- Item
- 1957-03-08
Part of Richards Studio Photographs
On March 8, 1957, as the vast empty rain-swept parking lot indicated, stores at the newly constructed Villa Plaza in Lakewood were not yet open for business. The location of the new shopping center was formerly the 200-acre Visitation Villa, a Catholic boarding and day school for girls and a summer retreat for women operated by the Sisters of Visitation. The school closed in 1954 and the property sold to developers. The buildings were demolished, oak groves pulled down, the creek filled in and stores constructed. The Villa Plaza later changed its name to the Lakewood Mall. Photograph ordered by the Pacific First Federal Savings & Loan.
Villa Plaza Shopping Center (Lakewood); Shopping centers--Lakewood--1950-1960;