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, from South Park Mall 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. 

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. 

Located on the east side of Charlotte, Eastland Mall seems to be going the way of the dodo, at least in its current state.  Opened in 1975, Eastland was, for a time, the biggest and best mall in all of North Carolina, before Hanes Mall in Winston-Salem unseated it in size a short time later.  However, demographic changes, urban sprawl, and the perception of crime have all but sealed Eastland’s fate as a dead mall with an uncertain future. 

As time progressed through the 1970s and 1980s, Eastland Mall reigned with anchor stores Belk, JCPenney, and Ivey’s, and trumped even SouthPark by having an ice skating rink.  In the late 1970s, Richmond-based Miller & Rhoads joined as junior anchor and Sears got on board in 1979.  Through the 1980s Eastland was considered to be on-par or even superceding SouthPark in terms of size and store selection. 

In 1991, the winds of change brought Carolina Place Mall to south-suburban Pineville, indicative of a retail shift from the core of Charlotte to the periphery.  Around the same time, SouthPark management began to upscale the mall’s offerings, adding Saks Fifth Avenue and Nordstrom in the process.  The addition of Carolina Place meant that the competition for ‘top dog’ in the market would be fought between it and SouthPark, with Eastland left a distant third.

Eastland didn’t go down without a fight though.  Around the same time Carolina Place opened and SouthPark upscaled, Eastland went through a massive makeover, updating its 1970s look to a more “modern” early-90s feel with muted, cerulean pastel tones, which actually look somewhat dated by the standards of 2008. 

Even with the upgrades, the inevitable outcome of being a distant third place didn’t bode well for Eastland.  Built with the intention and veracity of being number one in 1975, being third by the late 1990s created an odd juxtaposition between the large, super-regional mall and the notable vacancies within it.  The retail outcome of this decline included the loss of anchors, beginning with JCPenney in 2002.  After a few years of being an ominous (read: Closing Soon) JCPenney Outlet Store, the space was broken up into Burlington Coat Factory and Fred’s Discount Store.  Next came Dillard’s, who packed up the normal wares and converted to an outlet location in 2005, sealing off their lower level.  Then, in February 2007 came the worst blow to the mall as Belk departed, leaving only Sears as the last traditional anchor to the mall.  In addition to the anchor woes, the retail spectrum in the mall’s corridors has fared no better, as Limited Brands closed all five of their Eastland stores.  Other recent departures included Harris Teeter, Chik-fil-A, Things Remembered, American Eagle, and Spencer’s.

Another important factor in the decline of Eastland is the perception of crime.  However, unlike some situations when a mall merely changes demographics, (from mostly white shoppers to a mixed or predominantly black shopper base) the perception of crime is not without basis in fact here.  Several shootings, none of them fatal, have occurred in or around the mall in recent years.  This has certainly kept even loyal and neighborhood customers at bay, causing them to drive across town to other malls.

In addition to all of this, the physical condition of Eastland is deteriorating rapidly, so much so that Glimcher, the mall’s current owner, has deemed the mall a “fixer-upper” and Charlotte mayor Pat McCrory was quoted in 2007 as saying “We built crap. We built pure crap. I call it corridors of crap…and we’re paying for it now” referring to Eastland and the struggling, semi-abandoned strip malls near it.

Despite the downward spiral into oblivion, it seems some astute community leaders and business owners are committed to redeveloping the site for a sustainable future.  The movie theatre, which closed in 1996, was reopened in 2007.  Also, In March 2007, the Urban Land Institute Advisory Council of Washington shared its findings in a comprehensive report about Eastland, ultimately suggesting the mall be torn down and a mixed-use center be put in its place.  Their full report, which is an interesting read for those of us interested in how outdated retail architecture can be successfully repurposed, outlines a number of solutions and explains why a retail-only site would not work for the future.

But why did this all happen?  In order to put together an accurate picture of Charlotte’s retail history, one has to analyze how growth materialized over the past several decades in the area.  When Eastland Mall opened in 1975, a few miles east of downtown, it was extremely well-positioned on the frontier of what would become Charlotte’s largest expanse of sprawl, mostly to the east and southeast of downtown.  However, as the built environment sprawled farther out, so too did the demographic base, including upper-middle class and upper class families who drive the machine of retail location.  As such, new convenience strips of big box and even newer malls, such as Carolina Place, Northlake Mall, (which opened in 2005) and the expansion and upscale positioning of off-freeway center SouthPark Mall took over the limelight from aging regional centers such as Freedom Mall and Eastland Mall.  This, combined with the perception of crime at the center, has even kept those who live nearby away, and the mall has become an open wound, bleeding anchors and in-line retailers alike.

We visited Eastland Mall in September 2005 and took the pictures featured here.  We can’t help but wonder what winds of change the blowing sun, Eastland Mall’s logo, will usher in for the future.

In honor of my recent cross-country move, I figured we should offer up a slice of Americana with a lesser-known Route 66 landmark: the Barstow Mall.

Barstow is a notoriously isolated city located in the Mojave Desert, near where I-15, I-40, and CA-58 all converge. It’s also a spot along historic route 66, and as a result the main drag through town is packed with vintage neon hotels, many of which long ago ceased operations.

Like many spots along Route 66, Barstow’s looking a little rough around the edges today. Historically a major transportation hub, Barstow is the home of a large rail classification yard and is known as a freeway crossroads where many trucks pass through, bringing goods to Los Angeles. Its desert climate is somewhat merciless with days in the summer regularly pushing the mercury above 100°F. Barstow’s geographic isolation and unfavorable climate are probably two reasons why it is today one of the ten poorest cities in California.

Barstow may be the home to many notable Route 66 landmarks, but the Barstow Mall is one you won’t normally hear about. A joyless concrete behemoth left over from the 1970s, this unloveable structure has been almost compeltely forgotten, with practically no stores or businesses left operating inside. Fairly typical of “dumbell-style” two-anchor 1970s malls, Barstow Mall is notable because it has retained many of its original details in the form of planters, odd light fixtures, and a whooole lot of concrete. The mall’s two anchors, Sears and Kmart, left long ago.
It’s a frankly spooky place. When I was there it was almost completely empty except for a bunch of teenaged girls with tiaras taking a group photo (?). Barstow in general was kind of a dramatically creepy place, with so many sad vestiges of the glory days of Route 66 and the area’s general lack of vegetation. Given the Barstow Mall’s proximity to major transportation corridors, however, and the fact that it’s such a ghost town, it’s well worth seeing on a swing through town.

Laurel, Mississippi is a small city of about 20,000 residents located in the southeastern part of the state, with about 80,000 in the immediate micropolitan area.  A considerable distance from other large cities in the south, Laurel is located along the I-59 corridor about 140 miles north of New Orleans and 200 miles southwest of Birmingham.  The city is known for oil, manufacturing and agricultural-related endeavors, and is a quintessential example of the old-fashioned deep south.   

Laurel’s relative distance from other cities requires a substantial retail presence in town.  The nearest larger city is Hattiesburg, Mississippi, with a population of about 40,000.  Hattiesburg is about thirty miles south of Laurel on I-59 and is home to a large regional mall called The Mall at Turtle Creek, and a huge retail strip.  Built in 1995, The Mall at Turtle Creek draws shoppers from all over southeast Mississippi and is the most substantial mall in the entire region.  It even replaced an older enclosed mall, the Cloverleaf Mall, on the other side of Hattiesburg which has recently repurposed itself into a mixed-use office/retail complex.   

But Laurel does indeed have a mall.  Sawmill Square Mall opened on the site of a former sawmill (who’d have guessed?) sometime in the 1970s.  The mall is anchored by Belk, JCPenney, and a huge pile of logs.  Just kidding about that last one. The Belk was recently a mid-range department store from Jackson, Miss. called McRae’s, and got eaten up by Belk in March 2006.  You can sort of see some of the McRae’ labelscar on the Belk photo above. 

The decor of Sawmill Square is sort of modeled after a sawmill, or at least what people in the 1970s thought a sawmill would look like if it was turned into a mall.  And this was apparently the case, as one of Laurel’s largest sawmills once stood on the site.  We’re not sure what, if any, of the original mill still stands in the current mall structure though.  There are lots of exposed beams and latticework, with dark tiling and wooden facades everywhere.  The mall obviously hasn’t received a major update in its lifespan, a rare find these days. 

The selection of stores at Sawmill Square seems adequate enough for a city its size, but locals apparently disagree.  I wouldn’t exactly call this a dead mall per se, as it seemed mostly leased with at least a decent amount of national retailers.  It was also packed on the Saturday evening I visited.  But on the other hand, I kind of see their point; many local stores inhabit the mall, (some of my favorites are in the photos) and several national retailers have relocated to a “newer” strip near a Wal-Mart Supercenter and Lowes and just ignore the mall completely.  Even so, the mall’s pretty substantial, and although a renovation of the mall would kill its awesome 1970s decor and vintage character, it would probably lure even more shoppers and retailers alike. 

Take a look at these pictures from March 2008 and let us know what you think.  If you can provide more information about the mall, that would be great too.  When exactly did it open?  Also, if you’re familiar with the mall be sure to leave some of your own personal stories and anecdotes.   

The largest city in the state of Iowa, Des Moines is a growing metropolitan area of over 500,000 residents and a glowing example of midwestern urbanity.  Historically, its even keel and middle-American value have been an overall attractive package for developers. It is for this reason that Chicago retail magnates Joseph Abbell and Bernard Greenbaum chose the city to develop an early prototype of a shopping center which would become far more successful than they had ever imagined.

Originally the site of a Passionist Monastery from the 1920s through the 1950s, Abbell and Greenbaum worked with Younkers, a Des Moines-based department store chain still in business today, to develop what was initially called Northland Shopping Center.  A strip mall in its early design stages, developers quickly realized the potential of the site and revamped plans to include two large department stores and four buildings around a commons area.  Not only this, they changed the name to Merle Hay Plaza, named after the road the Plaza is on but also after the first Iowan killed in World War I.  Construction on the Plaza was complete in 1959, with 31 stores including Younkers and a bowling alley which is still in operation on the site today.  Later that same year, Sears opened, and other early tenants included Kresge’s, Bishop’s Buffet, and Walgreens.  In 1965, a movie theatre and office tower were also added to the complex, making it one of the largest mixed-use facilities in the country at the time.

In 1972, as part of a nationwide trend, Merle Hay Plaza was enclosed, becoming Merle Hay Mall.  The climate controlled, indoor environment allowed shoppers respite from the harsh, midwestern winters and also from rain and heat in summer.  Then, in 1974, the mall doubled in size with a two-level western addition, adding anchor stores Montgomery Ward and a Younkers home store.  This expansion was mainly a response to two other regional enclosed centers being built in the market, Southridge Mall and Valley West Mall, both of which still exist today. 

Despite the mall’s enormous success at the time, tragedy struck Merle Hay Mall in November 1978 when a fire broke out in the Younkers store, killing 10 of the store’s 25 employees.  To date, it is the most devastating fire in Des Moines’ history, and destroyed the original Younkers at the mall.  The fire was caused by faulty wiring.

A new Younkers opened to replace the destroyed one within a year, and it was the only anchor change at the mall until 1991 when Younkers home store closed as Younkers exited the furniture and appliances market to focus on their fashion-oriented department stores which still exist today.  That store was replaced by Kohls in 1993; then, in 1998, a controversy which eventually led to the closure of the Wards store ensued.  It was deemed that Wards was operating a “discount store” instead of the “first class, full line department store” their lease required.  So as a response, Wards just took off, leading to St. Louis (May Company) based Famous-Barr to fill the space in 2000.  Also that year, the entire mall underwent a $20-million renovation. 

In 2004, a major retail shakup occurred in the Des Moines market as a brand new retail destination opened in West Des Moines.  Jordan Creek Town Center instantly became the category killer mall in all respects, consisting of an enclosed mall and two separate lifestyle center-style districts comprising not only retail but recreation, hotels, entertainment, and destination dining.  The insanely popular Jordan Creek has consistently sucked shoppers in central Iowa away from the three other regional malls; however, due to extensive renovations and repositioning; the other malls seem to be holding their own.  At Merle Hay Mall, Famous-Barr closed in 2004 and due to anchor shuffling Target was able to build a new store in the old Younkers space, as Younkers relocated to Famous-Barr’s old location.   

Today, Merle Hay Mall is not only still the state’s largest enclosed regional center, but also the oldest in all of Iowa.  According to ICSC, Jordan Creek Town Center has more retail space but the enclosed portion is smaller.  Interestingly, while most of the mall is located in the city of Des Moines, the tail end of the western expansion has yielded a food court which is actually located in the city of Urbandale.

Possibly the most interesting aspect of Merle Hay are its design features.  After the 1974 expansion, Merle Hay was left with two main wings.  The older (1972) wing, which connected Sears and Younkers (now Target), has very high ceilings with large windows near the top and a wide corridor.  In addition, this corridor was home to two separate “basement courts” - one which housed a bowling alley, and another which housed a restaurant and other entertainment options.  Both of these basement courts were extremely open, but only the bowling alley one is currently open.  Management appears to have shuttered the other basement court, as evidenced by the conspicuous placement of a large planter blocking the staircase leading to it from the main corridor.

The newer (western) wing, built in 1974, is absolutely amazing.  It connects the main corridor, at center court, to Kohls, Younkers, and the food court at the west side of the mall.  The best part, however, is the middle of this western wing where it randomly splits into two levels.  To get from the one-level to the two-level part requires going up or down a half level, respectively.  Also, the decor in this area is dated, and the ceiling becomes this massive archway which extends across this wide area.  It’s really kind of unexpected, and at the end it goes back to one level again to continue to the anchors and a short side hallway veers right to the food court where the mall finally ends.

Most recently, Merle Hay Mall has been in the news for being a ’struggling’ mall - which I couldn’t disagree more with; however, the mall has lost $13 million in value since 2005 and is probably in need of some renovation to continue its overall viability into the future.  The city of Des Moines has also become antsy as the erosion of its tax base is terrible for them, so in response they have enabled a TIF district in the area surrounding the mall.  Monies from the city will help the mall and its neighbors update their facades and renovate existing locations to keep shoppers happy and in the end hopefully to get some people to ease off the gas pedal in the direction of Jordan Creek.  However, on the flip side, more than a few residents are miffed that the city is giving this area TIF financing when there are several other sections of the city that are much worse off.  Either way, I hope it helps, Merle Hay’s a cool place and we want to see it around for a long time.

The pictures featured here were taken in March 2008, when the mall seemed busy enough to me.  I think if you want to see a struggling mall, you should take a look at a few others on this site…  Feel free to add your own experiences or post something interesting you know about the mall.