Metcalf South Shopping Center; Overland Park, Kansas

Metcalf South exterior in Overland Park, KS

Located in Overland Park, one of the largest suburbs of Kansas City, Metcalf South Shopping Center opened in 1967 to immediate fanfare.  Launched by infamous mall developer Sherman Dreiseszun, Metcalf South is anchored by local Kansas City department store The Jones Store Company and Sears.  It is enclosed and nearly 800,000 square feet on three levels, including anchor space.

Over time, Metcalf South has fallen flat on its face and despite being open for business it is definitely a dead mall.  The two anchors, Sears and The Jones Store, remain at the mall, and The Jones Store is expected to go through with the Macy’s conversion in September 2006.  However, other stores in this large mall remain largely vacant and the center is a shell of its former self.  An art theatre and Vaudeville theatre operate at the mall as well as a handful of other stores, but most of the national retailers have flown the coop.  Mr. Bulky Treats & Gifts, Suncoast, Mastercuts, Foot Locker, and County Seat are among the visible store shells along the mall’s corridors.  The third level of the mall is mostly shut off to the public and has been partially converted to offices, except for at center court.  The mall’s floors are shiny almost constantly due in part to the janitors who are doing a great job as well as the fact that old people are the only people walking the mall (and they leave in the morning). 

Metcalf South Jones Store interior entrance in Overland Park, KS

A bit more about the mall’s owner, Kansas City developer Sherman Dreiseszun.  At 83 years old, he’s led an fascinating life in the realm of retail development and continues to do so.  He’s helped develop several malls throughout the country and holds a stake in many of them today, including Metcalf South.  What’s notable about these malls is that they aren’t always in the best condition.  His malls in Toledo, suburban Cincinnati, Denver, and this one have all languished in recent years.  He’s also been described as a very hard-nosed man with a personality of steel, and is known to drive hard bargains.  It’s therefore no surprise he’s been listed on Fortune’s 400 wealthiest Americans.  He has developed and owned Metcalf South since the beginning back in the 60s, and operates his base office from within the mall.  Many municipalities have been upset with his mall management policies and procedures as of late and have threatened eminent domain or condemnation of his malls in order to remove their blighted status.  The controversy surrounding his malls is notable as he continues to operate some very beleagured malls without divulging many plans to renovate them or make them viable again.  It’s all very interesting, and I think he’d be a great person to talk to about retailing because of so much first-hand experience, and a still presence – it’s too bad he refuses interviews. 

As for Mr. Dreiseszun’s plans for Metcalf South – he divulges none.  He says there are a few things he’d like to do with the mall but remains tight-lipped as to what they’d be.  This is probably part of the reason there is a bit of controversy surrounding the man.  People like answers.  People don’t like giant, blighted shopping malls sitting in their communities, especially when it seems unnecessary.  Overland Park is one of the nicer and larger suburbs of Kansas City, and in fact the second largest city in Kansas with a population around 170,000.  The city was incorporated in 1960, making it entirely suburban and defined by sprawl.  Perhaps as a result of this, it’s not surprising the city allowed Dreiseszun to give himself some competition and open another very large mall in Overland Park, a couple miles down 95th street from Metcalf South.  In 1975, Dreiseszun helped open Oak Park Mall which became Overland Park’s second mall.  It was immediately successful, and Oak Park is today one of the more dominant malls in the entire Kansas City market and boasts 2 Dillards, JCPenney, Nordstrom , another Jones Store, and over 180 specialty stores.  In the past decade as Metcalf South has rapidly declined, Oak Park Mall and the newer lifestyle center a few miles south in Leawood

Right now Metcalf South just sits and waits for the next big thing to come, but it’s definitely past expiration in its current state.  Let me know what I’ve left out about the history of Metcalf South, and add your own stories.  What other stores were there?  Leave some comments.

UPDATE 12/18/06: The ‘next big thing’ has come.  A Colorado developer has agreed to overhaul Metcalf South and another ailing Kansas City mall, Metro North Mall, into new mixed-use developments.  Metcalf South will be renamed The Streets at Metcalf and “will include upscale boutiques, national and local retail shops, an entertainment complex, office and residential space, and a hotel” according to the article.  With wildly successful Oak Park Mall and Town Center in Leawood so close by, I wonder how this will fare.  Preliminary plans for the new development are due sometime in 2007, so don’t expect the mall to come down immediately.  We’ll keep an eye on the death watch.

Metcalf South Jones Store exterior in Overland Park, KS Metcalf South exterior in Overland Park, KS Metcalf South exterior in Overland Park, KS

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Park Plaza Mall (City Center); Oshkosh, Wisconsin

Park Plaza Mall pylon in Oshkosh, WI

When I was a freshman in college I used to talk to people about their hometowns and through them I learned some interesting things.  One of them was the existence of an enclosed shopping mall in downtown Oshkosh, Wisconsin (population 63,000).  I had always wondered why a city of Oshkosh’s size never seemed to have a mall.  I always assumed that competition in Appleton and Fond du Lac killed a potential mall before it became a possibility.  I was wrong.  Park Plaza Mall opened in the 1970s and was the beginning of a trend of downtown renewal projects across the country, as suburbs began to sprawl up all over with their Big Box stores, huge enclosed malls, and rampant retail strips. 

People realized even then this was sapping downtowns at the expense of suburban development, and in some cases the downtowns were failing completely.  Rather than being faced with unchecked decay and blight, developers sought to resurge the languishing downtowns with destination venues, places that were more unique and offered a reason for people to escape the suburbs and come back downtown.  They realized the traditional downtown with rows of stores and services along a series of main streets was no longer a draw because people were doing this type of shopping in the suburbs where they lived, so they thought long and hard.  Someone came up with the idea of taking what was such a big hit in the suburbs and putting it downtown: enclosed shopping malls.  Thus began the trend of enclosed, traditional malls being erected in downtowns across the country.  Some of them have worked, but most have not.  The logistics of getting downtown, parking, and most notably competition have taken a toll on these centers and made many fail, even after initial success.  Downtown malls in places like Green Bay, Milwaukee, Appleton, Columbus, OH, and Worcester, MA have all failed or languished severely, citing these concerns.

Park Plaza Mall enjoyed a period of success in the 1970s and into the 1980s, and was anchored by Sears, JCPenney, and H.C. Prange Co., a Sheboygan-based department store chain that went bankrupt and was purchased by the Younkers chain in 1992.  The center was over 800,000 square feet in size, including anchors and office space, and included an U-shaped hallway with an impressive multi-level atrium with hanging modern art scupltures, common areas, and large amounts of office space above the mall.  The mall had many of the national chain stores and was a regional draw, bringing in shoppers from Appleton and Neenah-Menasha in the north to Fond du Lac and the surrounding areas to the south.  Appleton already had a downtown mall of its own and two very small, aged enclosed centers on the north and south sides of town, respectively, but they were not as large or as regional a draw as Park Plaza. 

In 1984, Park Plaza Mall experienced its worst blow as the gigantic Fox River Mall opened in Grand Chute (Appleton) along U.S. 41.  Just 15 minutes north of Oshkosh, Fox River Mall immediately became a shopping destination for the entirety of the Fox River Valley region and all of northeast Wisconsin.  Even today, people regularly make weekend shopping trips from several hours away in the Upper Peninsula region of Michigan to Appleton.  Also, U.S. 41 in the entire Fox Valley from Fond du Lac up to Green Bay became the central location for retailers along the corridor, sucking stores out of downtowns in all cities along it.  Fond du Lac’s Forest Mall was a quick 15-20 minute drive down U.S. 41 from Oshkosh, and also sapped shoppers from Park Plaza.  Prime Outlets opened a massive outlet mall on the southwest side of Oshkosh adjacent to U.S. 41, and strip malls and big box stores began sprouting up along U.S. 41 and Koeller Street in Oshkosh.  People once again began to ignore downtown Oshkosh, despite there being a mall there, for competition in Appleton, Fond du Lac, and along Oshkosh’s new main street, U.S. 41. 

In the early 1990s the bottom fell out at Park Plaza and the stores began to leave in droves.  Sears left in 1993, and returned in 2006 as Sears Grand along the U.S. 41 corridor. Prange’s became Younkers with the buyout of the chain in 1992, but also left soon after.  In perhaps the most telling move of local retailing trends in the 1990s, JCPenney closed their Park Plaza store for a standalone location along U.S. 41 near the outlet mall.  It remains there today.  During the mid-1990s developers realized the mall was transitioning away from a retail destination and allowed it by encouraging specialty stores and services to move into the mall such as a local book store and a kids’ art studio.  More offices moved into the mall and the Park Plaza Hotel continued to be successful operations. 

In July 2000 I visted what was left of the mall on an acquaintance’s tip, and I was impressed.  Even though none of the anchor stores were left and most of the stores were either vacant or converted to office space, it was very apparent it was once a large mall.  Several of the corridors were left mostly untouched as public walkways and retained many labelscars which you can see in the pictures below.  In 2001 the mall was renamed City Center as yet another attempt to revitalize the former mall and Oshkosh’s downtown was underway, though there is no current focus on the center’s retail viability.  More office-type businesses have been wooed to the center since, and there have been talks of renovating and removing most of the mall’s former in-line space for more offices or other non-retail use.  Some of this may have already happened.  Let us know more about Park Plaza Mall!  Leave your personal anecdotes, historical facts, or other comments here. 

Park Plaza Mall exterior in Oshkosh, WI Park Plaza Mall in Oshkosh, WI Park Plaza Mall in Oshkosh, WI

Park Plaza Mall Braun's labelscar in Oshkosh, WI Park Plaza Mall unidentified labelscar in Oshkosh, WI Park Plaza Mall atrium in Oshkosh, WI

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Taunton Mall (Mill River Place); Taunton, Massachusetts

Taunton Mall sign in Taunton, MA

To make things a bit more interesting, I’m going to try and create more posts in micro “metropolitan area” bundles, to better illustrate situations where one mall killed another, or where one mall works as an ancillary of another. While we ultimately would like to fill in much of the country, that’s going to take a long time, and I think this might be an interesting way to try and present some of these malls to people who are unfamiliar with them.

The former Taunton Mall (more recently known as Mill River Place) is a 180,000 square foot, enclosed shopping mall located near downtown Taunton, Massachusetts. Taunton, like many outlying New England cities, was an industrial revolution powerhouse known for its manufacturing industries (in this case, silver). By the latter half of the 20th century, these industries had declined and many cities like Taunton were desperate for renewal efforts, and this small mall is a textbook example of one of their attempts. Built as part of a mid-1970s (1976-78) urban renewal project, the Taunton Mall displaced several blocks of the city’s High Street neighborhood that were demolished due to blight and crime.

I never visited the Taunton Mall when it was “thriving,” but its death came swiftly and suddenly in 1992. The 1.2 million square foot Silver City Galleria opened about 3 miles to the southeast and offered far better freeway access. The tucked-away Taunton Mall stood no chance, and lost both of its anchors–Bradlees and Sears–to the new mall instantaneously. A junior anchor, House of Fabrics, also relocated to an awkward, outdoor space in the new mall where it would last only a few years.

The Taunton Mall was converted to Mill River Place not long after. Mill River Place still hosted a few of the mall’s original tenants (in particular a Chinese restaurant), but it was converted mainly to office users, with a medical center taking at least one of the former anchor stores. When I first visited the interior of this mall in 2000, the corridors were open and it was bright, clean, and fully stocked with office user tenants. However, on a revisit this past Sunday, I found a different scene: the mall appears to be shuttered, though I can’t confirm that it isn’t just closed on weekends (I’ll try and return on a weekday sometime soon, if I can). It seems most of the tenants are now exterior-facing, and I was able to discover a plan (which I’ve seemingly now lost) to turn to the center into an outdoor office park. I can’t tell if this conversion has already been completed, but I sure hope not: the poor place looks like hell about now, and several homeless people had set up camp in the parking lot.

The Taunton Mall was perhaps too small and bland to be loved or even remembered, and its location far off highways meant it really only ever catered to the population of Taunton proper, with a population of about 45,000. If you have any memories of when the Taunton Mall was thriving as a retail establishment, please share them.Next time I’ll tell you about the behemoth that swiftly did the Taunton Mall in with a single blow.

I’m just guessing, but I think this was the former Bradlees:

Taunton Mall in Taunton, MA
And I think this was the former Sears:

Taunton Mall sign in Taunton, MA

Taunton Mall in Taunton, Massachusetts Taunton Mall in Taunton, Massachusetts Taunton Mall in Taunton, Massachusetts

Westgate Mall; Brockton, Massachusetts

Westgate Mall pylon in Brockton, MA

The Westgate Mall in Brockton, Massachusetts is the oldest enclosed shopping mall in Massachusetts, opening in 1963. There are several older malls–such as South Shore Plaza, Northshore Mall, and Shoppers World–but they were all built as primarily outdoor shopping malls that were later enclosed (or, in the case of the latter, demolished). Westgate was the state’s first fully enclosed shopping mall.

Westgate Mall in Brockton, MA

The 600,000 square foot mall, located at the junction of routes 24 and 27 in Brockton, a city of 92,000 about 20 miles south of Boston, is mainly interesting for its historical ups and downs. Located halfway between the massive, dominant South Shore Plaza (at present still the largest mall in the Boston area) and the newer, larger Silver City Galleria in Taunton, Westgate has been hemmed in by its large competitors and was near death a few years back. As you can see from these photos, it has survived.

For many years, the Westgate Mall was a relatively successful mall serving Boston’s southern suburbs, along the route 24 corridor. It was located in Brockton, one of Massachusetts’ more troubled industrial cities, but its location near the freeway meant it was accessible enough from surrounding suburbs that this was not generally a problem. Westgate was anchored, initially, by Bradlees, Woolworth, and a relatively small Jordan Marsh store. I’m not even positive that this store was built as a Jordan Marsh because its diminutive stature (50,000 square feet or so) is counter to the types of stores Jordan Marsh was building at the time. Later on (I would estimate the early 1980s), a long side wing was added to connect to two new anchors: Marshalls and Child World.

The Westgate Mall was hit hard in the 1990s by a series of major changes. In 1992, the 1.2 million square foot Silver City Galleria opened in Taunton, about ten miles to the south, and in 1996 the South Shore Plaza, about ten miles to the north, doubled in size to become the Boston area’s largest shopping mall. In addition, Westgate’s anchor base took a trio of hits when Child World, Woolworth, and Bradlees all shut (and the mall’s junior anchor, Cherry & Webb, shut as well). By the late 1990s, the mall was nearly vacant and was in danger of closing. In addition, the Westgate Mall’s sprawling outlots turned into a graveyard of forgotten retail, including HQ, Paperama, Purity, and more.

A 2000 renovation and aggressive retenanting by management company Jones Lang Lasalle saved the Westgate Mall. The Child World/Marshalls twin anchor was demolished and the end of the mall reconfigured to house a Sears store, relocated from a standalone space on route 123. The Woolworth was carved into mall space; much of it houses an Old Navy store, but many other standard mall stores fill portions of the space. Filenes later demolished the Bradlees space and opened one of their most modern prototype stores in 2002 or 2003, and a long side wing (part of which was home to the old Cherry & Webb and part of which was a Chuck E Cheese) was reconfigured to hold a Best Buy. In addition, the Westgate Mall has benefited in the past year or so due to its location only one exit south of one of the only Ikea stores in New England. The mall’s proximity to other, larger malls and the stigma associated with its Brockton location still limit its success somewhat (note the vacant Gap store in one of these photos) but it’s a largely successful mid-sized mall that fills in the gaps between bigger malls in a densely populated suburban region.

The small, old Macy’s store–once one of the lone signs of life in the entire mall–was shut due to the Federated/May merger, and is now listed as a “future development area” on the mall directories. Take a good look at this aged anchor–its one of the last signs of the mall’s advanced age.

Former Westgate Mall Macy's in Brockton, MA

Westgate Mall in Brockton, MA Sears at Westgate Mall in Brockton, MA Sears at Westgate Mall in Brockton, MA

Marshalls at Westgate Mall in Brockton, MA Former Filene's at Westgate Mall in Brockton, MA Westgate Mall in Brockton, MA

Westgate Mall in Brockton, MA Westgate Mall in Brockton, MA Former Macy's at Westgate Mall in Brockton, MA

Westgate Mall in Brockton, MA Westgate Mall in Brockton, MA Former Macy's at Westgate Mall in Brockton, MA Westgate Mall in Brockton, MA

Westgate Mall in Brockton, Massachusetts Dead Gap at Westgate Mall in Brockton, Massachusetts Westgate Mall in Brockton, Massachusetts Westgate Mall in Brockton, Massachusetts

Westgate Mall in Brockton, Massachusetts Westgate Mall in Brockton, Massachusetts Westgate Mall in Brockton, Massachusetts Westgate Mall in Brockton, Massachusetts

Westgate Mall in Brockton, Massachusetts

Orange Blossom Mall; Fort Pierce, Florida

Orange Blossom Mall Pylon in Fort Pierce, FL 

This one was truly amazing.  Located along Okeechobee Road in the west part of Fort Pierce, Florida, Orange Blossom Mall sat for decades.  It seems to have died a slow, drawn out retail death, leaving behind a massive hulking structure which was open to walk but not really to shop.  When I visited in May 2001 only a few stores were operating.  The mall was, at one point, anchored by Sears and a Belk-Lindsay, so says the mall’s directory.  Both were shuttered by the time I visited the mall in 2001.  Also unique about the directory is the notation of ‘future dept. stores’ and ‘future expansion’, spelling out a woeful tale of unrealized glitz and glamour.  Check it out below.

The mall’s interior corridor was shaped in a ‘9’ figuration, and was listed at 423,000 square feet in 1998.  Upon my visit in 2001, Sears was closed and the east end of the mall was inhabited by a Cincinatti-based call center, Convergys Inc.  In 2005, Convergys Inc. closed their location at the Orange Blossom Mall, leaving it even more dead if that’s possible.

Orange Blossom Mall southwest entrance in Fort Pierce, fL

As you can see in the pictures below, the Orange Blossom Mall’s condition was horrendous.  The number of retail stores operating is listed beside the directory.  I count 10 of them and no anchors.  There was also a gym called Barbell’s (I think?  It was over five years ago) operating at the west mall entrance closest to the former Sears.  Of note, check out the Labelscar for The Gap!  For all who don’t know or remember, this was their ancient logo before the ‘Gap Classic’ stores emerged in the early 1990s.  Does anyone have any information about any of these older Gap stores still in operation?  I remember shopping at one as a small child in the Machesney Park Mall near Rockford, Illinois, sometime in the late 1980s.  Also, check out all the other dated storefronts.  Maybe some of you will clue us in as to what they were.

A bit more about the known history of the mall.  From what I could dig up, the mall was sold in 1998 by Met Life (who also owned many beleagured malls at the time, including Euclid Square Mall in Ohio and Rhode Island Mall) to a company called Zamias Services, who managed it for a while and then divested it.  It currently operates as Orange Blossom Office Center, but I’m not sure if any conversions or demolitions of the structure have taken place yet.  Does anyone know if most of the mall is still standing or able to be walked?  I returned to visit a year later in June 2002 and the mall was in virtually the same condition, but I have not been back since. 

Also, we’re wondering about the mall prior to present times.  I can conjecture that people abandoned the mall to shop at the nicer Treasure Coast Square about 20 miles away in Jensen Beach or the massive retail strip along Route 1 up and down the Treasure Coast.  In addition, Fort Pierce is itself a marginally depressed city, economically, and that probably also contributed to the mall’s demise.  Demographically, the city has a very diverse socioeconomic makeup much different from that of the surrounding metro area.  The metro area includes St. Lucie, Florida, which was named in 2006 as the fastest growing city above 100,000 in the country.  It shot up from 88,000 in the 2000 census to an estimated 150,000 as of early 2006.  Wow!  We’d like to hear from some people who know more about the area than we do.  When did the mall die?  Was it ever successful?  As always your comments are appreciated.

Orange Blossom Mall in Fort Pierce, FL Orange Blossom Mall in Fort Pierce, FL Orange Blossom Mall in Fort Pierce, FL

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Westfield Wheaton (Wheaton Plaza); Wheaton, Maryland

Westfield Shoppingtown Wheaton Mall in Wheaton, Maryland

Westfield is one of my least favorite of the major mall developers because of their tendency to make every mall look the same. However, a recent renovation at the Wheaton Plaza (or “Westfield Shoppingtown Wheaton,” whatever) in Wheaton, Maryland merits a quick ‘n dirty post.

As this is the first Westfield mall that we’ve written about, it merits a rant: Seriously, what gives with Westfield’s annoying naming scheme? Don’t they realize that labeling every one of their malls as “Westfield Shoppingtown _____” is a disastrous attempt at over-branding, an effort that strips malls of one of their few marks of personality and likely saps the lone strands of personal or community “connection” that anyone might have a remote chance of feeling towards their local mall? It’s a waste of the only shred of potential goodwill that a large shopping mall could ever hope to engender as part of their communities. People routinely complain that every town in America looks the same; that we all have Wal-Mart and Home Depot and Applebee’s. Why not at least let each individual enclosed mall exist as its own place, with its own name and logo? Ever notice how the band Chicago put out, like, 30 records, and numbered (rather than named) every single one of them and nowadays, no one ever starts raving that “Chicago X was soo awesome, man, so much more awesome than Chicago VIII!”? I don’t work for Westfield, but if I did I would abandon their misguided branding practices completely.

I didn’t expect much from this mall, and honestly Wheaton Plaza is not exactly a unique snowflake. Westfield Shoppingtown Wheaton is organized in a pretty conservative “T” pattern, with JCPenney and Target at each end, Macy’s about 1/4 up from one end on a small side hallway, and a dead Hecht’s store at the end of the “T” wing. I have no exterior shots due to the way the entire front of the mall is surrounded up close by a large parking deck (which is a common problem in the DC area, I’ve found), but I got a few cool pictures of the interior, which has a few snazzy upgrades, best displayed in the above photo of the Macy’s store. This new Macy’s store actually opened as part of the mall’s recent renovation that was completed in 2005. It sounds like the Wheaton Plaza, which opened in 1959 as an open-air shopping center, had long struggled against nearby behemoths like Westfield Shoppingtown Montgomery and White Flint, and this recent renovation brought the 1.3 million square foot mall situated just outside of the DC beltway up to par as a successful mid-tier mall, adding tenants like Express, Abercrombie & Fitch, and Hollister. It’s not as upscale as its sister malls, but it doesn’t need to be: Montgomery is the higher-end yet mass-market mall, White Flint corners the higher end of the market, and the Downtown Silver Spring complex serves the entertainment-minded consumers.
Westfield Shoppingtown Wheaton Mall in Wheaton, Maryland Westfield Shoppingtown Wheaton Mall in Wheaton, Maryland
Wheaton did have one large vacancy, created recently when Hecht’s vacated their space at the rear of the mall. Unfortunately a little foresight would’ve saved Macy’s from constructing a brand new store only to then close the mall’s Hecht’s just months later, but this is the way of corporate mergers I suppose. I did manage to scrounge the following picture (NOT taken by me) online, for those who’d like to see every last May-signed store they possibly can before it’s too late:

Westfield Shoppingtown Wheaton Mall in Wheaton, Maryland

If you’ve got the goods on the Wheaton Plaza’s history, comment away. I came up empty-handed this time.

Mountain View Mall; Ardmore, Oklahoma

Mountain View Mall pylon in Ardmore, OK

Have you ever been to a traditional Hoe-Down? If you answered ‘yes’, have you been to a traditional Hoe-Down inside of a mall? Mountain View Mall in Ardmore, Oklahoma hosts regular Hoe-Downs in the mall’s hallway during the mall’s opening hours. There’s also frequent live entertainment (mostly country and folk music) and every year the city of Ardmore holds its birthday party in the mall and offers up free cake to anyone with a sweet tooth. Sounds like a fun place, right?

Mountain View Mall is a small, 216,000 square foot enclosed shopping mall anchored by JCPenney, Rex Audio-Video- Appliances, Stage Stores, Hobby Lobby, and Goody’s family clothing. The mall is a basic dumbell shape connecting JCPenney on the south side of the mall to Hobby Lobby on the north side. CVS/Pharmacy and Staples office supplies are attached onto JCPenney; however, neither has mall access. The mall’s ancillary stores include national chains such as Bath and Body Works, Famous Footwear, GNC, and some local stores.

Mountain View Mall old fashioned hoe-down in Ardmore, OK

As Mountain View Mall is not large, it is still the only regional enclosed mall between Oklahoma City and the Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex. Ardmore currently has about 25,000 residents and lies along the busy Interstate 35 corridor approximately halfway (100 miles to each) between Dallas-Fort Worth and Oklahoma City. The largest city along the corridor, Ardmore has grown to be a the commercial haven for southern Oklahomans who don’t want to trek all the way to Denton for a better mall. In addition, Ardmore has a very successful, quaint downtown as well as a new big box center in the works called Ardmore Commons.

Recently, the mall was purchased by Dallas area-based commercial developer Burk Collins & Company. The developer has made a promise to update the mall with bigger skylights, more stores, and even divulged it was in talks to bring popular retailer Old Navy to the mall. Mountain View Mall will also receive public restrooms for the first time. Wow!

Take a look at these photos I captured of Mountain View Mall in July 2005. Note the dated decor and although the mall is only 217,000 square feet, it definitely felt a bit larger. The Hoe-Downs and community spirit throughout the center reinforce that the mall is definitely not forgotten or even close to being a dead mall. It thrives as both a retail and community gathering place, and hopefully the developers will realize the potential of the mall and max it out instead of allowing the mall to lie fallow. Do you have anything to add here? Maybe you know more about specific stores that have been in the mall throughout its history, or even some important dates. Feel free to leave a comment or two and let us know!

Mountain View Mall exterior JCPenney in Ardmore, OK Mountain View Mall exterior in Ardmore, OK Mountain View Mall in Ardmore, OK

Mountain View Mall Stage in Ardmore, OK Mountain View Mall in Ardmore, OK Mountain View Mall in Ardmore, OK

Mountain View Mall Peanut Shack in Ardmore, OK Mountain View Mall in Ardmore, OK Mountain View Mall pylon in Ardmore, OK

Meriden Mall (Meriden Hub); Meriden, Connecticut

Abandoned Meriden Mall in Meriden, Connecticut

I’ve long had a strangely antagonistic relationship with Connecticut. I’ve always had a suspicion that the state–which seems bizarrely undermalled–was hiding some enclosed malls from us. Too many of the ones that do exist there are too big or too new to have been the entire story, and my suspicions are correct. Over the past few years, I’ve repeatedly discovered Connecticut malls (almost a half dozen) that went unnoticed, although most of them are at this point long dead. Here’s a good example for you: a truly, 100%, no-bones-about-it “dead mall.”

The Meriden Mall eluded radar in large part because of its name; because the larger Meriden Square Mall is often referred to as the “Meriden Mall,” I assumed references to this mall were in fact referring to the other, larger mall. In fact, Meriden Mall was the city’s first mall, opening as a quarter-million-square-foot center in 1970. Anchored by WT Grant’s, Stop & Shop Supermarket, a twin cinema, and a Walgreens, the Meriden Mall was the area’s first enclosed shopping mall. That would not be the case for long, as the larger Meriden Square Mall would open barely more than a mile away in 1971. As a result, the Meriden Mall, which was perched on the edge of Meriden’s downtown area, would never truly gain its footing. Connecticut is the wealthiest state in the United States, but its urban areas are notoriously troubled, and Meriden is no exception. With the decline in the area’s silver manufacturing industry in the second half of the 20th century, Meriden’s economy suffered and the city itself has never truly recovered. The Meriden Mall today is surrounded by many empty, historic brick buildings from the downtown area on one side, and a large, sprawling post-war style public housing project on the other. It is not exactly an inspiring backdrop.

Abandoned Meriden Mall in Meriden, Connecticut

Meriden Mall attempted to compete with Meriden Square for some time as the city experienced this decline in the 1970s and 1980s, but it was simply too small and poorly located. WT Grant’s went bankrupt in 1975, and their space would be filled briefly a few years later by local discount department store Barker’s, who also would last in the space for only a few years. The Meriden Mall was renamed “Meriden Hub” to address the same awkward naming issue that caused my own confusion, but this didn’t seem to make much difference. The Stop & Shop store left the center in the early 1990s, effectively killing its viability as a retail center. It did briefly serve as the home of a company called Canberra Industries–whose signage still remains, as you can see in these photos–but they’ve long since left the property due to its tendency to experience severe floods. I haven’t been able to pin down an exact date on which the mall closed, but I was able to discover that “Sal’s Barber Shop,” a tenant at the center from the time it opened, didn’t shut until June 30, 2003. The city council minutes from whence I drew this factoid state that barber Saolo F. Sforza was one of the first tenants to move into the mall in September 1970, and will be (would have been?) one of the last tenants when his barbership closes.
Abandoned Meriden Mall in Meriden, ConnecticutThe city of Meriden took the blighted parcel by eminent domain in the fall of 2005. They plan to demolish the mall using funds authorized by Governor Rell and build a park and flood control area in its place. In some ways, the story mirrors that of the Bristol Centre Mall in Bristol, Connecticut, another hardscrabble Connecticut town who tried to change their fortunes by demolishing part of their downtown and building a small enclosed mall in the 1960s/70s. The city of Bristol also took the Bristol Centre Mall by eminent domain and is also in the process of shuttering and demolishing the last remains of Bristol Centre to reclaim the long-underused land for the city.

In a Labelscar first, these pictures were all taken TODAY, August 6, 2005. You can also find some more on the city of Meriden’s webpage, including some really fuzzy interior photos!

Abandoned Meriden Mall in Meriden, Connecticut Abandoned Meriden Mall in Meriden, Connecticut Abandoned Meriden Mall in Meriden, Connecticut

Abandoned Meriden Mall in Meriden, Connecticut Abandoned Meriden Mall in Meriden, Connecticut Abandoned Meriden Mall in Meriden, Connecticut

Security Square Mall; Baltimore, Maryland

Security Square Mall pylon in Baltimore, Maryland

Security Square Mall is a large, 1 million square foot enclosed mall located in the western suburbs of Baltimore, Maryland. Until it came time to write this post, I didn’t actually realize that Security Square Mall is technically located in Baltimore, albeit an unincorporated section of Baltimore outside of the western edge of the I-695 beltway on Security Boulevard. Named for the massive Social Security Administration offices which are adjacent to the center, its location is decidedly suburban.

Built in 1972, the 120-store Security Square Mall is laid out in a large eagle-shaped pattern, with a long, curved main hallway crossed by a large straight hallway. Hecht’s anchors the northern end of the straight cross hallway, and the two ends of the long “wingspan” of the mall are Sears and Modell’s Sporting Goods. The Modell’s space was occupied by Montgomery Ward until the chain’s closure in 2001. The mall has been renovated twice, in 1988 and 1998. Judging by the extensive use of sepia-toned neon throughout the center, I’m guessing that the 1998 renovation was the more minor of the two. The Floridian color scheme and impressively animated shopping bag logo pin it pretty closely to the late 1980s.

Perhaps the most interesting feature of the Security Square Mall was the anchor at the opposite end of the “straight” wing from Hecht’s. Originally a JCPenney, the space was overtaken in 2003 by “Seoul Plaza,” a two level extension of the mall itself wherein the anchor store was converted to small stores and a common mall area. This “mall within a mall” still includes the escalators from the original JCPenney, and is leased entirely to stores selling Korean goods including a grocery store. For the life of me I don’t know why I didn’t take more pictures of this feature, but here’s the one I did take:

Security Square Mall in Baltimore, Maryland

Once Baltimore’s premiere shopping destination, Security Square Mall today seems to suffer from the competition of even more dominant malls. The massive, high-end Mall at Columbia Town Centre is only about ten miles to the south, and the Owings Mills Mall–a large, two-level mall that has also struggled some in recent years–is located about ten miles to the north. Both of these other malls seem to benefit from being located in areas that are at least perceived to be safer. My own visit to Security Square was cut somewhat short (hence the shortage of photos of the exterior) because a particular group of mall patrons, unhappy with our presence, decided to make an unwelcoming comment of a racial nature. While I am certain that these young women did not speak for mall management or the vast majority of the mall’s patrons, it did hang like a pall on the visit and lead us to choose not to linger.

It is unfortunately a sad reality–painted very vividly in the shopping malls throughout the United States–that people of different races or economic classes are still so frequently segregated, even in where they shop. This is, however, a much larger topic for another day. Note this passage from an article on the mall on Security Management.com in 2001:

Crime notwithstanding, the ownership situation may have been the most damaging of the contributing factors, because it ushered in an era of neglect in which the proprietors displayed a lack of interest in the mall’s success. That neglect manifested itself in deteriorating physical conditions and expanding vacancies. It hurt morale among the management team. It was also noticed by shoppers and the community. As a result, business declined.

The situation began to change in 1997, however, when the mall was purchased by Capitol Investment Associates. The firm took a hard look at the facility, from leasing to property management to marketing, with an eye toward improving all aspects of the mall.

The article is right in that management has clearly made major upgrades to maintain the cleanliness of the mall, and these upgrades are noticeable. As you can see from the photos, Security Square is very well kept-up and mostly leased with first or second-tier tenants and it continues to be a successful mid-tier mall today.

Security Square Mall Sears store in Baltimore, Maryland Security Square Mall in Baltimore, Maryland Security Square Mall in Baltimore, Maryland

Retail Relic: Ames Department Stores

 

Ames Logo

To those of us who grew up in the Northeast, Ames was Wal-Mart before there was such a thing. Ames was many things, but they weren’t glamorous: their stores were big emporiums with long rows of flourescent lights that sold plastic jelly shoes, cheap plastic bins for storing random stuff, and fiberboard furniture. But unlike Target, Wal-Mart, or even veritable old names like Caldor and Bradlees, Ames was ubiquitous. Every decent-sized town in New England had an Ames.

Ames’ history is a somewhat long and sad tale of a regional discounter that tried to stand up to Wal-Mart and other national chains. Ames began in 1958 out of a warehouse in Southbridge, Massachusetts as a store that attempted to bring department store goods to rural areas affordably. In their early days and even through the 1980s, Ames was located primarily in rural northeastern towns. Unfortunately Ames’ overzealousness was their undoing. A disastrous acquisition of faltering giant Zayre in 1988 caused Ames to go bankrupt and close many of their stores, and they spent much of the 1990s regaining their footing. By the late 1990s, Ames was finally again on solid ground. Unfortunately, Ames was also keenly aware of the march of strong competitors like Wal-Mart and Target and how many of their peers, notably Caldor and Bradlees but also Ann & Hope and Apex, were dying off quickly. Instead of making many much-needed re-investments into their aging stores, Ames acquired Hill’s department stores, giving them 467 stores stretching from Maine to Chicago. It was a risky, defensive decision that was an 11th hour attempt to build the kind of volume to fight Wal-Mart. Unfortunately Ames had not learned from their inability to absorb Zayre more than a decade earlier, and this second disastrous acquisition would sink the chain. Ames filed for Chapter 11 Bankruptcy in August 2001 and announced they would be going out of business forever exactly a year later, in August 2002.

At the time of their death, Ames was the fourth largest discount department store chain in the United States. Because many of their stores were in rural areas or lower-tier plazas or strips–and because their stores varied wildly in size or quality–many of them remain vacant today. The occasion for this post is the return of the excellent Ames Fan Club Website, created and maintained by Chris Fontaine, a native of Dudley, Mass., not far from Ames’ birthplace of Southbridge. Fontaine’s ambitious mission is to try and visit every former Ames site and document it in photographs to create a comprehensive historical archive of the defunct retailer. There’s also a wealth of great other stuff, including some hilarious employee training videos (my favorite is a teambuilding video produced by the Glenmont, NY store wherein a young employee treats her coworkers to a rendition of “Amazing Ames” sung to the tune of “Amazing Grace”) and photos of the chain’s planogram building near their former headquarters in Rocky Hill, Connecticut. Due to server issues, the Ames Fan Club had been offline for several months, since before Labelscar even launched. Since we at Labelscar (or me, at least) are big fans of the fallen discounter, and we’re glad to see that the Ames Fan Club is back.

I’ve included some uncredited, undated (2001-2002ish?) photos of the former Ames store in my hometown of Middletown, Rhode Island. The building has since been razed, and is now home of a Home Depot store that’s set further back on the lot. The original site of the Ames store (which is very visibly one of the stores acquired from Zayre) is now the parking lot for the current Home Depot.

Former Ames in Middletown, Rhode Island Former Ames in Middletown, Rhode Island