This holiday shopping season marks the 40th anniversary of the opening of what was once the hottest new place to shop in Connecticut, the Hartford Civic Center.

The coliseum had opened earlier in 1975, and the mall, with its shops, restaurants and entertainment opened in late fall.

This Sunday in our Face the State flashback, we aired excerpts from a half hour report Eyewitness News put together in December of 1975 on the opening of the mall and the retail outlook in downtown Hartford.  Not everyone was happy about the Civic Center.  At the link below look for some old downtown places that were big in the 70s, but now live on only in our memories…and old film from the WFSB archives of course.

Also check out a mode of transportation no longer seen downtown.

Watch it right here: http://www.wfsb.com/clip/12049219/the-hartford-civic-center-mall