they added a stage to keep the people entertained in the food court while they dined on their BMTs from Subway.

A few years ago some construction workers from out of town were downtown looking for some place to eat lunch and asked me if they were really downtown and where they could go to get some lunch. He-llo! All I could do was laugh.

As far as declining population It is declining. Check the U.S. Census. I’m glad the mall died. It is embarrassing to live in a city and not be able to go shopping, see a movie and we won’t even talk about the public transit system or hailing a cab (they’re all at the airport).

Downtown caters to tourists, suburbanites and the rural folks who come into the city for a hot minute or work and go home. It caters to football fans and enthusiasts while neglecting the people who actually live “IN” the city and that is why the population declines and they have a difficult time attracting businesses and people to the area. Green Bay should make up it’s mind to stop living on old glory or call itself what it is—a town, not a city.

The old Gold Mine was great, nice and dark with the cool mine style entrance. Then they remodeled and named it something else.

And once I was over 21, I loved stopping at Diamond Dave’s or the Crockery to take a break for a few beers while Christmas shopping.

I think my last time shopping there would have been ‘98 or ‘99, and it was definitely starting to thin out. It was sad. I can’t stand Bay Park Square, at least not after the remodeling. (Was it Fun N’ Games across from the theater?)

Anyone remember the Hole In One Donuts that was there in the 80’s? Mom would never let us get any, but I always remember the sign.

I live in MO now, so I only make one or two trips a year to GB. It’s amazing how much has changed in the 10 years I’ve been gone.

Decay and ruin really accelerate once the roof starts leaking. Has that moldy, damp smell infiltrated the mall yet? It looks pretty good now when compared to what it will look like in another couple of years. You’ll be seeing green ceiling tiles on the floor.

It’s really sad.

The interior is decaying, the ceiling is leaking, puddles and rust stains on the terazzo floor, falling ceiling tiles, paint peeling off walls, Christmas decorations strewn across the floor of the Boston Store court and the Adams entrance. It’s becoming a victim of what I like to call “Dixie Square Syndrome.”

I used to frequent the Claire’s and JCPenney at this mall in its final years, to find some SpongeBob SquarePants merchandise, not to mention eat at the Subway restaurant for lunch or dinner.

I’m surprised what three years of decay can do to a mall like this.

It’s sad, really, as I grew up going to that mall in the early ’90’s. It was truly a unique shopping center (numerous water fountains, glass elevator, clock tower, escalators). I remembering walking around the halls in it’s last years – I would go to the food court to get Subway for lunch. That’s about all that was left before they closed. The downtown kind of died then.