The Crystal Mall opened in 1984 centered around four large stores: JCPenny, Sears, Filenes, and Jordan Marsh, which became Macys.  The only original store still in the mall today is JCPenny. Although there have been many updates, some stores have gone out of business. 

While the Crystal Mall was under construction, several stores had a security/fire alarm being installed in several stores. One of the installation workers, Larry Cochran, explained “When I walk through the mall, I can still picture it under construction.” He later explained “I had to wire everything. Now it probably mostly wireless.” Since then, it has been replaced with new, more modern, technology that has better camera quality and a lot less wires.

Many stores have come and gone throughout the years. Some of the more popular stores that have left are Sears, GAP, Godiva, LOFT, Filenes, and Jordan Marsh. Some teachers remember some of the stores that they used to go to when they were in high school that are not there anymore. Mr. Arnold recalled “a great restaurant called Charlies that had a great bread bowl filled with clam chowder,” while Mr. Silvestri made clear “there was also the best pizza ever at a place called Roman Delight.” Mrs. Peluso said, “Orange Julius was the ‘it’ drink”, and even Mr. Silvestri explained “I remember there being an ‘Orange Julius’ stand at the Crystal Mall when I was a kid, and I got one every time.” He went on to say “Orange Julius is, it’s basically a sugar-filled orange smoothie (before smoothies were popular and trendy like they are today).” Since Orange Julius doesn’t have its own stand anymore, it is now put together with Dairy Queen in one spot in the mall.

Mrs. Peluso remembered that “at one point there was a Filene’s department store,” she went on to say “I loved a store called Sam and Libby. They sold shoes.” Many stores are still in business, Mr. Cheney explained, “I was able to tolerate the crowded mall if it meant I could go to Strawberries (before it was FYE) and add to my collection of Nirvana and Bush CDs, which might be the most 90s sentence ever written.”

It is unfortunate that so many stores have closed over the years, but it is very cool to see all of the changes that the mall has gone through over the years. Sadly it seems more stores will be closing, but memories of the mall when there were stores like GAP, Filenes, and Jordan Marsh are still here.