Dead Malls - Labelscar: The Retail History Blog

Northwest Plaza; St. Ann, Missouri

Located in the solidly middle class north county suburbs of St. Louis, Northwest Plaza has had a very rich and interesting history. Its ups and downs can be tied to popular trends in retailing, from open air center to enclosed mall; and now, with an uncertain future and new owners, Northwest Plaza is failing again. But why is this? We can point to competition and demographics for some clues as to what happened to Northwest Plaza, the largest mall in the St. Louis metropolitan area.

Northwest Plaza opened in 1963 as an open-air shopping center very close to the airport, along the busy Lindbergh Blvd. (US 67) and also very close to the intersection of I-70 and I-270. It immediately became the largest shopping center in the St. Louis area, and was also the first to feature four anchors: Stix Baer & Fuller, JCPenney, Famous Barr, and Sears. Boyd’s, Walgreens, and Woolworth were junior anchors which also opened with the center, and there is also a 12-story office tower at the south end of the mall. Northwest Plaza soldiered on for two decades as an open-air center, but eventually fell victim to competition. By the mid-1980s, while Northwest Plaza was a twenty-year-old open air mall, other more popular enclosed malls sprung up in the area stealing its thunder. In 1976, a large two-story mall opened in west-suburban Chesterfield. In 1984, the massively popular and upscale St. Louis Galleria opened in centrally located Richmond Heights. And in 1987, a large shiny new center opened along I-70 about 10 miles past Northwest Plaza in St. Peters.

In response to this area competition, Northwest Plaza was sold in 1984 to Paramount Group, who enclosed and expanded the mall in 1989. This expansion added about 200,000 square feet of in-line retail space, as well as a new food court with a new cinema stacked on top of it and a family entertainment center beneath it. The total square footage in Northwest Plaza after the enclosure and expansion was 1.8 million square feet, with 1.2 million square feet in anchor space and 600,000 feet in smaller stores. Kids R Us was added soon after the enclosure, and the large two-level Woolworths closed and was replaced by Phar-Mor and smaller in-line store space. Oshman’s SuperSports USA moved into the former Boyd’s location, but by the mid-1990s both Oshman’s and Phar-Mor had closed and the mall was experiencing more vacancies than ever before. Apparently the 1989 enclosure and expansion had not stood up to the test of competition from other more dominant centers, which surround Northwest Plaza.

In 1997 Westfield America purchased Northwest Plaza, adding it to its growing portfolio of malls across the nation. Westfield breathed life into the ailing mall, and under its tenure several national retailers opened in Northwest Plaza, such as Bath and Body Works, American Eagle, Disney Store, and even the Gap which had closed a couple years earlier citing poor sales. Westfield apparently looked into the future and employed tactics widely used today with failing retail relics, breathing life into them by diversifying retail tenants and changing some retail to mixed uses. Westfield touted that the mall’s “layers of convenience” pleased a wide range of shoppers, from the upper class female who shops for designer labels at the department stores to budget-oriented families looking for bargains at Family Dollar. Office Max even opened in the mall, which was one of the first Office Max stores in an enclosed mall. In addition, services such as a Post Office, dry cleaners, and medical offices were available at the mall and its adjoining 12-story office tower. Northwest Plaza enjoyed a great deal of success, bringing occupancy up to a maximum of 96 percent during the late 90s and through the turn of the century.

However, Northwest Plaza’s fortunes changed dramatically for the worse beginning around 2002, when everything began to slowly unravel. The slowdown of the economy, ever-increasing competition, and some failed renovation efforts have sent the mall into a downward spiral, and today it is a hulking shell of its former self with an alarming vacancy rate. Despite Westfield’s efforts which sustained and even raised the mall’s clout in the late 1990s, stores began leaving en masse. Several planned renovations failed, including one which was to feature St. Louis’ first Ikea store and certainly would have saved the mall. JCPenney announced they were closing in 2002, vacating 200,000 square feet of space. Also in 2002, West County Center was rebuilt as an upscale enclosed mall just 10 minutes to the south along I-270. Then, in 2003, both Office Max and Burlington Coat Factory closed, the latter jumping ship for the massive St. Louis Mills mall which is about 10 minutes away in Bridgeton and opened the same year. In 2004, the vacancy rate was just over 20 percent, and in 2005 the movie theatre above the food court closed. The lone reprieve to the mall’s spiral of death has been the appearance of Steve & Barry’s University Sportswear, which has moved into vacant retail spaces in enclosed malls across the country. It replaced the vacant JCPenney in 2004, and at the time was the largest store in the chain.

Today, Northwest Plaza is alarmingly vacant. The Gap, American Eagle, Bath and Body Works, and many other in-line stores have jumped ship very recently. Several corridors are completely without stores. The food court, which in 2002 was nearly full, has only three outlets. Westfield realized the mall was a sinking ship and unloaded it in 2006 to Somera Capital Management with General Growth acting as manager. Famous Barr also became Macy’s in 2006. Interestingly, because Westfield owns its own rather generic signage, once the mall was sold all the signage on the outside and inside had to be changed immediately. A sign currently sits at the food court entrance apologizing for how terrible the mall is, and gives a rather vague promise to do something about that. We’ll see.

I first visited Northwest Plaza on a family vacation in 1993, which was not long after its enclosure and expansion. The mall did seem new to me, and amazingly impressive. Caldor and I visited the mall together in 1999, and I’ve been back several times since. The decor and layout of Northwest Plaza is five-star amazing, with three separate, gigantic center court areas with VERY tall ceilings and mall corridors zig-zagging between them, and also long side-hallways with many more stores. The office tower and south end of the mall also has several stores such as Family Dollar that appear to be mostly predicated on outside access, and the food court featured a sunken entertainment area featuring a Tilt! Family Entertainment Center, which has also since closed. The food court also had large windows which faced out on this sunken area, and several sit-down restaurants also lined the sunken area with outside seating. These have all closed, save for a St. Louis Bread Company which should look familiar to most of you since it is really just Panera Bread in disguise. Finally, here’s what it looks like from space.

It seems Northwest Plaza has fallen victim to other modern successful malls with staying power like Mid Rivers Mall, Chesterfield Mall and St. Louis Galleria, and also extensively renovated malls like West County Center. In addition, the solidly blue collar demographics of the immediate area have not helped it position itself with upscale stores, as the upscale areas around the mall probably shop at West County, the Galleria, or even Plaza Frontenac which is not far away. Those in St. Charles and St. Charles County, which is just a few minutes from Northwest Plaza, definitely shop at Mid Rivers and the massive strip of boxes around it, and ignore this older area around the airport. Despite the 1989 enclosure and expansion, and being the largest mall in Missouri, Northwest Plaza will have to reposition itself even further in the future to remain viable at all.

Here are some pictures from January 2002 when the mall was at the end of its period of Westfield success:

Pictures from June 2007 with many vacancies and new exterior signage:

University Mall; Little Rock, Arkansas

While we may not be able to represent all 50 states in 2007, contributor Michael Lisicky is helping inch us along with this dead mall, the University Mall in Little Rock, Arkansas:

I am not from Little Rock. I have never been to Little Rock. But recently I flew to Little Rock, just for the day, to check out the retail scene. It’s one of the few places in the country that has escaped the homogenization of Macy’s but is also home to one of the country’s few locally-named stores left, MM Cohn. My first stop, and my main stop, was the University Mall on the west side of Little Rock. I am not a historian of the mall. I do know that it was built in 1967 as a predominantly one story mall. The mall was home to a large Penney’s, a Montgomery Ward and a 40,000 square foot MM Cohn. MM Cohn is over 121 years old and, of course, no longer run by the founder’s family. (More on that later.) In 1972, Cohn’s added a second level bringing it to 86,000 square feet. The mall was constantly in battle with its neighbor the Park Plaza Mall. That mall was built in 1965 was anchored by Blass, which along with Pfeifer’s, was taken over by Mr. Dillard. (Blass became Pfeifer-Blass in 1968 and then all stores just became Dillard’s. Its downtown store lasted
until 1990, quite a feat for a chain that has hated downtown locations. Oops I’m off on a tangent again.)

Back to University Mall. Over the years the two malls were built and rebuilt over and over again, each fighting for dominance. University added a second story and parking garage, Park Plaza basically just started all over again and then added a roof. By the late 90s it became clear who won the battle, Park Plaza. Stores began to leave, crime rose. In 2001 Montgomery Ward shut its stores, along with their stores everywhere else, and the mall became emptier, MM Cohn closed its second level. The decay continued. Stories about a new mall to open in Little Rock’s western side began to emerge and that fueled the debate of what to do with University Mall.

University Mall is run by the major mall developer, Simon. What is left of the mall? Well not much. According to a Penney’s worker the mall is just waiting for its stores’ leases to end. Penney’s is leaving but probably not until November. The worker said the mall is to be “condemned and razed”. There is no other answer. What is left, besides Franke’s Cafeteria, and the signature tent roof, is MM Cohn.

What is left of MM Cohn? What is left of the store that was once compared to Neiman-Marcus and Nordstrom? What is left of the store that was the premiere store of not only Little Rock but Memphis and Oklahoma City? Very little. The store is, as others have mentioned, like an indoor yard sale. It’s a mess. The merchandise is low end and uneven. The store has a strong odor. It’s the type of place that your grandmother would shop in. But at the same time I love MM Cohn! I love its logo and its heritage and history. Unfortunately the store is as dead as the mall. Its parent company, Dunlaps, is rumored to be in trouble. Dunlaps has been the kiss of death for many of its
acquisitions and though it has kept some of its local names it also killed names like Porteous and Heironimus. They both died a painful death and so is MM Cohn. The mall hasn’t helped.

Cohn’s abandoned downtown store, closed in 1989 after Dunlaps took it over, sits there waiting to reopen. The McCain Mall store in North Little Rock is small and yes, smells. Its Searcy, AR store 45 minutes from the city is no bigger than a Big Lots. But I have comfort that it is still there and that its logo and name still exist. It’s why I fell in love with department stores. But soon Cohn’s will be just a distant memory. A memory with a rich proud history.

So here’s to University Mall. The end is near. The end is near for many malls but at least with just 20 stores under its belt University Mall let me see a Little Rock legend, even as it prepares to go to sleep.

UPDATE July 2007: Sadly, MM Cohn is currently liquidating all merchandise and going out of business at all locations, including at University Mall. Also, we’ve attached a photo of downtown Little Rock featuring the retail scene there circa 1958 courtesy David Aldrich and the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette. Enjoy!

Southgate Mall; Milwaukee, Wisconsin

Southgate Shopping Center, later Southgate Mall, was the first significant post-World War II suburban-style shopping center in the Milwaukee area. In 1949, local brewery supplier (how very Milwaukee) Kurtis Froedtert laid the framework for Southgate and three other major suburban-style shopping centers in the area, during a period of this kind of retail development nationwide. Southgate Shopping Center was the first of these planned centers which would rim the city; the others were Westgate (later Mayfair) and Northgate (Bayshore?).

Located on what was then the far south fringe of the city of Milwaukee, Southgate was not randomly placed but rather strategically situated. On one side of Southgate were the older, ethnic neighborhoods which created Milwaukee to the north and east, and on the other were vast expanses of immense suburban growth to the south and west. Also, Southgate was placed directly on Highway 41 (27th Street), which was then the major thoroughfare from Chicago on up to Green Bay and all points in between before freeways took over.

When Southgate opened in 1951, it was essentially an anchorless strip mall, with 20 stores under the same canopied roof. Yet, because this type of development was so innovative, people flocked from all over southeastern Wisconsin to Southgate. In 1954, Southgate finally got an anchor in Milwaukee-based Gimbel’s department store. Krambo’s grocery store opened on the opposite end of the center a year later in 1955, and the center retained its immense popularity. But of course this probably comes as no shock, considering there was no other competition like it anywhere in the area. Very soon, though, this would change as other similar shopping centers opened around the city during the 1950s – Bayshore in 1954, Capitol Court in 1956, and Mayfair in 1958. These centers didn’t quite steal Southgate’s thunder, but rather were peers who held their own in the respective regions of the city they covered. Southgate reigned as the dominant south side shopping center until 1970, when a monster appeared to change Southgate’s fortune forever.

Southgate Mall Pill & Puff in Milwaukee, WI Southridge Mall opened a few miles to the south and west of Southgate in suburban Greendale in 1970. A self-contained shopping environment, Southridge outclassed Southgate in nearly every way. For one, it was gigantic in comparison. Almost ten times larger than Southgate at that point, Southridge featured 5 anchors on two enclosed levels, and to this day is one of the largest malls in the state. Also, Southridge was closer to the growing, suburban-middle class population in the suburbs.

As shoppers flocked to Southridge, Southgate decided it had no other choice but to renovate (Yes, I just personified a mall here). In 1971, Southgate aggressively repositioned itself through an expansion which doubled the size of the mall and enclosed it, giving it some leverage on Southridge’s success. Southgate soldiered on through the 70s and 80s as an ancillary enclosed mall of about 500,000 feet, including anchor stores. In 1986 the main anchor was swapped as one heritage Milwaukee store replaced another, when Gimbels closed and its space was immediately taken by Boston Store.

However, any measure of success ended in 1994 when two of the largest stores occupying 40 percent of the mall closed, Boston Store and Woolworths. From then on the mall slowly deteriorated into a shell of its former self, with more and more vacancies as time went on. In 1995, Media Play and Trak Auto were to split the anchor space and help revive the mall but it never came to fruition. Then, in 1998, Southgate Mall’s ownership changed hands and the new owners announced that most of the mall would be demolished for a Wal-Mart store.

And so it was. During the Summer of 1999, most of the structure was demolished and a huge standalone Wal-Mart was put in its place in 2000. Walgreens relocated to a different side of the property and the Marcus Cinemas remained, as well as a small outdoor portion of the old mall which ironically was part of the original 1950s Southgate. This is pretty much how it is today.

As I never got to see Southgate apart from driving by, all our photos came from contributor John Gallo. The Gimbels and interior shots were taken in 1986 or prior, the Boston Store shot was taken sometime between 1986 and 1993, and the others are a more recent depiction of how the site looks today (post-1999). If you have any more pictures of the “old” Southgate, in any of its incarnations, feel free to send them in and we’ll post them.

Livonia Mall; Livonia, Michigan

In the suburbs of the Motor City, the mall reigns supreme. So much so, in fact, that the retail hubs in the Detroit area are located completely within the suburban realm. There are no major retail draws in the city of Detroit today, which isn’t surprising because Detroit is largely a vastly depressing urban wasteland. Though urban revival attempts continue, much of the city of Detroit is the most horrific example of rust belt economics and white flight. As factories moved out of the area, taking tens and possibly hundreds of thousands of jobs with them, the city went fallow. Today, large swaths of Detroit remain completely abandoned. Entire city blocks which once had houses and activity have essentially returned to nature as prairie grasses and wilderness has grown up through condemned structures, many of which were arsoned. Poverty is also an issue in Detroit, as over one-quarter of the city is beneath the poverty line.

Despite the condition of the city itself, there is a relatively healthy economy in the Detroit metro area suburbs. In fact, a stark contrast exists as many areas of northern and western Oakland county, along with areas by the St. Clair shores such as the various Grosse Pointes have some of the highest per-capita incomes in the United States.

Livonia, Michigan is a thoroughly blue collar, middle-class suburb directly west of the city of Detroit. With a population of about 100,000, Livonia sprang up from the dust during the post-war building boom. In fact, it ceased growing completely during the 1970s, and has been shrinking ever-so-slightly since as people move farther out to newer and “better” suburbs.

Livonia was home to three enclosed malls until fairly recently. Wonderland Mall, which was enclosed in 1985, closed in 2003 after a protracted period of failure and was finally demolished in 2006 for a Wal-Mart Supercenter. Laurel Park Place, which trends upscale, opened in 1989 in far northwestern Livonia along I-275, and is very successful. Livonia Mall, their third mall, opened in 1964 at 7 Mile Road and Middlebelt. Anchored by Sears, Kresge and Kroger, the mall grew in pieces over the years and decades. A southern wing was added anchored by Detroit-based Crowley’s in 1972. Nine years later in 1981 Mervyn’s arrived with a new northern wing. K-Mart closed Kresge in 1987 with the rest of the Kresge locations, and soon after a Child World/Children’s Palace opened up in the spot which lasted until the early to mid 1990s. In 2000, the Crowley’s chain dissolved and became Crowley’s Value City, which is now just Value City and part of the Columbus, Ohio based chain. In 2006, Mervyns left the north end of the mall as the chain pulled out of Michigan and other regions to focus on their core western and southern markets. Today, only Sears and Value City remain, with a rather ragged roster of in-line tenants.

In terms of decor and design, Livonia Mall is very dark and outdated inside and out. It hasn’t actually been remodeled since it opened, so there are many wooden store facades and ancient signage. A favorite is the Koney Island location near one of the southern entrances, which is clearly a decades-old fixture in the mall and still in operation. Also, the mall features a unique coffee shop-style restaurant right smack dab in the middle of the mall near the northern end. The Child World/Children’s Palace distinctive castle design is also still present at the western end of the mall, which was most recently a paintball facility. Another interesting feature is the way the mall corridor snakes around sears and exits beside it, making the mall significantly larger. Also, several ancient fountains exist within the mall which are great throwbacks to a bygone era of retail aesthetics.

So what’s killied Livonia Mall? Aside from the decor issues and outdatedness, which definitely accounts significantly for the loss of traffic, the mall’s roster and offerings cannot compete with the newer mall across town at Laurel Park Place. In addition, other nearby west suburban malls like Fairlane Town Center in Dearborn and Westland Center in Westland have updated and modernized continuously despite being decades old. Shoppers continue to flock there, and the competition from all of these, as well as super-regional draws in Troy and Novi are sucking traffic away in droves. Livonia Mall might sustain itself and avoid the sinking-ship phenomenon, but only if it repositions itself as a successful ancillary to the larger malls.

In 2006, plans were announced to disenclose the outdated mall and build the ever-popular Lifestyle Center in its place, but they ultimately fell through because negotiations failed with the Sears anchor, which owns its space separate from the mall.

As of May 2007, the mall is still in operation. Many of the in-line stores are increasingly local stores and services, rather than traditional national tenants. Livonia Mall is currently ailing, and our prediction is that the mall will go downhill significantly fast in the near future if rehab isn’t done. We’ll put this one on death watch for now, but at least we can enjoy the pictures.

UPDATE 5/27/08: It’s over; Livonia Mall is closing permanently on 5/31/08. According to one report, most of the mall will be demolished during Summer 2008, aside from Jo-Ann Fabrics and Sears. What’s to come is anyone’s guess, but we’ll keep you posted.

Livonia Mall in April 2001:

Livonia Mall in July 2006:

Deerbrook Mall; Northbrook, Illinois

Buelle r!! Many will recall John Hughes’ 1986 hit movie Ferris Bueller’s Day Off, and hardcore fans even know the locations, mostly around the Chicago area, where different scenes of the movie were filmed. One of these locations was in north suburban Northbrook, where Glenbrook North and Glenbrook South high schools were used to represent the ficticious high school featured in the classic film. Others might also know the high schools from the closing of The Breakfast Club, another Hughes classic.

Located 25 miles north of downtown Chicago, Northbrook is an upper middle-class suburb of about 35,000 people. Ask anyone else in the Chicago area about Northbrook, and they’ll tell you it’s a pretty nice suburb. Some would even say it’s pretty wealthy overall, because it is. The mean home price in Northbrook is nearly $500,000, and the mean household income is well over $100,000. While this is unusual for the Chicago area in general, it is not that unusual for the suburbs comprising Chicago’s North Shore. In fact, compared to many of the North Shore suburbs, Northbrook seems more middle class than anything.

The North Shore stretches roughly from Evanston, which borders Chicago, up the Lake Michigan shoreline to Lake Bluff and terminates at the Great Lakes Naval Training Facility in North Chicago. On the west it’s roughly bordered by I-94, and the suburbs to the west of there are more decidedly middle class. From Great Lakes on up to the Wisconsin border it’s even a bit gruff in places like Waukegan and Zion, but not terrible by any means. However, many North Shore communities like Glencoe, Winnetka, Highland Park, Lake Forest, and Kenilworth have some of the richest zip codes in America, and along the Lake Michigan shoreline $10 million homes are the norm rather than the exception.

So where are these people shopping? That’s what you came for, obviously. The wealthy North Shore has, as expected, a rather large number of exclusive upscale shopping areas. Some of them are large regional centers, like the large Old Orchard outdoor mall in Skokie or the enclosed Northbrook Court in Northbrook, and some others are smaller and quaint like the downtowns of Lake Forest and Highland Park, the former of which features a large freestanding Macy’s and the latter, a Saks Fifth Avenue, among other things catering to the wealthy demographic. These residents also definitely shop away from the North Shore too, at the mega-regional Woodfield Mall which is about 20 miles away, in downtown Chicago at the many offerings there, and even closer to home in Lake County’s own Gurnee Mills (self-explanatory) and Hawthorn Center (Lake County’s only mid-range regional enclosed mall), just to name a few.

In this particular post, however, we feature a long lost forgotten relic of Chicago’s North Shore which is amazingly still standing, and functioning successfully despite a drastic refocus over the past few decades. It’s a bit worse for wear, and certainly abridged from its heyday as a major regional retail destination, but it’s there nonetheless. It is Northbrook’s Deerbrook Mall, located at the intersection of Waukegan Road (Route 43) and Lake Cook Road. Throughout history, we will see that Deerbrook went from regional mall to an ancillary mall full of category killer big box stores.

Deerbrook opened in the 1960s, and quickly became a very popular regional mall for the North Shore and surrounding suburbs, because of its central and easily accessible location along I-94, I-294, and the Metra station behind it. Take a look at a satellite photo of the mall. Northbrook featured Montgomery Ward and Turn Style, among other stores, and from what we understand the design was to connect these two anchors with enclosed mall space. This enclosed space was designed like a mid-century downtown streetscape, complete with faux-antique street lamps, a dark brick lined floor, brick facaded walls, and other quaint fixtures like a large fountain in the center court in front of the center anchor, which is now TJ Maxx. There were also some popular theaters at the back of the mall near the south entrance.

Fast forward to 1976. Less than a mile down Lake Cook Road, developers were feverishly working on building an even larger retail destination in order to capitalize on the massive amount of wealth in the North Shore. They constructed Northbrook Court, a large, regional, exclusively upscale two-level enclosed mall featuring anchor stores Neiman Marcus, I. Magnin, Lord and Taylor, and Sears which eventually became Marshall Fields and now Macy’s, as well as a slew of upscale local and chain boutique stores. It is still there today in the same capacity, if not a bit more upscale today.

Northbrook Court quickly killed Deerbrook’s chances for remaining a regional center, but instead of dying away it quickly repositioned itself to become an ancillary to Northbrook Court. The Turn Style went away and was replaced by Venture, which also closed at some point. Montgomery Ward was also a ghost by the mid-1990s and a Best Buy appeared in its place. Around 2000, about half of the remaining enclosed portion of the mall on the north end closed and was demolished to make room for new category killer big box stores like Office Max and Bed Bath and Beyond. The theaters closed for good in 2001 as they were small and outdated, and the entire front was fitted with a modern facade.

Today, much of the original enclosed south portion of the mall remains and is entirely accessible. It almost looks entirely like a regular strip mall, except an enclosed portion is hiding within. The reason for this is ostensibly to provide access to the TJ Maxx, as it is located behind the enclosed portion of the mall and has no other access. Few other stores are open in the mall which do not also have exterior access. So you can still walk around the brick floors and gawk at the fountain, which at last check was no longer running, and you can also look at the ancient mall directories and streetscape decor. Just don’t gasp too loudly at the elephant earring lights (or are they flying saucers?) hanging down from the ceiling. It isn’t polite.

Take a look at the pictures. I believe they were taken in 2006. If anyone has any more history on this mall, it would be much appreciated. I’m particularly interested in finding out what the TJ Maxx was. But also, I’d be interested to know what other stores were in the mall and when they opened and closed, or any other information anyone has, including more pictures.

Upon reading this post John G. has sent some vintage photos for us to enjoy! The first tier are from the 70s or early 80s, but the latter appear to be from the mid to late 90s because they include Best Buy.

Green Tree Mall & River Falls Mall; Clarksville, IN

Our friend Jay sent us these cool early-90s photos of a pair of malls in extreme southern Indiana, just outside of Louisville.

These two malls are located in very close proximity to one another off the Lewis & Clark Pkwy. and Greentree Boulevard, just off I-65. Green Tree Mall is the older of the two, opening in 1968, with JCPenney and Sears as anchors. Later a Ben Snyder’s was added as a third anchor, and this store became a Hess’s before later becoming a Dillard’s store, which it is today. Despite a 1980 expansion, the Green Tree Mall was not terribly large, and as a result in 1991 the River Falls Mall opened directly across the street. Originally conceived as a somewhat more youth-oriented and lively center, River Falls Mall was initially anchored by Wal-Mart, Bacon’s (later Dillard’s), All About Sports, and Toys R Us, but also included a substantial entertainment component including a movie theater, food court, and indoor amusement park. After Bacon’s was acquired by Dillard’s, the chain used the two stores to split the departments in two (reminiscent of what we’ve seen with many of the former May chains after the Federated acquisition, except not within the same mall). The Green Tree Mall got the women’s department, while River Falls Mall received the mens and housewares departments.

Because neither mall was huge, they were designed to co-exist somewhat peacefully, despite a large overlap in in-line tenants. However, it was actually River Falls, the newer of the two malls by far, that became the dead mall, beginning to decline by the end of its first decade in existence. Bass Pro Shops entered negotiations with mall owner General Growth Properties to open in the struggling mall in 2002, but the mall went into steep decline during the time when Bass Pro Shops were in the process of locating in the center, culminating in the exit of the Dillard’s from River Falls Mall entirely in 2004. Not long after, both Wal-Mart and the movie theatres exited, and Dick’s Sporting Goods moved to the Wal-Mart space. When Bass Pro Shops finally opened in 2005, they built their store to envelop much of the former mall, and the remainder of this comparatively young mall was big-boxed shortly thereafter, making room for Old Time Pottery and Louisville Athletic Club to open at the mall as anchors. Jay tells us that Bass Pro Shops has retained the mall’s translucent tent-like covering over the center court area, plus the structure of the mall’s former indoor putt-putt area, which is now a bullet-free shooting venue (whatever that means!).

Jay adds that this similarly puzzling cannibalization has happened more than once in the Louisville area, a city where I’ve yet to visit (although it *IS* on my list, eventually):

The development of River Falls Mall was just another example of strange decision-making where malls are concerned in our area. Mall St. Matthews and Oxmoor Center managed (surprisingly) to compete while coexisting very near each other before they came under the same management a few years ago. But the failure within 10 years of Raceland Mall, which opened just down the road from the already-established Bashford Manor Mall in 1975, might have been a good warning for the developers of River Falls. For some reason, it seems we just can’t resist building our new malls mighty close to one that already exists.

Green Tree Mall:

Green Tree Mall front entrance, 1993.

Green Tree Mall JCPenney wing in 1993, looking to center court carousel. This shows the interior from the first renovation in the 1980s. According to Jay, the parquet portion of the floor showed wear fairly quickly.

River Falls Mall:

River Falls Mall front entrance, 1992

River Falls Mall front entrance interior, 1993. The stairs went up to the food court.

The second-floor amusement area in 1993, with the putt-putt in the immediate background. The food court and front entrance
were to the left, and the cinemas were behind the spot where this photo was taken.

River Falls Mall center court, 1993, looking toward the Wal-Mart wing. The Dillard’s wing is to the left of center court, and the front entrance wing is to the right. Directly above is the amusement area.

(Thanks to Jay for all the pictures and a bunch of the details!)

Whitehall Mall; Whitehall, Pennsylvania

Hey kids–I’ve been really busy lately (in fact, it seems we both have), hence the dearth of new posts. But it’s not that I haven’t updated anything–in fact, we made some edits to a post from nearly a year back the other day thanks to some new vintage photos of the Leh’s Department store in Whitehall, Pennsylvania (outside of Allentown) at the Whitehall Mall. Since it’s unlikely any of you would’ve coincidentally stumbled across it (and it was posted before many people really even read Labelscar…) I figured I’d put it back out front, for all to see. And thanks again to Michael Lisicky for the great additions!

Original post as of June, 2006: Nowadays, whenever we go to look at a group of new malls, it seems that at least one or two in each metropolitan area is already gone or has been changed substantially. On a trip down to the Lehigh Valley area of Pennsylvania in November of 2005, I found one of these weird FrankenMalls: Whitehall Mall in Whitehall.

Located just north of the large and successful Lehigh Valley Mall, which is the main mall serving the greater Allentown and Bethlehem area, the Whitehall Mall is located in a high traffic location. That’s probably why its owners felt it should be big boxed (PDF) (and from my research, its redevelopment was done quite awhile ago: 1998, to be exact), though this is one of the more bizarre big box efforts that I’ve seen at a mall. A large section of the Whitehall Mall’s interior has been preserved and was not renovated, and the part that was turned outward doesn’t include many large box stores.

Currently, the Whitehall Mall houses a Sears (which stands in its original location, but no longer has mall access), Weis, Bed Bath and Beyond (both in the strip center portion of the mall) and Kohl’s (which resides at the end of one long interior corridor. Confused? Don’t feel bad; I would be too. Here’s a current mall directory to clue you in:

Strangely, it appears to me that the original Sears entrance would’ve been the one that currently faces towards the plaza, but I did find an abandoned exit from inside the Sears that I assumed went towards the mall. I’m not sure which is true, though it could be either or both depending on the center’s old configuration. The most notable find here was obviously the old enclosed portion, which does not appear to have been renovated since the 1960s or early 1970s. There was a large atrium near the entrance and former “Plaza” movie theatres, adjacent to an anchor that is currently mostly occupied by a Weis Markets but which was originally a Leh’s Department store (and a Zollinger Department store before that). There’s also an area about halfway up the hallway where there was a set of stairs leading up to the mall offices. They were set in front of a very groovy and retro stone wall.

In all, this is hardly an inventive (or particularly successful commercially, it seemed) way to hack up an old enclosed mall, but it did leave a few cool vestiges for us vintage mall fans.

UPDATE 5/2/2007 11:52 PM: Michael Lisicky, a constant source of excellent vintage photos for Labelscar, sent over some shots of the former Leh’s anchor at Whitehall, as well as an advertisement/logo for Zollinger dating to the early 1970s. The Leh’s shots all date to May 1994.

Vintage Zollinger-Harned Logo, from the early 1970s:

Michael Lisicky’s 1994 photos of Whitehall Mall:

2005 photos:

More Leh’s, photos. From left to right, they are Quakertown, 1994, and Downtown Allentown, 1991:

Norwichtown Mall; Norwich, Connecticut

Most of the attention in the “dead mall” phenomenon has focused on large, once-thriving (and often, once-dominant) malls that were done in by changing demographics or newer competitors. On the whole, the smaller malls are seen as necessarily casualties, centers that never really worked or aren’t large enough to miss.

Strangely, I’m as fond (if not more fond) of these little guys, and it seems that an awful lot of the regular readers of Labelscar feel the same. On that note I present to you the sad little Norwichtown Mall, in Norwich, Connecticut, a deeply troubled 241,000 square foot mall that I doubt has much life left in it.

The Norwichtown Mall opened just off (present day) routes 2, 32, and I-395 in 1968 to serve the Norwich area of eastern Connecticut. While eastern Connecticut is one of the more rural areas of the northeast megalop, Norwich is one of the larger cities in the area, with a population of just under 40,000. However, the loss of the manufacturing industry (and the frequent ups and downs of the defense related jobs in nearby Groton and New London) hit Norwich particularly hard, and it has suffered from a malaise worse than many similar cities throughout New England. Today, however, the mall sits in the relative shadow of two of the largest tourist attractions on the east coast: Mohegan Sun and Foxwoods Casinos, which are each about 10 minutes away from Norwichtown Mall.

Before the region’s dominant mall, the large Crystal Mall, opened in Waterford to serve the entire New London-Groton-Norwich metropolitan area, there were two malls to serve each of the region’s two anchor cities. The appropriately-named New London Mall was the first enclosed shopping mall built in Connecticut, and was opened on the north Frontage Road of I-95 in New London. I’m pretty sure–though not certain–that the mall opened in 1958, with the first Bradlees store as one of its anchors (I suspect, though am uncertain, that a Sage-Allen was the other anchor). Sadly, this grand old relic–which remained very dated until its death–was demolished in 1998 to be replaced with a relatively bland strip mall that stands in its place today. I have no photos of this old place, and it’s near the top of my “want” list, so if you have any old New London Mall photos, please let me know!
The Norwichtown Mall, its northern cousin, was slightly smaller and slightly younger, with Caldor, Stop & Shop, and local department store Styles as its initial anchor stores. Styles was a smaller anchor that nonetheless was pitched as a somewhat high-fashion chain in line with G. Fox and Filene’s. I’m not exactly sure when they departed, but they were the first of the three anchors to shut.

In the mid-late 1990s, Stop & Shop modernized and expanded their store, eating some of the former mall space. At the same time, much of the mall was given a renovation and modernization. Not long after this was my own first trek to the Norwichtown Mall, in summer 1998. At the time, Caldor was still open, and the mall did surprisingly well for a mall of its size, and was tenanted with a diverse roster of tenants that would be appropriate for the kind of community-oriented shopping mall that would be anchored by a discounter (Caldor) and supermarket (Stop & Shop). There was a Waldenbooks, Hallmark, Radio Shack, an independent record store named University Music, and Bee Bee Dairy, a popular local creamery.

Unfortunately, Norwichtown Mall would not last long in this incarnation. Caldor went out of business in 1999, closing all of their stores, and several years later the space was occupied by a Bob’s Discount Furniture store, although they did little to drive traffic to the mall. Since Stop & Shop lacked mall access, there was not really a major reason to enter the mall, and tenants very slowly bled out of the mall until 2007, when Bob’s Furniture also left for a larger, newer store in East Lyme, leaving the interior of the mall barren and empty. During this time, a large big box center also opened in Griswold, just to the north of Norwich, siphoning off retail traffic from that side of the city and wedging Norwichtown between several more successful retail areas. Today, little remains beyond Dollar Tree, Radio Shack, a bank, and several other small stores.

There have been some rumors of big plans for the mall, with names like Target and Christmas Tree Shops being circulated, though presumably almost any plan to come along will (sadly) include disenclosure of the small and outdated (if still immaculate) center.

The Caldor Rainbow also took a trip to Norwichtown Mall last fall, and if you look at their set of photos in comparison to ours, you’ll note how much the place seems to have gone downhill in just a few short months. Our pictures are a little over a month old.

UPDATED 4/12/2009: Labelscar reader Bryan sent us these updated 2009 photos of the Norwichtown Mall, with a note that our old photos looked a bit “livelier” than the mall today. Seems hard to believe, but sheesh–look for yourself! The place is more desolate than ever.

Hammond Square Mall; Hammond, LA (R.I.P.)

Jamie from Louisiana alerted us to some news with the Louisiana’s Hammond Square Mall, which closed for good yesterday, March 31st. The 430,000 square foot mall, which opened in 1976 in Hammond, a college town about 45 minutes northwest of New Orleans, is being shut to make way for a 800,000 square foot lifestyle-power center combo to be built in its place. Before taking one last swing by Hammond Square for these rather day-glo pictures the other day, Jamie emailed us to share some history:

“The mall was owned by Sizeler Properties of Kenner LA, which I believe was recently bought out. They still own 2 other small malls in southern Louisiana: Northshore Square in Slidell and Southland Mall in Houma. They recently sold the Hammond property to another company, I believe the name is Palace Properties. The new company has teamed up with Stirling Properties of Covington, LA to redevelop the mall. Stirling has been very successful with big retail sites in neighboring St Tammany Parish. This Sizeler property brochure PDF file has all three of these malls listed with area shots of them.

I frequented the mall a lot when I was a student at SLU to kill time in between classes and browse the B.Dalton Bookseller, Sound Shop and KB Toys. And then I ate lunch at the Chick-Fil-A all the time, which was a real treat! And KSLU radio station was also located in the mall.”

“Hammond Square Mall opened in 1976 with 3 anchors Sears, JCPenney and D.H. Holmes (the old New Orleans based department store). The Holmes became Dillard’s in 1989 when the chain sold. Dillard’s and Sears are the only anchors left, but the new development is bringing JCPenney back along with Target. I don’t believe the mall has changed much at all on inside and out. The last time I was there was maybe 5 or 6 years ago, and from what I remember it was still all brown on the inside, typical of 70’s malls. It is very small and called a square because basically that is what is. It is a 3 level square surrounded by the 3 anchors. The bottom level was very small, would have made a good food court, but this old mall never had a food court. It was kind of like a hole in the ground. But I thought it was real cool. And the main entrance has like 10 or 15 steps leading up to the entrance, which is the second level of the mall. In Louisiana you typically do not build in the ground, like a basement, so I believe the second level of the center of the mall was built up and then the bottom level was a small section in the middle of the square. And there was escalators on the the 2 of the ends of mall to lead up to the 3rd level. I guess you could say a very unique design.

“Hammond Square always seemed to have a reputation as being a lame, boring place. It had a few stores, but there never seem to be anything in it that was too hip. And it was just never given an attention by owners. The other 2 properties that Sizeler owns are thriving. Southland mall is 37 years old and booming! But Hammond Square just never could find a niche, or a place, I just don’t know. I actually has the best location, almost exactly in between Baton Rouge and New Orleans. Maybe that was the problem, not quite far enough from the big cities. Although after Hurricane Katrina, some business used the empty space for office, and it kinda had a small little boom, but not necessarily in retail.

“I remember when I was going to college, Hammond Square had a few of the typical mall stores many malls have. They had 3 Foot Lockers, with the Lady Foot Locker and Kids Foot Locker. Of course Radio Shack. The Limited, Payless Shoe Source, K&B Drugs (now Rite Aid), Corn Dog Plus, Morrison’s Cafeteria, as well as the others I mentioned before. And of course they had a twin cinema up until 1999 when the palace theatre, a 10 screen megaplex opened right behing the mall. I can’t remember what else right off hand. Last time I was there they also had a Cuco’s mexican restaurant.

“According to articles in the papers, demolition has already begun on the former JCpenney and that all shops had until March 31st to vacate. And that Dillards and Sears will remain open during construction of the new center. Articles also state that most shops have left. There was many local stores in the mall only a few chains were left, since the mall has been dying a slow death in the last 5 years, most of the big chains have already been gone.

I even found something very interesting when I did a Google search on the mall. There is actually on online petition to save the mall! Also the local paper in Hammond, the Daily Star, started a blog back in May when the announcement was made about the redevelopment of the mall, asking for input from the community about what stores should be in the new mall. The most popular requests seemed to be Abercrombie and Fitch, Hot Topic, Old Navy, Gap, American Eagle. Obviously reflecting the presence of a university in the town. As well as a supermarket or making the Target a Super Target.”

Thanks for the information and these great photos, Jamie! Jamie commented that he may be sending some more pictures, so keep an eye on this space! We may be adding to it as we receive more.

UPDATE 4/4/07: Jamie was so thrilled to see that we’re real people who actually check our e-mails that he dumped the entire contents of his camera phone into an email and sent it to us. Good for us, since the ‘neon mall’ is really the sight to behold; that first set of pictures only scratches the surface! Enjoy, and remember that submissions like these are always welcome at Labelscar. If we don’t post it up right away, fear not–we will.

Lauderhill Mall; Lauderhill, Florida

It’s about Spring break time, so we’re headed south to the original Spring break destination of Fort Lauderdale, and to a little mall just to the west in suburban Lauderhill. Walking into Lauderhill Mall is like walking into a time vacuum and being sucked back 30 (or more?) years. It is not only a wonderfully-preserved example of retail times gone by, but it is possibly the most reliced property we’ve featured on this site which is still open – and not dead. At any rate, we feel that Lauderhill is an appropriate foray into the retail scene of south Florida, a rapidly changing and exponentially growing place with a rich and unique retail history.

This amazing relic sits on 40 acres of property along State Road 7 just north of Sunrise Boulevard in the small village of Lauderhill, just west of the city of Fort Lauderdale. Opened in 1966, it was billed as the first air-conditioned mall in the southeastern United States. Since opening, Broward County and south Florida in general have changed dramatically. For one, the population of Broward County was only 350,000 in 1966. Today it is 1.8 million and growing rapidly. In addition, with the massive population growth came larger, more modern malls and big box centers. These have effectively outmoded Lauderhill Mall and it has far outlived its original purpose. The only reason it still exists is because it was purchased decades ago by a privately held Canadian partnership which has done very little to the mall at all, leaving it looking almost exactly the same today as it did the day it opened. They do keep the place clean, however.

As far as tenants, or general information about the mall in general, little information is available. As the mall lacks a website, even current information is relatively difficult to find. Upon visiting the mall in January 2007, we discovered it was tenanted with many local and national retailers, many of which cater to an urban, lower-income market. Despite no longer having anchors, Lauderhill Mall has a low vacancy rate.

Clearly, the main event of this mall is its sheer existence in the face of obsolescence. We’re talking stores with cedar shingles, an ancient directory which is possibly several decades old and even yellowing due to age, mirror-backed storefronts, and wooden-flanked conversation areas with planters staged throughout the middle of the mall walkway. There is nothing modern about this mall, and it is possibly one of the best-preserved retail relics still open today.

But this won’t be the case for very long.

As the story commonly goes for outdated retail, massive changes are afoot for Lauderhill Mall. Announced in September 2006, it appears the wave of “new urbanism” will flood Lauderhill with new residential, office, and retail. This would, of course, involve tearing down most, if not all, of the 650,000 square-foot mall and replacing it with over 1 million feet of new space. The demolition could start later this year, and is considered a vital linchpin in the revitalization of the Route 7 corridor between Miami and Broward County and points northward. This redevelopment is all the result of the acceptance of an unsolicited offer to the Canadian partnership from a south Florida firm.

So say goodbye to Lauderhill Mall, at least the Lauderhill Mall which has existed for more than four decades. It’ll be gone after this year, but not before being documented here for perhaps the very first time. That’s what we’re here for, anyway. The pictures here were taken in January 2007 (though I probably could have told you 1977 rather convincingly). If you know anything about the mall, specifically about the history and the anchors here, leave some comments and let us know.