Our Great Mall History Exhibit Must Move by April 19, 2019

The Milpitas Historical Society faces a new challenge after being notified that it must remove all of its historical items from the Entrance 4 display area at the Great Mall by April 19. The Society’s Board is currently working with the city, which has offered a safe temporary place to store our historic items, and is locating new areas where some of our history can be put on display, such as in the locked glass cases in City Hall and the Community Center.

The Great Mall occupies the structure built as a Ford assembly plant in 1955, replacing the older, smaller Richmond Assembly facility. This plant produced Mustangs, Torinos, Fairlanes, Escorts, Pintos, Edsel Rangers, Pacers, Mercury Cougars, Montegos, Comets, Bobcats, Lynxes, Capris, and F-Series trucks, and because of the large influx of workers employed in the plant, it greatly increased the population of Milpitas. The plant closed in 1983, citing competition from Japanese imports.

When the site reopened as a shopping mall in 1994, each entrance had a different transportation theme, including air, automotive, railroad, and maritime travel. The

automotive display often featured Ford brand vehicles built at the site, such as the Ford Skyliner still on display in its current showcase. Somewhat later, Leaping Lena was displayed on one of these turntables, but eventually it was moved into storage at Manuel Franco’s ranch before it was put on display in the library parking garage when the new library opened in 2009.

In 2008, the Mall management allowed us to put Milpitas Historical Society artifacts in the same space with Ford exhibit. The current management now wants to remove everything from this exhibit space (of the last 25 years) and convert it all into rental space.

The Milpitas Historical Society has removed all of the historical items it had displayed and stored at the Great Mall exhibit space; what remains are Ford Assembly Plant memorabilia and the green-and-white 1957 Ford Fairlane 500 Skyliner (shown in last month’s newsletter) barely visible at the end of the photo in the next column. This automobile belongs to Simon Property Group, the Great Mall’s management.

The Milpitas City government is very kindly letting the Historical Society store our historic objects in safe places as the Society makes plans for locating new areas where some of our history can be put on display, such as in the locked glass cases in City Hall and the Community Center.