Shopping at Sears in Casa View

Appliance central… (click for larger image)

by Paula Bosse

I’m not in the Casa View area very often, but I was driving through last week and noted that a lot of the elements of the shopping center looked as if they were original to the buildings — specifically the little metal doo-dads along the top of the canopies over the sidewalks. I came across the photo above tonight and was happy to see those little doo-dads. The shopping center is a little confusing to me, but I think this is what that building once occupied by Sears looks these days (why, why, WHY did someone think painting over that cool original brick was a good idea!).

This Sears — located at 2211 Gus Thomasson — was Dallas’ fifth Sears store and opened in the still-under-development Casa View neighborhood in October, 1956. It wasn’t a full department store — its merchandise was…