Raleigh Springs Mall; Memphis, Tennessee
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
Ryan
June 29th, 2008 at 9:32 pm
I can’t belive this is a SIMON mall.
While you were in Memphis, did you perhaps visit the Hickory Ridge Mall on the far southeast suburbs, the one hit by an EF3 tornado on Feb. 5, ‘08? I hear Macy’s won’t reopen at the mall because of damage to their store, leaving Sears as the lone retail anchor. This one might be going the way of Raleigh Springs soon, and I’d love to know more about the mall.
And as for SIMON, they ought to make part of Wal Mart’s contract state that an entrance directly into the mall is necessary. (I know it won’t happen though.)
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dan Reply:
August 29th, 2009 at 2:44 pm
@Ryan,
The Hickory Ridge Mall is a total dead mall. Only Sears is left. It’s owned by some sort of church and the whole place (except Sears) is shuttered. The Hickory Ridge Mall website is still up and says it’s reopening Summer 2009 but I doubt it. A visit a week ago showed some sort of work being done (contractor’s trucks) but the place is roped off. If they’re reopening anytime in the next two years, I’d be surprised. The macy’s sign is still up. The old Target just west of the peoperty is a super seedy pawn shop now. It takes up the whole Target building.
Sears actually owns their 100,000+ square foot space. The rest of the mall (490,000 sqft) is vacant.
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SEAN
June 30th, 2008 at 9:37 am
Ryan,
The Sunrise Mall on Long Island’s south shore has a Wall-mart with 2 levels & mall access. I don’t think that is common.
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Ryan
June 30th, 2008 at 1:15 pm
Yeah I’ve bben to Sunrise. And I guess if Westfield can do it, SIMON can. Wal Mart is probably the best fit for a mall like this, rather thn a Macy’s or something.
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Jonah Norason
June 30th, 2008 at 1:22 pm
Sean: I also believe Hilltop Mall in Cali has two stories (Supercenter or not, I don’t know), Baldwin Hills Mall in Cali has a THREE story Wal-Mart, and Christown Spectrum Mall has a Wal-Mart Supercenter.
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BIGMallrat
July 5th, 2008 at 1:50 am
Wow, a mall without kiosks; wide open spaces for your strolling pleasure. It’s too bad it’s dead. The drop ceiling and neon probably don’t help. You know my theory on low ceilings in a mall (spells d-o-o–m).
Scott
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prshack
July 19th, 2008 at 7:49 pm
@ Ryan about Hickory Springs: http://www.hickoryridge.com/info/slideshow.cfm
We went by Hickory Springs last August, and ate at a place on the corner of the mall site (not in the mall itself). It didn’t look very healthy then at all, and a lot of the stuff around the mall seemed to be gone too. We didn’t feel comfortable going inside, and our hotel was about 2 blocks away from the Mall of Memphis nonetheless.
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Lori
August 2nd, 2008 at 8:12 pm
I live 20 minutes north of memphis, I grew up 5 minutes from Raleigh Springs Mall. I used to walk there as a kid and shop. It was not always like this. Like many urban communities, everyone moved out from this area leaving nice homes and shopping to go to crap. Now it has been replaced with other malls that are nice and not so scarey. I would have researched better before staying at that motel though, it is a very crime ridden area of town, I now work at a school in the community and it is a very rough neighborhood
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Zach
August 4th, 2008 at 7:09 pm
The mall looks like it was remodeled by Feldman Mall Properties. The directory is in the same font as my local mall, Golden Triangle Mall in Denton, TX, also owned by Feldman. The whole mall also looks like conceptual drawing of what Feldman wanted to do with Golden Triangle, but has yet to do.
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Emily
August 6th, 2008 at 6:47 pm
I have not been to Raleigh Springs in almost 10 years and it was pretty bad back then. I remember it as been dingy and pretty boring. I also remember it as being one of the last malls you could smoke in. There was a square in the middle of the mall where you would let you smoke. As far as Hickory Ridge goes, my parents went by there in June. They said the area is getting bad. None of my friends in Memphis will go near that mall, which is sad because I have fond memories of having dance recitals there and shopping when I was a kid. They said most of the mall is still closed and does not appear to be reopening anytime soon, if it ever does.
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Matthew
August 25th, 2008 at 11:19 pm
I recall shopping here on trips from Little Rock and I had last been in Memphis in 1985 before moving here in 1997 for grad school. They have the original decor still with the cheesy fountain in the center. The renovations came way too late since people started shopping at Wolfchase in 98-and 99. I work for the City and think Wal mart is not going to build here. There is a fledgling Super K mart up the street and wal mart has a history of taking old K marts and making them wal marts. This was true in Texas where they chased K mart out of the state.
There is a proposal to de mall the site and make it a urban town center type of development.
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Kate
November 11th, 2008 at 3:49 am
Wow, this is sad. I grew up in the neighborhood just East of the mall and I remember when it opened. Mom was thrilled at the prospect of NOT having to drive down to Southland or Sears Crosstown. My girlfriends and I rode our bikes to Raleigh Springs and wasted countless entire days there – I guess we were pioneer mallrats! I performed in recitals there and even attended the charm school classes held in the basement at Sears. I learned to drive in the mall parking lot after hours.
We moved out of state in 1980 and it was a long time before I began to look back, so the news of my old community going to hell is a nasty surprise. Can it be rehabilitated? I sure hope so.
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M.C.
February 3rd, 2009 at 6:52 pm
wow, i can’t believe it’s so empty, but it looks tons better than it did in the ’80s when i used to hang out there. i doubt much of the original scene there still exists, but i remember that every visit started with a stop at the Hot Sam’s inside the front door on the right. we’d usually head down to the Musicland, Spencer gifts, and take a stroll through Dillard’s and Goldsmith’s to check out the new Swatch watches and Coca Cola polo shirts. after a few hours checking out the sights (read: girls!) we’d head back home, usually with a stop at Cat’s records on the corner of Coleman and Austin Peay just to see if there were any good deals in the clearance racks. occasionally i’d go with my grandmother to the Woolworth’s, where they had a cafe, and we’d have lunch. i remember that place having excellent hamburgers! back then the mall wasn’t in poor shape at all, but it was definitely in need of some updating. nonetheless we had a lot of fun there, and it’s a shame to see it in such sad shape. i imagine they’ll probably put up some big box stores or a Wal-Mart (the world’s most evil retailer, as i refer to them) and raze the rest of it, taking the memories of countless people along with the structure. the last time i was in Memphis i took a drive through Raleigh and was struck by how far the neighborhood has slumped, and i guess the mall is just another victim of the downfall. what a shame. not really a spectacular place as malls go, but it took up a lot of my time.
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Grant Wadsworth
February 5th, 2009 at 10:51 pm
I moved to memphis in 1996. The mall still had its four anchor stores but many other things were closed. The entire area needed an over haul which came to late. Wolfchase Galeria was under construction when we moved their and that was the final nail in the cofin for Raleigh Springs Mall. It is a shame that Management companies do not keep aging malls up to spead with the new malls. They always seem to have about a thirty year or less life and then die no matter what city you go to. Raliegh is no different.
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dan
August 29th, 2009 at 2:37 pm
The Raleigh Springs Mall is a dead mall for sure. There are only about twenty stores there and only one ancor (Sears) that looks a little forlorn. On a Saturday morning at 10:30 there were only about a dozen shoppers in the Sears. Oddly, the vacant Dillards space has a for sale sign with a Nashville area code. The JC Penney is completely sealed up and no evidence remains inside the mall except the mall guide (or Mallmanac) showing a big space with a number assigned to it. It’s in really bad shape.
Oh, and that refresh it went through was haphazard and incomplete. Mixing tacky current design elements with the 1971 architecture doesn’t work.
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cavalier973
October 31st, 2009 at 11:27 pm
I remember going into the front entrance and being hit with the smell of Chick-fil-a and the sound of “the Peter Gunn Theme” playing on the “Spy Hunter” game in the arcade. I lost so many quarters trying to get past the first screen of “Dragon’s Lair”…. Across from Chick-fil-a was the movie theater where my dad took my brother and I to see “Empire Strikes Back”. As you moved to the end of the main hall, you passed by a cookie shop on the right, an A&W restaurant on the left, and wound up facing the entrance to Goldsmith’s. My favorite sstore was the software boutique to the right and on the same side as Goldsmith’s. Those were the days when Nintendo was just getting big (the NES), and Sears had one set up near its toy dept (back when Sears had a toy dept). Sometimes the machine was set up with a timer; if you picked Mike Tyson’s Punch-out, the timer would reset just as you were about to start the fight with Glass Joe. Its funny, the things you remember.
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