Arizona Contractor & Community Fall 2015 V4 I3 | Page 64
Top: Rodeo queen roping Bob Malcolm to
promote Malcolm's department store,
1961.
Right: Maryvale Shopping City sign, created
by Myres-Leiber Sign Company, 1961.
Sixty four
soccer field; the Maryvale Cinema became
a dollar-movie venue. The mall’s decline
continued until it was almost vacant by the
mid-1990s.
John F. Long sold the mall, no longer
attractive as retail space, to the Cartwright
School District at a discounted price. The
district converted parts of the mall into the
Mark T. Atkinson Middle School, which
opened in 2000, and the Bret R. Tarver
Elementary School, which opened in 2001.
The former Mervyn’s wing was demolished
to build a Wal-Mart Supercenter.
Today, the Maryvale Shopping Center
exists only in memories. ”Maryvale was a
wonderful place to live,” Heath reflects.
“John F. Long created this community and
I will always be grateful for his vision and
passion.”
Images courtesy of Arizona Contractor & Community
at Thomas Road and 75th Avenue, was a
major blow to Maryvale Mall. John F. Long
fought against the new mall’s rezoning
request at Phoenix Planning Commission
hearings in 1978, instead arguing for
expansion of his Maryvale Mall. Long gave
his supporters’ free sandwiches and a bus
ride to the hearings, but it wasn’t enough
to deny Westcor’s rezoning request.
The combination of the new
Westridge Mall, changing demographics,
and Maryvale’s escalating crime rates
increased the mall’s vacancy rate. Once
anchored by upscale department stores,
Maryvale Mall featured a Target discount
store, the Maryvale Pride Pavilion indoor
Fall 2015