Comments on: Green Tree Mall & River Falls Mall; Clarksville, IN

By: kendall

kendall — Sat, 24 Oct 2009 15:33:04 +0000

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!

By: Kari

Kari — Fri, 12 Jun 2009 22:33:25 +0000

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.

By: Jonah Norason

Jonah Norason — Sat, 13 Dec 2008 23:06:07 +0000

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.

By: Louisville

Louisville — Sun, 24 Feb 2008 05:13:29 +0000

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.

By: Tara

Tara — Tue, 18 Dec 2007 05:06:07 +0000

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.

By: Jay

Jay — Mon, 23 Jul 2007 03:22:00 +0000

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..

By: Roger

Roger — Thu, 21 Jun 2007 03:30:05 +0000

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?

By: Mark

Mark — Sun, 27 May 2007 18:49:56 +0000

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.

By: Chris Whittaker

Chris Whittaker — Tue, 22 May 2007 11:29:16 +0000

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.

By: J.T.

J.T. — Tue, 22 May 2007 05:43:45 +0000

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.