South Park Mall (Summer Grove Baptist Church); Shreveport, Louisiana
The cultural and commercial center of the Ark-La-Tex region, the area where Arkansas, Louisiana, and Texas meet, Shreveport is a city of roughly 200,000 people with almost double that amount in the metropolitan area. A truly southern city, Shreveport has roots in shipping, was the capital of Louisiana and one of the last battle theatres during the Civil War, and experienced the volatility of the American Civil Rights movement during the 1950s and 1960s.
Also true to its southern roots, Shreveport experienced a period of rapid decline during the mid- to late-20th century, owing in part to a changing economy away from that of manufacturing to one of knowledge, something Shreveport lacked with only one very small four-year college until 1976 - when LSU-Shreveport was added.
Today, however, Shreveport and its twin across the river Bossier (pronounced Bo-zher or Bo-jur) City are experiencing a bit of an economic renaissance, thanks in-part to legalized riverboat gambling, which spurned a revitalization effort along the riverfronts in both cities and the construction of a large retail lifestyle center under one of the main Red River bridges called Louisiana Boardwalk, which opened in 2005.
Until the opening of Louisiana Boardwalk, and for aforementioned reasons due to the declining health of the region’s economy, several of the area’s retail centers were in decline. Both Pierre Bossier Mall, located in the east of metro Shreveport, and South Park Mall, located in the southwest, have not fared well through the years. Centrally located Mall St. Vincent, albeit smaller than the three other major enclosed malls in Shreveport, weathered this decline through an upmarket base of stores. Also faring well are the Line Avenue retail district heading south from downtown, and the booming newer retail strip along LA Highway 1 to the southeast of downtown.
South Park Mall opened in 1974 on the southeast side of Shreveport, near the interchange between the Inner Loop Expressway (LA 3132) and Jewella Ave. It was anchored by Dillard’s, Montgomery Ward, JCPenney, Houston-based Palais Royal, and local Selber Bros. Despite competition from two other enclosed malls in the Shreveport area, South Park held its ground, drawing shoppers from the affluent, growing area of south Shreveport. However, trouble brewed during the 1990s as the area of west Shreveport just north of the mall on Jewella Avenue fell to rough times and developed a gang problem, which extended itself to the mall at times. Even before this major shakeup occurred, changes were afoot in South Park’s anchor roster. Palais Royal was replaced by Bealls (Texas) and later Stage, and Selber Bros. was replaced by Phar-Mor, which in turn closed in the early 1990s and was replaced by Burlington Coat Factory. In 1995, a shooting in the parking lot of South Park Mall was especially bad press for the mall, and other crime at or surrounding the mall made front page news during the latter half of the decade. In 1996, a young woman disappeared while she was presumed to be visiting the mall, and has not been found since.
As fickle shoppers go, they certainly went -away, that is, following this perception of crime and the “bad neighborhood” near the mall, despite that the mall and the retail strip around it were still in decent condition. The first major blow was the closing of 175,000 square-foot behemoth Montgomery Ward in 1999. Then, not long after, JCPenney closed their also-massive store, and Dillard’s hung on a bit longer, closing in 2001. This massive defection of anchor stores spelled even greater woe for the in-line tenants, as many who didn’t leave during the decline of the late-1990s left during this period. The mall limped along and finally closed in the early 00s sometime.
So, in 2003, after putting the final nail in the coffin of the site’s retail history, an unlikely suitor came to the mall in hopes of purchasing it. Summer Grove Baptist Church, a Shreveport religious institution since 1849, did some investigating and decided the empty mall would be a near-perfect fit for its needs, and in September 2003 closed on a deal to purchase the entire property. They moved in 2005 to occupy the mall, and aside from transforming the JCPenney into a church-looking structure, complete with a steeple, have done relatively little to change the mall’s interior as well as the vacant anchors. Numerous former stores, though, are being utilized, and have been converted to worship facilities, a day care, youth outreach, church offices, and more. There are even a couple stores where church crafts are for sale. Even so, many of the former stores are relatively unscathed; for example, a national chain shoe store still has brand stickers up on the windows, and many stores still have many of their fixtures. The former Dillard’s, for example, is an abandoned, dark mess of old fixtures apparently operating as a storage area.
Other interesting tidbits about the mall and its saintly acquisition include an apparent Christian music piece entitled ’March to the Mall’ written by Jordan Eismeier in 2004, and the rumblings that the former Montgomery Ward building may be sold to the Louisiana Film Institute for classes and shooting locations - all family friendly of course. In 2005, during Hurricane Katrina, the mall was used as a staging area relay for disaster response. Lastly, in other weirdness, Burlington Coat Factory still operates at the mallchurch (churchmall?), the only secular retail holdover from the mall’s heyday; however, it does not have access into the mallchurch corridor.
We laud this retail recycling, especially as it essentially functions as a dead mall museum of sorts. We visited the former South Park Mall in March 2008, completely unaware of the mall’s current state, and were able to walk the mall’s/church’s corridors unimpeded, save for a few goofy looks from church patrons and employees. The corridors and former stores were mostly empty, as it was a weekday afternoon, and the only people to be found were working in the retail shop, the church’s information office, and several employees who appeared to be janitors or building maintenance occasionally roamed around on motorized scooters. In all, the whole experience was neat and unique. Feel free to take a look at the pictures we took, and leave your own comments and experiences.
on May 12th, 2008 at 9:12 pm
is the brownish department store storefront Dillard’s or JCP? I think I see a “D” labelscar for Dillard’s, but maybe also a “P” near it for JCPenney. Or am I way off…?
on May 12th, 2008 at 10:21 pm
I think it’s cool that the former mall got a new life through this church’ and it’s efforts. I also like that they left a lot of it unchanged. Bravo to them for using the current building and not wanting to tear it down in favor of a new building.
on May 13th, 2008 at 12:27 am
The Penney’s exterior was converted to the church facade with the steeple tower, so it’s probably Dillard’s.
on May 13th, 2008 at 1:31 am
Haha awesome. It looks like they’re going to get a lot out of this mall.
on May 13th, 2008 at 7:56 am
Reminds me of Forest Park Mall in the Chicago suburb of the same name. Most of it is now operated by a large church, and they have remodeled many of the inline stores into offices and classrooms. The makeover has been a little more thorough than this one but its still unmistakeably an old mall. I wandered through it one Sunday dressed in a T-shirt and shorts, and got a few quizzical looks from folks dressed in their Sunday finest.
on May 13th, 2008 at 2:23 pm
You gotta love this. What a hoot it would be to wander about the old mall and discover any hidden treasures left over from its previous life. Who knows what is still there somewhere?
It’d be like one of those movies where the kid gets trapped in the mall after closing time and has to spend the night. Lots of empty space to be sure, but I am willing to bet lots of funky stuff too.
on May 13th, 2008 at 5:44 pm
It looks creepy. It looks like a church in some parts, and a mall in the other. Add that to a lifeless feel, and you’ve got this. It’s just too bizarre to be put in words, but I feel something. I really do.
on May 14th, 2008 at 2:00 pm
Interesting you beat me to it Charles, as I was about to mention Forest Park Mall in the western Chicago suburb of Forest Park. Only difference between these 2 malls was that Forest Park Mall was definitely smaller than this mall.
And of course IIRC, Forest Park Mall still has a few non-church inline stores inside them. I guess it’s safe to presume South Park Mall has at least a handful of non-church inline stores left, or were none left when the church who bought the South Park Mall property bought it?
on May 16th, 2008 at 11:21 am
Actually, Forest Park Mall has been completely gutted and no longer resembles the former enclosed mall at all, sadly. I took a swing by earlier this year and the portion of the old mall that was still vacant and being used by the church looked like it had been either demolished or gutted, and a line of stores has been put in that face Roosevelt Rd making this a regular ol’ strip mall. The mall entrance next to Old Country Buffet, which was still being used, has been converted to a store. So it seems like the church moved on or operates in a much smaller space here now? Also the long-vacant anchor on the east side is now an Ultra Foods grocery store. AJ Wright, a U.S. Cellular phone store, and about a dozen other stores are now where the mall once was. You can see it clearly if you load the birds eye view at http://maps.live.com (sorry, the link wouldn’t paste right here). I should probably go dig up my photos of this mall from 2000 and make a post.
on May 20th, 2008 at 11:19 pm
Great to see another mall from Louisiana, thanks PrangeWay for posting it! I went to this mall in June of 2001 and at that time it only had the Burlington Coat Factory and Stage anchors left then. I had went to Shreveport for the weekend with a friend and I hit all 3 malls in town. I went to the mall to go to the KB Toys and B.Dalton Bookseller, where I did purchase a big coffee table pictorial book of the Shreveport/Bossier City area. I also remember seeing a closed TG&Y five and dime store and Sbarro’s pizza too. I cant remember any other stores, I wish I would have picked up a mall directory. I did walk the whole mall and it was still about 75% full with inline stores. But the 3 big anchors were empty, it had been almost a year since the JCPenney had closed and about 6 months for the Dillards. But it was a pitiful sight to see even then with the 3 big empty anchors. I had never seen a mall like that in my life at that time and could not believe it. But I knew it was anchorless except for the junior anchors because I had checked there website before I left for the trip and they did not list Dillard’s anymore as a store. This mall was owned by Simon Properties at that time and it had the same generic website all there malls have. I remember the Simon signs hanging on the light poles in the parking lot and stickers on the entrance doors. I also went to the ToysRUs that was still open next door at the time. This was the first ToysRUs in Louisiana to close in there first round of closings in 2002 or 2003.
I knew about Summer Grove Church taking over the mall, but did not know the mall concourse was still open to the public. It is kind of cool, even if a bit creepy, or depressing, to see what was once a great mall of the 70’s, now a victim of the demographic shift that hits so many cities. I had been following news about the mall on The Shreveport Times website since about 2000 or 2001 to keep up on what was going on with it and PrangeWay is acurate on most all of the information submitted. The mall started going downhill in the mid 90’s as the neighborhood started going down, similiar to what happened to Lake Forest Plaza in New Orleans in the late 80’s and early 90’s. A story we hear over and over again on labelscar.
The exterior is very 70’s, especially the anchors. All the anchors kind of look alike to me. The exterior resembles many other malls in the deep south that were built in the 70’s. The interior looks like it might have been renovated in the 80’s, but it does look just like I remember it from 2001. Great classic mall still intact, I agree with PrangeWay on the reuse of the mall, and it does remind me of a museum. Something I never would have never imagined for South Park Mall, I was sure it would have been demolished by now. But that never happened thanks to Summer Grove Batptist Church using the building, and I hope it never happens!
on May 21st, 2008 at 8:53 pm
Three minor corrections to this article. LSU-S was opened in 1966, not 1976 as reported. Palais Royal was never a tenant at this mall. They were located in Mall St. Vincent. Rubenstein’s is probably the anchor that they were refering to. It’s the only one I see missing and I’ve seen that mistake before. They were a little bit larger and more upscale Palais Royal was founded in Shreveport and at the time this mall was in exsistence, they were based in Shreveport. They were purchased by Wellan’s Department Stores. When Stage Stores bought Wellan’s, in about 1997, the resurected the name and created a new chain.
on May 21st, 2008 at 9:14 pm
Okay, I should’ve read further. Rubenstein’s was the first to go. They were replaced with Phar-Mor. Later, the building was enlarged and coverted to the Burlington that is still there. Selber’s closed in 1988. Beall-Ladymon, moved to the spot from elsewhere in the mall. They were originally located near Wards where the movie theater was most recently. This mall was part of my childhood. Prior to the remodel about 1990, this mall had large fountains in every court, some with bridges crossing them, as well as yellow tiled sunken seating areas. This was the place to be when I was in high school, about 1992. I worked there during college, til about 1998 and it was still going strong. Though, it was starting to get a rep. It wasn’t til Ward’s closed in 1999 that the carpets were rolled up. It seemed to die overnight.
on May 22nd, 2008 at 1:06 pm
Kenney: Is that the Rubenstein’s store out of New Orleans? They still have a store in downtown New Orleans. I think that may have tried to expand to some other Louisiana cities at one time. Does anyone know if they ever had a store at Lakeside Shopping Center in Metairie? Or if Rubenstein’s had stores in other Louisiana cities like Baton Rouge or Lafayette, or other larger southern cities like Jackson, MS or Mobile, AL?
on May 23rd, 2008 at 2:02 pm
Yes there actually was a Rubenstein’s at Lakeside at one time, though I don’t think it’s there anymore. That was the only other Rubenstein’s which ever existed outside of the downtown New Orleans store (cnr. Canal St./St. Charles Ave.) as far as I know. I would think that the Rubenstein’s in Shreveport must be unrelated. But the period seems to be before my time so I can’t be sure.
on May 26th, 2008 at 7:02 pm
OK Prange Way, thanks for clarifying me on what has more recently occurred with Forest Park Mall. Didn’t realize the inline space at FPM has been gutted, and the interior hallway that led up to Old Country Buffet are all gone today. And believe it or not, I once ate at this OCB many years ago(probably in the 1990s, before I believe the church moved in), too.
I still suspect though that South Park Mall was probably bigger than Forest Park Mall(and from my memory of walking around FPM), but I have no way to definitely figure out which of the 2 malls was bigger.
on May 27th, 2008 at 12:07 pm
I’m not actually sure how big this place is, but it’s definitely larger than Forest Park Mall, probably on the magnitude of Chicago Ridge or North Riverside Park Mall if that gives you an idea. It was definitely first-tier in size and tenancy.
on May 27th, 2008 at 1:17 pm
The Rubenstein’s that was located in South Park Mall was a local chain. Their flagship store was in downtown Shreveport on Milam St. They had 3 Suburban stores. One in the Heart of Bossier Shopping Center, one in Uptown Center, and the South Park store.. Since my original post, I recalled that the South Park store was orginally M. Levy & Co., another local chain that folded in the early 1980’s. I don’t believe their is any relation to the New Orleans store.
on May 27th, 2008 at 3:38 pm
Ah, I’ve definitely been to both those malls you mentioned at least once, Prange. So yep, I definitely see your point about approximately how big South Park Mall was(not to mention, I had heard about it’s decline into a dead mall).
on July 3rd, 2008 at 11:52 pm
The other mall in Shreveport, Mall St. Vincent, is very small for a metro area the size of Shreveport/Bossier City. It is only 550,000 square feet,with 1 level,and only 2 anchors. They started losing a lot of stores in
the late 90’s, despite the addition of the Dillard’s anchor in 1991. But the General Growth Properties mall started to make a turn around in the early 00’s when they landed popular upscale retailers Banana Replubic, Hollister Co and Abercrombie & Fitch that had the closest locations 3 hours away in Dallas. Other stores that have the only Shreveport location here are New York & Company, the upscale Lee Micheal’s Fine Jewelry(a
Louisiana chain), Strasburg Children, Cache, Aldo and Charlotte Russe. The mall was opened in 1976 off of Kings Highway just 2 years after South Park Mall. Mall St. Vincent pretty much lagged behind South Park up
until the late 90’s when SP started going down. More good luck hit Mall St. Vincent when Interstate 49 began contruction in the early 90’s, and was constructed in the open land next to the mall. So know when you are
entering Shreveport from the south via I-49, one of the first things you see is the Dillard’s and Sears anchored mall right next to the interstate. Just one quick exit off the interstate and you are there. So despite it’s smaller size(South Park is over 800,000 square feet), it had the stores, clear visibility off of an interstate, and a more central location to higher income residents.
The big retail strip that PrangeWay mentioned is the intersection of Youree Drive(LA HWy 1) and 70th street. Since 2001 when a big Super Target anchored shopping center opened here, it has boomed into the top retail hub in all of Shreveport/Bossier City. Many big box, upscale chains and department stores are located here. There is Bed,Bath and Beyond, Best Buy, Barnes & Noble, Lowe’s, Circuit City(which relocated from just down the street), Cost Plus World Market, Linens N Things, Old Navy, Pier 1 Imports, just to name a few. The upscale lifestyle center, The Shoppes at Bellmead, is on Youree Drive, and brought many new upscale retailers: White House/Black Market, Coldwater Creek, Jos A. Bank, Chico’s, Francesca’s Collections, J.Jill, James Avery; more stores that had the closest locations in Dallas. Belk took over the former Kmart on 70th street in Eastgate Shopping Center that had been vacated after the second round of store closings in 2003 shuttered the last 2 Kmarts in Shreveport, this also revitalized the old shopping center with new tenants Show Carnival, Ross Dress for Less and Hobby Lobby and Carraba’s Italian restaurant. JCPenney just returned to Shreveport about 4 months ago, after an almost 8 year absence since the South Park Mall location closed in 2000, when they opened one of there non mall stores in the brand new Regal Court Shopping Centre on Youree Drive, also anchored by Kohl’s and Dick’s Sporting Goods, with Logan’s Roadhouse, and T.G.I. Fridays’ return to Louisiana, DSW shoes, and more stores and restaurants on the way. All of this just north of the LSU Shreveport campus.
Bossier City also serves the area with quite a bit of retail. Pierre Bossier Mall is not a really a dead mall like PrangeWay suggested. The 650,000 square foot mall opened in 1982, and is a very typical 80’s mall with a
food court called Pierre Cafe, along with all the bright 80’s colors and designs. There is one empty anchor, the former Service Merchandise, but it has 4 anchors Sears, JCPenney, Dillard’s and Stage. David’s Bridal took a large portion of the mall when they opened a store in 2001. It has been hit somewhat by the Louisiana Boardwalk. For example, the Gap store at PBM closed about a year after the Gap Outlet store opened in Louisiana Boardwalk, however, there is still a mall store in the area at Mall St. Vincent. Pierre Bossier Mall still has an excellent location right off of I-20 in the middle of Bossier City. It is surrounded by several big box stores and shopping centers, and is near the area’s only Kmart, Books A Million and ToysRUs(this happened when the Shreveport store next to South Park mall closed). Not only is the older traditional mall being hit by the Louisiana Boardwalk, it is also being hit by the new Stirling Bossier
Center, developed by Stirling Properties of Covington, LA, a few miles north of PBM on Airline Drive at I-220.
This center is kind of unique in that it is a little combination of the traditional big outdoor 2 anchor shopping center and a modern lifestyle center. This is 1 of 3 of these centers that Stirling Properties has developed in Louisiana. Not quite a lifestyle center, but not quite a traditional shopping center because they are anchored by at least one department store, Belk or JCPenney, and all 3 centers have a Target, along with big box stores, and some small shops that you would find in a traditional mall. The Bossier City center has Belk, Ross Dress for Less, Best Buy, Academy, PetsMart, and then some smaller stores Lane Bryant/Cacique, Catherine’s, Justice Jewelers, After Hours Formal Wear, and more non mall stores/services like FedEx/Kinkos, Wonder Cuts, and a florist, tanning salon and similiar services, and outparcel restaurants Longhorn Steakhouse and ChickFilA. The newest center under contruction and development in Lafayette just opened the Target a few
months ago. The Stirling Center in Covington opened in 2004 and has a Target, Belk and JCPenney and a Hollywood theater and a few more smaller mall stores like Kirklands, Maurices, Rue 21, and Hibbet Sports.
These centers have the name Stirling, and then the city name, followed by the word center, and most are about 600,000 to 700,000 square feet.
Louisiana Boardwalk was develeped to be more of an entertainment center, with a shopping center. It has almost all factory outlet stores, except for a few stores like Build A Bear Workshop, Yankee Candle, Wet Seal and Earthbound Trading that would be found in a traditional indoor mall. There is also a day spa and salon, nail spa and massage therapist spa. The Bass Pro Shops anchor sits right on the Red River near the Texas Street Bridge. There is also a Regal Cinema, a bowling alley and an arcade. Louisiana Boardwalk sits right across from the Shreveport central business district that gives patrons a nice view of the Shreveport skyline, especially at night, which includes the 2 very colorful casino hotel towers on the Shreveport side of the Texas Street Bridge and 26 story Horseshoe Casino hotel tower in Bossier City. It is also near all 5 riverboat casinos in downtown Shreveport and Bossier City. Since its opening in May 2005, they have had some problems keeping some restaraunts due to leasing problems and market conditions, and several restaurants have come and gone. But it also gave Shreveport/Bossier it’s first Hooters, the sports bar Buffalo Wild Wings, and just recently added Funny Bone Comedy Club, all this to mix in with the “entertainment” theme for the place.
To have such small malls in a city this size always seemed unusual to me. I always thought the Shreveport area’s retail sector seemed to lag behind that of Baton Rouge, Louisiana’s 2nd largest city, and other similiar sized cities in the deep south like Jackson, MS, Little Rock, or Mobile AL. These cities were getting malls that were near 1 million square feet or larger during the 70’s mall boom, while the biggest
Shreveport ever got was South Park Mall. Baton Rouge’s population has only 25,000 more people and the cities Jackson and Little Rock are still under 200,000. Although Baton Rouge has a larger metropolitan area of 700,000(as well as the other 3 cities I mentioned) to Shreveport’s 400,000, Shreveport is the largest city and commercial center of the ArkLaTex, and serves it in areas of healthcare and jobs. But many retailers, especially upscale retailers, have chosen smaller Louisiana cities like Lafayette and Monroe to locate before Shreveport. Three hours is a long time to drive to shop in Dallas. Many of the upscale retailers that were in Baton Rouge for many years, were just coming to Shreveport in the last 5 or 6 years, when it seems like these stores should have located here many years earlier considering Shreveport serves such a large area.
on July 9th, 2008 at 10:37 am
Poor South Park Mall. It was the place to be from 1976 - late 90’s. I graduated high school in 1980 and everyone went there. It was really nice back then. Me and my friends would go there on weekends just to hang out eat a corndog play videos games or see a movie. I saw the first StarWars there in 1977. I bought my wedding rings there and so much more. I was borne and raised in S’port and the true reason why the mall closed is obvious to folks like me. The blacks took it over. I was approached on several occasions and was offered drugs for sale. No security. No dress codes. Loud groups of young blacks male and female pushing their way through the mall looking for something to do. Word spead quickly through the white community. And the whites stopped shopping there. After that it quickly turned into a black haven for young blacks to congregate. Thats the truth. I’m not a prejudice person. The media and the newspapers reported speratic gang activity there but never really reported that the racial divide is what really closes South Park Mall.
R.I.P.
on July 21st, 2008 at 7:58 pm
Just to clarify the “apparent Christian music piece entitled ’March to the Mall’”: it was written as the sixth and final tongue-in-cheek movement of a dectet that I composed in honor of my friends at Summer Grove. The instruments used [3 flutes, clarinet, bassoon, 2 trumpets, trombone, piano and percussion] in the piece were the instruments the made up the church band at the time, and I was the bassoonist. The entire dectet and many of my other compositions are available on my website: http://members.sibeliusmusic.com/eismeier
I composed the dectet to be just a fun tribute to my experiences at Summer Grove, and my I moved out of Shreveport right as SGBC moved to the mall. I wish everyone there all the best and God’s continued blessing.