Shepherd Mall

[warreng88]

Since I have lived in OKC (9 years now) Shepard Mall has been dead. Does anyone have any recollection of what used to be in it, what it was like, etc?

[metro]

Shepherd Mall. I vaguely remember it as a kid in the 80's as it was still the place to go although Penn Square was fairly new and catching on about that time. I remember Dillards, Penny's, TG&Y, Orange Julius and a handful of other stores. It's mostly office space now, AOL (had their offices there), a mexican restaurant was and still may be in there, a few food court shops, Farmer's Insurance call center, Social Security office and a bunch of other government offices and the Aztec Charter School.

[OU Adonis]

It used to have a TJMaxx as well if I recall.

[Pete]

Warren, you can see more about the mall when it opened on this thread:

http://www.okctalk.com/okc-metro-are...ies-okc-2.html

[PennyQuilts]

I used to spend many weekend hours at Shepherd Mall. My first job (about 1972) was at the Shepherd Twin (I remember when Exorcist came out - they had nurses sitting at little tables in case someone had a panic attack). Across the street was El Chico. I loved that place. Dillards was on the north end, Penneys was the anchor in the middle. Val Geens Restaurant was on the east end and there was an ice cream parlor down there. Also a jewelry store. In between the anchors there were all kinds of other stores. It was a going concern. Penn Square was lame in comparison.

[ddavidson8]

I never knew that Shepard had a twin theater. What part of the mall housed it?

[Saberman]

In the '70's, they also had Napoleon Nash and the Squire Shop. They had TG&Y on the east end and I think a Furr's.

[oneforone]

Shepard Mall will always have a special place in my memory. It was the first place I remember visiting Santa Claus. I got exactly what I asked for that year. (A toy train set and new lincoln logs)

When I would stay with my grandparents I went their quite often. We ate at El Chico after church on Sundays then stop in the grocery store next to TG&Y to pick up a few groceries.

I remember shopping in the stores, getting toy models at TG&Y, haircuts at the barber shop and cookies from the cookie store. I went with them when they bought their first computer at Wizards. No operating system, just a bunch of big floppy's.

[PennyQuilts]

Shepherd Twin was where the pizza place is up on the north end, west side, right by the door.

[yukong]

I lived across the street from Shepard Mall when I was a kid. I moved with my family to 24th & Villa in 1961 and lived there until 1974.

I watched them build Shepard Mall. It was the first enclosed shopping mall in Oklahoma. At that time, the only other mall in OKC was Penn Square Mall, but it was open air. Shepard Mall was a fabulous place back then. It was filled from end to end with every store you can imagine. John A Brown was on the north end where AOL ended up. Just south of the John A Brown (that later became Dillards, when they bought all the Browns out) on the west side was the Shepard Twin. I believe if I am correct...that the Shephard Twin was the first two screen theater in OKC. Could be wrong on that, but I am pretty sure it was. We were amazed with a theater with two screens. Across from the theater was an El Charito, later to become El Chico. There were two TG&Y Stores. A small on up on the west side, north end (south of the theater) and a big one down on the far east side. Where State Farm (or is it AllState) had their call center....was JC Penney. Then on the extreme east end, attached to TG&Y on the east was a Stone's IGA. A great grocery store. In between Brown's, Penney's and TG&Y was every type of store you could want. It was a great mall.

Down outside of Penney's was a large open area at the "L"...where they were always having some sort of a show. I remember every year for years, a traveling dolphin show would come to the mall and set up a huge sea water tank with glass sides. It was huge. And it had 2 dolphins and they would have dolphin shows every hour. It made a huge mess as the dolphins would splash out tons of water, and all us kids would go stand in the splash zone so we could get drenched. This was what I guess you could call redneck Seaworld. Before Seaworld existed.

Every Christmas...they would place a tall, large Christmas tree in that "L", with a stage, and all the high school choirs and church choirs and grade school/ junior high choirs from all over OKC would come and sing Christmas music. Hundreds of people would come for the music every night. The center court, "L" would be filled with people.

Every month they usually had some sort of display or show in that "L".

I spent every day over there during the summers. We were mall rats before being a mall rat was cool. That was just during the era when parents didn't worry about their kids be kidnapped and they let them run all over. We would leave home in the morning, be gone till lunch, come home and eat a sandwich and then be gone till dinner. And Shepard Mall was one of the hangouts. On the north end of the property where those apartments now are...was a huge pond. We used to play down around the pond. And then of course, east of Stone's and between it and where Sears was located was the old home place of the Shepard sisters. It was a big beautiful victorian style mansion that was painted some sort of blue green. When they build Shepard Mall, they excavated the area down quite a bit (you can see how much over on Villa where the old Villa street is about 7 feet higher than the new Villa). And the house stood up on a large island looking thing, about 10 feet (in the back) above the parking lot. It had a big 6-8 foot chain link fence around it to keep everyone out. The old sisters lived there together for years. Finally when both were dead, they tore the old house down. On the back of the property was an old small, two story house. It is reputed to be the first two story house in Oklahoma, or OKC. I can't remember. Anyway, when they tore down that beautiful mansion...they moved that old two story house to the zoo, where it was on display for many many years to eventually be moved to the Harn Homestead over south of the capital. It is now on display there at the Harn.

The mall had, I don't know 70-90 stores with 10 or so restaurants, some open air some totally enclosed. There were clothing stores, toy stores, jewelry stores, shoe stores, accessory stores and just about every other store you could want. It really was the beginning of the end of downtown shopping. Prior to that, you had to pretty much go downtown to shop. Because we sometimes did go downtown to John A Browns or Wards or Rothchilds (even though they had a store in the mall) because my dad worked downtown and mom would take us down there to shop and eat lunch with dad. It was a great place, a great era, and a great place to grow up.

If I can tell you anymore...let me know.

[CuatrodeMayo]

Does anybody think it will ever return to being a mall?

[kevinpate]

I suspect it will remain a harbor for govt. based offices for a long time to come.

[JWil]

Does anybody think it will ever return to being a mall?

No chance. It's in a crummy area and Penn Square is only about two miles north. I'm glad it has a use now, unlike when I moved here in 1995 and it was a barren debacle, but there's no chance at all it'll ever be whatever it was.

[yukong]

Does anybody think it will ever return to being a mall?

No that ship sailed a long time ago. It has been remodeled, and cut up and reconfigured to the point that it would be cost prohibitive to try and reconstitute it as a mall. Not in that area with the market we have. Maybe something on the far east end that ties into the other retail closer to Penn. But it is doing too well as a business/office park. Glad that it got this chance. And really, if I'm not mistaken...it was the Murrah bombing that breathed new life into Shepard Mall. All those federal offices moved there in the aftermath needing office space. Once their new building was completed...the State took over.

[solitude]

Thanks, yukong, for those memories. I share many of the same memories of the mall and remember so many hours walking that place, seeing movies, eating ice cream, checking out the new toys, eating at the Deli at Stones, so much fun. What a great mall that was during the 60's and 70's. I miss it.

[Lauri101]

Thanks, yukong, for those memories. I share many of the same memories of the mall and remember so many hours walking that place, seeing movies, eating ice cream, checking out the new toys, eating at the Deli at Stones, so much fun. What a great mall that was during the 60's and 70's. I miss it.

Yes, thanks, Yukong for the nice little trip back in time. I spent most of my free teen hours at Shepard Mall. Got my first "real" kiss at the Shepard Twin!

[Pete]

[keving]

I watched them build Shepard Mall. It was the first enclosed shopping mall in Oklahoma. At that time, the only other mall in OKC was Penn Square Mall, but it was open air.

Penn Square was an open air mall?

[solitude]

Penn Square was an open air mall?

Yes! It was a single-level outdoor "square". Actually very cool and if it were built today we would talk about the refreshing change from indoor malls. It wasn't redesigned and enclosed until - what? - 1981 or so?

[Pete]

Penn Square opened as an open-air center in 1960 and was enclosed in 1988.

Here's a site plan of the original configuration:

[PennyQuilts]

Yukong - that was a great description - you described my experiences almost exactly. I started to mention El Charito but didn't. They had "the Explorer" on the menu, if memory serves. I loved that place. It still shocks me when I am in town and see what it has turned into. Young people - for a long time it was THE place to be.

WAS PENN SQUARE EVER AN OPEN AIR MALL!!!!?

Good lord, I'm getting so old...

[solitude]

Thanks for that, Pete!

I hadn't realized it was enclosed so late. I would have sworn early 80's and here it was the late 80's!

Penn Square was my first visit with Santa Claus in about 1961.

Whenever I am in San Diego and go back to UTC (University Towne Center) it always takes me back in time to Penn Square.

[Martin]

i could swear that i remember once being in penn square's movie theatre and saw a 'coming soon' movie poster for robocop. that movie came out in 1987.

are you sure that the place was enclosed in 1988?

-M

[Pete]

Yes, I'm sure of the timing. Construction started in '86 and was completed in '88.

[Martin]

well... i was all of 10 years old, so i won't swear to the accuracy of my memory! maybe it was another theatre. maybe it was an ad for robocop 2. so many pieces of that memory could be just a bit out of place.

guess it's just hard for me to accept that penn square was renovated so recently.

-M