College Grove Shopping Center, also Marketplace at the Grove, at SR-94 at College Avenue in

San Diego San Diego ( , ; ) is a city on the Pacific Ocean coast of Southern California located immediately adjacent to the Mexico–United States border. With a 2020 population of 1,386,932, it is the List of United States cities by population, eigh ...

on the border of Lemon Grove, is an open-air shopping center, but was originally a regional shopping mall, only the second to be built in San Diego County, and the 37th in the country. It opened July 28, 1960 with an official grand opening ceremony on August 25, 1960. The site had of gross leasable space on its site. The $28-million center had 60 stores (of which 20 were open at launch) and parking for 6,000 cars on two levels. There was a three-story branch of

Walker Scott Walker Scott, also Walker-Scott or Walker's, was a chain of department stores in San Diego and surrounding area from 1935 to 1986 and had eight branches at the time of its closure. It was founded by Ralf Marc (or R.M.) Walker and George A. Scott ...

, the San Diego-based department store. More than 250,000 people attended the first day the center was open. There was a

heliport A heliport is a small airport suitable for use by helicopters and some other vertical lift aircraft. Designated heliports typically contain one or more touchdown and liftoff areas and may also have limited facilities such as fuel or hangars. I ...

with helicopter service from its heliport to

Lindbergh Field San Diego International Airport , formerly known as Lindbergh Field, is an international airport northwest of Downtown San Diego, California, United States. It is owned and operated by the San Diego County Regional Airport Authority.. US Federa ...

airport in San Diego. A new amenity offered was "park-a-tot" child care. The architect was

John Graham & Company John Graham & Company, or John Graham & Associates was the name of an architectural firm, founded in 1900 in Seattle, Washington, by English-born architect John Graham (1873–1955), and maintained by his son John Graham Jr. (1908–1991). The f ...

of Seattle. There was also a 2-level (36,900 square foot)

J.C. Penney Penney OpCo LLC, doing business as JCPenney and often abbreviated JCP, is a midscale American department store chain operating 667 stores across 49 U.S. states and Puerto Rico. Departments inside JCPenney stores include Mens, Womens, Boys, Girl ...

, and

J.J. Newberry J. J. Newberry's was an American five and dime store chain in the 20th century. It was founded in Stroudsburg, Pennsylvania, United States, in 1911 by John Josiah Newberry (1877–1954). J. J. Newberry learned the variety store business by working ...

and

F.W. Woolworth Frank Winfield Woolworth (April 13, 1852 – April 8, 1919) was an American entrepreneur, the founder of F. W. Woolworth Company, and the operator of variety stores known as "Five-and-Dimes" (5- and 10-cent stores or dime stores) which featured ...

variety stores A variety store (also five and dime (historic), pound shop, or dollar store) is a retail store that sells general merchandise, such as apparel, automotive parts, dry goods, toys, hardware, home furnishings, and a selection of groceries. It us ...

. A one-level

Mervyn's Mervyn's was an American middle-scale department store chain based in Hayward, California, and founded by Mervin G. Morris (1920–2021). It carried national brands of clothing, footwear, bedding, furniture, jewelry, beauty products, electronics, ...

was added in the 1970s. In the mid-1980s the City of San Diego wished to have the center become a 4-anchor enclosed mall, but anchor tenants could not be secured. Instead the center relaunched as Marketplace at the Grove in November 1988. By the late 1990s the mall was half-vacant and in 1999 what remained of the original center was demolished leaving Mervyn's and the mall's

Longs Drugs Longs Drugs is an American chain owned by parent company CVS Health with approximately 70 drugstores throughout the state of Hawaii and formerly in the Continental US. Before being acquired by parent company in 2008, it was a chain of over 500 st ...

store, and the site was turned into a strip style

power center Power center may refer to: *Power center (geometry), the intersection point of the three radical axes of the pairs of circles *Power center (retail) A power center or big-box center (known in Canadian and Commonwealth English as power centre o ...

, with the Mervyn's and a new

HomeBase Homebase is a British home improvement retailer and garden centre with stores across the United Kingdom and Republic of Ireland. Founded by Sainsbury's and GB-Inno-BM in 1979, the company was owned by Home Retail Group from October 2006, unti ...

, Staples,

Pic 'N' Save Pic 'N' Save Corporation (later MacFrugals) was at one time the second-largest closeout retail chain in the United States. Financial troubles caused the chain to close many stores in the late 1990s and early 2000s. History William Zimmerman fou ...

Sam's Club Sam's West, Inc. (doing business as Sam's Club) is an American chain of membership-only retail warehouse clubs owned and operated by Walmart Inc., founded in 1983 and named after Walmart founder Sam Walton as Sam’s Wholesale Club. , Sam's Cl ...

and

Walmart Walmart Inc. (; formerly Wal-Mart Stores, Inc.) is an American multinational retail corporation that operates a chain of hypermarkets (also called supercenters), discount department stores, and grocery stores from the United States, headquarter ...

. HomeBase opened for business in December 1999, followed by Sam's Club, which made its debut in February 2000. Walmart welcomed its first shoppers on March 15 of the same year. Since 2002, Pic 'N' Save became

Big Lots Big Lots Stores, Inc. (stylized as Big Lots!) is an American retail company headquartered in Columbus, Ohio with over 1,400 stores in 47 states. History The Big Lots chain traces its history back to 1967 when Consolidated Stores Corporation w ...

. Since 2003 the HomeBase site has been a

Target Target may refer to: Physical items * Shooting target, used in marksmanship training and various shooting sports ** Bullseye (target), the goal one for which one aims in many of these sports ** Aiming point, in field artillery, fi ...

. Since 2009 the Mervyn's site has been a

Kohl's Kohl's (stylized in all caps) is an American department store retail chain, operated by Kohl's Corporation. it is the largest department store chain in the United States, with 1,165 locations, operating stores in every U.S. state except Hawai ...

. In 2010 the Longs Drugs site became a

Ross Dress For Less Ross Stores, Inc., operating under the brand name Ross Dress for Less, is an American chain of discount department stores headquartered in Dublin, California. It is the largest off-price retailer in the U.S.; as of 2018, Ross operates 1,483 stor ...

. In 2014, Staples closed, replacing it with a

Sam Ash Music Sam Ash Music was founded in 1924, and is the largest family-owned chain of musical instrument stores in the United States, with 44 locations in 16 states. With corporate headquarters in Hicksville, New York, Sam Ash sells musical instruments, r ...

store two years later. The Walker Scott building was demolished in 1987 to make way for a Mann 9-cinema multiplex. An iconic neon baton-majorette stood over the Mann 9 Theatres (now Sam's Club), from 1988 to 1999, before being moved to the front of the shopping center where artwork currently stands. Prior to display at the shopping center, the artwork was at the back of the College Drive-in's screen and shone onto El Cajon Boulevard for 36 years.

External links

College Grove Center Facebook page

References

{{History of Retail in Southern California Shopping malls in San Diego County, California