Labelscar, a blog devoted to retail history, has a post about Great Falls’ very own Holiday Village Mall:
The oldest mall in Montana, Holiday Village Mall opened in 1959, anchored by Albertson’s grocery store, Skaggs Drugs, and Montgomery Ward. In the 1960s, Havre-based Buttrey’s Drug and Buttrey’s Suburban department store were added to the mall. In 1979, Minnesota-based Herberger’s department store opened on the east side of the mall in a minor expansion. Also, at some point the Buttrey’s Suburban department store became JCPenney.
The mall has been through a few changes since I arrived here in 2002; when I got here, the area that is now Scheel’s was empty, but the north entrance included an eatery called (IIRC) Pepper’s…and Neon Pretzel was right across from Little Athens.
It has gone through a lot of changes in the 22 years I have been here. I remember Montgomery Wards…and the Kings Table Buffet just to name a few since gone establishments.
Aladdin’s Castle Arcade??!! (I’m pretty sure that was the name… I wasn’t very old) Also the pet store that used to be on the upper level…. And A&W downstairs! I definitely miss those.
Great memories were had at Holiday Village. I remember the pet store next to Aladdin’s Castle was called Noah’s Ark (pretty sure at least) And the theater that was right across from both. It’d be cool to see some old pics of Holiday Village throughout the years.
I remember I got my first Montana drivers license at the mall when I arrived in 1998 (there used to be an office of the Montana Dept. of Motor Vehicles there).