Shopping at Sears in Casa View
by Paula Bosse
Appliance central… (click for larger image)
by Paula Bosse
I’m not in the Casa View area very often, but I was driving through last week and noted that a lot of the elements of the shopping center looked as if they were original to the buildings — specifically the little metal doo-dads along the top of the canopies over the sidewalks. I came across the photo above tonight and was happy to see those little doo-dads back when they were relatively new. The shopping center is a little confusing to me, but I think this is what that building pictured above looks like these days. (Why, why, WHY did someone think this “remodel” of the buildings was a good idea! Slapping on a new facade and removing the decorative metal doo-dads was an unfortunate decision.)
The Sears store pictured above is actually the second Sears in Casa View. The first store opened in October, 1956 at 2211 Gus Thomasson (here’s what the location of the first store looks like now — metalwork still there but that cool brick exterior has been painted over). It was Dallas’ fifth Sears store and opened in the still-under-development Casa View neighborhood. It wasn’t a full department store — its merchandise was limited mostly to appliances and automotive products. It was also a place to pick up catalog orders. (Click photos and ads to see larger images.)
Apparently the store was so successful that in March, 1964, a brand new Sears opened up in a five-times-larger location (2310 Gus Thomasson) across the street — the photo at the top of this post was probably taken when it was in its first months.
Its interior — seen below in all its pristine, blinding whiteness — is fantastic. (Is that woman in the apron serving cookies she’s just baked?)
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The reason I was confused by the shopping area is that it was built in phases. The first part was built in 1953 and was originally known as Casa View Hills Shopping Center. (Click the ad below to see a larger image.)
But then the ownership changed hands in early 1955, and it was renamed Casa View *Village* and reopened in April under the new name.
In the meantime (I might have this chronology a bit out of whack), Casa View Center had been built in 1954, diagonally across the street. And then in 1955, construction began on an expanded Casa View Village. (This might have been its second expansion. Casa View was hopping in the mid-’50s!) And Sears had had stores in both Casa View Village and Casa View Center. It’s all kinda confusing.
The Casa View Shopping Center (I don’t know what its official name is these days, but I’m going with this) is looking a little ragged these days, but it still has a quirky charm, and I’m happy to see it still chugging along after 60 years.
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Sources & Notes
Photos by Squire Haskins from the Squire Haskins Photography, Inc. Collection, UTA Libraries Special Collections. More info on the top photo showing the exterior of the Sears building can be found here; more info on the interior photo is here. (Click on the thumbnails on the UTA pages to see very large images.)
The Casa View Wikipedia page is here.
D Magazine has a “Dallas Neighborhood Guide” to Casa View here.
Dallas Morning News articles:
- “Name Changed” (from Casa View Hills Shopping Center to Casa View Village) (DMN, March 13, 1955)
- “Avery Mays Announces New Shopping Center” (expanded Casa View Village, with aerial photo) (DMN, Nov. 10, 1955)
- “New Sears Opening in Casa View” (DMN, Oct. 11, 1956)
Other businesses once located in these shopping centers can be found in the post “Bryan Adams High School: Yearbook Ads from 1961 and 1962,” here.
Photos and clippings are larger when clicked.
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Copyright © 2017 Paula Bosse. All Rights Reserved.
Love walking back in time with you! I think if you go across the street from your map marker, and look at the bingo hall, that is more likely the former Sears location. It still has the garage doors that probably served the automotive department.
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Thanks so much, Randy! I’ve corrected the Google Street View location.
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Paula, I have one minor correction. Your Google Maps link is on the wrong side of Gus Thomasson. Sears was located in what is now a bingo hall in the southeast corner of Casa View Drive and Gus Thomasson. Here’s a link:
https://goo.gl/maps/UKkSjXu1sgG2
The interesting historical note about your link is that it points to what was once a Wyatt’s cafeteria (in the corner location) and to the right of Wyatt’s a Brad’s Jewelers.
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Thanks, Craig! I’ve made the correction — what they’ve done with *that* building is even more troubling! Yikes!
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We would love to have you join our Casa View Neighborhood group on Facebook, Paula.
https://www.facebook.com/groups/169609679766042/
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The “little metal doodads” certainly were on the side where Sears was at one time, but they disappeared during a hideous remodel in recent years. And even before that someone painted them WHITE! What?!?
https://goo.gl/maps/UBhCEgVhnoQ2
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Thank you so very very much for this blog! The graphic of the section our store is located! I hunted all over for something and never found anything!
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Thanks! I’ve gone back and edited the post to reflect that Sears had stores (at different times) at 2211 Gus Thomasson and then across the street at 2310 Gus Thomasson (this is seen in the photo at the top).
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Reblogged this on Honey Stop The Car! Estate Liquidation and commented:
This blog is about our little shopping center. It is so fun to learn a little of the history about our location!
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My mistake about the color of the “little metal doodads”. It appears in old photos that white was the original color and green came later, probably much later. In fact, it appears that green is the anomaly and white is the dominate color throughout the rest of the shopping center.
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My mom worked at the Casa View Sears store in the late 60’s. Up until the 1990’s that shopping center had kept much of it’s old charm. The Moses store was still there (it always had that dime store smell), and Miss Inez was still jamming at Pat Luby’s cafeteria on Sundays.
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[…] 8. SHOPPING AT SEARS IN CASA VIEW […]
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Wow, this made me a little misty…the Casa View I knew in the 80s was still largely unchanged from what it was in the 50s. The Sears, Wyatt’s Cafeteria, ME Moses…one question I have though was about the real estate ad that mentions a middle school. Is that referring to Gaston, Long, or possibly even Kiest, which I’m told went through to 7th grade at one point. When I went there it only went to 3rd, and I was bused to to Lakewood.
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Correction above…I said “Long” when what I meant was “Hill”. When you live in the basically the same 10 square mile radius your entire life, it all starts to blend together.
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After Sears was in this building it became Good Year Tire and Automotive. I remember buying new tires there in 1982 or 83
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[…] confusing history of the shopping center in Casa View at Gus Thomasson and Ferguson in the post “Shopping at Sears in Casa View” — so this is something of a companion, showing architectural drawings (mostly parking spaces, […]
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Loved the Sound Warehouse in Casa View plus the A&P grocery store….Dallas Public library in the next block
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