Grossmont Center is an outdoor

shopping mall A shopping mall (or simply mall) is a North American term for a large indoor shopping center, usually anchored by department stores. The term "mall" originally meant a pedestrian promenade with shops along it (that is, the term was used to refe ...

in La Mesa, California, a suburb in

East County, San Diego East County is a region of San Diego County, California, east of San Diego. Geography East County does not have an official geographic definition, although East County boundaries are unofficially drawn by the County of San Diego for its second d ...

. The mall opened in 1961 and is managed by Federal Realty Investment Trust. The anchor stores are

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, f ...

Macy's Macy's (originally R. H. Macy & Co.) is an American chain of high-end department stores founded in 1858 by Rowland Hussey Macy. It became a division of the Cincinnati-based Federated Department Stores in 1994, through which it is affiliated wi ...

, RH Outlet,

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 ...

, Barnes & Noble, and

Reading Cinemas Reading Cinemas ( ) is a group of cinema chains operating in the United States, New Zealand, and Australia. They are owned by the American company Reading International. History In the late 1980s, through his holding company the Craig Cor ...

History

The mall was built in 1961 by

Del E. Webb Construction Company The Del E. Webb Construction Company was a construction company that was founded in 1928 and developed by Del Webb. Headquartered in Phoenix, Arizona, United States, it became the Del E. Webb Corporation a publicly traded company on the New York ...

, with

Welton Becket Welton David Becket (August 8, 1902 – January 16, 1969) was an American modern architect who designed many buildings in Los Angeles, California. Biography Becket was born in Seattle, Washington and graduated from the University of Washingt ...

and associates as architect. It occupied of land and cost over $20 million to build. At the time, it was the largest development in La Mesa's history.

Marston's Marston's plc is a British pub and hotel operator. Founded by John Marston in 1834, it is listed on the London Stock Exchange. Marston's disposed of its brewing operations in 2020, selling the assets to a newly formed joint venture with the C ...

(later

The Broadway The Broadway was a mid-level department store chain headquartered in Los Angeles, California. Founded in 1896 by English-born Arthur Letts Sr., and named after what was once the city's main shopping street, the Broadway became a dominant reta ...

) and

Montgomery Ward Montgomery Ward is the name of two successive U.S. retail corporations. The original Montgomery Ward & Co. was a world-pioneering mail-order business and later also a leading department store chain that operated between 1872 and 2001. The curren ...

were the original two anchor stores.

, which had a location in downtown

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 eighth most populous city in the United State ...

, had begun consultations in 1956 to choose the site of the Grossmont Center store, their first branch location. The store design featured of moldings, gold leaf lettering, murals painted by five artists, and a

Gothic Gothic or Gothics may refer to: People and languages *Goths or Gothic people, the ethnonym of a group of East Germanic tribes **Gothic language, an extinct East Germanic language spoken by the Goths **Crimean Gothic, the Gothic language spoken b ...

-style canopy over its entry. Other major tenants included

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 s ...

, a barbershop, several shoe stores, a florist, a fabric shop, a jeweler, and two dime stores: S. H. Kress & Co. and

F. W. Woolworth Company The F. W. Woolworth Company (often referred to as Woolworth's or simply Woolworth) was a retail company and one of the pioneers of the five-and-dime store. It was among the most successful American and international five-and-dime businesses, se ...

. Fifty thousand people attended the mall's opening ceremonies on October 5, 1961 – 20,000 more than the population of La Mesa at the time. Present at opening ceremonies were the regional manager of the Montgomery Ward chain;

June Wilkinson June Wilkinson (born 27 March 1940 in Eastbourne) is an English model and actress, known for her appearances in ''Playboy'' magazine and in films of the 1960s. One of the world's most-photographed women in the late 1950s and early 1960s, at the he ...

, a ''

Playboy ''Playboy'' is an American men's Lifestyle magazine, lifestyle and entertainment magazine, formerly in print and currently online. It was founded in Chicago in 1953, by Hugh Hefner and his associates, and funded in part by a $1,000 loan from H ...

'' model; and several representatives of the Marston's chain. By 1965, a 1,000 seat movie theater had been added to the mall.

Buffum's Buffums, originally written as Buffums' with an apostrophe, was a chain of upscale department stores, headquartered in Long Beach, California. The Buffums chain began in 1904, when two brothers from Illinois, Charles A. and Edwin E. Buffum, ...

was added in 1979 as a third anchor store in a newly constructed wing, and

Bullock's Bullock's was a chain of full-line department stores from 1907 through 1995, headquartered in Los Angeles, growing to operate across California, Arizona and Nevada. Bullock's also operated as many as seven more upscale Bullocks Wilshire specialty ...

in 1983 as a fourth. Also at this point, a

parking deck A multistorey car park (British and Singapore English) or parking garage (American English), also called a multistory, parking building, parking structure, parkade (mainly Canadian), parking ramp, parking deck or indoor parking, is a build ...

was added to the mall. Buffum's closed in 1990, with Bullock's and Woolworth following in 1993, although Cost Plus World Market and a food court were added. The former Buffum's became

Oshman's Oshman's Sporting Goods Inc. was a sporting goods retailer in the United States. Their headquarters were in East End, Houston, Texas.Sports Authority Sports Authority, Inc. (formerly The Sports Authority) was an American sports retailer. At its peak, Sports Authority operated 463 stores in 45 States and Puerto Rico. The company's website was on the GSI Commerce platform and supported the ret ...

) in 1991, while Target opened in the vacated Bullock's store in 1995. See's Candies is an original store at Grossmont Center which stands in the same place and is still doing business. In 1992, the mall's movie theater complex closed, but it was reopened and expanded on May 26, 1995. Barnes & Noble Booksellers was also added on November 24, 1997, replacing Woolworth which closed in 1993. The Broadway chain was bought out by, and changed into a

a year later. Montgomery Ward closed in 2000 and was replaced by Walmart four years later in 2004. In 2016 Sports Authority closed after the chain filed for bankruptcy. The store was re-tenanted in September 2016 by a

Restoration Hardware RH (formerly Restoration Hardware) is an upscale American home-furnishings company headquartered in Corte Madera, California. The company sells its merchandise through its retail stores, catalog, and online. As of August 2018, the company operate ...

outlet. In 2021 Federal Realty, a publicly traded real estate investment trust, purchased a majority interest in the center, which had been owned and operated for decades by one family. Reportedly 99 percent of the retail space was occupied at the time of the sale. Federal Realty is considering options for major redevelopment in 2025, when they will have full control of the space.

References

External links

Grossmont Center
{{Shopping malls in California Shopping malls in San Diego County, California La Mesa, California Shopping malls established in 1961 1961 establishments in California Del E. Webb buildings Welton Becket buildings