Northland Shopping Center

Pictured in pink

The events the past few weeks about Ferguson, had me (who grew up in North County) puzzled when the news talked about the Communication/Command Center being in Buzz Westfall Center or Target Shopping Center.  So, when my son-in-law went to Emerson on business, he said it was across the street. "You mean at Northland Shopping Center?"  "I never heard of that" he said.

What??? Never heard of the shopping center where my dad worked at Famous-Barr.  How many

Mom and Dad September 1965

Thanksgiving holidays was Dad there putting up Christmas decorations?  In the middle of the night, we'd get phone calls from police or security about the alarms going off, and Dad would have to get up and go to the store.  Dad met several celebrities including Carol Channing while working there.  The store electrician was a pretty important man to the Northland Famous-Barr! Being one of the few men working at a Department Store filled with middle aged women brought lots of great stories: the complaints about the air conditioning when they were having hot flashes and how funny they thought it was to spray him with their cologne samples.

Other memories I have are at the dime store on the lower level:  the lipstick and nail polish counter pulled me every time and the lunch counter where I either got a Turkey dinner or hot fudge sundae. I recall walking by Baker's Shoe Store, I saw myself in the reflection of the store window and never wore high heel shoes again---I looked so funny wearing high heels in Junior High, but I did still buy most of my shoes there in high school.

Even after Dad stopped working there (and we stopped shopping there), Northland Famous-Barr was a landmark when flying into or out of St. Louis.  We could see the holiday candles laying down on the roof.  One of Dad's jobs had been to raise them up but the rest of the year they rested on the roof-top. Scroll down on this site to see the candles raised.  Click here.

My friend Terry had more to add about the candles: "My father wired those candles on the roof."  For more of Terry's and other friends' memories, come back tomorrow.

Several bloggers have documented the final days of Northland.  Click here and click the next link to see some ads from the old Famous Barr  Northland Shopping Center