Dallas KONE Movies
Dallas Movie: Montgomery Escalators at Valley View Center JCPenney!
Tags
RATING: G, for families. No need to flag. Before I begin, the reason why I responded to gluse's Schindler video and not the Montgomery one is because I had already responded to the latter (because of the similarities in both the JCPenney video and the similar-looking one). Also note that the Schindler elevator was likely "added" when the store became a JCPenney. Anyways... BOY! What a surprise it was to see my all-time favorite brand of escalators and elevators, Montgomery "Globe and Parallelograms", at this store! This is the JCPenney store at Valley View Center in Dallas, Texas. These escalators date back to 1983. Given the age of these escalators, they are still in excellent, Excellent, EXCELLENT condition!!!!! Both by the looks, and by the sound. Excellent equipment! Now, the moment you all have been waiting for, THE HISTORY: - 1983-1990: Was the first and only Bloomingdale's store in Dallas, Texas. (They are, of course, a hard-to-find, expensive, upscale department store chain, now a division of Macy's, based in New York City.) The building is approximately 235,000 square feet. The amenities (in addition to what you'd expect in a department store, clothes and all, LOL) included two restaurants, a bakery department, and a kitchen with actual culinary lessons (a search for the Valley View mall in the Dallas Morning News Newsbank [1984-present version] brings up culinary schedules thanks to this store). Sorry for the lack of detail; the Newsbank doesn't have stories between 1/78 and early 8/84. I'd have to go to a library for that. Anyway, I assume Bloomie's set up shop at Valley View because the just- opened Galleria (which had Marshall Field's and Saks) is next door. However, all the excitement in this building came to a halt on August 16, 1990. - August 1990-October 1996: Vacant. Ironically, JCPenney didn't want to move into the building because their Prestonwood Town Center location (now demolished) was performing so well. First, Montgomery Ward wanted to take over, but was unsuccessful. Then Nordstrom, seeking a site for its first Texas store, was considering this building, or build a new store at either the Galleria or NorthPark. (They ended up building a new store at the Galleria.) Other possible ideas included a hotel, office, or more mall stores. However, in 1995, JCPenney decided THEY would move into the building. - October 1996-present: JCPenney. While the interior may no longer contain upscale items, this store has lots of room for the usual JCPenney merchandise, plus more! (I even think they may have added a Schindler elevator, too! gluse made a video of that and the original Montgomery elevator, as a JCPenney, of course.) I have been in this Penney's and BOY, IS IT NICE! At least this former-upscale store in North Dallas retains my favorite kinds of escalators! (A similar building, the much-smaller 104,000 square foot OLD Saks Fifth Avenue at the next-door Galleria also had Montgomery "Globe and Parallelograms" Escalators, but sadly, were removed as a vacant building in 2001 in favor of more floor space for the "Gap Flagship" in early 2002. But I'm glad to see these escalators still operating in THIS building.) Sources: Dallas Morning News Newsbank, Google, Wikipedia.
Dallas Movie: Four Montgomery Escalators at Valley View Center in Dallas.
Tags
RATING: G, for families. No need to flag. Sorry for the long delay; like I mentioned, I am an extremely busy college student looking to transfer in the fall; see my profile for my reason and future plans! Anyways, immediately following making clips of the soon-to-close "Retro 70's Macy's," I made four videos of 1973 model Montgomery "Globe and Parallelograms" Escalators at Valley View Center in Dallas, Texas. The first two are located in the "Retro 70's Macy's" wing. The music I am referring to in the second clip (you can't hear it quite well) is Ozzy Osbourne's "Crazy Train" being played over the P.A. in the mall! (Many malls usually play old music, which I like! See my profile.) The first two (also located in the Dillard's wing) are single file escalators; the last two are regular-sized escalators (also from Montgomery) and are located right in the center of the mall. I am quite surprised in the last few seconds of this video due to that particular escalator showing its age. HISTORY Although Valley View Center in North Dallas opened in 1973, its history can be traced back to 1965! A lone Sears Roebuck store opened in what was then the "middle of nowhere" on October 1965 (planning had taken place beginning April 1963) off Texas Highway 289 (a.k.a. Preston Road) at Valley View Lane (that part would later become 635 LBJ Freeway). It wasn't until 1971, however, when Homart Development Company (whose parent, oddly enough, was Sears Roebuck and Co.) decided to build a mall out of that Sears store. On July 2, 1973, the second department store built, Sanger-Harris (based in Dallas, and had the Retro 70's arches and mosaic) opened at the new mall; a month later (August 1, 1973), the mall in its entirety opened. This mall had placed North Dallas on the map. It was originally designed to serve three tenant anchors; the mystery third anchor came about in 1979 as a two-story Dillard's store. In response to the Galleria opening next door in October 1982, in 1983, New York-based department store Bloomingdale's opened its FIRST and ONLY Texas store at Valley View. In 1985, Dillard's added a third story to its store; you will see a "difference" in the escalators when I upload my video soon. In 1987, Sanger-Harris was purchased out by Houston-based Foley's, and in July, the Valley View store was the first to have its signs changed. In 1990, Bloomingdale's closed its only Texas store due to low sales. Oddly enough, JCPenney originally didn't want to move into that spot because their nearby Prestonwood location (the mall is now entirely demolished) was doing so well. First, Montgomery Ward wanted to move in there. Then a couple years later, when Nordstrom was scouting locations for its first Texas store, they considered this empty building, or start from scratch at the Galleria or NorthPark (they eventually had chosen the Galleria). In 1995, JCPenney decided they would move into the old Bloomingdale's building, and in October of 1996, opened up their store (I have been in there, of course, and BOY, IS IT NICE! You'll see how nice it is in a future video. I imagined the original tenant was nice inside, too). In August 2004, movie viewing has finally returned to the North Dallas area with a new rooftop AMC theater (I have made videos which you will see next). In September 2006, despite a REAL Macy's at the Galleria, the "Retro 70's Foley's" became the "Retro 70's Macy's". It did not, however, have the same kind of stuff like at the Galleria. On December 29, Macy's Inc. has announced the closure of nine stores, with Valley View being one of them, shuttering a piece of history after almost 35 years. How's that for a piece of history - Valley View has sure gone a long ways! Sources: Dallas Morning News Newsbank, Wikipedia.
Dallas Movie: Montgomery Elevator at the Galleria Nordstrom Garage.
Tags
RATING: G, for families. No need to flag. Riding a 1996 model Montgomery traction elevator at the Nordstrom parking garage at the Galleria in Dallas, Texas. This is a very fast elevator, and sometimes the leveling is weird - some are whole floors, some are half floors, etc. This is a double-door elevator, BTW.
Dallas Movie: Re: Otis Elevators Galleria Mall
Tags
RATING: G, for families. No need to flag. gluse, I know how hard it was to wait several minutes for just a 10-second ride down to the ice rink, so back in January 31, 2008 (a Thursday afternoon), no one was at the mall, and I was able to make a video of me riding from the rink to the 4th floor - the University Club! I can't tell if these elevators come from 1982, when the mall opened, or 1985, when Macy's opened. I also can't tell if these are Otis, because that's what Macy's uses, or maybe Montgomery (KONE), because one of musicfreakcc's videos (one of the symphony elevator videos, a KONE) has buttons similar to what you see in gluse's video and this one. And yes, after the door opened, I went back down to 1. That way, I could walk on down to Saks to make some vids there!
Dallas Movie: KONE at the "Neighborhood Macy's" at NorthPark in Dallas.
Tags
RATING: G, for families. No need to flag. Give this 5 stars, or else! The final part of my three-part "Out with the old, on with the new" series! Riding a 2000 model KONE escalator and a 2005 model KONE elevator at NorthPark Center in Dallas, Texas. This was built on the site of the original 1965 JCPenney at NorthPark! (That JCPenney had Westinghouse "Skeleton Font" escalators and an elevator I forgot what brand it was, just so you know.) In 1999, JCPenney closed its NorthPark location, and Foley's, whose flagship store for Dallas was at Preston Center, wanted to move to NorthPark. Their plan: either add some square footage to the vacated Penney's or knock it down! Of course, they knocked it down and started from scratch! Here now is the store's history: - 2000-06: Foley's flagship for North Texas. - 2006-present: "Neighborhood Macy's". They "claim" this location to be the "North Texas flagship"! I don't believe that for a second! It doesn't even have that New York feeling to it! (This "flagship store" even had a "Parade on Parade" back two years ago!) Anyway... Note that when riding the elevator, the floor indicator looks different; no animated arrows there! (All of this is like the "Neighborhood Macy's", also an old Foley's from 2000, at Stonebriar in Frisco.) Listen very closely at the chimes; they sound like 7-Eleven or something! (My camera cuts off due to low battery, so sorry.) UPDATE 3/25/08: I tacked this video onto musicfreakcc's Macy's at Lenox Square video because that's the flagship for the Southern (now Central) region of Macy's, and being in the majority of Texas (which is a part of Macy's Southern/Central division), I thought I'd show off our area flagship (despite my dislike for Macy's stores that used to be old neighborhood stores)!