Why Jackson Crossing Will Always Be Paka Plaza to Me
I don't call it Jackson Crossing.
I know that's the name of the mall at the crossroads of US 127 and I-94 in Jackson, Michigan. I can read the sign. Jackson Crossing is a perfectly respectable name. There's absolutely nothing wrong with it.
RELATED: 46 Stores That Are No Longer at Jackson, Michigan's Westwood Mall
But asking me to call it that is like asking me to suddenly start calling my mom by her first name. Technically correct. Emotionally impossible. To me, that stretch of North West Avenue will always be Paka Plaza.
Before Jackson Crossing, Jackson Had Paka Plaza
Paka Plaza held its grand opening in November 1961. Early tenants included names Jackson shoppers of a certain... vintage... will immediately recognize: Kroger, W.T. Grant, and Woolworths.
Then came Sears. Sears had been operating in downtown Jackson before announcing plans to ditch the downtown and Michigan Avenue for Paka Plaza. The new Sears opened there in 1966, five years after the plaza debuted.
That's the Paka Plaza I remember. The shopping center, the Sears sitting there alone, with no hallway connecting it to the mall. Despite what you see at the Jackson Crossing today, the Paka Plaza was originally an open-air shopping center. That became a slight disadvantage when Westwood Mall opened across town in 1972, offering Jackson shoppers the futuristic luxury of walking from store to store without experiencing actual weather.
Paka responded. In 1973, the plaza was enclosed, transforming those storefronts into the hallways generations of Jackson shoppers would come to recognize. And those hallways became more than just a place to shop.
RELATED: The Legacy Of Jackson, Michigan's Westwood Mall Cinema
They became an indoor racetrack for the Paka Pacers, the mall walkers who continue getting their steps in while the rest of us count walking from the couch to the refrigerator as cardio. Even years after the name changed, "Paka Pacers" remains part of the Jackson vocabulary.
When Paka Plaza Became Jackson Crossing
The official identity crisis arrived in 1990. Ramco-Gershenson Properties bought the shopping center from the original developer, Weatherwax Investments, expanded the property, and renamed it Paka Plaza Jackson Crossing. Target and Kohl's eventually became part of that redevelopment.
RELATED: Jackson Crossing Welcomes New Furry Tenants
Again, Jackson Crossing is a fine name. Clean. Professional. Marketable.
I simply refuse to participate. Because those of us who grew up walking those Jackson, Michigan hallways aren't remembering a corporate property name. We're remembering Christmas shopping, Sears catalogs, Woolworth's, wandering around while our parents shopped, and eventually becoming the parents and telling our own kids to quit touching everything.
Buildings get remodeled. Stores disappear. Signs come down. Memories don't care. So you can put Jackson Crossing on the sign. You can put it on Google Maps. You can put it on lease agreements.
RELATED: Gilbert's Steakhouse: See What It Looked Like Inside Before It Was Torn Down
But in my head, when somebody asks where I'm going? Paka Plaza.
Always has been. Always will be.
DEAD MALLS of Michigan: Jackson's Nearly Empty Westwood Mall
Gallery Credit: Scott Clow
DEAD MALLS of Michigan: Flint's Courtland Center (Eastland Mall)
Gallery Credit: Scott Clow
