Memories That Register

BusinessWest, Sep 29, 2008 by O'Brien, George

They came to look and shop at a facility created by filling in and roofing over the space between and around two large department stores - Sears and Forbes & Wallace - that had come to the south side of Route 20 years earlier. The stairs within the mall, says Putnam, are not an architectural feature, but rather a necessity to bring shoppers to the different heights represented by the original anchors, which remain today (although Forbes & Wallace was replaced by JCPenney in the '70s.

The new mall featured a broad mix of regional and national retailers, as well as a movie theater, the 'Pit' restaurant, as it was called, and even some resident birds - who were eventually given new homes amid protests from animal rights activists. There was a macaw named 'Mike,' a green parrot named 'Pappy,' and a minor bird named 'Zircon,' Bourbonnais recalled, noting that when Zircon passed away, the mall bought another minor bird and staged an elaborate contest to name it.

" 'Eastie' was the winner," said Putnam, who shook her head as she recalled the chain of events. "All that work to come up with Eastie"?

Bracci and Bourbonnais remember the mall being consistently packed in its early years, with the notion of an enclosed mall still being what amounted to a mystery, and thus a tourist attraction as well as a shopping center.

"There were tons of people ... it was always mobbed," said Bracci while showing a few well-worn shots from a Polaroid Instamatic (the technology of the time) from the day he opened at the mall. That heavy traffic quickly calmed any fears he had about moving and taking on additional rent - even if it was several months between haircuts for many men and boys back then.

Said Bourbonnais, "it was wall-to-wall people in the early days ... we always had some promotion going on that brought out the crowds."

Bracci still has the same phone number he was given 40 years ago, and has moved within the mall just once; to accommodate his request to open early (7:30 am. - the other mall stores open at 10), Eastfield administrators granted him what amounts to his own entrance, and space just inside the doors.

On the Cutting Edge

But while Bracci's view - and viewpoint - hasn't changed much in 40 years (although his shop did become a unisex salon many years ago), most everything else at the mall has.

The facility underwent a $6 million overhaul in 1986, nearly 20 years after it opened, that included a more-modern look and a food court that was built on the site of the original theater. As for the retail mix, Sears remains - although even that mainstay isn't the same retail stalwart it was decades ago - but the names over the other anchor storefronts have changed. The Steiger's chain closed in 1994, with a Filene's sign going up on that real estate soon thereafter, and Macy's taking over a few years ago. JCPenney took the space at the northeast corner of the mall originally occupied by Forbes & Wallace, and that store has since been replaced by a Penny's outlet store that is now one of the mall's biggest draws, said Putnam, drawing shoppers from across Western Mass., but also Connecticut, New Hampshire, and Vermont