Green Tree Mall & River Falls Mall; Clarksville, IN
Our friend Jay sent us these cool early-90s photos of a pair of malls in extreme southern Indiana, just outside of Louisville.
These two malls are located in very close proximity to one another off the Lewis & Clark Pkwy. and Greentree Boulevard, just off I-65. Green Tree Mall is the older of the two, opening in 1968, with JCPenney and Sears as anchors. Later a Ben Snyder’s was added as a third anchor, and this store became a Hess’s before later becoming a Dillard’s store, which it is today. Despite a 1980 expansion, the Green Tree Mall was not terribly large, and as a result in 1991 the River Falls Mall opened directly across the street. Originally conceived as a somewhat more youth-oriented and lively center, River Falls Mall was initially anchored by Wal-Mart, Bacon’s (later Dillard’s), All About Sports, and Toys R Us, but also included a substantial entertainment component including a movie theater, food court, and indoor amusement park. After Bacon’s was acquired by Dillard’s, the chain used the two stores to split the departments in two (reminiscent of what we’ve seen with many of the former May chains after the Federated acquisition, except not within the same mall). The Green Tree Mall got the women’s department, while River Falls Mall received the mens and housewares departments.
Because neither mall was huge, they were designed to co-exist somewhat peacefully, despite a large overlap in in-line tenants. However, it was actually River Falls, the newer of the two malls by far, that became the dead mall, beginning to decline by the end of its first decade in existence. Bass Pro Shops entered negotiations with mall owner General Growth Properties to open in the struggling mall in 2002, but the mall went into steep decline during the time when Bass Pro Shops were in the process of locating in the center, culminating in the exit of the Dillard’s from River Falls Mall entirely in 2004. Not long after, both Wal-Mart and the movie theatres exited, and Dick’s Sporting Goods moved to the Wal-Mart space. When Bass Pro Shops finally opened in 2005, they built their store to envelop much of the former mall, and the remainder of this comparatively young mall was big-boxed shortly thereafter, making room for Old Time Pottery and Louisville Athletic Club to open at the mall as anchors. Jay tells us that Bass Pro Shops has retained the mall’s translucent tent-like covering over the center court area, plus the structure of the mall’s former indoor putt-putt area, which is now a bullet-free shooting venue (whatever that means!).
Jay adds that this similarly puzzling cannibalization has happened more than once in the Louisville area, a city where I’ve yet to visit (although it *IS* on my list, eventually):
The development of River Falls Mall was just another example of strange decision-making where malls are concerned in our area. Mall St. Matthews and Oxmoor Center managed (surprisingly) to compete while coexisting very near each other before they came under the same management a few years ago. But the failure within 10 years of Raceland Mall, which opened just down the road from the already-established Bashford Manor Mall in 1975, might have been a good warning for the developers of River Falls. For some reason, it seems we just can’t resist building our new malls mighty close to one that already exists.
Green Tree Mall:
Green Tree Mall front entrance, 1993.
Green Tree Mall JCPenney wing in 1993, looking to center court carousel. This shows the interior from the first renovation in the 1980s. According to Jay, the parquet portion of the floor showed wear fairly quickly.
River Falls Mall:
River Falls Mall front entrance, 1992
River Falls Mall front entrance interior, 1993. The stairs went up to the food court.
The second-floor amusement area in 1993, with the putt-putt in the immediate background. The food court and front entrance
were to the left, and the cinemas were behind the spot where this photo was taken.
River Falls Mall center court, 1993, looking toward the Wal-Mart wing. The Dillard’s wing is to the left of center court, and the front entrance wing is to the right. Directly above is the amusement area.
(Thanks to Jay for all the pictures and a bunch of the details!)
Max
May 20th, 2007 at 1:50 am
According to Wikipedia, the very first Texas Roadhouse Restaurant is located at Green Tree Mall. Also, the size of each of the mall’s anchors is as follows:
*Dillards: 205,996 sq. ft.
*JCPenney: 119,604 sq. ft.
*Sears: 105,400 sq. ft.
As you might have guessed, the Green Tree Mall Dillard’s is now again a full-line department store. Note that after the store was expanded in 2005, it became the biggest one-floor location in the entire chain. (FYI, the largest Dillard’s store of all is located at Scottsdale Fashion Square in Scottsdale, AZ.)
Here are the sizes of each of the anchors at River Falls Mall:
*Bass Pro Shops: 264,982 sq. ft.
*Old Time Pottery: 84,415 sq. ft.
*Dick’s Sporting Goods: 50,875 sq. ft.
*Toys “R” Us: 47,458 sq. ft.
*Louisville Athletic Club: 30,155 sq. ft.
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DayGlo!
May 20th, 2007 at 2:36 am
Wow, River Falls looks like it was pretty nice back in the day.
I have a close friend in Louisville, so I’ve had the opportunity to see both malls now, as well as a few other area malls that are dead or dying. Here are the shots I got of the River Falls Dillard’s in December:
http://public.fotki.com/failuretothrive/dead_malls/river-falls-mall/
Other malls in the area worth noting:
Bashford Manor Mall, Louisville
http://public.fotki.com/failuretothrive/dead_malls/bashford-manor-mall/
Now a Super Wal-Mart, a Target, and a bunch of outparcels. The old Dillard’s is still standing, though, and we got pictures of it. Looking at the back of the Wal-Mart, it’s pretty obvious that the store encompassed most of the mall; the rear facade looks like a half-arsed attempt to fill in the old mall entrances.
Lexington Mall, Lexington
http://public.fotki.com/failuretothrive/dead_malls/lexington-mall/
They don’t get much more dead than this mall, which has been boarded up for years and last I checked, is the future site of yet another “lifestyle center.” I happened upon a few older pictures of the mall, as well as some background info (gleaned from both the Internet and my friend’s grandmother, who took a lot of interest in our hobby), and posted them to my LiveJournal community a while back.
Turfland Mall, Lexington
http://public.fotki.com/failuretothrive/dead_malls/turfland-mall/
It’s particularly easy to miss this mall’s demise, as the front (facing the highway and parking lot) is tenanted by large stores with no mall entrance. The enclosed part of the mall is still open for now, but clearly dying. When we went there on Christmas Eve, there were more closed storefronts than open ones, and there was nary a shopper to be found; the security guard saw us taking pictures and didn’t even try to harass or stop us. Despite a fairly recent remodel, this mall’s fortunes are very unlikely to improve without a demalling; according to Lexington Business Journal, even more stores have closed since my pictures were taken.
Turfland Mall
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Caldor
May 20th, 2007 at 9:09 am
I think what surprised me the most was that such a nice and new mall would die so early! I’ve heard of it happening but this seems especially dramatic.
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DayGlo!
May 20th, 2007 at 12:41 pm
Didn’t surprise me when I saw the area. There’s a lot of sprawl (and labelscarred husks of department stores that moved into bigger buildings farther out), and the Indiana suburbs are largely working- to middle-class; most of the area’s wealth is across the river on Louisville’s east side. Those who want more upscale retail typically go to Mall St. Matthews or Oxmoor, which are standard-issue superregionals; those who can’t afford it have an overabundance of discount stores to choose from. This means there’s barely enough market for a middle-of-the-road mall like Green Tree, and people in Louisville have enough shopping options that there’s little reason to cross the river (as River Falls’ developer hoped they would). I do find it fascinating that neither Oxmoor nor Mall St. Matthews have suffered a similar fate. Oxmoor did seem to be the John Oates of that duo, but not by much; think Garden State Plaza and Paramus Park on a smaller scale, and you get the idea. One thing that probably helps them is the fact that while they’re adjacent to each other, getting from one to the other can be really ponderous, especially at rush hour. Consequently, people who go to one mall are somewhat encouraged to stay there. Considering the same company manages both malls, I can’t help but wonder if this is intentional.
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Caldor
May 20th, 2007 at 1:01 pm
It is flat-out amazing that you used Hall & Oates as a way to describe the difference between those malls.
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alpha
May 20th, 2007 at 2:38 pm
The only viable theory I have to the survival of Mall St. Matthews & Oxmoor Center (both of which are decently sized mid-upscale malls and have a good deal of inline-store overlap) is that the parents drop their kids off at Mall St. Matthews, then shop themselves at Oxmoor Center (which explains Green Tree & River Falls.) These two malls seem to differ only by the age they cater to (The quirky, colorful Mall St. Matthews with its huge Lerner/Limited stores to the younger crowd, and the more subdued Oxmoor Center with its Von Maur catering to their parents.)
(And even though Mall St. Matthews is a very healthy mall, I’d recommend making the trip to see it as it still has a “retro modern” feel to it.)
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Bobby
May 20th, 2007 at 3:19 pm
What was Hou’s at Green Tree? And didn’t Green Tree once have a food court?
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DayGlo!
May 20th, 2007 at 4:37 pm
You’re right, alpha. Oxmoor did seem to aim for an older audience, which might be why it seemed a little lackluster in comparison with Mall St. Matthews. Teenagers are so fickle that a mall’s health can be pretty accurately gauged by how popular it is among them (and what type of teenagers it’s popular with; no one wants to go to the “burnout” mall or the “thug” mall).
Thanks for the compliment, Caldor. Just for that, I dug into my pics from my December trip to Louisville and found this one:
That’s Green Tree Mall now; other than the floor tiles, it’s still a throwback to ’80s mall sensibilities.
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DayGlo!
May 20th, 2007 at 4:37 pm
Oops…
Try this.
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Jay
May 21st, 2007 at 11:55 pm
Bobby, I think you may be referring to the Hess’s department store, which became Dillard’s. Back then, that red Hess’s sign was on the front entrance of the mall, though the store was in the back. There’s no sign there now for Dillard’s
And, yes, a food court was created from a portion of the old department store that was vacated when the rear Dillard’s wing was added. But the food court didn’t survive for long and was eventually walled off.
Regarding Oxmoor and Mall St. Matthews, it wasn’t until pretty recently that these two malls came under the same ownership. They managed to compete and survive for about 30 years, with some of the same stores in both. Now that there’s no repetition of stores between them, they’ve had to get more creative to try to fill all the space.
DayGlo, thanks for the updated Green Tree photo. I’ve gotten pretty shy about mall photography since the ’90s, so I don’t have any current pictures of it.
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J.T.
May 22nd, 2007 at 1:43 am
Malls built in the 90’s haven’t aged well overall…apparently because they didn’t establish that cult following of older 70’s and 80’s malls that covered more than one generation of mall rats, they tend to fade much faster. Not only that, but the shiny marble floors, glass-drenched, chalky white, stucco, teal blue and pink malls of that era looked like a vast improvement over the dark, dingy 70’s malls but today just look bland and boring as the 70’s trends have come full circle.
I can think of two malls built in the early 90’s that are struggling badly right now. One of those built in 1991 replaced a mall built in 1975 in Rome, GA and has never even been fully occupied. The other, built in 1990 in Savannah, GA has been on a gradual slide since the early part of this decade after 3/4 anchors closed leaving (once again) the older mall to prosper. Both of these were very clean, modern and attractive in their times and both were supposed to just clean out the older malls.
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Chris Whittaker
May 22nd, 2007 at 7:29 am
The view from the Ruby Tuesday side of this mall looks just like that at Medley Centre (the former Irondequoit Mall) in suburban Rochester, only with a labelscar instead of the Ruby Tuesday sign. Anyone out there, was the aesthetics of the newer malls their downfall, was it location, (and the perception of the area as a high crime area, or was it the over expansion of other area malls that did the malls mentioned above in? I’m kind of curious.
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Mark
May 27th, 2007 at 2:49 pm
No way……. they had a small train that went around the fountain? thats a big feat to accomplish.
Very imaginative, almost fantasy like.
Wait,a sec thats not a small fountain……it’s an entire man made river!
That means the train is going over an entire section of water! Amazing!
Sure it was risky to do that, but the risk was worth it,resulting in a fantastic display.
Thats whats missing in malls these days the owners don’t take a chance to design something fantastic such as this.
pink neon is garish but great also,sigh.
Can somebody please explain what the heck happened during the transition between the 90’s to the 2000’s?
Did we run out of imagination or did we get all caught up in trying to make things that no one would strongly react to good or bad.
Modernism, building wise and art wise was about taking risks,about being outside the norm,about making something that gets people’s attention,and making new ideas.
Not this ridiculous notion of dressing up stuff made to look like traditional architecture, that looks like a childish imitation,or creating something that gets a lackadaisical response as in “eh,its okay” .
and whats with making these crazy,ridiculous looking buildings,that look like wavy aluminum foil,or some building that looks like it came out a of a really really badly drawn cartoon,or just make no sense at all?
Yes,Modern Architecture wasn’t pretty,but at least at least,the buildings look like they were designed for a function,they looked sane,and at least they made more freaking sense, compared to these buildings that look like the architect has lost his mind!
postmodern style is an insult to traditional style.
sigh I just hate things that look boring or make no sense at all.
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Roger
June 20th, 2007 at 11:30 pm
So, what is the state of the “amusement” portion of River Falls? I was there around 2000 and really had fun at the amusement area while waiting for a movie. Has Bass Pro taken up this area? If you go to the movie theater area, can you have fun at the amusement area?
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Jay
July 22nd, 2007 at 11:22 pm
Bass Pro took up everything, including the movie theater space. Most of the layout of the mall was retained, but now it’s all Bass Pro..
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Tara
December 18th, 2007 at 1:06 am
River Falls had trouble keeping stores.
And they didn’t do a very good job on keeping loiterers away from the front of the store. So most older people did not like to go there having to go through a bunch of intimidating teenagers.
Green Tree did a better job of that and so it thrived while River Falls emptied out.
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Louisville
February 24th, 2008 at 1:13 am
Does anybody here know where to find more older photos (or have any) of this mall? Although I have many pictures of the death, demolition, and conversion, I would like to include several others for a future website on River Falls.
Too bad this mall died so early. It was the city’s only destination for entertainment and community culture.
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Jonah Norason
December 13th, 2008 at 7:06 pm
I did find a lease plan for this mall. The floorplan was a bit weird: imagine a dumbbell mall. It had Wal-Mart to the east…and an entrance to the west. A side corridor near Wal-Mart had the Toys R Us, but it had a weird entrance: there was a court with an entrance and the Toys R Us entrance.
On the west side of the complex, another corridor bisected the main corridor. This was two level. There was the grand entrance (http://www.labelscar.com/wp-content/uploads/2007/05/river-falls-mall-02.jpg) to the Dillard’s. Upstairs, the amusement park featured a mini-railroad, a mini-golf course, an artificial river, remote cars, an arcade, a “Red Baron” attraction (looks like it spun around), a small “Softplay” playground, an a carousel. Sounds fun!
I’ll make a map someday.
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Kari
June 12th, 2009 at 5:33 pm
I was just in Bass Pro Shops today and walked along a wall I hadn’t before and discovered a fully intact movie theatre, next to the indoor “driving” area and an indoor bow and arrow range that is encased in glass. That got me doing a little research on what River Falls used to be, since I don’t remember it, having just moved here in 2007. It’s funny how the front of Bass Pro still looks like the front end of the mall, just a different color and with different signage. I’m not sure what they show in that theatre, but they did leave one there. If I had to guess, I’d say their NASCAR area must have been the ticket counters and concessions area for the theatre.
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kendall
October 24th, 2009 at 10:33 am
I really miss this mall
it reminds me of my early childhodd and how there was always something to do there. lately I’ve been thinking about it and was hoping to find some pictures so thank you very much!
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