Charles’ 
Slide of the Week: January 8th, 2004
Eastland Shopping Center - West Covina, Ca - 1959
Hello there Shoppers! I LOVE this slide! Leaning on their 1956 Buick, daddy sports his cool sunglasses and junior sports a sailor hat.
Some of my earliest childhood memories are of going to The Eastland Shopping Center in West Covina. I fondly remember as a four-year old taking the trip from home in Ontario sitting on the fold-down armrest in the backseat of my grandparents pink ‘58 Cadillac Sedan de Ville. I loved that car -of course- it had big tailfins. Eastland was amazing. When we were there I thought we were rich. Our first stop was always the May Company where it seems my grandma always bought a girdle. That was embarrassing.
Then we would have lunch at the ultramodern Clifton’s Cafeteria. I don’t remember what I ate but I do recall washing it down with the reddest fruit punch ever, while being serenaded by a live organist playing the pop standards of the day.
Built in 1957, bordering a newly completed stretch of the San Bernardino Freeway, Eastland was the first shopping center in Southern California to be freeway friendly. The spectacular stained-glass sign tower was visible from miles away. Like the Lakewood Center, there were no loading docks for any of the stores at ground level. A half-mile-long tunnel connected the basements of the stores to keep delivery trucks out of sight –how civilized is that? Speaking of civil these tunnels were also marked Civil Defense fallout shelters. They each had enough room to hold thousands in the event of a nuclear attack.
Shopping Centers came of age in the 1950s. Deluxe retail developments such as Lakewood Center, Fashion Square in Santa Ana and Eastland in West Covina had the designer touch. Specialty stores lined stylish outdoor promenades and courtyards, separated from the vast parking lots. These shopping havens were landscaped with tropical greenery in raised planters with built-in seating areas. Fountains, modern garden art and piped in Muzak, completed the utopian effect. These new suburban shopping centers quickly replaced Southern California’s vintage Main Street shopping districts and reinvented retail merchandising.
The Eastland Shopping Center still stands. None of the original stores remain. In the early 90’s the facade was completely redone in a brightly colored post modern look - if you can call it that, and the May Company was demolished and replaced by Target.
GOD BLESS AMERICANA and EASTLANDANA
Charles Phoenix
Los Angeles
January 2004
Sets this Slide belongs to:
Space-Age Style
16 Comments on “Eastland Shopping Center - West Covina, Ca - 1959”
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January 16th, 2006 at 4:38 pm
I too love this picture!! I have grown up in Covina & West Covina. Just seeing the HUGE “M” on the May Company building always let me know I was close to home. Thanks so much for finding these slides & showing them off!! Keep up the good work!!
February 16th, 2006 at 8:21 pm
sigh… this picture makes me sad. i miss the old school eastland. they’ve completely destroyed the architecture of that place with up-to-date loud colored buildings. i’m saving this picture. thank you!
December 7th, 2006 at 9:38 pm
Wow, it is like taking a trip back in time.. I lived in Covina for years. I remember all of this..I really remember the huge Christmas tree they would make with lights that you could see forever. I ate at Cliftons many times.I was always intrigued by the bright green and red jello served in the tall glass goblets with gobs of whipped cream on top. There was also “Grants” store there and they had the greatest hotdogs served in a square bun. Yum I can still see that machine that they turned around in.. Thanks for sharing the memories of these pictures. Smiles, Cherryl
March 30th, 2007 at 1:29 am
I’m loving your website. By the time I moved to West Covina, Eastland was a ghost of what it must have been. Still, I was so thrilled when I saw it in an episode of “The Wonder Years.” I wish the developers had freshened up the place instead of essentially erasing the old structure. They still do the Christmas tree with the sign, but it’s just not the same.
April 22nd, 2007 at 1:13 am
I sure enjoy reading about how eastland used to be. I can remember when my grandparents took me to may co and I sure do miss those days. It’s hard to remember what it looked like back then. I don’t remember cliftons being there, the only one I know about is over at the west covina mall, which is now closed. Thanks for the info. DAVE
May 22nd, 2007 at 3:42 pm
I don’t think I can count the times I had meals at Cliftons when I was a child. And we lived much further west on the 10. But it seems like Covina was where we had to eat. We’d visit with friends in the area, then if we had behaved, we might be treated to a movie at the Vineland Drive-In Theater on the way home.
June 6th, 2007 at 6:00 pm
Peter, those drive-ins were the greatest things. We would go as kids in our pajamas and play on the swings etc before the movie started, then race back to the car when the movie was to start.. I do remember the Vineland and the Mt. Baldy and the Azusa Drive-in..
Do you all remember the Piano player at Clifton’s. I think that was during the lunch meal maybe. Cher Rogers
June 21st, 2007 at 12:09 am
Cher…the Vineland is still a working drive in.
October 6th, 2007 at 9:44 pm
How about Bob’s Big Boy? That was always my favorite because I loved the paintings of the orange trees along Hollenbeck they had hung there. The old Christmas tree was way better too because the star was much larger and brighter. I’ll never forget when they bulldozed May Co. There were cars of people watching sadly. Whenever i hear muzac I remember shopping there as a kid. sigh….i wish i had a time machine I’d visit Eastland.
October 19th, 2007 at 10:05 am
I lived in West Covina till 1972 (I was 11) and I remember the Eastland well. I remember The Broadway, actually.I went back there in the early 2000s and it was SO different, I really did not recognize it. Kinda like Harbor Center here in Orange County/Costa Mesa, but I guess that is another story
January 7th, 2008 at 10:25 pm
I’m new to this site and loving it!! Down the street from Eastland was Coffee Dan’s Restaurant. My first job was a busboy there in 1969 where Sebastian Cabot was a regular customer and once in a while Lucille Ball. Any pix? Also the Carousel Theater?
Thanx,
**Michael**
April 17th, 2008 at 4:37 pm
When we see that pic I think we all think of simplier times.
Dave
August 1st, 2008 at 7:51 pm
I lived in Riverside, but eventually went to Cal Poly Pomona, just over the hill from the Eastland Shopping Center. I saw Johnny Mathis at the Carousel Theatre there in the center…you know, that place held about 1500 people or something…and you could buy tickets for $12 and sit 10 feet away from the stars as the stage rotated! I also saw the Birds in conert there, and others… I have been back to the area a few times, and it is sad how much change has taken place. I could hardly even find the location of the Carousel Theatre with all the changes. Sad. Time goes by…
August 9th, 2008 at 4:52 pm
I work for a bank in Covina sometime ago in the early part of 1971, and met who I believed to be the daughter of one the owners of Eastland Shopping Center then. Is there someone who might know the names of the owners at that time? Please post or e mail me any information which may be of some help in trying to find this lady. Thank you in advance for your time. Henry Velasquez
August 9th, 2008 at 5:06 pm
I also remember the Eastland Shopping Center, but for another reason. I met who I believed to be the daughter of the owners of Eastland Shopping Center in 1971. And would like to find her. Her name is Charlene, if you can help, please e mail me information at velasq5252@aol.com, Thank you in advance to anyone who may be able to help me.
September 13th, 2008 at 2:26 am
We lived on Sandia St or Ave near Orangewood elementary school. We always ate at Cliftons after church on Sundays, or Bob’s Big Boy. I remember their Cherrie Orange drinks, Patty Melts, Hamburgers, Malts, Sundaes..yum. I live in New Zealand now, so it’s fun to reminisce. Also, how can you ever forget the Helms Bakery trucks. They were heaven on wheels. I guess we remember because it was a treat to get to go to Cliftons, or Bob’s Big Boy or have Helms Bakery. Does anyone remember the Red School House (I went to that Preschool). Also in the neighborhood we had an old guy with a horse and wagon who used to give rides to the kids for a fee and of course we would all remember the Pony Pictures. The guy who would come around to your house and you could dress up as a cowboy/cowgirl and he would take your photo.
Thanks for the website and memories.