Pomona Mall was a pedestrian mall in Downtown

Pomona, California Pomona is a city in Los Angeles County, California. Pomona is located in the Pomona Valley, between the Inland Empire and the San Gabriel Valley. At the 2020 census, the city's population was 151,713. The main campus of California State Polyte ...

, recognized by the

Los Angeles Conservancy The Los Angeles Conservancy is a historic preservation organization in Los Angeles, California. It works to document, rescue and revitalize historic buildings, places and neighborhoods in the city. The Conservancy is the largest membership based ...

as an outstanding example of Mid-century modern and

modern architecture Modern architecture, or modernist architecture, was an architectural movement or architectural style based upon new and innovative technologies of construction, particularly the use of glass, steel, and reinforced concrete; the idea that form ...

and design. It was completed in 1962 and designed by

Millard Sheets Millard Owen Sheets (June 24, 1907 – March 31, 1989) was an American artist, teacher, and architectural designer. He was one of the earliest of the California Scene Painting artists and helped define the art movement. Many of his large-scale bu ...

. It had been in the planning for five years, one element in a larger plan of civic improvements covering the whole city. Pomona Mall took nine blocks of the existing downtown shopping district, pedestrianized it and added trees, benches, artwork, fountains and adjacent parking. Much of the art is still in place, mosaics and sculptures by Millard Sheets himself, Arthur and Jean Ames, Betty Davenport Ford, and John Svenson. Sheets asked his friend and patron Howard Ahmanson to locate a new Home Savings and Loan branch on the mall, also designed by Sheets with a notable tower. Anchor stores on the mall included a new

Buffums 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, ...

department store (1962),

JCPenney 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, Gir ...

Woolworth's Woolworth, Woolworth's, or Woolworths may refer to: Businesses * F. W. Woolworth Company, the original US-based chain of "five and dime" (5¢ and 10¢) stores * Woolworths Group (United Kingdom), former operator of the Woolworths chain of shops ...

S. H. Kress S. H. Kress & Co. was the trading name of a chain of five and dime retail department stores in the United States established by Samuel Henry Kress. It operated from 1896 to 1981. In the first half of the 20th century, there were Kress stores wit ...

and

Pasadena Pasadena ( ) is a city in Los Angeles County, California, northeast of downtown Los Angeles. It is the most populous city and the primary cultural center of the San Gabriel Valley. Old Pasadena is the city's original commercial district. Its ...

-based Nash's Department Store. Initially a success, only seven years later in 1969 newspapers described a high level of vacancies. In 1977, five of the nine blocks were given back to automobile traffic. The eastern end is now part of the

Western University of Health Sciences Western University of Health Sciences (WesternU) is a private medical school and health sciences university with its main campus in Pomona, California, with an additional osteopathic medical school in Lebanon, Oregon. With an enrollment of 3,81 ...

campus. The western end now houses numerous art galleries, art studios and restaurants.

References

{{Shopping malls in California Pedestrian malls in the United States Defunct shopping malls in the United States Shopping malls in the San Gabriel Valley