Rocky Mount is a city in eastern North Carolina, about 45 minutes east of Raleigh, and contains about 70,000 residents.  Rocky Mount is known for being home of the first restaurant which would become the Hardee’s chain.  It is also strategically located on I-95.  In September 1999 Hurricane Floyd swept through Rocky Mount and caused major flood damage throughout the area.  One of the casualties of the hurricane was Tarrytown Mall, the second enclosed mall in the state.

Here are some pictures of Rocky Mount underwater during the flood.  Tarrytown Mall, which opened in 1962, sat under several feet of water for over a week.  A relatively low spot in general, Tarrytown Mall was particularly susceptible to floodwater and as a result of the flooding completely destroyed the mall and sadly it never reopened.  Here are a whole bunch more pictures of Tarrytown Mall as it sat abandoned.

Tarrytown Mall sat for over 6 years before Sam’s Club came and decided to build a club there, and resurrect the site from abandonment due to the natural disaster.  First, they needed to remove all the asbestos from the 40+ year site.  Then, in April 2006 most of the mall structure was destroyed, and by 2008 a new Sam’s Club was open in its place. 

We visited Tarrytown Mall, or what was left of it, in August 2005, nearly 6 years into its tenure of abandonment.  We know a Montgomery Ward store was at the site, but we know little else?  If you can help us piece together the history of Tarrytown Mall, do so in the comments for this post.  A few questions:  What was Tarrytown Mall like immediately before the hurricane?  Did it co-exist on the same level as Golden East Crossing, a competitor mall across town, or was it already on the way out?  Let us know.

Memphis’ Raleigh Springs Mall is a pretty creepy place. This winter, in the midst of my cross-country drive, I stayed at a Sleep Inn on the Old Austin Peay Highway, about a mile south of this place. I had all of my most important worldly belongings in the car, so I was already a bit paranoid and unable to sleep because I had already gone through a few nights of worrying someone would steal away with my beat up pair of Chucks, a microwave with a broken LCD, and an HP computer with Vista installed (guess which one of these three things is crappier?). The stay was sort of unsettling, and the electrical storm we experienced while we were there didn’t help–the Days Inn right next door to us was actually hit directly by lightning at about 5am.

I was passing through fairly quickly, so I didn’t have enough time to visit many of Memphis’ retail offerings, but Raleigh Springs was convenient enough. I had known Memphis had lost at least one high-profile mall due to crime (or the perception thereof), the infamous Mall of Memphis, aka the “Mall of Murder.”  Raleigh Springs Mall, located on the other side of town from Mall of Memphis, opened in 1971 on the Austin Peay Highway north of I-40 as one of the first two malls in the greater Memphis area. JCPenney, Sears, Lowenstein’s, and Goldsmith’s were the original four anchor tenants at this Edward J. DeBartolo Corporation-built center. There was also a Woolworth’s store in the mall that was later replaced by a multiplex cinema.

For some time, Raleigh Springs Mall was the dominant mall for the Memphis area, but traffic was yanked away by newer, more glamorous centers such as Hickory Ridge Mall and the aforementioned Mall of Memphis over the years. In 1997, the opening of the Wolfchase Galleria–now the most dominant mall for the Memphis metropolitan area–and an increased perception of crime at Raleigh Springs (it’s far closer to Memphis proper than its newer cousin) helped fuel the mall’s downfall.

Dillard’s, who had acquired Lowenstein’s in 1982, closed their store in 2003. Federated Department stores, who had just acquired Goldsmith’s, the middle anchor, opted not to keep the store (or convert it to a Macy’s) and shuttered it the same year. The third strike also came in 2003: the JCPenney store–since downgraded to an outlet–scooted out, leaving Sears as the lone anchor tenant in the hulking structure.

Today, the mall is eerily quiet with little foot traffic, and as you can see in these photos, the expansive parking lot is mostly empty. Portions of the complex are in poor repair and only about 20 or 30 of the mall’s stores are occupied, many with secondary-type tenants. The interior of the mall is in reasonably good shape, the result of a renovation that (I am guessing) probably took place in the early 2000s.

Raleigh Springs Mall looks pretty forlorn for now, but things may be looking up. Wal-Mart has expressed interest in demolishing the vacant JCPenney space and building a Wal-Mart Supercenter on the site, though nothing has started yet. Hopefully it will at least have mall access! We know what happens when Wal-Mart turns their back on the interior of a mall.

Another link from MallMemories: http://www.mallmemories.com/pmwiki.php/Main/RaleighSpringsMall

One of the oldest malls in the Chicagoland area, Harlem Irving Plaza (also known as ‘the HIP’) is also one of the last independently-owned and operated regional centers in the entire country.  During its 5+ decades in existence, Harlem Irving Plaza has gone through only minor changes yet it remains extremely viable today, serving a densely populated area of inner-ring northwest suburbs and a large portion of the city of Chicago. 

Harlem Irving Plaza is located in the small island-suburb of Norridge.  Norridge, and neighboring Harwood Heights, are small incorporated communities completely surrounded by the city of Chicago, on Chicago’s far northwest side near O’Hare Airport.  Both Norridge and Harwood Heights were incorporated in 1948 as a measure to protect these areas from becoming the city of Chicago, which was quickly encroaching and about to annex these areas for itself. 

Most of the development in Norridge took place following incorporation, in the 1950s through the 1970s.  A major development in Norridge occurred with the opening of Harlem Irving Plaza in 1956.  Aptly named, Harlem Irving Plaza sits on the corner of a major intersection - N. Harlem Avenue (Route 43) and Irving Park Road (Route 19).  When the Plaza opened, it was not enclosed and consisted of 45 stores anchored by W.T. Grant, Kroger, Walgreens, Wieboldts, and Woolworth.  Not much changed at the Plaza between the mid-50s and the mid-70s as Norridge filled in and became almost completely built out. 

In 1975, as part of a larger nationwide trend of enclosing large, outdoor plazas into climate-controlled malls, the Plaza’s owners embarked on a four-year project to enclose the mall and, in the process, add a large parking deck.  The bulk of this structure is what is seen today at the site, and in 1979 Madigan’s was added as an anchor store.  In 1987, MainStreet, a short-lived subsidiary of the Federated chain, opened a discount department store on the north end of the mall; this location became Kohls in 1988 when Kohls bought the MainStreet chain.  Also in 1987-88, Carson’s replaced the Wieboldt’s as Wieboldt’s went out of business. 

The 1990s to the present have been a period of continued success for the enclosed center, with a few readjustments.  In 1996, a food court opened near the southern end of the mall, and Best Buy replaced Madigan’s.  In 2001, the center was modified again with Best Buy relocating to the parking lot and a parking structure was built on the Best Buy site.  In 2004, a popular Target located at the north end of the mall near the food court. 

Some of the design elements make Harlem Irving Plaza very similar to other urban malls with smaller footprints like Queens Center in New York City.  For one, the footprint of the center doesn’t allow for an expansive parking lot, so there are two free vertical structures to park in.  Interestingly, the parking structures are above the mall and one can enter the mall from above at several spots from the parking structure.  Also, the way Carson’s is situated at the mall allows the main corridor to go around it before it turns again and ends at Kohls.  In the main corridor in front of Carson’s there isn’t enough space for full-size stores so a series of booths are set up along this length for retailers, and they’re all full. 

The demographics at Harlem Irving Center are also more characteristic of an urban center, rather than a far-flung suburban mall.  Because the mall is one of the closest malls to the entire northwest side of the city of Chicago, much of the clientele are recent immigrants and first-generation Americans, many of whom are of Latin-American and Eastern European heritage.  The mall is also close enough to more traditional, yet older, suburbs like Niles, Park Ridge, Des Plaines, and Schiller Park, but it’s not really clear that they shop here as well. 

Take a look at the photos of Harlem Irving Plaza and its vicinity, taken in Spring 2008.

And just for fun and perspective, here’s a strip mall across the street from the top of the Harlem Irving parking structure.  You can kind of see the downtown skylne if you look closely:

Hoover, Alabama is a suburban community with a unique distinction.  While Hoover existed as a hamlet for many decades, only upon the opening of the Riverchase Galleria shopping mall in 1986 did the community begin to really thrive.  And thrive it has.  Today, Hoover is not only one of the major retailing centers for the Birmingham metro area, it is a thriving business center as well.  In this article we’ll take a look at what made Hoover blast off, from a tiny village to a metropolitan commerce leader and boomtown, almost overnight.

In 1984, the logistical framework was set for Hoover to blossom.  Interstate 459 opened that year, allowing thru traffic to bypass downtown Birmingham on Interstates 59, 65, and 20.  At the same time, the heavy manufacturing industry in Birmingham was shifting focus away from the city and abandoning the core which provided most of Birmingham’s economic base for decades previous.  As a result, Birmingham, along with the rest of the country, diversified its economy and allowed service sector businesses to supplement the manufacturing core, but many of these new businesses would not locate in the industrial areas which already existed, or even downtown.  Most of them preferred to locate in new, suburban office parks, with convenient access for commuters who would live nearby.

In 1986, one of the largest shopping malls in the southeast, Riverchase Galleria, opened in Hoover near the intersection of I-459 and I-65.  This location was not only convenient to interstates, but also centrally located for the entire metropolitan area, which has over 1 million residents.  As soon as the mall opened, developers couldn’t keep up with the demands for big box, housing developments, hotels, and office parks.  Almost overnight, Hoover grew into a huge, wealthy sprawlburg; today Hoover has over 65,000 residents and is still growing. 

Riverchase Galleria is directly modeled after the Galleria Mall in Houston, and by extension the original Galleria Vittorio Emanuele in Milan.  Its design features an extremely wide concourse in places, with very high ceilings and glass throughout.  When it opened, Riverchase featured 1.4 million square feet and anchor stores included Birmingham-based Pizitz and Parisian, JCPenney, and Atlanta-based Rich’s.  In addition to the stores are two features which are rather unique to large malls in the United States - a 15-story hotel and a 17-story office tower at center court.  The Wynfrey Hotel, a very upscale establishment with 330 rooms, is positioned at the mall as an anchor would be, at the end of a short corridor of store.  Pizitz was only open a year before being acquired by McRae’s of Jackson, Mississippi, in 1987, and that same year Macy’s opened its first store in the market at the mall.  1996 saw Sears added a store plus a large wing, bringing the mall to 1.9 million square feet.      

In 2003, the beginnings of consolidations in the mall’s anchors repositioned many of them.  The first shift was when the original 1987 Macy’s closed and Rich’s was converted to Rich’s-Macy’s as a result of Macy’s eating Rich’s.  The former Macy’s was sold to Saks Incorporated which opened a store under its Proffitt’s division in 2004.  In 2005, Macy’s dropped the Rich’s name and simply became Macy’s, and Saks sold its Proffitt’s and most of the McRae’s division to Belk.  Belk closed the McRae’s store and converted the Proffitt’s store to a Belk in 2006. 

As if that wasn’t already kind of confusing, it gets even more convoluted after this.  In 2006, Belk also acquired Parisian from Saks, and of course they didn’t want to operate two full sized stores, so they swapped the Belk they had opened with the Parisian location.  In addition, they converted a portion of the former McRae’s location, which sat empty because it was still owned by the Pizitz family (see above) and they threatened a lawsuit against Saks Incorporated to obligate their McRae’s lease, to a Belk Home Store in late 2007.  And, if that weren’t enough, Nordstrom is opening its first Alabama store at the mall in the still-vacant 1987 Macy’s location. 

Got all that?

Riverchase Galleria has been one of Birmingham’s major tourist attractions as well, bringing in shoppers from around  Alabama and many neighboring states.  We visited Riverchase Galleria in March 2008 and took the following pictures.   

Alton, Illinois is a small Mississippi River city located 15 miles north of St. Louis.  With a population of about 34,000, Alton anchors the northern extent of the St. Louis Metropolitan Area, which is the 18th largest metropolitan area in the country with almost 3 million residents. 

Alton’s history reads pretty much the same as all the other older Mississippi River towns, with a large, visible presence of core manufacturing industries which once made Alton a hub city and, for a time, even larger than St. Louis.  Much of the city, situated on steep bluffs overlooking the river, reads more like a Mark Twain novel than anything from modern-day America.  As the manufacturing industry has slowly left the Mississippi valley, the city has sort of become frozen in time.  In addition, during the mid-20th century, Alton was bypassed by the interstate highway system and lacked a freeway-grade connection to the rest of the St. Louis area until very recently, further hampering the modern economic growth other St. Louis suburbs like St. Charles and Chesterfield in Missouri have enjoyed.  Despite this, however, Alton’s economy has remained somewhat viable due to Casino gambling, antiquing, and Mississippi River tourism, and is nothing like the economic despair seen in East St. Louis and other parts of inner Metro East. 

As an anchor city for the northern-most tier of St. Louis suburbs, Alton has always been a draw for retailers and a significant suburban retail strip has developed along Illinois Route 3, the circumfrential highway which bypasses Alton on its outskirts, and US 67 north.  In 1978, a two-level regional mall was constructed near the intersection of IL 3 and US 67 on the northern edge of the city.  Alton Square Mall, which turns 30 years old in 2008, is a 630,000 square-foot regional center anchored by Macy’s, Sears, JCPenney, and 60 other shops and restaurants.  With an approximate 75 percent occupancy rate, Alton Square has had some trouble in recent years attracting coveted, popular national retailers for several reasons.

First, as mentioned above, Alton’s economy isn’t as sound as other areas in the metro and its location is inconvenient for those who are a considerable distance from the mall.  Thus, Alton Square never developed as a super-regional center like St. Clair Square, with its central location in Metro East and easy access from I-64.  Access to Alton from the rest of the metro area is improving, though.  Despite being on the Illinois side, Alton is actually farther from many of the other Illinois-side suburbs than they are to St. Louis, and only recently did ILDOT connect Alton with the St. Louis expressway system by extending IL 255 north of I-270.  In addition, MoDOT is expanding MO 367 north of I-270 toward Alton to freeway grade, giving Alton a better connection to St. Louis and the Missouri-side suburbs.  Still, Alton will probably never become destinational for St. Louis nor Metro East residents due to being up in the corner, and will probably remain regional in nature rather than super-regional.

This kind of brings us to our next point.  Competition from other St. Louis area malls and nearby retail strips, specifically in north St. Louis County, has also had an impact here at Alton Square.  The nearby Jamestown Mall, although a shell of its former self and not doing well at all today, and the retail strip along US 67 in north St. Louis County are signifcant enough to draw shoppers away from Alton.  In addition, large super-regional malls like West County Center and Saint Louis Galleria are only 30-45 minutes from Alton. 

Third, Alton Square is extremely dated.  If you looked at the pictures, you’ll see immediately that the decor, signage, and all visual aspects of the mall are from the late 1970s era.  Dark, cavernous spaces with dark, muted colors and use of dull materials like wood and tile.  Shoppers today demand the opposite of this: bright, open spaces, whitewashed shiny appearance, and sterile, sterile, sterile.  Add some clusters of bland carpeting and comfy chairs with some cherry furniture and you’re golden.  And that’s kind of what Alton Square is up to, which brings us to our third point.

Alton Square, until 2007, was owned and operated by Simon, a behemoth company which owns many malls.  Due to this, several have inevitably fallen through the cracks before they were ultimately divested by Simon, and by then it’s usually too late.  See our entry on Machesney Park Mall for a great example of this.   And we’re not just picking on Simon here.  It seems like most of the behemoth companies with very large portfolios take care of the best ones, and aren’t as proactive about upkeep at these mid-tier regionals.  So in 2007, Simon finally gave up on Alton Square and sold it to a small group of investers, which couldn’t be a better thing for the mall.  Almost immediately, the new owners began embarking on aggressive plans to update the mall so that it’s palatable for the retailers people want.  If keeping a facility viable is a chicken-and-egg situation, the question is not which comes first in order to resolve viability (ie. modernize the mall, then retailers come vs. get a few retailers to come, then modernize) but who will get the egg rolling. These new owners, being local, have a vested interest in keeping the mall from dying and becoming a blighted eyesore and being forced to replace it anyway, so they’re doing what they can to keep it viable in its current state.  In early 2008, the new owners took these plans with them to the ICSC convention in Las Vegas, and in May 2008 they began the renovations in earnest.  We wish them all the best in preserving the mall while increasing its potential to serve the community and surrounding area, rather than tearing it down and starting all over again. 

The photos here were taken in January 2002.  However, until the renovations which are occurring presently (Summer 2008) most of the mall has remained unchanged with a few exceptions.  In September 2006 Famous-Barr became Macy’s, and we all know that story, and in June 2008 the original, old-school B. Dalton is finally shutting their doors.  Let us know what you think about Alton Square, or how the renovations are going.