The mall was nice for the most part! It went through a number of changes in the 1990’s and the late 80’s where a number of stores closed up and left town. Madisonville, like any town in that part of the state was very reliant on coal mines and at that time they were shutting down quick. As they shut down, stores at the mall shut down too. Even the strip mall next door suffered with KMart almost closing and the other big anchor at the other end closing (I forget it’s name though). I do know that Goody’s is now gone (they went bankrupt a couple years ago) and Dawahare’s is gone for the same reason as well. That is two large spaces that are empty in the mall. Goody’s did well there.

When we get out of this nasty recession, the mall has a chance. But it has got to get out of the hands of Ershig because they will not put any money into it what so ever. They are notorious for sitting on property and just letting it go with time. For what it’s worth, Ershig is based up the road in Henderson, KY. Like I said, this mall has potential, but I wouldn’t place any real bets on it if I was anyone. If you want more info, email me at mddavis@comcast.net and let me know.

Michael

I mostly visited this mall between 1985-1991 and haven’t been since then. I want to see it again. I’m impressed and amazed that the same carpet is still there, and the wood paneling. It looks like it still has the same 80’s charm. As a kid, mall arcades were by far my favorite places to go, and the one at this mall had alot of games that I never saw at other arcades. It seemed bigger than most, even though it was in a relatively small mall. I wonder if that arcade is still there, and if not then I’m curious as to what replaced it? You can still see the same stonework entrance to it at the left of one of the photos, but you can’t see anything inside it.

I’m glad to see this mall is still alive – so many of the malls I enjoyed as a kid are now gone, or are pitiful shadows of their former glory, remodeled into a completely different and tacky modern look, overrun by thugs, and no longer containing arcades.

Peebles was originally Harvey’s, a neat old department store from Nashville, Tennessee that used antique carousel horses as their corporate logo, and had the real things in each one of their stores. Parkway Plaza was Harvey’s first Kentucky store and the company’s first attempt to locate a unit outside the state of Tennessee. I remember the Harvey’s very well, a very elegantly appointed store like nothing else within 100 miles at the time, with lots of mirrored columns throughout the floorspace, and a very flashy cosmetics counter dead center at the mall entrance. It had a simple square layout so you couldn’t get turned around in it. The men’s section was a Levi’s haven, and you could get your Nikes there too, and most everything was usually on sale. I remember the employees being so friendly and helpful, like they were so happy for you to buy from them, not like you were EXPECTED to shop there. After all, a chain department store was relatively new to Madisonville (other than Penney’s-UGH!-more on them later.) I always felt welcome in Harvey’s. I liked this store so well that when I got older I finally ventured down to Nashville to visit their flagship store at 100 Oaks Mall. By then it was the late 80’s and there wasn’t much left at 100 Oaks. Practically everything was gone, except Harvey’s, still standing as a monolithic three-level shrine to retailing, complete with two sets of constantly moving escalators, and still decorated in its original 1960’s glory!

On this first visit, I asked the employees how old the mall was ( I was told it had just celebrated its 20th anniversary with little fanfare-it opened in 1968) and Harvey’s was one of the original anchors along with Penney’s, Woolco, and Woolworth which were long vacant. I found it just in the nick of time too, as all of Harvey’s stores had just been acquired by Peebles and were in the process of converting over. The employees were even taking pictures of the store’s carousel horses to preserve their memory, as they would be out the door when Peebles finally took over, along with some of the employees themselves. By 1988, 100 Oaks, although stunning in design and an excellent specimen to the mid 20th century modern styles of architecture and shopping, was already a very “dead mall” with virtually every vacant storefront down the mallway bearing massive labelscars. It wasn’t long before Peebles and what remained of 100 Oaks were ultimately shuttered. The mall was revamped in the 1990’s as an outlet mall, its gorgeous original 1960’s essence completely desecrated in favor of a typically mundane, albeit mainstream, 90’s makeover. I haven’t been back since.

In my opinion, Peebles never truly acquired the upper scale aura, quality of hand-picked merchandise, nor level of personal service I associated with Harvey’s. Surprisingly, it has endured in Madisonville since the late 80’s, as other long time and flash-in-the-pan retailers have come and gone-so more power to ‘em.

At the other end of Parkway Plaza was JCPenney, the most horrible example of a Penney’s I have ever had the displeasure of visiting. If I am not mistaken, they had been in downtown Madisonville for several years prior, and vacated that location in favor of a new store at the mall. There were several things that turned me off from that Penney’s from the get-go. Even though it was a new store circa 1979 or so, the place was small (which is understandable for a smaller mall in a smaller town), but the interior was very bland and not very pretty for a brand new outlet-it already looked dated and had no visual appeal whatsoever, not to mention the fact that it never looked clean or organized. Their restroom was the worst of any mall I had ever been in, yet this one was practically brand spankin’ new. The majority of the employees were seemingly older, and most likely were carry-overs from downtown, and as a very young adult I got the impression that my business didn’t matter to them. They all looked and acted like they were clinging on just a little bit longer, ready to get the hell out of there on the verge of retirement. The place literally had the look and demeanor of a rest home. No wonder it’s gone, and good riddance. I went there looking for dorm room bedding, as I was getting ready to head off to WKU as a freshman. As a young male I didn’t have a clue about comforters and pillow shams, and came out of that store none the wiser because I got no help. For those of you who remember the wastewater treatment plant precariously close to Penney’s, it wasn’t the only thing that stank down at that end of the mall. Subsequently, I took off down the Pennyrile Parkway to JCPenney in Hoptown, and found exactly what I wanted with the help of a very nice saleslady.

Otherwise, Parkway Plaza was a happenin’ little place back in its day. I bought a lot of cassette tapes and albums at the Sound Shop, ate a lot of pizza at Godfather’s, found a killer Polo knock-off necktie in Rose’s for just a few bucks (I still have it to this very day, no one could ever tell the difference), and got some nice wool sweaters for Christmas courtesy of Golden Farley (and my parents). It was a cool place to hang out and cruise the perimeter in the summer. Too bad my friends and I didn’t know very many young people there at the time, as we weren’t from Madisonville and came from a nearby county. It was a fun little “big town” section of an otherwise small Western Kentucky town.

Good luck, Parkway Plaza!

If it’s ok I ask jwhite, could you please describe some of the similarities you noticed in both of these malls? It just seems like you’ve likely visited both these malls at least once, according to your comment(though correct me if I’m wrong!), that’s why I’m asking. Thanks!