The History of the Santa Ana MainPlace Mall?

MainPlace Mall (formerly known as Westfield MainPlace) is a shopping mall at the north edge of Santa Ana, California, adjacent to the City of Orange and the Orange Crush interchange of the Santa Ana, Garden Grove and Orange freeways. The anchor stores are JCPenney, 24 Hour Fitness, Ashley HomeStore, Round 1 Entertainment, DXL Mens Apparel, and Macy's. There is 1 vacant anchor store that was once Nordstrom.
Thank you to OVZ ​ @ovz215 • MAIN STREET AERIAL - O...

[@xoxide1017]

MainPlace to me was one of the nicest mall designs with a curved interior making it look very LONG OPEN and Large. Its a very clean and Comfortable interior. It has a very nice NYC / West Coast feel to itself.

[@echang1976]

I totally agree!

[@slidezone9056]

Very near by was a bowling alley called Fashion Lanes. A buddy and I used to shoot billiards there. And also near by was Rene's Pizza. I believe the guy (Rene) who owned and ran it was a WWII vet. GREAT pizza.

[@djillcamino]

I went to this mall yesterday after a long time and it was just sad. I remember when it opened and went there a lot over the years. The Barnes & Noble in the front was the best, I’d spend hours reading magazines as a kid before the internet. Next to B&N was a music store I forget the name of but there were also 2 Wherehouse music stores for some reason. There was an educational toy store called Imaginarium that had a smaller entrance for kids. My favorite clothing store in high school was Oaktree, years later I shopped at Demo. My ex and I used to always have lunch at the Nordstrom Cafe on the 3rd level, it was like a secret people didn’t really know about. I can’t believe Hot Dog on a Stick is even closed now. So many memories.

[@lrdjimmy9]

you just flashed me back to the best version of MainPlace that I always enjoyed as a kid! That Barnes and Noble in the front with the FYE music store near the entrance was the EPITOME of 90a-2000s mall scene!

[@djillcamino]

Next to the Sbarro in the food court there used to be a gourmet popcorn shop that you could walk through as a shortcut to the main part of the mall. There was also a Sharper Image store with all kinds of futuristic crap that everyone could demo but no one ever bought. There was a news stand by the movie theatres and an Orange Julius, which I’ve never seen anywhere else in OC. I probably sound 1000 years old sharing all this, so I’ll stop right there lol.

[@jeffbatdorf]

When I first moved to SoCal in 2003, I visited this mall and wasn't impressed. I lived closer to the Brea mall which I really liked. Over the years, this mall became one of my favorites. The food court here is usually on of the better ones that rotates a lot of restaurants. We call the corner of the food court near the bathrooms the "corner of death" as nothing has been able to survive there for very long. One store I really miss that you didn't mention was Crate and Barrel. I also miss the Olive Garden that was there, although I'm glad they added Applebee's and Lucille's BBQ. Boudin Bakery is still one of my favorite lunch time restaurants.

[@echang1976]

Awesome, thanks for sharing your memories about this mall. Before I visited this mall last year, the last time I had gone to this mall was in the fall of 2004. So it has been a while for me.

[@timferguson2232]

The original, outdoor-garden luxury mall would have aged well--in an affluent area.

[@iforgotmyname5610]

One thing I don’t understand is why it’s so hard to find pictures of Round 1/Ashley back when it was a Macys store

[@amberbante8605]

I remember before this became an indoor mall my mom bought a pair of shoes from some store. She had to have the buckles fixed to stretch over her swollen right foot.

[@Spikenector]

Kindergarten Cop was filmed here!

[@Richestman_yt]

This is look old 🗿🗿🗿🗿

[@lindaibarra384]

HAPPY 4TH OF JULY 🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉

[@echang1976]

Hope you have a Happy 4th too!

[@lindaibarra384]

ITS MONDAY ERIC