Re: Stonestown Memories 1950's

09/04/05 - posted by Matt Gutelius

Wow, what great stories. Does anybody have any pictures you can send me of old Stonestown ? Would be great to reminice again.

I grew up near stonestown in the early 70's. I remember going with my mother to shop there every weekend. We would go to the food court at what would become Petrini's and buy yummy Cheese Pizza and ice cream. Strangely, throughout the years, I have gotten a craving for that pizza from time to time. Although I know I can never have it again.

By the time I was in high school in the mid-80's, Stonestown had become an old reminence of itself. Stores were beginning to close down and the only stores remaining were always half empty. I remember a music store called "Portals to Music" where we would shop for records was no longer there. One of the remaining stores was Woolworths, where I would stop and read magazines after school. Then one day without notice, I went by and the place was boarded up. It was at that moment I realized, this was the end for old Stonestown.

What started out with so much promise almost forty years earlier was coming to an end, right in front of me. It was a sad, erie feeling.

Within months I began to see Billboards advertising the soon to be newly renovated stonestown mall, with the words "coming soon" in bold letters. Bulldozers began tearing away at the old mall. I watched in horror everyday as my bus, the 29 Sunset, drove passed the construction site daily. I felt like a piece of my childhood was being erased before my very eyes.

I was able however, to catch the last leg of Emporium Capwell and work there in mid-1990 before that too became a victim of modern corporate civilization.

But even today, with the new mall standing, I often catch myself reminising on what used to be, and wandering the once outdoor mall as a kid in the 70's, then finally as a teenager in the 80's before old Stonestown was torn down.

Thanks for the memories Stonestown. btw - does anybody know what they ever did with the statue of the horse that sat in the middle of the mall for years ? And was that Seabiscuit ? I can't recall.