The Moon Plaza

For those of you who don’t consider yourself “Down to Earth”, Fridley has a shopping center just for you!

Welcome to Moon Plaza, an out-of-this-world 1960’s style strip mall located off of University Avenue in Fridley, MN.  Surrounded by a bunch of crumbling, abandoned buildings, depressing Moon Plaza fits right in with the local atmosphere.

Built in 1965, the Moon Plaza looks like it’s never been updated. The sign itself looks like it’s still stuck in the decade of weed smoking, mud orgies, and free love.  Back in the ’60s, Moon Plaza was probably a pretty groovy place: Parking lot teeming with classic VW bugs and Buick Rivieras.  Go-go dancers in mod dresses getting Twiggy haircuts! Men in search of knock-off John Lennon-style eyeglasses! Worried moms stuffing two shopping carts full of supplies for the fallout shelter into the Chevelle! Mischievous teens dropping acid behind the dumpster!

Today, it’s just another University Avenue Eyesore. No longer giving off that “Hey Hey We’re the Monkees” vibe, Moon Plaza looks so melancholy and depressing that it probably cries itself to sleep every night, hoping, begging, and praying that someone, somewhere will tear it down and replace it with a Sonic and a Jimmy Johns.

The Moon Plaza ought to be sucked into a black hole

Its name — “Moon Plaza” — likely reflects a sign of its time. Constructed during the “Space Race”, America’s obsession with rockets, planets, and starship enterprises was at an all-time high. So what better than to name your new shopping center after a faraway object from the cosmos?

Or perhaps the builder was an exhibitionist and just wanted a place for other hot-doggers to feel welcome to publicly pull down their drawers and reveal their fleshy rear ends to the world (this was the ’60s…).

It was built in ‘65, so Man would not land on the moon until 4 years later. But Man could land at Moon Plaza.

*shrugs*

Seems like a viable alternative to me.  Moon Plaza, the next best thing to being Neil Armstrong?

As far as the businesses here, there isn’t much to write home about. Every business here is of the “move-along-nothing-to-see-here” type.  Don’t expect to find a store selling moonrocks or moonboots here.

There’s a dry cleaners, an employment office, a beauty salon, the “Cozy Cafe”,  a Farmer’s Insurance office, etc.  Ho-hum.

I *think* there’s a video rental store here, so you probably could rent Star Wars or Space Jam or something. “Space Jam, come and slam! Welcome to the jam!” Speaking of Space Jam, don’t you wish they made more movies based on shoe commercials?  Anyway…

Enjoy the rest of the photos!

On the particular day I went to take pictures, we were getting a doozy of a snowstorm.

All photos taken December 2008…I originally had more photos but some were lost when my hard drive crashed. Luckily these photos were still on my digital camera’s memory card. I know they’re not the best…

A deserted gas station located near Moon Plaza. Random abandoned buildings are commonplace along Univ. Ave

Waxing or waning, any ol' time a good time to visit the Moon Plaza.

Despite its name, Moon Plaza cannot defy gravity, thus the need for columns to hold up the roof.

Tags: 1960s, minnesota, moon, space, space jam, strip malls