Wednesday, October 20, 2010

Parkway Plaza Shopping Center: Kingsport, TN

One thing that wore on me when I was driving through Kingsport is how I wish that I was arriving in the late 1990's instead of when I did, because then I could have toured and photographed the forgotten Kingsport Mall.  Of course, back then I would have had only a 24 exposure big, bulky film camera with image quality resembling the early 80's.  What would also have been worth it in that trip aside from visiting Kingsport Mall was to have driven a short ways down the street to catch an earlier glimpse of Parkway Plaza Shopping Center.


The most amazing thing about Parkway Plaza is that it looks like the kind of strip mall you would find in the most depressed ghetto before the graffiti artists, arsonists and vandals trashed it beyond recognition.  It is that reason that you rarely find many places like this left in most cities across the country since places like this are modified or demolished in the nicer sides of town.  The large push to redevelop most urban slums influences this, but some of the best mid-to-late century architecture was lost due to that logic.  Kingsport, however, is one of those exceptional places hanging onto some of the retro architecture and signage left behind.  The strip mall looks to be a perfectly preserved specimen straight from the 1960's in every way!  Even the sign along Lynn Garden Drive (TN 36) looks like it hasn't been touched in decades, and it is in remarkably good condition.  I really do not understand why but these type of cities tend to hold the most mid-century gems with East Tennessee a virtual living museum of the mid-1950's to the mid-1970's, but I do wonder how much race is a factor since the immediate area despite being very economically depressed is also very white. 



The very first photo features the well-preserved modernist sign along Lynn Garden Drive (TN 36).  The first photo above features the former Kroger, which is currently abandoned.  Kroger looks to have left in the 1980's, but the store may have found a few tenants as late as the 90's considering it's not in worse condition.  The last photo above is the former discount store which resembles some pics of Hill's or Grant's.

Parkway Plaza Shopping Center in its time was an unremarkable shopping center featuring one grocery store, Kroger, and one discount store which appeared to be Hill's, Grant's or something similar.  I would not have been surprised if this wasn't the very first strip mall in the city that at the time ultimately supplemented Kingsport Mall as if it itself was a mall.  In fact, Parkway Plaza is itself has a small open-air, covered mall portion.  Such arcades were obviously common in the earliest strip centers to maximize space for shops that wanted into the first strip malls prior to the mall era.   The arcade, however, ends at a plain wall with obviously no anchor or expansion planned.  Imagine if it had, though, then Kingsport could have had its own version of Montgomery's Normandale Shopping Center.



I am looking here into the open-air mall portion in the middle looking toward the wall in the back.  Too bad that was never expanded into a full-fledged open-air mall.  The decay is interesting enough here, but the period design is something else.

Parkway Plaza is in an awkward location on TN 36 north of US 11W (East Stone Drive).  At one time TN 36 was the main route carrying US 23, but in the 1970's it was by-passed by the TN 137 freeway, which later became I-181 and is now the northern extent of I-26.  Even worse was when Kingsport Mall and later Fort Henry Malls were built, all the development shifted east towards the malls taking downtown as well.  Parkway Plaza became isolated and its local community eventually chose not to support it in lieu of shopping at the better, newer options further east.  Kroger eventually closed their location at Parkway Plaza consolidating all of their business into their store across from Kingsport Mall sometime later.  Soon everything else moved there as well with the momentum speeding up further after Kingsport Mall was torn down and redeveloped in 2002.


Obviously whoever parked that truck there in the front of the mall part in the first photo was not a bit worried about anything happening to it.  That is looking toward the parking lot and I took the picture to show the unique skylight treatment.  The last photo is a look down the walkways in front of the stores out toward the mystery discounter.  I edited out my vehicle in the second pic.

I can only imagine if the economy were better that Parkway Plaza would be history, probably redeveloped for a non-retail purpose such as a senior center, medical center, mid-priced motel or low income housing.  Probably the main reason it was overlooked was due to the lower commercial benefit of the area as well as the push to redevelop Kingsport Mall first.  While there may be one or two shops still operating in the center, it is effectively dead with little hope of revival.  With no renovation other than a paint job, updating the center would be a huge investment and any renovation would probably make the center look worse since it would likely be done cheaply.  The anchors are also too small to be revived in any form, so the most that would be interested in locating there would be a Dollar General.  I'm just glad I got to see it before they city finally decides that this interesting, yet decrepit historical landmark is too much of a blight to leave as is.

23 comments:

  1. There used to be a Dollar General at the Parkway Plaza.

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F9S2pXfqVwE

    The video will also describe why the truck in your pictures was parked where it was.

    And the anchor was a Grant's, and later a Fred's.

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  2. I think it was Grant's at this center. The center is early 60's and Kroger received its 70's superstore makeover where it stayed until relocating to East Stone Dr next to the old Kmart, in the former Kmart Foods and now Sav-a-Lot. Kroger co-anchored several shopping centers in Tennessee with Grant's in the mid to late 60's.

    Hills was at the old Kingsport Mall and had a Johnson City location, with a greenhouse Kroger, near Miracle City Mall.

    The Tri-Cities, and nearby Greeneville, Morristown, and Elizabethtown developed somewhat differently from the retail scene in much of Tennessee with a strong resemblence to Southwest Virginia and Western North Carolina retail scenes mixed in. Kroger has survived despite not being the dominant supermarket in the region, with Food City and Walmart being the leaders and Ingles, Food Lion and semi-local White's(part of Kentucky based Houchen's now) having a similar market share.

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  3. I'm scratching my head about the comment regarding mid-century architecture. Mid century stuff was built in the heyday of large scale "urban renewal" and tons of it has survived or at least survived until fairly recently in places inhabited by all kinds of people. In Atlanta, I think of Moreland Plaza in SE Atlanta, the now degraded Stewart-Lakewood Plaza, Atlantic Plaza (recently redone, but for years abandoned and next to I-20), Avondale Mall (a total museum piece until Wal-Mart got to it, which was not the plan DeKalb County had in mind). Basically, any neglected area that was developed in the 50s and 60s will have this stuff. Not to mention places like the gloriously ugly North DeKalb Rich's, which is easily the most unattractive branch they (or any other major department store) ever built.

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  4. I do see your point, but do also note that much of this is torn down or abandoned in contrast with some of these places like this where everything down to the signs and original decor are intact. For whatever reason, the older area does not become depressed enough to push a complete revitalization nor does it become completely abandoned. Cleveland, TN is a classic example of that: perfectly preserved period architecture without it being "perceived" as a scary ghetto. I guess that's what I was trying to say.

    As to the North DeKalb Rich's...one reason it is so very ugly is that they attempted to put a strip of stucco on the outside that molded and clashed with the store terribly. The result was a nasty blend of 80's/90's postmodern with muted colors combined with classic art deco that seems to pervade around Atlanta (Note my remarks above). In Atlanta and in most cities, "updating" is necessary to "protect property values" (meaning locals are scared to shop at something that looks as old as it actually is) and because it is necessary to retain a-list tenants. One reason pretty much anything mid-century looks so bad is the paint job they did where they made it look like a warehouse when it used to have red brick, bright colors and such. As you know anyway, 50's-70's architecture is still highly controversial and viewed by many as disposable. Few things in this world do I recall being uglier, though, than Belmont Hills Shopping Center after it received its 1987 remodel. It wasn't attractive to start with, but the gray blocky look was painful to see.

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  5. Now they are doing a remodel to Ansley Mall in Atlanta that involves installing copper paneling all over the place. It will destroy the retro aesthetic.

    http://whatnowatlanta.com/2010/09/26/artist-rendering-of-the-all-new-ansley-mall/

    They are also ripping out brick pavers and other features in favor of plain cement sidewalks. It's a true shame.

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  6. Not to get too far off the subject, but I want to make a comment about the North DeKalb Rich's/Macy's. A few years ago during a community meeting with the new owners of the mall, we were told that Macy's actually owns the Macy's building at the mall and was not interested in painting or any other upkeep. The mall owner had offered to at least re-paint the outside, but was refused. The paint is fading so badly that you can see the individual brush marks now.

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  7. The Kingsport public library site has shots of the Kroger from a distance dated 1963. The superstore remodel was one of the less extensive I've Kroger give converting an existing store to the superstore format. The brick matches the original rather than the dark brown of superstores, the window panes go all the way down to side walk level, and there appears to not have been any expansion. Also the rest of the center was not redone to match the superstore look.

    Also, the library site had several shots of the Kroger from 1946 downtown on Cherokee Avenue and the nearby A&P as well as mid-50's Little Store, I believe a forerunner to Food City.

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  8. Nearly all of my childhood memories of Kingsport have been demolished already. I hope the bigshots downtown leave me the old Parkway at least. I was a kid when the toy store was there. I hope they never tear it down.

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  9. I remember the "discount store" section being a store named "The World of Toys" from the mid to late seventies

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    1. It was "World of Imports."

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    2. Sorry but "World of Toys" is correct. Took my children there quite a few times while it was open.

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  10. I grew up in this part of Kingsport from the late-60s to late 70s. The two main anchor stores were indeed Krogers and Grant's with a couple smaller stores in between... I seem to recall a greeting card store and a pet store. Grant's later became "The World of Toys" in the mid/late 70s.

    Until the 1980s, this area was located along Kingsport's northernmost corporate limits. The majority of nearby residential areas were fighting annexation and city leaders countered by slowing the wheels of commercial development. Today over two decades after annexation this side of Kingsport remains in economic dispair with many businesses shuttered. The local economic problem was further exacerbated when a Walmart Supercenter was built approximately 2 miles to the west.

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    1. During the 1970's there was a Revco drugstore located adjacent to Krogers.

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    2. I've been trying to find someone that remembers World Of Toys for so long. I was a kid in the 70s so that was a huge part of my childhood. Does anyone remember anything about that store? I can still remember how it smelled.
      Any pictures?

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    3. I remember World of Toys being there, but I don't remember any details. I do know I got my first Star Wars action figure there - R2D2.

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  11. Parkway Plaza is just another eyesore like so many abandoned strip malls in this town. Allandale Shopping Center (Winn Dixie), the old Giant (later Food Lion) shopping center on University Bldv. and the Mount Carmel shopping center (Super Dollar then later Food City), Tri-State/Food City (behind Hardees on Stone Drive) are a few others that come to mind.

    I would love to see the Parkway Plaza and Allandale Shopping Center turned into one giant indoor flea market. That would be cool!

    What amazes me is how whoever owns these strip malls manages to pay the property taxes and can make any money from rent with just a few stores as tenants.

    One issue that lead to the decline of the Kingsport Mall was the owner refused the repair the roof. One time I was in there, there were several 50 gallon garbage cans placed in various spots catching leaks. I wanted to kick at least one over!

    I read in the Kingsport Times The tenants filed a lawsuit against the guy. I don't know what happened but I do know pretty much everybody moved out or went out of business.

    I was glad to see the Kingsport Mall demolished and rebuilt. I would hate to have seen it turn into another abandonded piece of property in this town.

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  12. I know that the large building to the far left was once called Lay's which then became Freds. I don't think anything has been in that building since the mid to late 80s. I remember Lay's maybe around 82/83. I couldn't remember the grocery stores that was on the far right side, back then because I never went in there. However, in the late 80s though the mid 90s, there was a Food Country there. The smaller shops in between, I don't remember well either except one was a Buster Brown Shoe store...or carried those brand of shoes.

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    1. Thanks so much for this information. There is very little out there about the Cleveland, TN based Lay's chain, which I uncovered documenting another mall on this site. I know of two locations, so this is the third. This probably opened around 1977 since the Grant's space that it occupied closed with the chain in 1976. Lay's went out of business in 1985.

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    2. I was thinking there was a store called Fred's there back in the late 1980s.

      Was it the same as the Fred's chains that came and went a few years ago?

      Before Fred's there was an import store there. They sold doorway beads, wicker stuff, pottery, etc.

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  13. The Parkway Plaza was built in the mid 'sixties by W. B. Greene, Sr. who owned the W.B. Greene store on Center Street in Kingsport. He was also into the banking business. Upon completion of the plaza Greene moved his store to the plaza location and closed the downtown store. He rented space to other retain businesses but I believe it is safe to say that W.B. Greene was the anchor.

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  14. In Dec 2014 the Kingsport newspaper reported Parkway Plaza was scheduled to be razed pending contract approval for a new commercial development.

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  15. That article in the Kingsport Times News also reported that this shopping center will likely be demolished and replaced with a Walmart Neighborhood Market.

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  16. As of August 2015 the old Parkway Plaza has been demolished and a new Walmart Neighborhood Market is bein built with an estimated opening date of autumn 2015.

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