The Ivory Tower - I found the Mystery

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Do you remember the Country Boys Market with its wooden floors? Walter Smiths was the place to go for clothes on the Fulton Mall. Penny Candy had great blacklight posters and don't forget Whitie's Pet Store on Blackstone. What vintage retail do you remember growing up in Fresno?
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Fresburg Guy
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The Ivory Tower - I found the Mystery

Post by Fresburg Guy » Sat Aug 28, 2010 9:25 am

I lived near the Mayfair Shopping Center and watched it grow into a vibrant commercial hub and then backslide into disrepair. One of the strange aspects of the center was the weird white structure smack dab in the middle of the parking lot. I finally found some comments about the structure and thought I would share about the mystery because all by friend's didn't know about the history of the structure either. Here is what I found out along with a couple pictures during it's sadder days and one after they restored it.

Credited to internet sources unknown:

Billings and Fine built the Mayfair Shopping Center on the northeast corner of First and McKinley in 1951 as Fresno's first neighborhood shopping center. They built a two-story polygon-shaped building for their headquarters and watched the subdivision's progress from its twin balconies. In 1959, the building was moved to the middle of the shopping center, where it housed Norm's Drive-Inn and later the M-V Music store. But it's most commonly called the Ivory Tower, after a boutique that was there for many years.
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ivory-_tower3.jpg

cleozmom
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Re: The Ivory Tower - I found the Mystery

Post by cleozmom » Sun Nov 06, 2011 1:20 pm

How sad and rundown it is now :(

Big J
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Re: The Ivory Tower - I found the Mystery

Post by Big J » Mon Nov 07, 2011 10:35 am

Actually they just fixed it back up, its the office for a mini storage they opened there.

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