I periodically keep tabs on the Malls of America blog, and CP was featured a while back. This photo comes by way of patriarca12's flickrset (I hope that patriarca12 and the MOA dude don't mind.)
This was the greatest mall ever. All dark and brown and earth-tone-y. Eastwood Mall was my parents' mall, but this was my mall. I mean, she had a McDonald's for crying out loud! No food court, just autonomous restaurants & eateries scattered throughout: Morrisons (later Picadilly's), Shoney's, Chick-Fil-A, Orange Julius, KarmelKorn...
Man was it great, it had an old man's tobacco shop (don't remember the name) - with chess boards and ivory pipes, an organ/piano store, an Aladin's Castle, a stamp collecting store, an Alabama Outdoors, complete with a rustic wooden floor... *tear*
I would love to find more pictures of CP, pre-remodeling, of course. The refit totally sucked, the way they opened up the center like that. It used to have a center exhibition area on the top level, but underneath, surrounded by a moat (if memory serves) was a circular arrangement of specialty stores like the India Shoppe (a head shop/boutique - not that I'm a hippie or anything, I was just a kid, I didn't know why people were in to incense, I just thought that place was neat, with all it's "tobacco" pipes and whatnot).
As indicated by DeadMalls.com, CP is dying a slow and painful death. I miss her. I'm going to go cry now.
***Update***
Another BlogSpot blogger, J.T., has taken many good pics for his recent blog post on CP. Check it out.
A Century Plaza ad in December 1976, please visit Birmingham Rewound for all kinds of cool nostalgia.
