The Maitland Heritage Mall was seen as the biggest public relations exercise and most difficult project Maitland City Council has undertaken when it was built more than 25 years ago.
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The Mercury reported on November 17 ,1988 – the official opening of the city’s new pedestrian mall – how it had taken council 14 years to achieve the results of an idea it first considered in 1974.
City planner and mall project director David Evans (now council general manager) told the Mercury in 1988 how it was a difficult project from the start, trying to explain to business people and the public why Maitland needed a shopping mall in High Street.
The mall cost $1.35 million of local, state and federal government money and was Maitland’s major bicentennial project.
Mr Evans said at the time the mall would make Maitland competitive with modern suburban shopping centres without compromising High Street’s history and architectural heritage.
The mall was not only seen as a shopping strip for retailers, it was also a gathering place, an entertainment centre and a recreational area for the community, Mr Evans said.
It was something for Maitland to be proud of.
And today, work has started to tear it all up.
Even back in 1988, the call went out to open the mall to the Hunter River, as it has again this year for The Levee project.
It was Maitland Bicentennial Community Committee chairman Ian Wilson who wanted to see the mall opened to the river in 1988.
“If the mall remains the same until 2000, Maitland will have failed to respond to change,” Mr Wilson said.
“As a two-stage development, consideration must be given to open the mall to the river to create a different atmosphere and perspective.”
The mall attracted a bicentennial grant of $250,000 and a federal dollar-for-dollar grant of $90,000 to build the rotunda.
The rotunda and the street lamps were considered the showpieces of the new mall at the time.
“The on-going success of this mall will depend a great deal on the co-operation of us all – the business houses, throughout the city and the residents of our community,” Mr Wilson said.
It was noted at the time that because Maitland had developed along its transport route of old it had become unable to cope with increasing traffic in its commercial centre so options and remedies were sought.
One option was to allow old central business areas to wither and die in the face of competition from regional shopping plazas.
The other was to move towards revitalising city centres, to create pedestrian environments in the form of malls and encourage people to return to the city centre as the focal point of the city.
