The beat-up frying-pan-looking thing in the last picture is the back of an old-fashioned clock that hangs over the escalators for some reason. Somewhat surprisingly, it appears to have been showing the correct time! I feel like when I see analog clocks in public places like this, most of the time they aren't actually working.
Geez, what an ugly escalator complex! Most nicer department stores tried to make their escalators into a centerpiece of the store. That clearly isn't the case here!
ReplyDeleteThose hanging analog clocks remind me of some old schools and college buildings, but the schools and colleges I went to had analog clocks which were mounted on poles connected to the walls, not the ceilings. One place I can remember which had ceiling-mounted analog clocks very similar to what is here was Mervyn's. I don't know if you remember Mervyn's or if they even existed in the Northwest. Clearly, Mervyn's weren't designed to be similar to their corporate relatives, Target. Here's a photo from inside a Mervyn's showing a clock: https://flickr.com/photos/scottschrantz/2808376943/
Mervyn's went out of business right around the time retail photography was really taking off online so, for better or for worse, there aren't a ton of good photos from inside Mervyn's.
Yeah, I always find it sad when stores (or any type of building) hide away their escalators like this. You know how much I like the way they look!
DeleteI'm used to schools having clocks mounted directly on the wall, typically connected to the bell/intercom system. The UW has different systems in pretty much every building, but I don't remember any of the ones I had classes in having clocks on poles! They probably exist somewhere on campus, though.
I do remember Mervyn's and I've covered at least one former Mervyn's on the blog before (with another one coming up as part of the Southcenter series). I don't remember ever shopping in one of their stores, though -- maybe we went to their Silverdale location once or twice (it's now subdivided between Barnes & Noble and World Market), but I feel like we normally stuck to Macy's and Sears (plus JCPenney sometimes, but back then they had a location closer to home, so it wasn't a special thing for my mom the way the other two were).