An extant asset
-UPDATE BELOW-
3 November 2024
(Source)
There’s a lot to love about the Smokey Mountains of Tennessee. The country roads leading up to the eponymous National Park, Dolly Parton and her theme park nestled in good ole Pigeon Forge, and the big, bright college town of Knoxville located right at the foot of the hills. There, in the suburban villa of Maryville, just a short drive past the McGhee-Tyson airport, is the mall named after those foothills.
-UPDATE- Foothills Mall’s original look. (Source for all)
Foothills Mall hosted my one and only visit to Maryville in December of 2000, when I went on an impromptu visit to see a friend who lived in the area. Truth be told, against the gorgeous backdrop of eastern Tennessee, there really wasn’t much to remember about the place.
Foothills Mall Mallmanac, ca. 2000. View the full PDF version here.
It was small, had one of the few mall locations of Goody’s that I had ever seen and not much else. I was just glad that they had mallmanacs available to commemorate the occasion. But everything else was just kind of forgettable.
-UPDATE- 1- The main entrance to Foothills Mall next to TJ Maxx. 2- The AMC Theaters. 3- Belk’s exterior. 4- The former JCPenney façade. (Source for all)
Foothills Mall opened in 1983 and remains the only enclosed shopping mall within suburban Blount County. It debuted with JCPenney, Miller’s, Proffitt’s and Sears; pretty standard for that region of the south. When Miller’s left, Proffitt's moved into their walls and occupied two separate spaces. Before long, Belk took over just one of the Proffitt’s while the other sat empty until Carmike opened a cinema in its place.
-UPDATE- Foothills Mall Mallmanac ca. 2019. View the full PDF version here.
With an addition of Goody’s and TJ Maxx, Foothills seems to be doing fine. I really hope it lasts, as these types of facilities on the extreme outskirts of medium size cities seem to be falling by the wayside. So I hope never to read of a re-formatting along with a renaming involving the words Towne and Centre.
(Source)
-UPDATE-
-30 November 2024
Foothills Mall Mallmanac ca. 2021. View the full PDF version here.
Although most peers in the small town mall category are failing, Foothills seems to be holding its own. The Goody’s space was taken over by local outfit Farmer’s Furniture while both Sears and JCPenney made their departures in the 2010s, leaving Belk as the only remaining traditional anchor.
1 to 3- The Foothills Mall interior entrances for JCPenney, Sears, and Belk. (Source for all) 4 to 6- Recent interior shots of Foothills Mall. (Source for all)
However, both original anchors have been replaced by non-traditional mall tenants BJ’s Wholesale Club in the former pad occupied by JCPenney while Publix makes their new home where Sears once existed. The tenant mix remains relatively strong with about 40 shops still occupying inline space.
Foothills Mall pamphlet ca. 2024. View the full PDF version here.