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1. Anonymous
   Member Profile

   I haven't lived in West Seattle long so I have no idea myself. The shopping plaza seems a few years old yet the Big 5 Sporting Goods store seems like its at least 20 years old. Was the shopping plaza built around it?

   Posted 2 years ago #         

2. KBear
   Member Profile

   I think the mall dates back to the 1980s, but it was renovated just a few years ago.

   Posted 2 years ago #         

3. celeste17
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   Longer than that I would say the 1960's. I can remember going there as a child in the 70's. I worked there in the early to mid 80's.

   Posted 2 years ago #         

4. Anonymous
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   Did the basic store structures change? What was the main tenant as I assume Target wasn't there back then.

   Posted 2 years ago #         

5. GenHillOne
   Member Profile

   okay, seriously?

   Posted 2 years ago #         

6. mrhineh
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   I miss the steak house, great happy hours!

   Posted 2 years ago #         

7. MargL
   Member Profile

   According to this it was built in the 1960's http://seattle.bizjournals.com/seattle/stories/2000/01/17/newscolumn1.html

   Posted 2 years ago #         

8. FrogBaseball
   Member Profile

   wow a movie theater would have been nice!

   Posted 2 years ago #         

9. Gina
   Member Profile

   

   Ernst/Malmo and Pay'n Save were the original big store tenants. I don't remember the original grocery store name--was it Lucky? Skaret's Sweet Shop, Junior Bootery and a children's clothing store I can place there in 1967. House of Holland and the Red Baron came along later. Hallmark was there, too.

   Posted 2 years ago #         

10. herongrrrl
    Member Profile

    I don't know about a "main tenant," but IIRC from the mid 70s-early 80s, the place where Target is now was occupied by a restaurant called The Red Baron (and they had a very impressive salad bar and darn fine burgers, at least impressive to me when I was 10!). Lamonts department store was where Bed Bath and Beyond and Marshalls is now. Big 5 was there but it was called something else. The Staples used to be Ernst Hardware.

    Posted 2 years ago #         

11. JenV
    Member Profile

    

    remember when the Ernst went out of business and it was "Liquidation World" back in the 90's?

    oh, and The Keg was where the Rite Aid is now. And Rite-Aid used to be Pay-n-Save, and it was dirrrrrty.

    Posted 2 years ago #         

12. digidoll
    Member Profile

    

    Historylink.org records Westwood Village opening in 1965, but there's only the one mention of it in an article about White Center:
    http://historylink.org/index.cfm?DisplayPage=output.cfm&file_id=8616
    (a good read, BTW).

    Posted 2 years ago #         

13. Lisa
    Member Profile

    

    I was a kid in the 60's and Westwood Village was my familys primary shopping location. There was Ernest Hardware, Pay N Save, Lucky Market, Hallmark, Lamonts (mid 70's), SportsWest/Big 5, House of Holland (cafe), a travel agency, a jeweler (where I got my ear's pierced), fabric store, Merle Norman cosmetics, Winchelle's, and of course Skarets Sweet shop. Originally, the only main restaurant was The Red Baron located in the SW Corner right where the bank is now. Over the years a few clothing boutiques went in/out. The original layout of the mall is long gone and the improvements are wonderful.

    Posted 2 years ago #         

14. celeste17
    Member Profile

    

    I use to work at the fabric store and it was house of fabrics. I remember winchell's when I worked at WV I knew when they would do a new batch of doughnuts and would occasionally get one.

    Posted 2 years ago #         

15. Magpie
    Member Profile

    

    I know it started out as a strawberry farm..there have been lots of reincarnations over the years...I used to go there for Lamont's because other than Penney's, it was the only department store in West Seattle.

    Posted 2 years ago #         

16. Gina
    Member Profile

    

    I would imagine that the West Seattle Herald carried full page ads when Westwood Village opened, and reports about the development of it. Checked to see what I could find.

    The Seattle Public Library (Central Library) does not have issues of the Herald from that time. No bound copies, and no microfilm. 1945-1946, 1949 and then a leap to 1994-1998 and then 2000. Also has a scrapbook of clippings from the Herald from 1939-40.

    I'm curious enough that I will call the Herald office at some point to see if they have bound back issues tucked, or if all that history has vanished.

    Posted 2 years ago #         

17. ToddinWestwood
    Member Profile

    

    wow I forgot the Keg was there. I took a date there for Homecoming. Oh yeah, big spender.

    Posted 2 years ago #         

18. WSB
    Member Profile

    

    Anybody with West Side Story, pull it out and open to pages 32-33. I think it was a paid ad when the book was published but it's basically history. Starts with guys posing at the proposed site in November 1962. Then "first logo from 1965." And a photo of what was the abortive start to construction of "Westbrook" in 1960 - followed by years of delays. (Hey, sound like any project you recognize from the current time?) There's also a 1965 aerial which mentions Mayfair grocery (hey! I grew up near one of those in LA), Pay n Save, and Ernst Malmo.

    Posted 2 years ago #         

19. herongrrrl
    Member Profile

    I just remembered--was anyone else here at any of the ping pong ball drops they used to do there for promotions? They'd get a bunch of ping pong balls stamped with various offers of discounts and freebees, take them up in a helicopter and drop them over an empty part of the parking lot, and then it was like a giant pinata scramble.

    Posted 2 years ago #         

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