Harris said her mother used to go dancing at Wonderland’s Teen Canteen back in the day. Jenifer Harris used to dance her junior and high school nights away at Image, a dance club on Wonderland’s lower level. Wonderland underwent a $6.6 million overhaul of its interior and exterior.Ībout that time, Wonderland brought back the teen club experience for a new generation. The mall changed hands in 1977, when original owner Charles Becker sold to affiliates of the Lehndorff Group of West Germany. Rhodes left in the late ’70s, making way for Frost Bros.Ī fashion show in the late 1970s at what’s now Wonderland of the Americas mall. On : Nogalitos H-E-B opened in 1945 as 'store of tomorrow.' 76 years later, the South Side grocery store still ahead of its time 1970s to early ’80s: Welcome, Frost Bros.īig changes were afoot at Wonderland in the 1970s, and not just with bell bottoms and butterfly collars on the runways of the mall’s fashion shows. In 1964, Wonderland added a posh Rhodes department store in the space now occupied by Burlington. In 1963, the mall welcomed the Teen Canteen, a hangout for teenagers that took over a lower-level dance studio on weekends. Wonderland excelled in both diversions and department store offerings. Other quirky animal promotions during the mall’s first decade included poodle fashion shows and performances by Skipper the dolphin in a giant tank on Wonderland’s fifth anniversary. Now Wonderland’s chief of engineering, Castillo has been a full-time part of the mall’s maintenance since 1982.Ĭastillo recalled going to a mobile petting zoo inside the mall when he was a kid. As a child, he used to help his father with his maintenance duties, sometimes sitting on his dad’s floor waxer like a cat on a Roomba to help buff out those stubborn spots. John Castillo remembers those stores well. The space is now a Hobby Lobby at Wonderland of the Americas mall. It later became an anchor store for Wonderland Shopping City when the mall opened in 1961. The original Handy Andy in Balcones Heights as seen in 1959 as a free-standing store. Part of the mall’s commitment to its Wonderland theme was Alice of Wonderland, a guide in a pinafore dress who directed visitors from a central kiosk to more than three dozen stores, including retailers such as Sommers Drugs, Winn’s, Satel’s suit store and F.W. (Handy Andy had opened in 1959 and was incorporated into the new mall.) At the other, a Handy Andy supermarket provided covered and curbside grocery loading. San Antonio’s first Montgomery Ward department store anchored one end. It even boasted the world’s longest ribbon for an opening ceremony: more than 3,000 feet, tied around the entire two-story mall. She remembers “standing in the parking lot with fireworks and big search lights.”Īt 650,000 square feet, Wonderland opened as the largest shopping center in San Antonio. Retiree Cheryl Osborn was 8 when her family made the trek from their South Side home to the mall’s opening day.
San Antonians of a certain age still remember when Wonderland first lit up a relatively barren Northwest Side around Fredericksburg Road and Loop 410.Īn undated postcard depicts Wonderland Shopping City as it looked just after opening in 1961 at Fredericksburg Road and Loop 410. On : San Antonio Zoo's plastic giraffes, gorillas from Mold-A-Rama machines still going after 60 years The 1960s: The middle of nowhere “It’s evolved so much, but it’s still home.” “Wonderland, just listening and talking to a lot of people - it’s home away from home,” said Wonderland marketing director Victoria Hernandez. Yet no matter how much the mall has changed, the mere mention of Wonderland takes Mathis and many other San Antonians back in time. Today, the Balcones Heights fixture is more of a bargain-based community center, a quiet cross section of value shopping, offbeat events and eclectic medical services that include birth doulas, pediatric dentistry and COVID-19 vaccinations. It was once the largest indoor mall in the city. 14, 1961 - 60 years ago today - Wonderland Shopping City opened to fireworks and fanfare on what were then the outskirts of San Antonio. “I think it’s just as good as it ever was.” “It’s just been a part of my life forever and ever,” said Mathis, who visits Wonderland these days for his biannual checkup at one of its three Veterans Affairs clinics or for the occasional food court calzone.
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