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MainPlace Mall

shopping mall in Santa Ana, California, United States

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General referenceInterpretive dossier study · Crown Archives visual atlas
Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionSep 12, 2026
Entity authorityQ7988712
Source-derived summary

MainPlace Mall (formerly known as Westfield MainPlace) is an enclosed shopping mall at the north edge of Santa Ana, California near Downtown Santa Ana, adjacent to the City of Orange and the Orange Crush interchange of the Santa Ana, Garden Grove and Orange freeways. The anchor stores are JCPenney, 24 Hour Fitness, Ashley HomeStore, Round 1 Entertainment, DXL Mens Apparel, and Macy's. There is 1 vacant anchor store that was once Nordstrom.

History

Anchor stores, current and former

Fashion Square

MainPlace Mall was built on the site of the much smaller open-air center that Los Angeles-based department store Bullock's opened in 1958, first called Bullock's Fashion Square. The center cost Bullock's $11.5 million to build and was designed by Pereira & Luckman. Bullock's Fashion Square debuted with 32 stores including branches of boutique department stores I. Magnin, Desmond's, Haggarty's and Mandel's, plus the Jolly Roger restaurant. There was parking for 3000 cars and opening day drew crowds of 40,000 people from across Orange County, according to the Los Angeles Times. As Bullock's opened similar Fashion Square malls in other Southern California cities, the venue was renamed Santa Ana Fashion Square.

Transition to MainPlace

After a period of decline, JMB-Federated Realty Associates (the successor to Federated Stores Realty) demolished most of the shopping center, except for the anchors, and had it replaced by MainPlace in 1987. Bullock's chose to stay on while I. Magnin ultimately decided not to remain and therefore closed on February 14, 1987.

Editorial summary

Begin with the source’s own compact description: “MainPlace Mall” is shopping mall in Santa Ana, California, United States. The dossier treats that line as a proposition to test through MainPlace, Mall and shopping, not as a finished interpretation.

Editorial reviewA dependable orientation record for establishing vocabulary, names and a first evidence trail. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—1958, 1987—that can be checked directly. The linked authority record independently contributes the date 1987. For this dossier, MainPlace, Mall and shopping is the immediate research focus.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

The phrase “shopping mall in Santa Ana, California, United States” supplies a clear boundary for inquiry. It also exposes the unanswered questions: who defined that boundary, when it became stable and which sources sit outside it.

Evidence profile

Named sources, stable identifiers and responsible institutions provide the strongest route from overview to verifiable evidence. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 12, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q7988712. Authority coordinates are 33.775, -117.870. 2 of 3 selected statements include explicit references; 1 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1958 and 1987.

Critical limits

A concise general-reference account can conceal disagreements about scope, terminology or the weight assigned to individual sources. The source lead contains qualifying language; that uncertainty should survive quotation, summary and reuse. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

How to read it

Use the entry as an orientation point, then follow its citations and revision history. Names, dates and institutional relationships should be checked against the original record.

Best used for
  • Subject orientation
  • Search vocabulary
  • Locating named sources
Verify next

The closest primary source, responsible institution and strongest cited specialist reference.

Three-step research path

  1. Establish the record: confirm the title “MainPlace Mall”, its source revision and the description used here.
  2. Expand the search: follow MainPlace Mall primary sources, MainPlace Mall archive and MainPlace research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
  3. Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.

Questions for further research

  1. Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “MainPlace Mall”?
  2. What terminology or title could unlock a more precise catalogue search?
  3. Which cited source is closest to the event, object or claim?
Subject index

Search terms from this dossier

Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from MainPlace Mall” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.