I am away from home thus won't have access to my photo collection for another 5 days. This post will be of interest to those who are or have been residents of the Beaverton / Hillsboro area.
Who remembers the old Tanasbourne Mall folks?? That dreadful dark dungeon-y bunker-style mall was the only "major" shopping area for miles around back in the day. Gloomy and creepy, we patronized it out of necessity. Our tiny local library was in the underground area. Sunshine Pizza we went to when our kids had a post-season sports party. I recall the over-priced children's clothing store, and the Chang's that we never ate at until it moved to Cornell Road.
The link below displays some grainy black and white photos of Tanasbourne Mall. Why the developer thought it was a good idea to create a shopping area that mimicked an air-raid bunker on the partially-buried lower floor, and had the feel of a haunted abandoned building on the upper, no one will never understand.
Link to the long-defunct Tanasbourne Mall
Tanasbourne Mall's demolition spawned two tragic building mistakes. It was replaced by the strip mall from H-E-double toothpicks on the same site--an extended row of ugly big-box stores that make even a walker like me drive from one end to the other. A friendly neighborhood gathering place it is not. Then across the street another strip-mall center popped up. That place is a parking nightmare and dangerous for a pedestrian to negotiate. Worst of all, it is inaccessible from the backside. There are no store entrances or parking over there. A huge "Berlin Wall" blocks it off from the thousands of apartments directly behind the wall, so that even those who live only a quick stroll away feel the need to get into their car, drive out of their complex, go around the side of the mall and then into the mall parking area. Sheesh, what was Washington County thinking when they approved that??
Who remembers the old Tanasbourne Mall folks?? That dreadful dark dungeon-y bunker-style mall was the only "major" shopping area for miles around back in the day. Gloomy and creepy, we patronized it out of necessity. Our tiny local library was in the underground area. Sunshine Pizza we went to when our kids had a post-season sports party. I recall the over-priced children's clothing store, and the Chang's that we never ate at until it moved to Cornell Road.
The link below displays some grainy black and white photos of Tanasbourne Mall. Why the developer thought it was a good idea to create a shopping area that mimicked an air-raid bunker on the partially-buried lower floor, and had the feel of a haunted abandoned building on the upper, no one will never understand.
Link to the long-defunct Tanasbourne Mall
Tanasbourne Mall's demolition spawned two tragic building mistakes. It was replaced by the strip mall from H-E-double toothpicks on the same site--an extended row of ugly big-box stores that make even a walker like me drive from one end to the other. A friendly neighborhood gathering place it is not. Then across the street another strip-mall center popped up. That place is a parking nightmare and dangerous for a pedestrian to negotiate. Worst of all, it is inaccessible from the backside. There are no store entrances or parking over there. A huge "Berlin Wall" blocks it off from the thousands of apartments directly behind the wall, so that even those who live only a quick stroll away feel the need to get into their car, drive out of their complex, go around the side of the mall and then into the mall parking area. Sheesh, what was Washington County thinking when they approved that??
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