And now it’s time for Beaver County memories presented by St. Barnabas Beaver Meadows.  As we get close to Christmas day, and with precious few shopping days left, we thought it might be appropriate to take a look at Christmas shopping memories in our area and specifically, The Northern Lights Shopping Center in Baden.

1957 was a year that shopping at Christmas Time, and really, any occasion, changed dramatically in Beaver County as The Northern Lights shopping Center opened as the first big multiple store plaza in Beaver County.  With sixty five departments located in dozens of stores  and parking for around four  thousand cars, Northern Lights Shopping Center was a revolutionary new way to shop that had never before been available.  Many local people remember visiting the beautiful three story J.C. Penney’s store that served as one of the large three anchor stores for many years, along with Sears, W.T. Grant Company, Kroger’s and Hills Department store. Later on Ames and Big Lots would take up residency in the big featured spaces and now currently, Giant Eagle holds down one of the large parcels in the center.  When it opened, with all the extra walking from store to store in the huge complex, one didn’t have to worry about their shoes wearing out as there were several shoe stores to buy a new pair from back in the early days of Northern Lights Shopping Center, including Thom McAnn, Jackson’s, Allen’s, Kinney’s and others.  Dining and Entertainment was also a reason to visit Northern Lights with great places like the Northern Lounge, The V.I.P., Hub Caps, Callahan’s Sports Bar, Pappan’s Family Restaurant, and  K & N Restaurant, among others through the years, along with Napoli pizza, which is still open. Smaller retailers like Sun Drug, Murphy’s Meats and Standard Sportswear and a multitude of other great merchants could be found there at different times  like Dream Waterbeds, Altmeyers, A Pennsylvania Wine and Spirits Store, Peoples Home Savings Bank and  Freedom National Bank plus a big list of possibly hundreds of establishments that opened their doors in the center that  helped provide the biggest and best shopping experience anywhere in western pennsylvania at the time.  

Here is to hoping that this year’s Christmas brings you many great memories again, and to that you get all your shopping done in time!

This has been beaver county memories presented by  St. Barnabas Beaver Meadows.  Tune in Every day at this time for another Beaver County memory, or for a transcript of this and other Beaver County Memories, click the link at Beaver County Radio dot com.