Macy's in Pasadena

ATTENTION SHOPPERS AND MID-CENTURY MODERN ARCHITECTURE FANS!
check out this Macy's in Pasadena on Lake. http://losangeles.citysearch.com/profile/35154616/pasadena_ca/macy_s.html
First suburban Macy's in the US, from '48. Most of the inside has been renovated but not all of it, like the Men's Dept and Cosmetics. I was warned Security may grab my camera, but I got away with these stylish surveillance shots....that's Monica Tiki Goddess going ga-ga over the Googie...

It is amazing!
Nice, easy to get to location on Lake!

I like the Corner Bakery next door.

Oh, I almost forgot: BABE ALERT!

I believe that was a Buffums when I was growing up in Pasadena in the '70's.

I was gonna say most of the older Macy's in SoCal were Bullock's, I think.

No, this location has always been a Macy's. As I said, it was the very first suburban Macy's, opened in '48. Much of it is deemed a historic landmark by the city, which is why they didn't mess with part of the interior and kept the original exterior.

Aqua.. (not to be a stickler about this), but I'm pretty sure Macy's didn't come to SoCal till the 80s. The two famous Bullock's were on Wilshere and this one in Pasadena.

http://www.preservela.com/archives/000395.html

The postcard is from '55.

This was designed by the same architect that designed the Capitol Records building and other awesome buildings.

http://www.designcommunity.com/discussion/24990.html

[ Edited by: Tiki Shaker 2009-05-06 16:55 ]

Well, I didn't actually research this, because it doesn't matter to me personally, but the old guy (Jim, I think?) in the Men's Dept was pretty adamant about this claim. He was very clear that this was the first suburban Macy's in the country (in the 80s?? - big deal!), hence its historic significance. Maybe he was just trying to sell me a sports jacket, but he's my source. He seemed pretty proud of it, too, so either he's being misinformed, or I misunderstood (probably) but whatever, it's still a damn cool building!!

[ Edited by: AquaZombie 2009-05-07 12:06 ]

Few more illegal interior shots from Macy's/ex-Bullock's/"Jim's" (and thanks for the clarification, good to know - I fondly remember Bullock's on Wilshire from when I Iived in LA, back in the historic 1980s)

[ Edited by: AquaZombie 2009-05-07 12:45 ]

On 2009-05-06 16:39, Tiki Shaker wrote:
I'm pretty sure Macy's didn't come to SoCal till the 80s.

I used to work for Macy's corporate once upon a time, and was under the same impression. Macy's acquired Bullocks, I. Magnin's, and others, but let them run under their own names for a while, yet most of the merchandising and inventory control for those branches was done at Macy's buying offices. I worked on consolidating all of the different divisions and companies that Macy's owned throughout California, Texas, and other states west of the Mississippi, which all had their own various accounting and inventory control systems, and merged them into one big corporate division with San Francisco as their headquarters (a team identical to the team I was in did the exact same thing for everything east of the Mississippi and made NY their headquarters).

But that doesn't mean that there wasn't some non-Bullocks offshoot that Macy's tried out in Southern California way back in the day. And either way, what really matters is that those are some super cool photos, Will!

Every time I go in I am dazzled.