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All the United States California Milpitas Great Mall of Milpitas

Great Mall of Milpitas

This giant shopping mall still holds signs of its automotive past.

Milpitas, California

Added By
Martin Schmidt
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The mall’s generic appearance today gives little hint of its history.   Martin / Atlas Obscura User
The mall’s generic appearance today gives little hint of its history.   Martin / Atlas Obscura User
The state-of-the-art-in-1945 Maytag washing machine.   Martin / Atlas Obscura User
One of the vehicles used by security staff at the Ford plant.   Martin / Atlas Obscura User
Ford dashboards and other assemblies used to travel through the building on conveyors.   Martin / Atlas Obscura User
A Ford Fairlane Skyliner with the nifty retractable hardtop.   Martin / Atlas Obscura User
Produce boxes from Milpitas’ agricultural days.   Martin / Atlas Obscura User
Milpitas once had its own Monopoly-style board game.   Martin / Atlas Obscura User
  Extreme Road Trip / Atlas Obscura User
  Extreme Road Trip / Atlas Obscura User
How a Milpitas farmer’s wife would make butter.   Martin / Atlas Obscura User
  Extreme Road Trip / Atlas Obscura User
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About

Today, it's the second-largest shopping mall in northern California, but it once was the birthplace of many of California's automobiles. 

In 1952 the Ford Motor Company had outgrown its assembly plant in the city of Richmond, northeast of San Francisco, and was looking for a site on which to build a larger plant. The rural community of Milpitas (Spanish for "little cornfields") near San Jose was an unincorporated town surrounded by farmland. Ford purchased about 120 acres just south of the town and set about building their new assembly plant.

It is doubtful if any of the locals foresaw the magnitude of the transformation that this would bring. The population of sleepy little Milpitas was just 800 at the time, but the die was cast and the hayfields and orchards began succumbing to their inexorable conversion into businesses and tract homes.  Twenty years later the Ford plant alone employed 6,000 people and it turned out 55 cars and 22 trucks every hour of the workday, or just over one vehicle per minute.

However, nothing lasts forever, and by the early 1980s Ford was feeling the pinch of competition from imported automobiles, particularly Japanese cars. In 1982 the decision was made to close the Milpitas plant, by this time Ford's last remaining assembly plant on the West Coast, and the last car rolled out of its doors in 1983.

With their fortunes now reversed, for the next ten years the gargantuan building languished while the metropolis it had created bustled around it. Then, in 1993, a joint venture between Ford Motor Land Development Corporation and Petrie Dierman Kughn resulted in the building's conversion to a shopping mall. The Great Mall opened on September 22, 1994.

Just inside Entrance 4 of the mall, next to the food court, is a substantial historical display created by the Milpitas Historical Society. The first half of the display contains old farm equipment, household appliances and photographs which illustrate life in the area before the Ford plant was built. The second half is dedicated to the plant itself with various artifacts including signage, automobile subassemblies, a tricycle vehicle used by plant security, and the crown jewel of the display, a Ford Fairlane Skyliner.

Related Tags

Automotive History Malls Museums

Know Before You Go

A little glass box near entrance 6 is all that is left. The one that had been listed at door 4 has been replaced with an upcoming Legoland. When trying to find the exhibit none of the people we asked in stores knew anything about it making it truly obscure.

Community Contributors

Added By

Martin

Edited By

Mimimememimi, Extreme Road Trip

  • Mimimememimi
  • Extreme Road Trip

Published

November 5, 2012

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Sources
  • http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Mall_of_the_Bay_Area
  • http://www.milpitashistory.org/home/
  • http://www.ci.milpitas.ca.gov/visit_milpitas/history.asp
  • http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Milpitas,_California
  • http://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=2245&dat=19821119&id=XJszAAAAIBAJ&sjid=rTIHAAAAIBAJ&pg=3627,2064532
Great Mall of Milpitas
447 Great Mall Dr
Milpitas, California, 95035
United States
37.41559, -121.899423
Get Directions

Nearby Places

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Explore the Destination Guide

Photo of California

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