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

Howdy, folks.  It’s been a while.  Due to school, work, and a little R&R (not to mention some content generation for this website) on the east coast this past week we’ve been a bit busy.  Though fear not, we’ll churn up more interesting stuff for you to ponder well into the future.

Like the former Harding Mall in Nashville, Tennessee.

Opened in the 1960s, the 300,000 square foot Harding Mall was a small enclosed center featuring one major anchor and one junior anchor on the south side of Nashville.  In later years the major anchor was Dillards and the junior anchor was Marshalls, but we’re sure history dictated some changes here and there and that wasn’t always the case.  Over time, Harding Mall became eclipsed by larger, super-regional malls also in south Nashville like Hickory Hollow, The Mall at Green Hills, and Cool Springs Galleria.  All of the aforementioned are still moderately or extremely successful today, and draw shoppers from all over central Tennessee.  Harding Mall’s fate was sealed by this competition; it closed in 2005 and was promptly demolished following a few unsuccessful years repositioned with tenants catering to the spanish-speaking market.  By Summer 2006 it was replaced by a shiny new Wal-Mart Supercenter.  Not shocking, not even a unique situation, but a bit sad nonetheless. 

Harding Mall scored design points for its general shape and decorative accoutrements.  The mall space itself wrapped around the large Dillards anchor on three sides, creating a C-shape.  Marshalls hung off to one end, and a cool backlit fountain was somewhere near the middle of the mall.  The rest of the center was somewhat dated as well, and the logo is pretty neat too. 

We visited in May 2001 during the mall’s major downswing, and at a time when smaller, ancillary enclosed malls began to fall out of favor in lieu of larger behemoths like the others nearby.  Check out the pictures of the mall while it was still around below, and also take a look at some demolition photos posted here.  And, feel free to share a few of your own memories and opinions as well. 

All too often we profile the underdogs here. Malls that couldn’t make it get all the attention and some of the interesting, successful centers get lost in the fray. Sure, empty, dated corridors are great, but we aren’t being fair here and we never intended to punish those who are currently winning the game of capitalism. Besides, they’ll all eventually be history anyway, right?

Today’s entry comes to us from the Tri-Cities region of Tennessee and Virginia. With a population of nearly 500,000, the region is anchored by three cities: Kingsport, Bristol, and Johnson City. All three cities are in the northeast corner of Tennessee; however, Bristol is interestingly in both Tennessee and Virginia. Fort Henry Mall is located in Kingsport, which has a population of about 45,000. It is a successful two-level mall located on a prosperous strip and is nearly at capacity with stores. It’s currently anchored by JCPenney, Belk (2 locations) and Sears. One of the Belk locations was originally a Miller’s, a Hess’s, and most recently a Proffitt’s, which changed to Belk due to a buyout in March 2006.

Both the outside and inside of the mall are currently a hybrid of both very dated and modern decor, which unfortunately seem to be fighting and that’s not good. Outside, the anchors and most of the mall facade look ancient, which I think is cool but I’m sure puts off a few shoppers here and there. You know the type, they don’t walk into a place unless it’s glassy, shiny and sterile looking as a hospital. It appears, though, that Sears did update their logo with their very new logo. Going inside, the floors were dominated by pink tiles with purple borders, carpeting with a kaleidoscope of colors (none of which really matched), and peach colored railings. The ceiling was this mesh-looking latticework design, and sodium lamps hung down from it to light the mall (aided, thankfully, with some natural lighting and lighting from the stores). All in all, the design scheme inside the mall seemed somewhat schizophrenic and didn’t work at all for me. Maybe it works for you. For another strange color scheme, see my earlier Pekin Mall entry.

As for the mall this one destroyed, it was called Kingsport Mall, and was recently anchored by Montgomery Ward, Heilig Meyers, and Hills (later Ames). Talk about a sad destiny. All of those anchors went completely bankrupt and closed all stores in either 2001 or 2002. Needless to say, the Kingsport Mall, which never seemed to be on par with Fort Henry Mall in the first place, went down the tubes. In 2003 it was demolished and redeveloped into East Stone Commons, a very successful strip mall anchored by big box like Office Depot, PetsMart, Ross, Hobby Lobby, and Goody’s Family Clothing. It also has Cold Stone Creamery, which means it’s busy night and day. A tongue in cheek take on Kingsport featuring some of former Kingsport Mall’s pictures is featured here. Otherwise, check out my pictures of Fort Henry Mall featured below. They were taken August 2005.