Richland Fashion Mall with Bonwit Teller, JB White and Parisian

Richland Mall [link to earlier post] is nothing short of sad these days with a lonely Belk, a few chain restaurants and an oddly located Barnes & Noble which keep the plywood away from the door.  Nevertheless, through a stroke of luck, three different contributors came forward to give me pics of the anchors at the beleaguered mall back when they were original and still mattered.  Those pics are of the Bonwit Teller, JB White and Parisian.  I couldn't be more pleased that someone else thought to preserve such places before I was old enough or smart enough to realize my camera needed to be there snapping pics of these places.  I am very grateful for their efforts, and I am proud to showcase these here for the first time.

In my previous post on Richland Mall, I discussed the short-lived Bonwit Teller at Richland Mall, then known as Richland Fashion Mall.  A very high-end store, Bonwit Teller was by no means an appropriate fit for a market like Columbia likewise lasting no time at the mall.  The store opened in 1989 and closed by 1993 where it was then replaced with Dillard's and finally Blacklion before going dark along with much of the mall.  I would never have thought any photos of any quality existed of the store, but Michael Lisicky kindly sent me these pics of both the exterior and mall entrances of the short-lived store.  He discussed how he made a special trip to Columbia in May 1990 when he got the news that Bonwit Teller was going under.

Yessir, you just saw Bonwit Teller at Richland Mall.  This deceased luxury department store was unwisely placed in this mall, and it lasted only a couple years.  Michael Lisicky took these two pics in May 1990.

The whole problem with Bonwit Teller was that the store was being inappropriately marketed by its then-owners LJ Hooker.  Bonwit Teller was from New York selling luxury merchandise similar to Saks Fifth Avenue and Lord & Taylor.  Clearly not tailored for the market in any way, the weight of stores like this led to the liquidation of the company not long after along with Sakowitz and B. Altman.  Some recent efforts have been made to revive the company, but the poor economy has halted those indefinitely.

JB White from the parking deck on top of the mall.  This photo was taken by Sandy Lewis in the 1990's.

A closer view of the sign from the same photo.

JB White was the rock of the mall.  If not for White's, the mall would not only never have been redeveloped, but it would have never succeeded at all.  After all, this is the state's oldest mall-based department store anchor and its popularity well into the 1980's was the catalyst to the monstrous redevelopment it received.  While White's faded into the dustbin of history in 1998, the Belk that took its place is obviously successful enough to justify showing the photo I have here of the original store.  This store is also unique in that a movie theater is actually built on top of it.  Near to this theater is a photo of the JB White captured by Sandy Lewis as part of the incredible complete collection of White's photos he sent me.

These two photos of the outside and mall entrance of Parisian were taken in 2005 by Jarrett Edwards right as the store was closing for good.

The Parisian at Richland Mall was a Southern upper-middle department store.  While it never was as successful as White's it was definitely more successful than the classy Bonwit Teller.  It lasted over 15 years and its closing highlighted the trouble the mall was having far more than Bonwit Teller closing.  The closing of Parisian there came in 2005 with the chain leaving the market completely.  This included closing their store at Columbiana Centre as well.  The photos here are courtesy of Jarrett Edwards and were taken just before the store closed for good.  Jarrett also sent me photos and information about stores in Augusta, GA.

Remembering JB White Department Store (Updated and Corrected with New Photos)

Big city department stores throughout history tended to get the spotlight. Much of that is obvious: they are more recognizable, a symbol of that major city and they historically tended to be far more large and upscale than their small city counterparts. While it is worthwhile to remember the Marshall Fields and Rich's stores of the past, the smaller chains deserve some attention of their own. The one I am showing today is JB White...a major chain that served as the principal department store for two mid-sized cities in the South.  Founded by James Brice White in 1874, it was one of the first department stores in the country and established itself as the leading department store in Augusta, GA and Columbia, SC.

A view of the downtown store in Augusta prior to the removal of the signs on the outside.  This store operated until 1978.  Photo by C. Lewis.

Started in Augusta, GA the chain expanded to Columbia, SC prior to 1900 while maintaining its flagship in Augusta. Its flagship store was located on Broad St in Augusta, and it closed in 1978 when it was replaced with a new store at Regency Mall.  The last downtown flagship store opened in 1925 as a three story structure and was expanded to four stories in 1945 to compete with the arrival of Davison's of Atlanta [1].  White's also expanded to Aiken, SC early on as well, presumably in the 1920's.  They later went to Greenville in the 1940's (in the former Ivey-Keith location downtown) [2] .  Expansion to Spartanburg and Savannah would come much later.  In all, it was a store that was more fashion oriented than Belk, but less elegant than Rich's or Davison's in Atlanta during that period.  In other words, it was the ideal department store for both cities in that period.

An image of White's in Aiken.  This looks to have been a drawing of the store at a strip mall named Mitchell Shopping Center.  The White's would later move to a larger store at Heritage Square.  This image came from a yearbook and was submitted by Jarrett Edwards.

White's later location at Heritage Square in Aiken.  This store was demolished when the strip it was in was redeveloped for a Kroger and Home Depot.  It did not become Dillard's.  Photo by C. Lewis.

White's, unlike Rich's, was not passed on to subsequent family members after James Bryce White retired.  Instead, he sold the store in the early 1910's to HB Claflin Co., a company that owned other department stores including Lord & Taylor.  When HB Claflin later went bankrupt, the company was split into Associated Dry Goods and Mercantile Stores Company.  ADG covered larger market stores while Mercantile took the smaller markets, which White's fit cleanly into.  This began the chapter of JB White as a division of Mercantile Stores.  The Milliken Family owned the majority shares in Mercantile, so their influence would steer the direction of Mercantile's stores, including White's, throughout the remainder of its history.  Other major stores under the Mercantile banner included Castner-Knott of Nashville and Gayfer's of Mobile.  James Bryce White's retirement would see him spending the remainder of his years in Italy, but he continued to support the community that brought him his wealth through the construction of a YMCA in Augusta and the creation of a scholarship still offered each year to a student at Augusta State University [1].

This photo, apparently from the early 1990's, shows the JB White store at Dutch Square.  This is the only store I remember, and I seem to remember the logo was rather difficult to read at 6 years old.  Note that this is one of three different styles of logos used on their suburban locations.  Photo by C. Lewis.

White's first suburban expansion came in the early 1960's. Its first of such locations in Columbia was in 1961 at the original Richland Mall, a small open-air mall flanking the large two story White's. Its second came in 1963 with the opening of a two-story store at National Hills Shopping Center in Augusta...an otherwise small strip mall that also featured an A&P supermarket. White's also opened in a strip mall in Aiken somewhere in that same time period in Heritage Square Shopping Center.  In 1970, its largest suburban location yet opened up at Dutch Square Mall west of Columbia offering three levels of shopping as well as two suburban stores for Columbia.  By 1978, more stores were opened including Greenville at Greenville Mall and Regency Mall in Augusta.  The Regency store sadly replaced the downtown flagship.  Strangely, even though the chain was Augusta-based, the chain sought for an almost exclusive South Carolina strategy outside the city. This would not change until 1990 when JB White opened a store in Georgia at Savannah Mall.

This photo of White's at National Hills Shopping Center looks to date to the 80's.  This was such a classy logo, I can't understand why they did away with it.  Note there was no "JB" in front of this version of it.  Special thanks to Michael Lisicky for sharing this rare photo.

Unbelievably, it wasn't just Michael Lisicky that captured this store.  This photo by C. Lewis, an Augusta native, was captured in the same time period.  The store was clearly a hopping place that day!

The 1990's saw the beginning of difficulties for White's along with the rest of Mercantile. Pressure to compete in an environment of department store consolidation finally was beginning to catch up with it and the Mercantile Stores company as a whole as the chain by then had more stores than shoppers. Nevertheless, new stores were constructed all the way until the sale of the company in 1998 to Dillard's. Stores built in that period included a store in West Columbia at Columbiana Centre Mall and at Westgate Mall in Spartanburg, both opening in 1995.  White's location at Greenville Mall was also extensively renovated and expanded in 1995 as part of the enormous effort to revive what had been a dated, dumpy and dead mall.  The last store that was built opened in 1998 at Augusta Mall. JB White moved to Augusta Mall to escape the troubled and failing Regency Mall, closing its older Regency location after only 20 years. This new store was nearly identical in design to the remodel at Greenville Mall.  Not long after that store opened, the chain was sold.

Michael Lisicky also took this later photo of J.B. White with its very plain and boring 90's logo on the same store at National Hills Shopping Center.  I absolutely cannot stand their later logo, so Mercantile was definitely not appealing to customer loyalty with that atrocity.  This style logo was also used on the store at Augusta Mall that is seen on the Wikipedia photograph.

After the sale, the stores did not exactly all convert to Dillard's. The problem was that Dillard's already had a presence in the Columbia market, so three of the stores instead went to Belk. Two of those were done to prevent overlap in the same mall. Not only was Belk trying to get re-established in the Columbia market, but also Dillard's was trying to solidify its own market in the region after purchasing the entire Ivey's chain 8 years before. Dillard's was also interested in a swap with Belk for stores in the Tidewater area, so this worked out well for both parties. Because of this, while all other stores converted to Dillard's, all of the Columbia locations instead became Belk.

The National Hills Store viewed here as Dillard's.  Photo by Jarrett Edwards taken shortly before the store closed.

A couple views inside the National Hills store.  The grainy quality is because they were camera phone pics blown up from very low resolution.  Both photos by Jarrett Edwards.

White's, like Rich's, had a very loyal following. Despite it resting under the Mercantile banner, the store maintained strong ties with the community.  The store strongly supported community events, and fashion director Marion White Linder (no relation) would do charity fashion shows in support of the local children's hospital.  The chain also promoted itself with popular midnight madness sales, and their return policy was comparable to Nordstrom today and Rich's in the 1970's.  Today, the store lives on primarily through the preservation efforts of the original downtown store. In 2007, the old downtown store was converted to condominiums with parts of the old painted sign and logos intact on the building.

The former JB White store at vacant Regency Mall in Augusta in 2003.  This store has been closed for 12 years now.

This photo really thrills me!  This was the same Regency Mall store in its much better days.  The photo looks to be about 1990 and it features a clear version of their second logo.  This photo is also courtesy of C. Lewis.

The second to last generation of White's at Columbiana Centre in Columbia.  A nearly identical store was added to Westgate Mall in Spartanburg the same year this store opened.

LIST OF FORMER WHITES LOCATIONS
(Known stores shown, please fill in on ones missing on this list)

AUGUSTA

Downtown/Broad Street (1925-1978)

National Hills Shopping Center (1963-1998, converted to Dillard's and closed as Dillard's in 2007)

Regency Mall (1978-1998)

Augusta Mall (1998, converted to Dillard's same year)

AIKEN

Heritage Square Shopping Center (Dates unknown)

COLUMBIA

Downtown (Dates unknown)

Richland Mall (1961, converted to Belk 1998)

Dutch Square Mall (1970, converted to Belk 1998)

Columbiana Centre Mall (1995, converted to Belk 1998)

GREENVILLE

Downtown (1940's-1978) [2]
Greenville Mall (1978, converted to Dillard's 1998 and demolished 2008)

SAVANNAH

Savannah Mall (1990, converted to Dillard's 1998)

REFERENCES

[1] Lewis, C. (2010, May 1). J B White. [Electronic mail message].
[2] Anonymous blog comment posted April 30, 2010.

Lizard's Thicket and More: Columbia's Local Restaurant Chains

One thing that makes Columbia truly special is that it has managed to maintain a certain sense of local culture that is rather unique across the sprawling sunbelt.  Despite its suburban surface, South Carolina's capitol city still maintains its own identity.  This is likely due to the fact that it has seen far slower growth and a less transient population than Greenville, Spartanburg, Myrtle Beach and Charleston.  Columbia, unlike Greenville and Charleston, sports very hot and humid summers and less access to scenic and recreational opportunities than its more heavily hyped neighbors.  While Mississippi comes readily to mind in that description, such is why places like Lizard's Thicket, Rush's and Maurice's BBQ are allowed to flourish.

Despite its mid-summer sauna reality, the fact is that Columbia is still the state's transportation hub.  This means that travelers en route to Myrtle Beach and Charleston from Greenville, Atlanta and Charlotte must pass through the city.  Indeed, many have and would be foolish to miss out on Columbia's best kept secret: Lizard's Thicket.  While the Geico Gecko comes to mind this day in age, I have known for all these years that Cracker Barrel tastes like cardboard in comparison to this place.  In fact, I was looking very forward to eating there again after a hiatus of about 15 years and was glad to see it was going very strong and the food was still delicious.

A cozy-looking Lizard's Thicket on St Andrews Road in Irmo.

Lizard's Thicket is true Southern cuisine with an enormous offering of vegetable dishes, meat dishes and the best sweet tea, all done traditional Southern style.  Columbia concurs, and locations are plentiful around the city, but they also stay just in the city choosing not to expand into a watered down corporate mess with the food declining similarly.  Nevertheless, finding this type of food in Atlanta, Nashville, Charlotte and other cities proves difficult, and tends to be far more expensive or far inferior.  Oddly, the chain itself has existed since 1977, itself joining the first surge of retail chains in Columbia while responding to the issue of fast food replacing the family meal.  Of course, Atlanta brought Columbia places like Moe's, but I think I'd rather have this any day than a Joey Bag of Donuts...sorry.

Another view of the St Andrews Lizard's Thicket.

Second, Rush's evolved in the 1960's from a Dairy Queen franchise into a major local chain across the city.  Rush's is definitely not for the diet conscious, but it appears to be a merger of the concept of fast casual with fast food before it even existed, offering typical fast food fare in a better-prepared diner style.  Essentially, it sounds like the forerunner of Five Guys with a more local flavor and more to choose from.  In fact, Rush's offerings consist of pretty diverse offerings such as all-beef hot dogs, burgers, fried chicken and barbecue.  This place I would probably be less likely to try, but it sounds good and definitely better than the criminally limited menu offerings presented at other local chains such as Alabama's Jack's Hamburgers.  However, I really cannot vouch for how good it is since I have never tried it.

 

 

Rush's on Decker Blvd. between Columbia Place and Decker Mall.  I also noticed one next to Columbiana Centre.

Last, Maurice's BBQ offers a taste of South Carolina's distinct mustard-based barbecue in a chain restaurant.  While I have not seen them anywhere outside the state, they are all over Columbia and recently expanded to Augusta, GA.  I have tasted Maurice's from the grocery store packages way in the past, and it is easily some of the best I have ever tried.  I am really a sucker for mustard-based barbecue, and I like mustard in general.  In fact, I tend to put mustard on top of barbecue sauce as a habit in the attempt to re-create that taste.

Maurice's sign and side of building located on Beltline Blvd.

Maurice's is not without controversy, though.  They got significant press back in 2000 when several store chains including Wal-Mart decided to pull the product over owner Maurice Bessenger deliberately flying the Confederate flag over one of his locations in protest over state sovereignty...an issue that lives on in South Carolina, but also an issue that caused the owner to be fined by the City of Lexington.  His beliefs, which erupted into his business practices, have gained him notoriety, but this apparently has definitely not hurt business for him.  After all, South Carolina did not exactly cheerfully rejoin the Union in the 1860's, thus feelings remain strong there even today.  Nevertheless, it erupted into a firestorm of controversy since his actions were considered offensive to many people.  This likely would have not gotten so far out of hand if not for him also doing things like publishing a pamphlet entitled "The Biblical View of Slavery".  In all, the owner's politics tend to leave a cloud over Maurice's.  Nevertheless, it is possible to find Maurice's barbecue sauce at Piggly Wiggly locations in lieu of the drive to Columbia, and it is definitely worth a try.

Maurice's locations carry a very distinctive design that stands out far more than most fast-food places.

There you have one of the more neglected aspects of my site...chain restaurants.  They are retail, too, and few things stir passion in people like good food.  That is especially true on those who have deliberately deprived themselves of it on a diet, which would be required at places like Rush's.  Of course, in the case of covering Lizard's Thicket I feel very hungry and deprived, so that has tended to be a more difficult topic to cover.  This also wraps up my Columbia series until if or when some historical photos, current photos or additional information come my way.  However, much more on Columbia can be found on the Columbia Closings site.

Abandoned Tweeter: Columbia, SC

I am personally unfamiliar with Tweeter, but I recall their bankruptcy around the same time Circuit City said goodbye.  While I do not know the circumstances, I photographed this location next to Columbiana Centre Mall.  I like the design, personally, and they did a good job with the logo considering the peculiar name.

The sign is intact as if nothing changed except for the store closing for a holiday.

Edgy, weird and an oddly complimentary color contrast.  It looked as good as new.  What happened?

Columbiana Centre: Columbia, SC

Many of my previous mall posts have detailed cities with older shopping centers that fought off newer, larger rivals to come out on top.  Columbia is not one of those cities whose malls turned out so romantically.  Columbiana Mall, built in 1990, was just right for the time and place.  As the newest mall, it has since emerged completely the leader of the malls of the region despite the fact it is a one-level center in comparison to larger (and older) Columbia Place Mall and Richland Mall, both struggling.  Columbiana Center also essentially replaced Dutch Square Mall, the city's oldest and smallest mall, though Dutch Square continues to operate today.  Columbiana Center is located in Irmo in Lexington County just across the border from Richland County on the very edge of the Columbia city limits.  It is the only mall in Columbia not in Richland County, and it is located at the southwest corner of Harbison Blvd (S-32-2272) and I-26.

Columbiana Center was very much a planned mall years before it was built.  When I lived in the city in 1986, the site was nothing more than a pine thicket, and adjacent Columbiana Drive was known as "Mall Road".  Mall Road was nothing more than a five lane road to nowhere that ended abruptly at a large barricade past Archers Lane, but resuming past Crossbow Drive as a two lane road.   By 1990, around four years later, the mall was completed featuring only two anchors Belk and Sears with an empty anchor pad on the south end and one facing I-26.  The mall was built with a Spanish theme throughout including evenly-spaced repeating arches across all the corridors.

 

Looking along the main entrance wing toward the main entrance, which is pictured in the first photo.  The entrance is quite attractive on the outside.

 

The windows next to the main entrance change to roman arches.  It is a nice touch.  I love it when malls blend high windows and overhead skylights.

Looking along the Dillard's wing, which from here looks a hall of mirrors.

1993 saw the beginning of many changes in the anchors at the mall.  This was when Dillard's joined the mall in conjunction with a new wing extending diagonally north, leaving the original two empty anchor pads free.  J.B. White joined the mall in 1995 as the third anchor, filling one of the two pads.  Thankfully, JB White maintained its location at Dutch Square despite opening the new store at Columbiana.  The White's carried an award-winning cutting edge design compared to its brutalist and blocky older stores.  It is not known what the other anchor pad was intended for, but it is assumed that was either for Macy's or Tapp's, whichever came first.  Oddly, neither considered joining the mall at any point.  In fact, Macy's instead had agreed to join Dutch Square, but those plans never materialized.  By 1998, the situation became more complicated when Dillard's bought out JB White.  The problem here was that Dillard's already anchored the mall.  As a result, Belk moved from its former location in the mall into White's with Parisian opening its second location in the city in the former store.

 

Looking back from Dillard's along the same wing.  Note that the mall has two different types of flooring in different areas.  I like the darker flooring.  It looks elegant.

Two of the courts on the older part of the mall.  The first, I believe, leads to the food court (not pictured) while the second is at the edge of the Dillard's wing.  I did not photograph the food court due to the presence of mall security.

The anchor shake-up at the mall only helped to solidify Columbiana's position as the city's premier shopping mall.  After Dutch Square fell into obscurity over the failed Macy's bid followed by White's entry at Columbiana is when the mall grew increasingly as the leader of the regional market.  All other malls were located much further from the hot growth market around Irmo/West Columbia.  Today, all of the upscale stores of the city are located in the mall as well with the tenant line-up full.  In fact, the mall is reaching complete dominance of the market with all other malls in the city struggling to survive since the early part of the past decade.  The last major change to occur at the mall was when Parisian left the Columbia market in 2005.  In its place, JCPenney opened a location in the mall in the store that had opened as Belk.  The result is that only one original anchor continues to operate in the same location it opened in which is, of course, Sears.

 

One area of the mall with lower ceilings.

  

Court area between the main entrance wing, Sears wing and Belk (former White's) to the left.

 

Mall map showing a once boring, rather small mall nearly doubled with the Dillard's wing.

In all, Columbiana Centre is a reasonably attractive mall.  However, a few things stand out to me.  First, why is the most successful mall in the city only on one level?  In fact, both of the city's multi-level malls are failing.  Second, while the design is quite original it heavily emphasizes the stucco, which makes the mall feel cheap.  However, all that stucco looks to be very well maintained.  I did not see any mildew or deterioration on it.  On the inside, the design is quite original and I like the fact it has a very clear old Spanish theme to it.  It does look, however, like the mall may have been stripped down at some point.  I seem to remember fountains and palm trees which simply are not in it today.  I do not much like the name, though.  I would have preferred Harbison Mall, but of course it is not mine to comment on.  Obviously Columbians approve, because the mall was swamped on my visit. 

 

JCPenney looks a little odd.  This had previously operated as Parisian and before that was the mall's original Belk store.

  

 

Here, I am approaching Dillard's then capturing more detail of the Dillard's mall entrance.  It is pretty straightforward, and it is the only Dillard's in the city that actually opened as Dillard's.  The outside is a clone of all the others from that period.

  

The Belk entrance is something special.  It was the second to last J.B. White ever built.  Belk took over when White's was bought out by Dillard's.

 

Sears mall entrance is actually pretty unique.  The tiled design was thankfully abandoned here.

Older part of mall approaching empty anchor pad.  Why did they leave this anchor pad empty while building on for Dillard's?

The Harbison Community was already a major area of new development long before the mall was completed.  However, prior to the construction of the mall the development was entirely residential including many new subdivisions and apartments.  Regardless, the mall was part of the master plan in one of the earliest less recognized examples of huge new planned cities similar to Columbia, MD and Peachtree City, GA.  In fact, Harbison itself spans two cities and two counties.  Like those developments, it was commenced in the 1970's and completed much more recently.  The completion of the mall resulted in an explosion of retail near the mall, but covenants have resulted in this development largely restrained to Harbison Blvd.  Such careful planning may be a significant factor in why Irmo stays a popular area for younger and more affluent residential growth and why Columbiana Mall has emerged the leading shopping center in the region.

 

  

The mall's original two anchors fully employ the faux Spanish architecture even though JCPenney originally opened as Belk.

 

Belk, formerly J.B. White, is the showiest anchor.  The glass cylinder definitely is a design standout.  It's hardly Spanish-themed, however.

Richland Mall: Columbia/Forest Acres, SC

Richland Mall was the first mall in Columbia.  Opened in 1961, the mall was a conventional early open-air center that provided the first complete suburban shopping experience up to 1969 when Dutch Square was completed across town.  Later on, both malls found themselves eclipsed by Columbia Place, which offered a premier shopping experience comparable to large cities.  At this point, reason says that Richland was too old and too small, and that redevelopment into simply a strip mall or something different was necessary.  However, an Australian real estate firm had other plans: in fact, big plans.  Those plans culminated in what is being presented here: a large two story shopping mall that rose up from the dust of a much smaller open-air mall.  It would be a mall that would be so high-end and so elegant that it would crush the competition.  Instead, it caused Columbia to be severely over-retailed.  This new mall was much larger, glitzy, and high-end.  It was re-dubbed Richland Fashion Mall to emphasize its now far elevated status over its simple roots. 

Richland Mall in itself is in a strange location.  It is far enough from the interstate that it does not benefit from it and close enough to downtown that it does not take advantage of the suburban markets as much as the in-town potential.  Its location is at the intersection of Forest Dr (SC 12) and N Belt Line Rd (SC 16).  The reason for its strange in-town location is obviously that it was built before the interstates arrived: a situation that caused the failure of quite a few mid-century shopping centers that did not plan for the impact of interstate travel.  In layout, it was likely similar to former Harding Mall in Nashville, TN.  It had one major anchor, a large three-level J.B. White department store built in the center.  Other stores in the original mall were Berry's on Main (a mid-20th century downtown department store), Colonial/Big Star, Winn-Dixie, S&S Cafeteria, Woolworth's and a movie theater on an outlot.  A skating rink was also in the original center at one point.  It was the city's first mall, possibly the state's first mall and a classic first generation mall, which tended to make sentiments toward the massive redevelopment somewhat less than positive.  Photos and information are difficult to find on the early center, and no aerial photos seem to be available showing what it once looked like.

Entering from northeast entrance next to Barnes & Noble.  Note the fountain and elevator ahead.  The first photo is the same court and same fountain from the backside.

 

 

More views of the southeast court and fountain.  This is the biggest mall fountain I have seen since Cumberland Mall's pond and waterfall was dismantled in 1989.

The radical transformation to small open-air mall to large two-level shopping center came in 1989.  The mall adjacent to White's was demolished and the two-level enclosed mall there today was built in its place on each side of the existing remaining JB White store, making the existing White's the integral and literal center of the new development.  Shoppers had to pass through the White's to go from one end of the mall to another.  What was once a mid-market mall with local offerings was replaced with a behemoth featuring two unfamiliar and expensive stores balancing a mall with likewise high-end shops above and beyond what old Richland Mall offered.  To deal with the small footprint, the mall was also surrounded and even covered by parking decks in a city spread out enough not to normally need them.  More than likely, the original mall was dying in the face of newer, bigger, more convenient climate controlled malls across town, but the market research that produced re-developed Richland Fashion Mall was non-existent and offensive to local shoppers.

Mall entrance to what was originally Bonwit Teller on the lower level.  This later operated as Dillard's and, briefly, Blacklion.

Looking along the lower level between Belk and the southeast entrance.  With the help of Barnes & Noble, this is the most successful portion of the mall.  Barnes & Noble is on the right.

Barnes & Noble mall entrance from lower level.  While this appears from the outside to be two levels, it actually is in fact is a one level store.  Barnes & Noble was added onto the mall later.

White's at Richland Mall is ironic.  It was the first department store at the mall and it appears to be the last.  It stood there twice as the mall around it sank into obscurity.  White's was joined in 1989 with Birmingham-based Parisian and New York-based upscale Bonwit Teller [another link].  Both department stores, however, were completely unfamiliar to the market, and their inclusion led to the currently rocky history of the center.  Parisian hangs on almost forgotten in Michigan with all of their Southern stores (their home market, ironically) merged into Belk.  Bonwit Teller has long since entered the retail graveyard.  Nevertheless, all three anchors managed to stay alive for around 15 years since the overhaul.  Other major tenants in the modern mall include a large Regal Cinema on the top of the mall (and on top of the White's...quite possibly part of the original White's), Barnes & Noble, TGI Friday's and S&S Cafeteria.  A Gymboree, GNC, Bath & Body Works and a couple other chain stores also hang on in the lower level.  A Verizon Call Center, which will be leaving soon, took up the former space of a large food court that closed around 2000 and a wing wrapping around the back of JB White.  However, the mall does not have hardly any of the "mom n pop" tenants typical of ailing malls as the owners have obviously kept the prices high in the mall to prevent the mall from downscaling.  The mall was built with grandiose expectations on giving a big city high-end shopping experience to a much smaller, conservative and less prosperous market.  Part of why that was so bold was that the city was still loyal to its local department stores at that time.  "National" chains had not quite caught on in the pre-internet age.

Note the thousands of lightbulbs along the ceiling, many of them burned out.  Natural skylights are impossible along these corridors since this is buried under a parking deck.  The design otherwise is pure 1989, which in all honesty looks pretty decent over 20 years later.

 

The upper level of the southeast court.  80's architects could not seem to get enough of taupe and teal green.

 

Belk (former White's) south mall entrance in the background from the second floor.  In front of me is the three-level escalators.  The level above is the parking deck entry.  Belk has two mall entrances and forms the center of the mall, but they look exactly alike so it is difficult to tell from photos truly which is which.  Shoppers are required to go through Belk to get from one end of the mall to the other, so if Belk closes the mall will close just as quickly.

Its conversion in 1989 was scandalous, one of the ill-fated LJ Hooker projects.  LJ Hooker still exists today, but its venture into American shopping malls including control of four different high-end American department stores proved very risky and poorly executed.  This was all taking place during the era of leveraged buyouts, which left many scars and radically modified the whole retail scene forever.  Not only did LJ Hooker not properly research the market, but also control of those department stores including B. Altman, Sakowitz, Bonwit Teller and Parisian proved disastrous to all four department store companies with the stores landing in markets that neither knew them nor could support them.  Only Parisian survived the LJ Hooker era while Bonwit Teller, the other anchor, eventually died off completely.  LJ Hooker believed in such instances that dropping an upscale mall into markets such as Columbia, SC and Cincinnatti, OH (Forest Fair Mall) would be successful.  Richland was envisioned to be sort of a Phipps Plaza for Columbia, but instead it is looking more like Century Plaza.

Looking at the north wing of the mall from the other side of Belk.

 

Approaching the northwest court.  A small, dumpy food court is to the right that was not worthy of pictures.  One restaurant in the court was the cringe-worthy "Cheesesteak Factory".

For a mall designed to be upscale, S&S Cafeteria sure seems like an oddity, but it operated here since the day it reopened.  It also operated in the original open-air mall as well, which is why it is here.  This is the first time I've ever seen an S&S Cafeteria (standing for Smith & Sons) operating in a mall.

On the lower level approaching the former Parisian.  Parisian left the city in 2005, closing this store in the process.  Macy's needs to consider this store.

 

A look inside the empty and dark Parisian.  What a shame, and what a waste of space.

Richland Mall speaks of the excess that went into it, and it rests awkwardly in the middle of a saturated market hosting three other major enclosed malls and one lifestyle center.  The mall is covered from end to end with probably a million light bulbs lighting up the ceilings and other areas.  It has two levels with escalators going up to a parking deck built on top of the mall with multi-story parking decks also found across from the mall.  Elegant features are found throughout.  A very large pond-like fountain sits on the south court near the entrance of what was originally Bonwit Teller.  In contrast, a very small, uninspiring food court (which replaced a far more grand one) is found off the north court.  In all, it is very fascinating to look at but also very depressing.  The second level is almost entirely vacant aside from Belk in the center, and the fore mentioned original food court is sealed off as part of a Verizon call center.  The lower level is mostly vacant, though it carries far more stores helped along by street-level access and the presence of Barnes & Noble, which joined onto the mall in 1997 along with a relocated entrance.  In the center, of course, is Belk, which absorbed the JB White location in 1998.

Looking toward the vacant Parisian from the second level.  The mall here is completely deserted.

 

Here, a set of escalators drops down disconnected to the parking deck.  To the right, the walled off store seems to take up more mall space than the other closed up shops, and the online mall map shows this is a sealed off wing.  Why only this wing?  What did that used to be?   The mall map shows it connecting either to the parking deck or "Richland Centre Verizon Wireless".  Isn't this being used as a college campus of some sort?

 

A look at the northwest court from the second level.  Notice the "Food Court" sign on the bottom level.

The rest of the northwest wing on the upper level looks equally lifeless.  The escalators to the parking deck and lower lever are ahead just past the bend.  This is walking back toward Belk.

Three-level escalators on the northwest wing looking toward Parisian.

 

Upper-level entrance from northwest wing.  The doors open to a catwalk to the large parking deck beside the mall.

Belk mall entrance from lower level of northwest wing.  GNC routinely seems to be a hold out when everyone else is gone.  That is so strange to me.

The situation is undeniably dire today.  Most people are wondering how the mall survives at all, and a retail miracle is needed to save it.  Belk is all that keeps this mall alive, but it must be doing adequate business to stay there.  Dillard's, which took over the Bonwit Teller site after it closed in 1993, vacated the site in 2003.  Blacklion, a furniture store from North Carolina, was in that site briefly but closed within a year.  The other anchor, Parisian, hung on until 2005, closing a year before the buyout by Belk.  When Parisian closed, it completely left the market, also closing the location at Columbiana Mall.  Even before this, the mall was troubled with vacancies, but the closure of two out of three department store anchors is leaving a bleak future for the mall.  Surprisingly, however, many stores do hold on since the neighborhood is actually right for them.  However, rumors of imminent demise have swirled since Dillard's vacated the old Bonwit Teller slot in 2003.

The mall map still shows Parisian as well as the fact that one of the upstairs wings is completely sealed off.

Along the same entrance corridor are found the two odd first-rate signs of life, TGI Friday's and Barnes & Noble.  This mall still has so much to offer, so why is it not working?

The reality of Richland Mall is that its future depends on just the right factors coming together.  For one, the initial redeveloped mall was obviously geared way too high and unfamiliar for the market, and subsequent anchor tenants could not survive with multiple locations in the city since neither had local market dominance like White's, Tapp's and Belk all had.  This could be remedied, though, by offering stores better catering to the market with less overlap.  For second, the number of regional malls in the city will have to drop enough to recharge the mall without it becoming a casualty itself.  The old Parisian is a perfect fit for Macy's, which currently is in fading Columbia Place Mall.  Also, Macy's has long been an institution in the city originally operating as Davison's and closing its downtown store in 1993. 

 

The mall on the outside is largely obscured by parking decks, so the building defies photography.  Note the theater on the second photo built directly on top of the mall and the Belk/White's.  Did this used to be part of the White's or was the top level demolished or what?

Barnes & Noble located outside along the front of the mall near the east entrance to the southeast wing.   You would think having such a strong anchor tenant would have been enough to shore up this ailing mall.  Most malls did not get Barnes & Noble until much later.

As I stated on a previous post, the future of this and other malls on the city swings on Macy's decision in regards to Columbia Place.  Relocation or expansion of Macy's to the mall would allow Macy's to operate a better store than what is at their current store.  Sears may succeed in the old Bonwit Teller, but this could also be a new test market for South Carolina's first Nordstrom...a potential draw for the entire state, and entirely appropriate for that location.  Perhaps Belk and Macy's could swap the old Parisian for the old White's to give Macy's the largest store.  It could get interesting, and the potential is there.  Possibly downsizing the mall to a two-anchor mall, demolishing the other half might help, too.  That would eliminate the need for the parking decks and would provide a more appealing location for an in-town department store like Macy's  It should be noted that Phipps Plaza was a very small two-level mall up until 1993 when it was expanded greatly for a Parisian that is now an A-class Belk.  However, renovation of the center will be necessary as well...perhaps a return to an open-air mall similar to Bell Tower Shops in Ft. Myers, FL.  Obviously, the mall is attractive, but it also is too dark and dated.  I at least hope they keep it looking distinct and keep the fountain if they do such a project.  Instead, it sounds like the owners are actually looking to largely de-mall the center, and according to posters here they are bankrupt and the mall is apparently now in holdings, though I cannot confirm that.  I understand part of the plan was that the old Bonwit Teller would be replaced by a hotel along with other significant changes.  The mall has changed hands twice in the past five years, and it was significantly devalued on its last purchase, which proves that redevelopment or abandonment are certainties, though abandonment in upscale Forest Acres is hardly likely.  Its latest owners were planning to do just that: redevelopment, and they renamed the mall Midtown at Forest Acres in 2008 to lead it off.

 

Former Bonwit Teller/Dillard's.  In the first photo, a labelscar is barely visible to the left of the sign.  In the second photo, the French doors speak of more upscale origins of the store.

 

Single entrance and side view of the Belk/White's.  I am assuming the original store pretty much resembled Dutch Square.  As the oldest standing building at the mall, I would love to know what in all they did to it in 1989.

 

 

Parisian sits empty and forlorn at the mall.  Does anybody else see Macy's here?

In all, Richland Mall would not have survived in its original form, but maybe it should not have survived period.  Perhaps even the market was there just to keep the original open-air mall alive as sort of a community mall much in the sense that Ansley Mall in Atlanta has survived and thrived.  Considering that, an upscale 60's-style open-air mall may not be such a bad idea today with a couple trendy chain restaurants, and this would likely be popular with USC students.  Richland's redevelopment was executed poorly in a city that already had more malls than shoppers.  Nevertheless, the result is a mall that is unique for the city and could be somewhat more appreciated.  While it has never been fully successful, it did manage to maintain all of its anchors for almost 15 years since it was first built.  Losing this mall would be a big loss and major blight on the area, but unlike others I do not believe this mall is past the point of rescue, but it will have to be downsized, refurbished and marketed correctly.  While two malls in the city appear to be in irreversible decline, Richland has the opportunity to come back as an upscale boutique to Columbiana Mall.  However, timing and the right factors are crucial for this, because otherwise I do not see much of a chance of this place surviving in its current form.