Then and now: Bijou Center changes through the years
Anchor stores in the Bijou Center in South Lake Tahoe have changed through the years.
TRPA was not around in 1965 to regulate the color scheme.
Why the yellow painted ovals on the roadway in 1965?
— Bill Kingman
Bijou Center 2012
Bijou Center 1965
This web site has hundreds of old Tahoe
Postcards that I have collected over the
years including even older pictures of the Bijou Center.
Nays Bijou Market is where I used to buy my monster magazines right around the time this 65′ photo was taken, or maybe a few years prior..Thank you Bill! Also thank you Jeff Lincoln. By clicking on your site I saw a lotta cool pictures from way back when!
Keep em comin’, Old Long Skiis
I remember when Bijou Center was called the Bal Bijou. Ktho radio station started there and there were the big bands that played there every summer, it was the place to go in the late 40s and 50s. That is when Tahoe was a great place to live, not like today.
Thanks, Jeff, for those wonderful photos. What a wonderful collection.
1965 was the year I moved here and opened up my first bank account at the Wells Fargo pictured. The yellow ovels on the road were turn lane markings. I think the market there and in Al Tahoe next to Rojo’s were both called “Inks Market”. Hwy 50 had stop and turn light poles on cement islands in the center of Hwy 50. They were removed that first year I was here.
Bill, Thanks for saving your photos and sharing.
Jeff, I am not seeing the link to your post cards. Please share again.
click on Jeff’s name in blue and it will go to his webpage.
Les is correct as to Ink’s Markets (of Sacramento) – ‘Bijou Center’ naming came out of the old Bal Bijou right behind it – Neal Olson’s family still owns the property. . .”Bijou” means ‘jewel’ in French, so was probably the indirect way to the “Jewel of the Sierra” do often seen. . . To the right in this picture would be Heidi’s – built and opened the year before by Hal Pitt, the airline pilot with 4 daughters, the youngest of which was ‘Heidi’ (@ 7 or 8) – the name stuck.
Opposite & behind this vantage point was the second of the 2nd of the midtown Safeways (the first was the Fremont Mall and the second was ‘on the slope’ to the west side of the current parking lot (below the gas station), which was torn down when the current “superstore” was built. . .
For some reason the name Fred(?) Nays came to my my mind when I saw that old photo . I could be wrong but that’s as I remember it. Later it became Inks Bijou Market. Towards the back of the store there was a mural painted on the wall above the cold box of a guy water skiing. Not very well done but do remember that for sure. Neal Olson and family were good folks .Christine Olson was a real good skier and racer.
These old photos are great! Anyone remember the old Coronet five and dime store? It was located were the DMV is now. How about Sprouse Reitz where TJ Maxx is going in. How about Lampsons market where the factory stores are now?
Lottsa memories. Take Care , Old Long Skiis
Yes, Hal opened Heidi’s in 64…I am pretty sure it was on the July 4th weekend. A pancake+ plate was about a dollar. I think the only reason Hal opened Heidi’s is that Neal Olson had taken down Christy’s for Wells Fargo to have a building to go into….in the Bijou Center.
1-minute home movie of Stateline, 1961:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cS1p300MTGA
Thanks Bill :)
So there were 3 Inks markets on south shore. Lampsons at the Y, and Globin’s Al Tahoe and Jay’s Bijou Markets. Is that correct?
Old Long Skis is correct — it was initially Nay’s Bijou Market. If you look closely, you can see Nay’s at the top of the old sign. And yes, I remember the Coronet 5 and Dime and the Sprouse Rietz that was across from the Bijou Post Office. The current Art Building near the Chamber of Commerce used to be the Al Tahoe Post office where Denny’s now stands. I also remember when the Fremont Mall was a Safeway – if you really look at the building you can see the hallmark Safeway design from the 50’s and 60’s. Still remember when the now TJ Maxx was Safeway – those were the days! LOVE to see these old photos!