Bradlee's, New London, CT
BRADLEE'S
NEW LONDON, CONN
CLOSED FEBRUARY 1998
Being a resident of southeastern Connecticut, it’s almost
a cardinal sin not to address the legacy that was Bradlee’s department stores.
The New London-based department store chain earned its name from Windsor Locks,
Connecticut’s Bradley International Airport, where planning meetings for the new
company were often held. Bradlee’s opened their doors in 1958 at 258 South
Frontage Road in New London, CT, and soon started spreading to other areas in
the northeast United States.
In this article, I’m going to focus just on their first, New London locations (that’s right there were two!) at 258 South Frontage Road and 351 North Frontage Road.
The first of the two locations to open was the South
Frontage Road location in 1958. This served as Bradlee’s first store EVER! The
building today still stands as a Burlington Coat Factory.
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The store was built on two levels, with the tiny bottom
floor being for toys and sporting goods and the top being for everything else
the store had to offer. Guests would enter the store on the second level.
This location also featured an outdoors Lawn &
Garden center, which since has been built over to make way for some smaller tenants.
In recent years, the stores were filled with a billiards store, cash checking service
(now closed), a [really good] patisserie named ‘The Cake Lady’, RadioShack (now
closed and replaced with Express+Kitchens), MetroPCS, a nail salon, and a
Progressive insurance agency.
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| This section of the store used to be the outdoor lawn and garden center © Google |
Every Christmas Eve while Bradlee’s was at this
location, Santa would fly in via helicopter and land in the garden center to greet
kids for Christmas. Obviously, that no longer happens.
This original Bradlee’s location operated until 1982
until it moved across the highway to the New London Mall (not to be confused
with the New London Shopping Center, where Burlington currently is today).
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| The Bradlee's sign that once stood outside of the N. Frontage Road location © Caldor Rainbow |
The new New London location took over what used
to be a Two Guy’s department store. These discount stores were very common in
the CT/RI/MA region back in the day, but Bradlee’s started acquiring some of these
properties to open up their stores.
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| The New London Two Guys location that became Bradlee's © Unknown |
When Bradlee’s moved to the New London Mall, they
served as one of the two anchors for the then-indoor shopping center, with the
other being Marshall’s. I can’t be certain as to what stores were INSIDE of the
mall, but what I do know is that the mall was quite small. Outside of the mall,
there was also a Red Lobster (now Chili’s), Chuck E Cheese (now vacant) and
Springhill Suites by Marriott.
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A rare (and blurry) picture of the
Red Lobster that is now Chili’s. It looks like this image was taken after Red
Lobster had closed and was in the process of renovating into Chili’s. Take a note
of the scaffolding over the front façade. ©New London Property Records
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| The new Chili’s for comparison. Notice how the back of the building was extended a bit. There was a patio in back from the Red Lobster days that was absorbed into the restaurant © Google |
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| The Chuck E Cheese and Springhill Suites that were also in the New London Mall © Google |
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| An April 1991 Satellite image of the New London Mall. At this point, Bradlee’s was still open for business. Bradlee’s was the large space on the top of the mall, and Marshall’s was the area towards the bottom with the black roof. © U.S. Geological Survey |
Bradlee’s in New London closed its doors in February 1998
as part of the last wave of store closings before the company liquidated its
final stores. As the New London Mall stands today, it has no resemblance of the
indoor mall that once stood in the days of Two Guy’s and Bradlees. In 1999, the
city of New London demolished the structure to make way for a new New London
Mall anchored by ShopRite and Marshall’s.
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The New London Mall as it stands
today brand© NASA/Google
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That about sums it up for this reflection on the New London Bradlee's. Stay tuned for another post about the Bradlee's in Groton, CT (and there's two of them... again)
Until next time,
New london mall in the late 1980’s & early 1990’s. Between the two big stores was Orange Julius, hickory farm, papa ginos, a shoe store, a card store, strawberries record store, a tobacco/lottery store was in the middle. There was a jeweler. Across from Marshall’s was CVS and toward the parking lot was a women’s clothes store (maybe deb).
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KG. .
I remember New London Mall. It was ok. Facing Bradlee's there was a bookstore on the left and that 5th Avenue Sports store on the left as well.
ReplyDeletedon't forget london luggage, Taj, D&L
ReplyDeleteThere Was Also A Hair Salon Place There. And A Ice Cream Spot Across The Salon. But I Dont Remember The Name. Does Anyone Remember?
ReplyDeleteThe "Marshalls wing" had a CVS, Fashion Blug, and the hair salon down on the end. Before then, this entire section was the Edward Malley Co. (later, Outlet). When the 3-story anchor closed, it was subdivided. In the mall's last years, it had the "Fifth Avenue Shops", Strawberries, Hickory Farms, D&L, Taj, Papa Ginos, etc. The Ice Cream stand in the middle of the mall was awesome!
ReplyDelete