They were the last years of Saint John's heyday. I loved that department store. So glad you documented this even though it's sad watching the demolition. I hate malls. I remember those buses and they had ashtrays in them. How times have changed.
MRA's was a great store. A throwback to the days when department stores had elevators with an operator who would announce each floor as the doors opened. I have a lot of good memories of MRA's, buying toys there as a child and later buying records when I got a bit older. On the day they tore MRA's down my buddy Lewis and I were running around inside the empty building literally while they were tearing it down. We saw a few other people in there as well, looking for anything of value that might be overlooked. It sounds crazy and dangerous and it probably was, but we were just kids in our teens and there was a much more lax attitude towards safety in those days. It would never happen in this day and age, but hey... It was the 1970's.
When I was a kid in the early 50’s I used to go to MRA’s to the toy department. I remember a big rocking horse they in the store. It was big to me as I was only 6 . I moved aware from Saint John when I was 9. Now it is 70 years later GEE !
My mom used to talk about MRAs all the time. I hadn't realized it was leveled I had (for some reason) thought it was carved up in smaller storefronts and had been further up the street.
Best store east of Montreal .. get (practically) anything you wanted ... lotta class ... tea shop for a break .. one of a kind .. high quality merchandise ... great clerks .. gone for good, never to return .. sad.
Thus we were foisted into mall shopping blah !! Go to malls now and there are few people (even before Christmas) . The fun to shopping uptown was you were bound to find someone you knew and then join them in a cup of THE best coffee from the Robbins Store.
They were the last years of Saint John's heyday. I loved that department store. So glad you documented this even though it's sad watching the demolition. I hate malls.
I remember those buses and they had ashtrays in them. How times have changed.
Wow that was great. Keep uploading
Thank you, I will
MRA's was a great store. A throwback to the days when department stores had elevators with an operator who would announce each floor as the doors opened. I have a lot of good memories of MRA's, buying toys there as a child and later buying records when I got a bit older. On the day they tore MRA's down my buddy Lewis and I were running around inside the empty building literally while they were tearing it down. We saw a few other people in there as well, looking for anything of value that might be overlooked. It sounds crazy and dangerous and it probably was, but we were just kids in our teens and there was a much more lax attitude towards safety in those days. It would never happen in this day and age, but hey... It was the 1970's.
Awesome footage of an awesome era in SJ
Thank you for sharing
You are most welcome.
When I was a kid in the early 50’s I used to go to MRA’s to the toy department. I remember a big rocking horse they in the store. It was big to me as I was only 6 . I moved aware from Saint John when I was 9. Now it is 70 years later GEE !
Really great stuff -thanks for sharing. Any chance of an upload with only the original audio?
My mom used to talk about MRAs all the time. I hadn't realized it was leveled I had (for some reason) thought it was carved up in smaller storefronts and had been further up the street.
I was 8 when this happened, worked at Brunswick Square as a teenager.
Best store east of Montreal .. get (practically) anything you wanted ... lotta class ... tea shop for a break .. one of a kind .. high quality merchandise ... great clerks .. gone for good, never to return .. sad.
Now 50 years later we all wish M.R.A.'s was still around, they were better than most of the malls.
Very cool. I'll be 58 in August. I recall MRA for sure. Not so much, the Royal.
Thus we were foisted into mall shopping blah !! Go to malls now and there are few people (even before Christmas) . The fun to shopping uptown was you were bound to find someone you knew and then join them in a cup of THE best coffee from the Robbins Store.
2024 Brunswick Square is now a dead mall
I worked as a bellhop at the Royal in the late 50's
WAS IN ROYAL HOTEL 1974/75 WHEN WORKING ON IRVING OIL REFINERY
Great video. It would be better - IMO - if the music was removed and you just had ambient sound or nothing
Early 1970's version of Gentrification.
they should have kept demolitioning the city and called it modern Saint John instead of historic Saint John
And now it’s Brunswick Square
What a mistake.
Absolute waste. Failed urban experiments