Kinston Plaza: Kinston, NC

The year before Kinston gained its first enclosed mall, Kinston was already enjoying the fruits of what was then a thriving local economy gaining its first modern shopping center with the construction of Kinston Plaza.  While small by today's standards, the center is actually a combination of strip and covered arcade that is one of the largest and most vintage arcades I have run across that is still operational.  While very local in nature today, the center once had a larger draw.

Built in 1966, Kinston Plaza was anchored by Woolco, Colonial Stores and A&P.  The arcade portion may have not been original to the center, instead added around 1970 considering that the now-closed theater that anchors the back of the arcade was opened in 1970.  The theater, named Trans-Lux Inflight Cinema, was renamed Plaza Theater in 1974, twinned in the early 80's and operated at the center until it closed for good in 2000 when a seven screen theater nearby replaced the two screen cinema.  However, the center was already in decline long before the theaters closed.

Kinston Plaza's arcade is one of the best preserved mid-century specimens featuring a mix of regionally-popular faux Colonial and 60's modern design.  While covered, the center is completely open-air making the arcade function like a cave.  The far end of the mall is now a long-closed theater.  Photos taken June 15, 2015.

Theater entrance with skylight providing eerie natural light overhead.  Photo taken June 15, 2015.

Detail of skylights, which were clearly designed with a cloudy look and obviously need some debris cleaned off.  Photo taken June 15, 2015.

Detail of storefronts in the mall, now exclusively service-type tenants.  Photo taken June 15, 2015.

It is obvious to note that none of the original anchor tenants are still in business today, so quite a few changes occurred with the anchors.  The first of those was when Colonial Stores became Big Star in 1978.  Big Star, of course, later closed after stores in the market were sold to Harris Teeter in 1988.  Second was when Woolco went out of business in 1982.  At the time, the shopping center was doing well enough and it was quickly filled by Brendle's Catalog Showroom.  By 1992, both supermarkets had left after A&P exited the market as the company continued to decline.  Brendle's itself would end operations in 1996 joining every other catalog merchant in the dustbin of history.  With the theater already closed, the shopping center probably looked nearly abandoned before 2000, but smaller chains came into fill the void and it recovered.

Leaving the mall, it is like twilight before the dawn, but about 40 years ago.  Photo taken June 15, 2015.

While ownership may have changed, this barber shop/salon is likely the oldest continuously-operating tenant in the shopping center.  Many shopping center barber shops remain mostly unchanged from 50 years ago.  Photo taken June 15, 2015.

Hollow store at corner of mall and parking lot.  Photo taken June 15, 2015.

The exterior mall entrance has, unfortunately, been updated into this deceptively boring stucco facade hiding the vintage goodness within.  Photo taken June 15, 2015.

Piggly Wiggly today occupies what was originally a Woolco.  Photo taken June 15, 2015.

This sign for the shopping center along an adjacent street is likely (almost) original considering the arrow likely replaced an older arrow with flashing lights.  Photo taken June 15, 2015.

Today, the center is alive and (mostly) well again catering to wider tastes and demographics than the original shopping center.  Major tenants include Piggly Wiggly in the old Woolco space, Big Lots in the old Colonial/Big Star and It's Fashion Metro in the old Eckerds space.  A hair salon and dance studio still operate in the "mini mall" space (what the shopping center calls it!), and the former A&P is now a furniture store.  In a town with many vacant retail centers and a mall on its last legs, Kinston Plaza remains a bright spot in the city.

Ashley Plaza Mall: Charleston, SC

In South Carolina as in much of the South, things are said to move at a slower pace.  Perhaps it is the humidity, but at least this old saying proved to be very true for Charleston who had to wait until 1972 to get their very first enclosed mall, Ashley Plaza Mall.  Opening on August 10th of that year, shoppers I am sure were frantic to escape the heat in order to check out this place.  The only problem was that this was probably not the mall they had hoped for.  It featured none of the major department stores like Kerrison's or Belk Robinson, nor were there any national ones such as Sears, Montgomery Ward or JCPenney.  This mall was just not like that, and it was just one reason it had a short life.

Anchors of the original Ashley Plaza Mall included local department store Condon's (that's with an "N", thank you), Edward's discount store, J.M. Field's discount store and Pantry Pride supermarket.  Neither J.M. Fields nor Pantry Pride were accessible to the mall corridor, and both actually predated the mall by a couple years as part of an existing strip mall.  In essence, Ashley Plaza was a hybrid of strip mall and enclosed mall.  Edward's and Condon's, however, both had mall entrances.  Not counting the anchors, the mall otherwise had 32 shops and a General Cinema theater flanking the north side.  Thus, removing the hype surrounding its opening, it was basically an undersized mall with mostly local shops that was dated and doomed from the day it opened its doors.

From left to right: JM Fields, Pantry Pride, Revco, mall entrance, Condon's Department Store.  From the Charleston Post-Courier from August 9, 1972.

Skylight construction.  From the Charleston Post-Courier from August 9, 1972.

Finishing touches being made on the enclosed mall.  From the Charleston Post-Courier from August 9, 1972.

It should be fairly obvious by now that none of the mentioned anchors exist in any form today, and aside from Radio Shack and General Cinema not much in the mall had lasting power, either.  It only took five years for changes to start hitting the mall.  In 1977, Edward's would be purchased by Kuhn's Big K.  While Big K would take the spot, the Edward's purchase was detrimental to the company and Wal-Mart passed on the location when they purchased Big K in 1981.  According to Randy Barton on the Deadmalls.com post about the mall, the old Big K location was then filled with "an unfinished wood furniture store, a mattress store and an imports store".  In 1979, the next change came to the mall with the closing of J.M. Fields and its grocery division Pantry Pride.  Fortunately, Woolco came and picked up the J.M. Field location, opening in March 1980.  Red & White supermarket would also take over the former Pantry Pride space.

Edward's discount store and Condon's department store logos from the opening of the mall.  From the Charleston Post-Courier from August 9, 1972.

One of the mall entrances while still under construction.  How I miss the days when you just had this bold imposing "MALL" over the doors.  From the Charleston Post-Courier from August 9, 1972.

The 80's were absolutely catastrophic for Ashley Plaza Mall.  First, the mall no longer could carry the torch for...well...anything.  Charles Towne Square mall opened fully enclosed in 1976, so air-conditioned comfort for shopping could be found elsewhere.  Next, Citadel Mall opened in 1981 rendering the little mall even more useless bringing the anchors that Charlestonians were deprived of the first round.  By then, the mall was already emptying out coinciding with the closing of Big K/Edward's.  Woolco came next, closing with the chain in 1983.  All hope was not lost, however, as Brendle's catalog showroom took over the former Woolco site a couple years later.  This still, however, came on the heels of the closing of the General Cinema at the mall.  With the mall going downhill fast, the situation was about to get a whole lot worse.  Charleston, as history has shown, is extremely disaster prone.  Two earthquakes leveled the city in the 1800's and the forecast was doomsday as one of the nation's most powerful hurricanes barreled down on the city in 1989 otherwise known as Hurricane Hugo.

Mall directory for the original 1972 mall.  It was never much of a mall.  From the Charleston Post-Courier from August 9, 1972.

Here is a snapshot of the mall's tenants today as Ashley Landing.  Photo by Mike Kalasnik.

According to Randy Barton's commentary, the mall was heavily damaged by the storm with portions of the facade removed and Brendle's completely leveled by the Category 4 storm.  What was a mall gasping for life was suddenly completely dead, and it was one of the first dead malls in the country, lasting a mere 17 years.  However, the mall was not abandoned.  Brendle's was rebuilt, the Red & White grocery store became a new location of then-rapidly expanding Big Lots and the rest of the mall was demalled with Burlington Coat Factory taking over much of the space where the mall was before.  Condon's proved to be the the last original tenant, closing in 1999 not due to poor business, but due to a dispute over the center constructing a new Publix store that they claimed was hurting their business.  However, the logic of that seems dubious, and probably the chain was finding an attractive excuse to why they were going under.  It was the last operating location of the 100 year old chain.

Main entrance of JM Fields/Woolco, now a gym.  Photo by Mike Kalasnik.

Citi Trends operated as Condon's until 1999.  Photo by Mike Kalasnik.

Big Lots is located in the former Pantry Pride/Red & White.  Photo by Mike Kalasnik.

Dollar Tree is on the left side of the center and takes up part of the former JM Fields/Woolco space.  Photo by Mike Kalasnik.

Burlington Coat Factory takes up much of the original mall space with the other portion now used by a church.  Photo by Mike Kalasnik.

After renovations were made, the new center, Ashley Landing, would then become a conventional strip mall...sort of.  Burlington Coat Factory filled in much of the mall, Citi Trends took over Condon's and the Woolco/JM Fields has been subdivided into smaller tenants including Dollar Tree.  Big Lots replaced Pantry Pride/Red & White and what was left eventually became a church.  About the only near original tenant is CVS, which still operates in the old Revco.  Publix, which opened in 1999, sits across from the shopping center itself in the parking lot and is the only newer portion of the center.  From the outside it still appears to be an old mall, and the old mall entrances are still visible deceiving would-be shoppers into thinking a fossilized mall awaits them.  From an aerial shot, you can still make out the corridors of the mall.  The center, while not dead, is definitely catering to a different market from when it opened.  As one of the earliest mall redevelopment projects ever, this may explain why the mall was simply reconfigured in lieu of being torn down.  Today, the center is essentially an urban complex catering to lower-income shoppers, but otherwise the city's oldest mall is only a mall in form not function.

View Larger Map

Jackson Mall: Jackson, MS

Some malls never really die even if that means the mall is reinvented into something radically different than it originally was.  Jackson Mall, now Jackson Medical Mall, is a good example of that.  The concept of "medical malls" has had mixed success.  The Riverbend Medical Mall in Rome, GA was an abject failure while 100 Oaks Mall in Nashville and this mall have both been wildly successful.  While the concept is definitely unconventional, the mall is a mix of offices and a small amount of retail keeping the oldest mall in the city alive when it otherwise would have been closed and demolished.

Opening in 1969, Jackson Mall was the very first mall in the state of Mississippi.  Unfortunately, it did not provide a complete retail experience for Jackson.  Closer to downtown than the other three malls in the city built later, stores that had a presence in the city such as Sears and McRae's remained downtown.  The anchor line-up in the original mall included a two-level Penney's, huge three-level Gayfer's and Woolco with Elmore's variety store near Woolco.  The mall was a straight shot south to north between Penney's and Woolco with Gayfer's off to the west side in the middle.  It also has a main entrance in the middle on the east side and side entrance wings near Woolco and Penney's.  In other words, it was a pretty conventional mall for the era aside from two showy anchors and quite unexciting when Metrocenter and later Northpark Mall arrived on the scene.

This is the current mall directory.  The South Office Center cluster next to the red shops on the left is the former JCPenney, the West Office Center is the former Gayfer's, either 3 or 5 is the old Elmore's, Piccadilly Cafeteria is 35 and the UMC Cancer Institute is the former Woolco.  The first photo is pretty much how the entire main mall looks.  I was unable to photograph center court.

Southeast mall entrance where the retail shops are located.  This is next to JCPenney, and the entire left wall into the mall and former mall entrance contains the former store.

East side of former JCPenney.  Note the design in the white part with the "Funky P" laid out in an array.

When Metrocenter opened, Jackson Mall was able to co-exist with the newer, larger mall since they served different markets in the city.  Jackson Mall served the east and north parts of the city while Metrocenter served the areas south and west.  However, the closure of Woolco in early 1983 began the mall's troubles.  By then, the mall was located far from the interstates in the city and failed to expand and modernize to remain competitive.  When Northpark Mall opened in 1984, it was a catastrophy for the mall immediately taking both JCPenney and Gayfer's leaving the mall anchorless.  Soon after, the mall would close with nothing to draw customers in what had by then become a declining area left behind by retail development.  Most of that new development had mostly sprung up along the eastern side of I-55 while the mall was well west.

View of JCPenney court looking toward Piccadilly and the southwest entrance.  The main mall is to the right.

JCPenney mall entrance with southeast entrance wing to the left.

Woolco court.  Note the large tree and planter.  How come a repurposed mall can have one but a real mall can't have a single one?

In 1995, a local doctor came up with the idea to revive the dead mall as an inner city revitalization project.  Instead of a conventional mall, Dr. Aaron Shirley, according to the mall's website, "proposed that Mississippi's first retail mall be converted into a state-of-the-art ambulatory health care facility providing quality care for the urban poor of Jackson, Mississippi".  As a result, the mall reopened, anchors were filled with medical offices and a retail component was even retained to serve the patients and employees.  A Piccadilly Cafeteria is still operational on the west side near Gayfer's and a few small shops operate in the mall clustered near the former JCPenney.

View of the mall and main entrance with the former Gayfer's in the background.

View of southeast mall entrance with JCPenney in the background.

This former Woolco is pretty self-explanatory.

In appearance today, the interior of the mall retains much of its 1960's appearance.  It has the same high courts next to the major anchors, and the main change seems to be the wooden flooring throughout.  Outside, the anchors also maintain much of their original appearance: especially the old Penney's, which still has a Funky "P" array repeating over the entrances outside.  The mall also is probably busier than it was at its peak keeping a completely full parking lot.  In fact, it was extremely difficult to find a parking place when I arrived.  Rest assured, most of the people that were there probably did not want to be there.

The pictures of this mall are not the best, because it was difficult to get pics both inside and out.  The absense of parking and presence of too many people made getting good angles tough, especially outside.  This was the former Gayfer's.

This is my best shot of the old JCPenney.  Other than the lack of a logo, the store still looks like it never stopped being JCPenney.

Another impossible mall angle due to congestion.  JCPenney is ont he right, the southwest mall entrance in the center and Piccadilly Cafeteria is on the left.

While the mall is no longer in its original use, I applaud the efforts to keep the mall alive.  I believe it is important for the state's oldest malls to be kept open and in use at any cost as they are historically significant.  Malls such as McAlister Square in Greenville, SC, the oldest in South Carolina, likewise found a re-use as a multi-university campus.  While I wish these historical malls could become real malls again, I was pleased to see that all of Jacksons malls are still intact in some form and that the city has a vested interest in keeping them all alive.

View Larger Map

Monroe Mall: Monroe, NC

While nothing truly spectacular, Monroe Mall still holds its own in Charlotte retail.  Now located in Charlotte's metropolitan area, the mall is located just far enough from other malls in the region to remain marginally successful.  However, the mall is by no means a draw for the rest of the Charlotte region primarily drawing mainly from residents living in or near Union County and residents of nearby Charlotte suburbs still finding the mall convenient.  If closer to Charlotte, the mall would probably be on a death watch, but at around 25 miles from Uptown Charlotte, it stays comfortably far enough away with the added benefit of not being located on an interstate meaning that the drive to other malls in the region is still a major ordeal with congestion on U.S. 74.

Monroe Mall is also a very small, dark and basic mall for a small city in the South featuring the typical roster of Belk, JCPenney and Sears although this anchor line-up in the past was far more interesting than today.  At one point the mall was truly endangered as new retail projects in the sprawling southeastern suburbs threatened the mall, but mishaps coupled with a weak economy along the way have protected it for the near future.  The mall's recent renovation coupled with Belk's major expansion have also shown that the 3 anchors' commitment to the mall helps.

Despite its small size, there is much spooky about this mall.  I am unsure of what this entrance is, though.  The first photos is a photo in the middle of the mall showing how dark it is.  Typical of malls in that period, little natural light was planned in the design.  Photos by Mike Kalasnik.

Another mystery shop sitting vacant in a cove next to Sears.  Photo by Mike Kalasnik taken June 6, 2011.

A children's play area...a creative, while very non-lucrative way to fill a void.  Photo by Mike Kalasnik taken June 6, 2011.

JCPenney greets shoppers with a dark glass mall entrance typical of the era.  Photo by Mike Kalasnik taken June 6, 2011.

Another dark shop near center court.  The lack of many trendy shops will be the biggest factor in its eventual demise.  Photo by Mike Kalasnik taken June 6, 2011.

Next to Belk is this greenhouse fronted store.  Photo by Mike Kalasnik taken June 6, 2011.

Monroe Mall first opened in August 1979 as a somewhat lower-end shopping mall featuring the same Belk and JCPenney, but the other two anchors were quite different with Woolco forming the southeast end and regional player The Collins Company built in on the northeast as a junior anchor.  The most significant anchor, however, is Belk.  Why this is important is that this is where Belk got started opening a store in Monroe in 1888.  This same store is the one that relocated to the mall from downtown when the mall opened.  As the story goes, Belk as a company moved Uptown literally by snatching up Charlotte's Efird's Department Store, and the rest is history.  As to the mall, the mall would certainly be strange if it lacked a Belk, but at the same time it was sad to see the very first store downtown close down because of the mall.

Here is a brighter wing of the mall looking dead on the right, alive on the left.  Photo by Mike Kalasnik taken June 6, 2011.

More of the same.  Photo by Mike Kalasnik taken June 6, 2011.

Sears mall entrance originally opened to Woolco and, for awhile, Wal-Mart.  Wal-Mart always seems to be a VERY bad anchor for malls, but I never seem to understand why.  Photo by Mike Kalasnik taken June 6, 2011.

Belk here sports a new logo on one of their otherwise coolest 70's designs...but something is sadly missing.  Photo by Mike Kalasnik taken June 6, 2011.

A year before, this is how it looked.  Note the brassy overhang that was removed.  Photo by Mike Kalasnik taken May 2010.

Belk Kids, now Belk Children since the logo change.  I guess "Kids" did not sound very professional.  Photo by Mike Kalasnik taken May 2010.

Two of the original anchors did not last very long after the mall opened.  Woolco folded in 1983 leaving a dead anchor for several years and The Collins Company sold out to Peeble's in 1984.  Woolco would eventually be filled by Wal-Mart, arriving in 1986 in their expansion strategy in the state.  Nothing else drastic happened until 1998 when Wal-Mart decided it was time to trade up to a Super Center, leaving the mall in 1998.  Once again, the former Woolco found itself vacant until Sears finally took over the spot, opening at the beginning of March 2001.  However, despite all of these anchor changes, the mall never underwent a single expansion in that entire period.  Peeble's, however, appears to have made the mall a little smaller leaving the mall sometime after 2006.  Today that location is filled by Interior Solutions.

JCPenney here features one of its stores from its ugliest era.  While outlandish throughout the 70's, this is just plain as dirt.  Photo by Mike Kalasnik taken June 6, 2011.

Around the back side of the mall is this spooky looking mall entrance that was tempered by the addition of the new mall logo.   Photo by Mike Kalasnik taken June 6, 2011.

Here is another angle of that same mall entrance.  Photo by digitalsky taken May 7, 2011.

Located just east of Sears is this empty store.  It is unclear what this was, but it appears to have been a former grocery store of some kind, probably Winn-Dixie or Food Lion.  It last operated as Big Lots closing this past year.  Photo by Mike Kalasnik taken June 5, 2011.

A high resolution map image is provided here of the mall's directory.  Sans vacancies, it's a pretty typical small town mall now in an increasingly tough position.  Photo by digitalsky taken May 7, 2011.

A look along the Sears wing.  Photo by digitalsky taken May 7, 2011

In 2011, Monroe Mall has the potential to grow, but it seems to be continuing the organic route partly due to the relatively limited footprint the mall is on...a typical problem for the oldest malls in the state.  The only expansion at the mall that has taken place is the new addition to Belk underway.  Coupled with this is a renovation of the mall completed in 2010.  Despite these changes, competition from Charlotte does continue to have an effect on the mall.  Mall offerings remain limited, and vacancies are a problem in the 32 year old mall.  Still, it could be far worse.  Belk's expansion shows that there is still plenty of faith in the mall even with a struggling mall and economy.

Sears is here to inform you that they are far too cheap to make an old Wal-Mart not look like one.  You could just change the sign out front to "Goodwill" and nobody would know the difference.  Photo by digitalsky taken May 7, 2011.

Luckily, Belk was captured prior to its remodel on the outside in these images. This is one of my very favorite late 70's designs Belk used although the 90's teal paint-over was very inappropriate..  You can almost hear The Eagles song "I Can't Tell You Why" if you stare at this long enough.  Unfortunately this has now been torn off in the remodel and expansion.  Photo by digitalsky taken May 7, 2011.

Here, we see new tacked onto the old.  Photo by digitalsky taken May 7, 2011.

Here, a chained off former outside entrance now peers into the new part.  I assume Belk Kids, Children, Young'ins, whatever will probably move into this space when completed.  Photo by digitalsky taken May 7, 2011.

Here's the Belk store for the little whippersnappers for now.  Photo by digitalsky taken May 7, 2011.

Monroe Mall could have been headed in a very different direction, though, if a planned regional mall had opened to the northwest.  Plans were set in the middle of the last decade to build an enclosed shopping mall where U.S. 74 meets I-485, and plans remain in the works to build a lifestyle center two exits north on I-485 known as the Bridges at Mint Hill.  I-485 has definitely not been a help to the mall as the city was formerly much more isolated from Charlotte, but now traffic moves more freely in the area with once far-removed Carolina Place Mall now a much faster drive down the interstate, which opened a decade ago.  While I-485 pulls enough on the mall, a new regional mall at the fore mentioned location would have devastated the aging mall, pulling away all the anchors and leaving the mall deserted.  Economic-influenced delays coupled with General Growth's bankruptcy have combined to stall both projects, so Monroe Mall at least for now is able to survive.

These old "Open Tonight Until X" should make anyone wax nostalgic.  The time was usually lit up as well.  Some old photos I saw showed a Loveman's in Birmingham having one of these classy features, too.  Now we just get the dorky door stickers.  Photo by Mike Kalasnik taken June 5, 2011.

Ongoing construction on the Belk store.  Photo by Mike Kalasnik taken June 5, 2011.

Belk here features its "new" look.  Belk still builds attractive stores, but this one doesn't hold a candle to the older look.  Photo by Mike Kalasnik taken June 5, 2011.

Close-up of the Belk entrance.  At least it has brick and metal instead of just a blob of stucco.  Photo by Mike Kalasnik taken June 5, 2011.

Belk is here to inform you they are still open, but no longer cool.  Photo by Mike Kalasnik taken June 5, 2011.

Pathetic, just pathetic.  Photo by Mike Kalasnik taken June 5, 2011.

Monroe Mall's good luck, though, should not mean they should relax and forget about what almost happened.  It would be wise for the owners to consider expanding the mall, luring in a new, solid anchor such as Dillard's or a big box anchor to broaden the mall's appeal.  Obviously land issues would make this difficult, but at the same time not impossible with most likely expansion through the existing Sears.  Located a hair from Charlotte's most sprawling suburbs, the mall still has a fighting chance, but not for long.  As the smallest and oldest operating mall on the eastern side of Charlotte, it is important to consider that a few cosmetic renovations will not keep the mall competitive in the long term especially with the amount of vacancies it has.  With areas between Monroe and I-485 prime for a huge retail expansion, when this growth comes it can work either as a compliment or detriment to the mall.  So far, though, the mall has been pretty lucky.

View Larger Map

A Google Maps image of the mall.  On street view, you can see how the mall looked outside before the last renovation.

Here is a video taken in 2010 by Mike Kalasnik of the mall prior to the Belk renovation and with Big Lots operating a store in the now vacant store pictured above.