Yeah, I miss that mall too, my Dad works at Shepard Mall now and it just is not the same anymore

I was going to college at OCU and living just east of the church at 30th and Villa when Shepard Mall was being built.
Every day the dirt would blow onto our house as the bulldozers and graders cleared the lot. For months.

I remember one winter when they had piled up about a dozen snow mountains in the parking lot and my buddy took
his Corvair onto the empty lot and used the "snow mountains" as a slolom course. That was maybe the most scared
I had been as a passenger, especially after he crashed into a couple of the mounds and still wanted to complete the course.

I'm sure Ralph Nader must have seen us, inspiring him to write a book. We're lucky the Corvair didn't turn over or take flight.

Question about Shepard mall, were there other factors to the mall dying besides Penn Square and did it close down and reopen a few years later as an office complex or what?

(sorry for being a bit ignorant)

We lived off of 36th & May so my family spent a lot of time at Shepard Mall. Ate hundreds of times at Bonaparts and El Charrito. Got lots of school clothes from Penney's. Then in high school many of my friends worked at the mall. Mostly TG&Y and the grocery store next to TG&Y. I bought my first wife's engagement ring at one of the jewelry stores. I don't remember which one. Then as a young adult SM contributed to a couple of vices I have to this day. First, Tinder Box was on the TG&Y leg and I started smoking a pipe because I thought the shop was cool and smelled good. Then Garfields opened. They put your name on a brass plate on a bar stool if you drank X number of different beers. I had my name on two different bar stools. My buddies and I had "no-hands" chugging competitions using only our teeth to pick up and chug the 12 ounce mugs of beer. One of my lower front teeth is chipped as a reminder of how stupid that was. I loved the old Shepard Mall.

Question about Shepard mall, were there other factors to the mall dying besides Penn Square and did it close down and reopen a few years later as an office complex or what?

Quail Springs became the new hot place, Penn Square invested a lot and Shepherd Mall has a poor location -- nowhere near an interstate and in a declining neighborhood -- plus it was only one level, so kind of boring and uninspired even by mall standards.

It just slowly died away as did a lot of the tenants, which were more local than the chains you see at the newer malls.

Then, it was largely converted to state offices and now it seems very full of the same.


I have lots and lots of good memories there, especially at the movies because it was one of the few places you could wait inside to see a blockbuster. I also really loved the Square Shop, which was a direct competitor of Harold's and Orbach's... And I liked Miller's sporting goods as well.

I didn't live in OKC when they built Shepard but I visited it when I was here visiting family. It was the first mall I remember anywhere. I was really disappointed when they covered up the color glazed brick on the outside. (but I can't imagine it still being there now and fitting in)

I remember that the Shepherd's daughter was gorgeous.

I also really loved the Square Shop, which was a direct competitor of Harold's and Orbach's... And I liked Miller's sporting goods as well.
Pete, I think you mean Squire Shop.

I remember that the Shepherd's daughter was gorgeous.

Pics

Prunepicker,
Do you mean the Shepherd sisters? My wife was a private duty nurse for one of them for a short while, but they were not "spring chickens" at that time, mid 70's I believe. Of course, they could have been beauty's in their youth.
C. T.
I remember that the Shepherd's daughter was gorgeous.

By the mid 90s the crowd had degenerated into an odd mix of thugs and impromptu cardio walkers. I guess that was a sign of how fearful people were of the area back then, that they wouldn't even walk in their own neighborhoods. Another unintended consequence of building cities for cars instead of people.

By the mid 90s the crowd had degenerated into an odd mix of thugs and impromptu cardio walkers. I guess that was a sign of how fearful people were of the area back then, that they wouldn't even walk in their own neighborhoods. Another unintended consequence of building cities for cars instead of people.

I would expect it was more a combination of shelter from the weather and the lack of sidewalks than fear of the neighborhood. Much of the surrounding area was not built with sidewalks, those that do have either some houses or entire blocks scattered in that do not and 23rd did not have them till they rebuilt it like three to five years ago.

Prunepicker,
Do you mean the Shepherd sisters? My wife was a private duty nurse for
one of them for a short while, but they were not "spring chickens" at that
time, mid 70's I believe. Of course, they could have been beauty's in
their youth.
C. T.
No, this was Mr. Shepherd's daughter. She was a customer of my dad.
He introduced me to her but she was about 10 years older than me. I
was speechless.

She was a knockout! Similar to Jacquelyn Smith of Charlie's Angels fame.
Figure and all.

no, this was mr. Shepherd's daughter. She was a customer of my dad.
He introduced me to her but she was about 10 years older than me. I
was speechless.

She was a knockout! Similar to jacquelyn smith of charlie's angels fame.
Figure and all.

ttiwwop

Prunepicker,
Wow, you must be a lot older than you look! Mr. Shepherd had six daughters and two sons but the last daughter died in 1970 and she was old. She is the one my wife was a private nurse for. Actually, I suspect the lady you are referring to was a granddaughter.
C. T.
No, this was Mr. Shepherd's daughter. She was a customer of my dad.
He introduced me to her but she was about 10 years older than me. I
was speechless.

She was a knockout! Similar to Jacquelyn Smith of Charlie's Angels fame.
Figure and all.

Prunepicker,
Wow, you must be a lot older than you look! Mr. Shepherd had six daughters
and two sons but the last daughter died in 1970 and she was old. She is the
one my wife was a private nurse for. Actually, I suspect the lady you are
referring to was a granddaughter.
C. T.
It must have been a grand daughter.

Question about Shepard mall, were there other factors to the mall dying besides Penn Square and did it close down and reopen a few years later as an office complex or what?

(sorry for being a bit ignorant)

It isn't just Shepard Mall. The era of the indoor shopping mall is over. All that is left do is watch the last ones die.

Victor Gruen Wanted to Make Our Suburbs More Urban. Instead, He Invented the Mall - Mark Byrnes - The Atlantic Cities (http://www.theatlanticcities.com/arts-and-lifestyle/2013/07/victor-gruen-wanted-make-our-suburbs-better-instead-he-invented-mall/6249/)

It isn't just Shepard Mall. The era of the indoor shopping mall is over. All that is left do is watch the last ones die.

Victor Gruen Wanted to Make Our Suburbs More Urban. Instead, He Invented the Mall - Mark Byrnes - The Atlantic Cities (http://www.theatlanticcities.com/arts-and-lifestyle/2013/07/victor-gruen-wanted-make-our-suburbs-better-instead-he-invented-mall/6249/)

That kinda reminds me of the cubicle and its inventor, Robert Probst. The cubicle ended up doing exactly the opposite of what he'd intended. FORTUNE: Trapped in cubicles - Mar. 22, 2006 (http://money.cnn.com/2006/03/09/magazines/fortune/cubicle_howiwork_fortune/index.htm)

Like so much of the modernist movement - it did the exact opposite of what they though it would.

http://designcareer.files.wordpress.com/2009/12/future_archaeology1.jpg

I would expect it was more a combination of shelter from the weather and the lack of sidewalks than fear of the neighborhood.
Um.... lack of sidewalks will cause pedestrians to fear an area. Especially in a city such as this where driving culture is glorified and people aren't prosecuted for serious crimes against pedestrians. For instance at a cycling event at Lake Overholser this summer two people were hit and seriously injured on the same day by belligerent drivers. A cyclist and a pedestrian. No charges were filed.

Never one to leave an ancient thread sleeping...

I grew up in Alfalfa county in the '70s, but my grandmother lived (still does, she's almost 105, but ailing now) around 34th and Villa. My mother grew up at that house and recalled when the Shepard Mall area was wooded and (I think) with a pond where she and her siblings would go to play and fish. Whenever my family would come to visit, I'd always wind up at Shepard Mall.

Once when I was a wee tyke, my older brother and his same-aged cousin were hanging out at the mall and someone was selling helium balloons. What happens when little kids get helium balloons? Naturally a bunch of them get let loose, usually by accident. My brother and cousin had enough money on them to buy one balloon, some string and scotch tape. They added their string, stuck a piece of folded over tape on the top of the balloon and retrieved a dozen or more balloons from the rafters. Some they gave back to the weepy owners and some they brought home. I was quite happy when they gave me one :)