A look back at the glory days of Coddingtown Mall

At Santa Rosa’s Coddingtown Mall, kids were once fitted for new shoes at Junior Bootery. Women bought makeup from the Emporium cosmetics counter. Men bought jackets at Roos Atkins.

As online shopping emerged over the past few decades and malls steadily declined, these old stores where products were proudly displayed and customers were served are now part of a nearly bygone era. Images from The Press Democrat photo archive reflect these places that are fondly remembered by many through a nostalgic lens.

Coddingtown Mall was built as an open-air mall by developer Hugh Codding in 1962. The Press Democrat printed a special section for the mall’s grand opening that year, and the paper declared the shopping center a new chapter in Santa Rosa’s expansion — following the opening of Montgomery Village in 1951.

Businesses and services that opened at Coddingtown in November 1962 included a doughnut shop, barber shop, laundry and dry cleaners, a travel agency, a bank, an oil station, a hardware store, a Realtor’s office and a Lucky Stores supermarket.

Thrifty Drug Store also opened a location at Coddingtown in 1962, where bottles of 100 aspirin and ice cream cones were only 5 cents.

By 1979, Coddingtown had 74 stores, sold more than $700 million worth of goods and was remodeled to become an enclosed mall. It continued on as a bustling shopping center through the 1980s and 1990s.

Coddingtown Mall currently has about 40 specialty shops, according to its website, including Target, Macy’s, Whole Foods, Ulta, Old Navy, Nordstrom Rack and more. It also hosts COVID-19 testing sites.

About 25% of America’s 1,000 remaining malls are projected to close in the next three to five years, according to a 2020 report by Coresight Research.

See the photo gallery above of Coddingtown Mall from the 1960s through the 1980s.