Looking for pictures of the Valley Fair mall Appleton Wi

pocketchange

New member
Joined
Dec 27, 2008
Messages
57
Reaction score
0
Location
cross plains, Wisconsin
Looking for pictures of the Valley Fair mall Appleton Wi

I wanted to put this out there and see if anyone had a any pictures of the Valley Fair Mall in Appleton wi? I am looking to have a link on my web site that has information and pictures of the mall before it was torn down. I have found only a hand full but would love to get a few more showing the arcade and theatre in action.. Any help would be appreciated Thanks Bryan
 
:forehead smack:

I was going to snap some pics before/during the teardown, sadly I never got around to it. If you're in the area, hit up the Appleton library. They have on microfilm The Post Crescent dating back to the 1860's. In addition, they have a searchable keyword database which can point you in the right direction for dates and whatnot. They pretty much dedicated the whole paper to the mall the day that it opened in 1955. In the late 70's there was a decent amount of coverage on the rennovation/addition. If you want glossies, the P-C may be able to help. Otherwise the Outagamie County Historical Society may be a good source, as well. At some point I'd like to update the Wikipedia entry on this mall, but I just never think about it when I have time.
 
Thanks

The Post Cresent was going to be my next step.. I was hoping to get just a few pictures of things in action.. I moved to appleton area in the 80s early 90s and the mall always had empty stores. We moved there from california and remember smelling like a damp basment.. Anyway I was at that pocket change and movie theatre a lot through my teenage years. The day I picked up all the signs from pocketchange when they closed I was going to snap pictures but didnt. I was in a hurry that day and also remembering how sad it was to see the mall in the shape it was. I feel good that I was able to get what I got out of there before it closed... Anyway Now I am tring to put something together on my web site.. Thanks Bryan
 
That mall has a pretty interesting history. If you can make it to Appleton I suggest hitting the library to read some of those articles from opening day. When it opened, the grocery store anchor had the largest frozen food section north of Milwaukee. Nowadays most frozen food sections are about the size of that whole store.

Also: You have the signs from the arcade? Do you work for Pocket Change?
 
When I was going through high school I had a friend that worked there..I believe he worked for the prior owner. They sold the arcade to one of the ladys that was running the arcade when it closed. The last year of operation I had stopped in and aquired about the medieval madness pinball machine since it was out of order for a while. Well long story short I ended up buying that pin and the revenge from mars that was there. Barb had said that the mall was going to be torn down and they where not going to reopen. At that time I told her that I would be interested in the signs and the big wooden coins in the windows. She ended up calling me back and selling me all the signs and the wooden coins a long with there tokens and change machine.. I was the happiest person in the world at that time.. It was sad to see it closing since this was my old high school hang out.. I am not sure if you have been to my website but I tried doing the signs justice by building a gameroom. The coins are in three different spots in the gameroom and the pocketchange signs that where outside entrance to the mall are above the stairs going into the gameroom. I then built a website around the idea of Pocketchange arcade and gaming as a whole. Now I would like to dedicate a link showing the Valley Fair mall with pictures of its hay days. It would be great to get pictures of people playing Medieval Madness or revenge from mars. I know I like to look back and thought others would to. If anyone has a wright up already and pictures I would love to ad it to my website...Here is the link to my website if interested..I plained on taken some time off work to head back to appleton to the library as you suggested. I have family in the area so that would make it easy to do research..Thanks Bryan
link to my website
http://tinyurl.com/333g8p
 
Interesting to get that bit of history. I don't remember anything specific when I did my P-C research pertaining to the arcade, but there is a lot of interesting trivia. I wasn't as sad to see it go as arcades around here totally suck anymore. The one redeeming thing was the T-Mek machine. I used to love that game, way more than Cybersled.

I'll post your website to facebook, I'm sure some of my friends and family would be interested to find out where that signage went.

Nice setup, btw.
 
Back
Top Bottom