Parkhill Mall/Riverside Plaza: Tarboro, NC

Tarboro is one of those towns that never should have had a mall.  Far too small to support one, it suggests that life in Eastern North Carolina was once very different when the mall was built.  A mere 16 miles from larger Rocky Mount, in 1972 this town gained its first and only mall.  Realistically its construction was also used as a means of keeping Belk from leaving the city, the enclosed mall had only one major anchor when it opened: Belk Tyler.  Junior anchors were GC Murphy, A&P and Peoples Drugs with room for a second anchor.  According to Chain Store Age, Belk had 48,280 square feet, GC Murphy had 30,000 square feet and People's Drugs had 15,000 square feet.  A&P was located on an outlot just north of the mall.

While the mall was not very impressive at 150,000 square feet, the mall had something rather unique in that it was used as a means to test three Belk concepts: a garden center, an auto center and even a gas station known as, rather humorously, Belko.  It is not known how long the auto center and gas station operated, but this was the only known case of either operating at Belk.  Belk had also experimented with garden centers, but not at this store.  It is assumed that since this was probably Belk's most rural mall-based store that Mr. Tyler was looking at novel ways to draw traffic to the store.  Those pictures have appeared around the web of this and are today the only thing left showing the mall in its glory days.

Entering center court (taken with a digital camera at the end of its life).  Note the cage structure on the left.  The first photo is the view of the entrance corridor with an unknown store on the left, former Kmart mall entrance on the right, and a smaller back entrance straight ahead.  It is obvious that this mall got a cheap 1990's remodel that stripped out everything worth seeing.

I have quite possibly never seen anything so creepy in a dead mall.  It looks like a makeshift jail.

Does anybody know what this was?  It looks like it was a restaurant.

Detail of the ceiling including a ton of missing ceiling tiles.  I guess this is how the mall deals with water damage: just remove the damaged tiles and call it done.

A close-up of the insanely creepy empty shops adjacent to the back entrance.  Aside from the 90's pastels, this looks haunting.  However, the doors with the blue light appear to actually be an exit for the theaters.  The store on the right is a total mystery.

A look at the entry into the main mall.  The blue tarp is where the fun stops.  The rest of the mall is closed to the public.  This tarp was replaced by a wall by the next visit.

1982 saw the first and only expansion at the mall.  That expansion would include a Kmart on the north end of the mall filling an empty anchor pad and the Parkhill 3 Cinemas on the back side of the north wing wedged against what was then Murphy's.  It was a small expansion, but it was not one that was very beneficial to the mall considering that this was not the major department store anchor that the owners hoped to attract.  It highlighted the issues of attempting to locate enclosed malls in very small towns.

The only interior entrance open to the public.  With no open stores in the mall, the corridor is used solely to provide access to the mall's movie theater that outlasted the rest of the mall.  It is located on the NE corner of the mall and previously dually functioned as the entrance to Kmart.

A view from the main mall to the former Kmart.  The mall itself had no natural light aside from the high window skylights in the court areas: a typical design used in the early 70's.

Another close-up view of the Kmart mall entrance.  Judging by the lack of mounting holes, the remodel was done after Kmart closed.

A couple photos taken inside the dead Kmart approximately two years apart.  The second photo indicates some kind of work was going on inside the store itself judging by a truck parked inside along with ladders and scaffolding.

Parkhill Cinema 3: the last operational store inside the mall as of 2013.  It is unknown if the theaters are still open.

Tarboro was no different than any other cities in Eastern North Carolina in that its primary economic engines mostly stopped running, and such a small town as Tarboro would prove unable to support a mall pretty quickly.  The mall would limp along through the 80's, but both JCPenney and regional chain Brody's passed over the mall leaving the mall a low end mall worsened by the non-existent growth prospects for Tarboro.  One anchor change did occur during that period, however.  The first was when GC Murphy went under in 1987, it was replaced by Roses.  It also appears that the mall received at least one renovation sometime in the 1980's or 1990's.

One more Kmart shot setting the mood with some empty benches.  Exactly who is going to want to sit in an un-airconditioned mini-corridor with zero stores and a few feet to walk?

The treasures of the mall were sadly hidden from view, but this shot through an abandoned store window gives a little glimpse of the former Belk Tyler mall entrance featuring what appears to be a classy and distinctive 70's look.

Looking inside the former Belk Tyler from the other side entrance into the mall.  The closure of Belk pretty much took the mall down with it.

A look under the tarp (not possible later) showing some of what is still visible in the rest of the mall.

The mall corridor was apparently closed to the public beyond the theaters around 2010-2012, because a permanent wall was installed in the second visit.  I wonder what it would take to get to tour the other side.

The early 2000's quickly pushed Parkhill Mall into dead mall territory.  It is not clear when Belk closed, but it appears it most likely closed at the mall as early as 1992: 20 years after the store opened.  When Belk closed, Roses came to fill the void leaving their prior store in the middle anchor.  Goldsboro-based Heilig-Meyers furniture would then come to replace the former Murphy's/Rose's spot.  However, this anchor shuffle would prove to be a fatal blow as two of the three chains left the mall in 2000.  This included Kmart, which left the mall in its second big round of closings and Heilig-Meyers, which closed with the entire chain the same year.  Somewhere within that same period A&P also closed its store with no grocery coming to replacement.  It is unclear which one closed first, but this left Rose's as the last anchor and they appeared to have joined the exodus leaving the mall anchorless.  By then, the mall should have completely shut down, right?  Not so fast, surprisingly enough.

Exterior/Kmart entrance to mall, the only one still open to the interior section.  To the right is the garden center for Kmart.  However, Kmart was not the first anchor to have a garden center at the mall!

More detail of the garden center with the auto center in the second photo.  The only spring greens you're going to pick up here today are dandelions and crabgrass.

This was the back Kmart/mall entrance with a labelscar still faintly visible.

Belk Tyler's very stately mall entrance.  It was from this door you could see through to the mall entrance.

And here is Belk Tyler's very OWN garden center.  At this time, they weren't growing blue flowers that light up on the side of the building, but they were obviously growing something.  This meant that Belk and Kmart were actually competing with garden centers!  However, it would not be the only service they'd compete on.

Today, Parkhill Mall, now known as Riverside Plaza, is mostly a mall masquerading as a traditional strip center.  The front main entrance corridor is gone, replaced with a Mexican restaurant and adjacent tenants were turned to face the parking lot making it appear at first glance to be a strip.  It is as if the owners are trying to hide the mall away.  Because the theater needs access, one mall entrance remains although the theater apparently did not need the mall to survive.  Thus, although the mall interior is mostly closed, a portion of the mall remains open on the Kmart side up to the entrance to the theaters.  While not glamorous, the arrangement allows limited access to a mall that has otherwise been long dead.  Unfortunately, the theater operator is not so fond of retail enthusiasts like us coming in and photographing that piece of a mall that is otherwise in good repair despite being largely abandoned for over 15 years.  In addition, K&L Transport Services operates on the back half of the former Murphy's/Rose's and a pawn shop operates in the former A&P.  In addition, the Kmart auto center (and possibly the store itself) are again open as an ironic Premium Auto Care & Tire considering that the Belk Tyler Auto Center has been vacant a good while.  It makes me wonder if many of the same employees work there.

This unassuming back door was once the emergency exit for G.C. Murphy, which was the original third anchor in the mall. 

Mr. Tyler was not one to market Belk as just a mere department store, he even went so far as to open up a full-service gas station!  This station served customers quality "Belko" gas!

Batteries!  Tires!  Alignment...all at BELK!

It turns out the Belk Tyler auto center operated under local ownership for a period of years after Belk closed as Webb Tire & Auto, which looks to have closed with no replacement.

Guess you'll need to go further down the road now if you need car service...or not.  The old Kmart auto center has reopened as Premium Auto Care and Tire since these photos were taken.  I wonder if it has any of the original employees from this place.

What is the future of this little forgotten gem?  Most likely it will be the demolition or filling in of what is left of the interior mall converting the rest of it to a strip.  It is clear that nobody is looking to occupy empty mall corridors, but that does not mean the space itself is useless for government offices, medical, or something else.  Retail returning to the mostly empty mall would be a stretch considering that Tarboro has long been by-passed and the mall is not on a high traffic corridor anymore.  In fact, it was most likely the completion of the U.S. 64 realignment in the late 90's (today future I-87) that had the biggest impact on the mall by shifting traffic patterns away from the mall.  If the theater closes at the mall, the greatest likelihood is just that the vacant parts of the mall will get demolished and left a vacant lot behind the existing strip.  Whatever ultimately happens, this mall demonstrates how overmalled North Carolina was during the 1970's and 1980's and how poor the planning was in opening an enclosed mall in a city with 11,000 residents so close to better shopping options in Rocky Mount to the west.  It is just good that somebody saw it before it was sealed off and forgotten like so many like it.

Another rear entrance of the mall next to Belk including a lot of retrofitting for non-mall tenants.  This would be on the southwest corner.  Also note the domed skylight over the court in front of Belk!

Of course, no mid-century mall was ever complete without a strip center adjacent to it.  This strip was originally anchored by A&P and People's Drugs.

This historical map was drawn to the best of my knowledge.  Things unknown include the exact shape of the G.C. Murphy, the location of People's Drugs in the mall and any detailed information about the closed off portions of the mall.  Any help would be appreciated.

Google Maps view of the mall

Cascade Galleria/Towne Mall: New Castle, PA

Finding old malls that retained their original design from the 60's and 70's is today very rare.  Usually malls like this are small, one-story malls found in cities too small to support them in somewhere in Appalachia.  This, of course, pretty much describes the sad and forgotten Cascade Galleria, originally known as Towne Mall.  Mostly deserted outside of office hours, at one point around 30 years ago it was the center of activity in the heart of New Castle.  Located on the southwest corner of downtown, it brought the first and only enclosed mall to Lawrence County as more of a community mall serving residents of the city which, at the time, was a city with over 40,000 residents in a county with over 100,000 residents.  Perhaps they deserved better.

Opening in August 1970, the mall featured a full-line Sears and Murphy's as its two anchors.  The mall itself is also quite small: likely only between 100,000 to 200,000 square feet.  Downtown had several department stores, but most of these ignored the mall, including Allied-owned Troutman's (later Pomeroy's).  After the mall opened, the effects of the collapse of the steel industry coupled with the major shift in retailing began to affect the mall.  First to depart was Murphy's, which closed their location at the mall in 1994.  Sears would leave the mall in 1995, relocating to a brand new standalone store on the west side of town at the junction of US 224 and the I-376 tollway.  The departure of these two anchors left the mall for dead.

Center court features wood-grained ceilings and a non-functioning fountain.  The wall on the left with the small hallway is actually what used to be the Sears wing.

On the left is what was a local pretzel shop.

A look down the east wing to center court (facing west).

North wing from center court.  The back portion is mostly walled off except for access to the north entrance.

A look down the north wing.  Murphy's was on the right.

High window skylight detail.

Next to the wall on the north wing is this staircase coming off to the side.  The aerial shows a small area that appears to include a higher roof that would thus support this second level.

The north end of the north wing is mostly blocked off except this piece of the corridor heading to exterior doors where the light is coming in.

Outside entrance from the north end of the north corridor.  Perhaps this was designed for a third anchor (Troutman's?) that never came.  If so, there was no room to add this anchor without tearing down several buildings.

Like in Meadville, Cascade Galleria was built on the edge of downtown instead of close to the interstate.  This meant that the mall was not only in an undesirable location for a mall, but also it was unable to expand.  This contributed to Sears departure.  Murphy's departure, then a part of the McCrory's chain, was expected as five and dime stores were in sharp decline by the 1990's.  When these stores left, no other stores were interested in taking over all of that anchor space.  Thus, the mall was ultimately repurposed with what few stores remained replaced with offices.  In fact, the only tenant in the mall today that serves a retail purpose is Towne Mall Pizza, an eatery that was not only an original tenant, but also popular enough that it did not need the mall to survive.  Family Dollar does occupy a portion of the Sears, but it is only accessible from the outside and does not connect to the mall.  Tenants in the mall today include Erie Business Center, AT&T, a credit union, a workers compensation office and a beauty school.  Not even a GNC or nail salon is interested in doing business in the mall.

Looking down the very dark north wing to center court with the wall ahead blocking Sears court.

Details of a few of the old shops.  The outline of an overhang is visible on one of the former shops on the right.

What is left of the Sears mall entrance is visible down this narrow hallway.  The wall to the right used to be part of the Sears wing.

Detail of the Sears entrance that is now offices.

Photo contributed to the New Castle News by David Colella showing the Sears mall entrance when it was fully intact.

Shots of the west wing walking away from center court.  The brick-clad arches on the exterior help to make the mall darker.

Walking down the west wing back toward center court.  The next photo shows more detail of the former store on the left.

Sears relocation would ultimately prove to be unsuccessful.  For one, New Castle is not large enough nor developed enough to support typically mall-based retailers.  Much better shopping options are found a mere 18 miles west in Boardman, OH including Southern Park Mall and a huge variety of big box stores surrounding it.  It seems more than anything the mall was built in hopes that people would choose to shop in New Castle rather than make the trek to the vast shopper's paradise to the west.  It did not work.  Sears in its newer location closed in 2015 after 20 years although Dunham's Sports and Lowe's still operate stores at Union Plaza.  While the city is clearly large enough to support some big box retail, it is not large enough to support the types of stores found in malls.

Former store on west wing.  Does anybody know what this was?  It has pretty distinctive architecture suggesting a junior anchor.

Walking back to center court along the west wing of the mall.

Center court looking into the east wing.

Although the sign over the mall appears to have been updated, Town Mall Pizza looks to be the only original tenant remaining in the mall.

Looking down the east wing toward the east entrance.

Note the unusual overhang of this store coupled with the rather vintage Town Mall Beauty School sign.  A photo contributed from the 1970's shows that a store called "Mr. Little's" used to be in this spot fronted by a kiosk.  The store to the right was apparently called "Rivet".  Next to that was the pretzel stand shown in previous photos.

Here is the photo from the early days of the mall contributed to the New Castle News by Anthony DiCarlo showing what was originally here.  So much has changed, but so much has remained the same.

What appears to have been the former Rivet location.

It is not clear when Towne Mall became Cascade Galleria, but what is clear is that the mall has barely been touched in over 45 years.  While clearly in good repair, almost all of the original 1970 decor is still intact even though portions of the mall have been partially walled off.  This includes, unfortunately, all but a small part of the Sears mall entrance and one side of the Murphy's wing.  A few original storefronts also remain, although many of those facades were stripped away leaving just drywall and glass.  The center of the mall contains a dark, but beautiful wood-grained ceiling with a vaulted court and high window skylights.  The mall also has planters and one fountain that has long since been turned off.  The layout is shaped like a cross with the former Sears at the top of the cross, the main entrances on each side and a smaller entrance at the bottom of the cross.

Exterior shots of the former Sears, much of what has been taken up by Erie Business Center (west side) and a portion by Family Dollar on the east side.  Part of the store appears to remain vacant.

Detail of the outside of the east entrance of the mall.  It was really quite an attractive design for 1970.

Former Murphy's location (outside entrance).  It looks like much of the right side of the north wing was taken up by Murphy's.  Today it houses what appears to be a call center for AT&T.

On the southeast outlot of the mall is this former grocery store.  Was this a former Top's or something else?

View of the west side of the mall with Sears barely visible on the right.

The name and logo appears to have been changed in the mid-1980's, but the sign itself is the same sign frame used for Towne Mall originally.

Last, but not least, is Sears replacement store located three miles to the west at the intersection of US 224 and I-376 (Pennsylvania Turnpike).  It closed in 2015.

Since Cascade Galleria is repurposed in an area that is not growing, it is realistic to assume that the mall is not going anywhere.  However, what often happens with repurposed malls is that a larger tenant ultimately takes over much of the mall such as a medical center, government offices or a call center.  Right now, that is shared among multiple businesses, but that can change at any time: especially for a mall this tiny.  When this happens, corridors are walled off and the vintage elements are stripped away making the building look like any other modern building inside.  As it is right now, two corridors are already partially walled off suggesting such a metamorphosis is already underway.  For right now, despite no longer functioning as a retail mall, another mid-century enclosed mall is still mostly intact and unmodified from its original look reminding us of the golden age of retail.