Haywood Mall: Greenville, SC

Haywood Mall is South Carolina's shining star.  It is by far the best and largest mall in the state, eclipsing Westgate Mall in Spartanburg and newer Coastal Grand Mall in Myrtle Beach.  However, a notable difference separates the two malls, and that is that Haywood Mall has the perfect mall anchor lineup.  Anchors at Haywood Mall are Macy's, Sears, Belk, JCPenney and Dillard's.  With a lineup like that, this mall is invincible, and it is likewise one of only three* two-level malls found anywhere in the state.  The others, Richland Mall, has fallen on hard times as its anchor plan proved too risky and Columbia Place is strangely fading away.  Haywood Mall, on the other hand, emerged among two other malls to crush them completely through their own expansion, department store bankruptcies and consolidations of anchors at the other two malls.  The public concurs that this mall is everything and more, and it shows by the huge parking lot filled almost completely with cars.  Only Mall of Georgia draws more of a crowd, and Haywood's expansion was desperately needed in Greenville to discourage South Carolina shoppers from making the jaunt down I-85 to the extravaganza in Buford, GA or up I-85 to the overall better malls of Charlotte.

While Haywood was very much responsible for the death of McAlister Square and Greenville Malls, the fact was that both of those malls were very lacking in very important areas.  Greenville Mall was too far from downtown and was not laid out correctly.  It had a poor choice of anchors that proved unstable and unsuitable, and its strange placement on a narrow strip of land made it very one-sided like a strip mall.  McAlister Square was just too plain and too old in an area that was likewise trapped in the 60's.  Haywood, too, was a pretty basic two level mall, but two level malls have proven to be a rare commodity in the Palmetto State and its big expansion created unlimited possibilities.  Also, this mall seems to have everything: sit down restaurants (Panera Bread and Ruby Tuesday), the only Borders Express I have seen, pretty much every mid-market trendy clothing store and a very attractive interior design that seems to have turned out to remain pretty contemporary for a mall built in 1980. 

The original part of the mall has two very oddly located escalators.  They seem to drop down off to the side away from center court, and they do so singularly on different sides.  Cumberland Mall in Atlanta had this set-up prior to the 2007 renovation.

The food court comes off the side of the original mall.  Like most malls of that vintage, it was added on as an addition and pops up like an afterthought.  It is close to Sears.

Haywood Mall forms an odd-shaped L, but it brought some personality to what started out as a painfully basic mall.  The design of Belk, though, is rather strange as if it was always designed for expansion.

On the outside, though, Haywood Mall shows its real age a bit.  The Macy's, which opened as Rich's, is a plain brick rectangle.  The Belk is quite interesting and quite retro, but it screams disco era.  Nevertheless, its uniqueness is unparalleled and needs to remain.  It opened originally as Belk Simpson.  JCPenney in design is identical to the store at Georgia Square Mall, also built in 1980, with its plain brick appearance accented by lights around the entry area.  Sears features a very outlandish and gaudy Logan's Run-style entry.  Dillards, added in 1995, is cookie-cutter 90's Dillard's design.  It shoudl be noted that the Dillard's was not new to the market.  It replaced the older Dillard's at McAlister Square that started out as Ivey's.  A parking deck was also constructed in front of JCPenney.

Macy's, formerly Rich's, comes directly off of the center court.  Belk faces the Macy's, but actually has a wing attached to it. 

Belk's original mall entrance, formerly Belk Simpson.  The size of the logo and space for the additional "Simpson" seems fairly obvious here.  A Borders Express (not pictured) is to the left of the entrance.

Sears...tiled, basic and bland as usual in this mall.  I sure wish Sears would not make every mall entrance identical with that ugly tile.

JCPenney's mall entrance here features the diagonal wood facade behind the sign.  It is located on the north end of the original mall.

Haywood Mall's success can mostly be attributed to very aggressive marketing, a forward-thinking two level design and just plain great choices in anchors.  It is actually not in the best location for a mall in the city.  Greenville Mall was actually the best located mall with high visibility and a location easily accessable from I-85.  Haywood Mall is off of I-385 closer into the city in what seems like a less prime retail location, but the lack of land for Greenville Mall to expand hampered its progress in comparison the plentiful land and blossoming strip development that sprouted on Haywood Road just south of the exit.  It can be said that a mall, no matter how successful it seems at the time, will fail if it does not attract or maintain the surrounding strip development.  While Haywood shared the prime retail corridor with Greenville Mall, the two were close enough that the strip development formed an L in conjunction with Woodruff Road (SC 146).  Nevertheless, Haywood Road is not even a marked state highway for even greater curiosity, though it is a state-maintained secondary road (South Carolina maintains most of their roads under state jurisdiction).  Greenville Mall was on SC 146.  Perhaps those fortunes would have been reversed if Greenville Mall had been better planned.

Instead of side window skylights, the newer Dillard's wing is very 90's with its vaulted skylights down the center.

In this court here, the center opening is round with a pointed dome skylight overhead.  Dillard's is straight ahead and a second Belk mall entrance is to the right.

Everything has a point, including this round dome skylight overlooking the circular overlook in the last photo.

Off of the same said court, Belk Simpson comes into view.  Panera Bread is to the left on the upper level.

Dillard's mall entrance also features a circular area with dual escalators and an outside entrance corridor off to the side.

Of course, the spirit of competition proves to not always go as predicted.   Sometimes the oldest malls emerge the winner, and sometimes the malls nobody would expect become dominant.  It was strange enough how this mall opened with a Rich's.  Rich's was a standard in Atlanta and well-known, but its expansion into South Carolina and Alabama in the 70's and 80's were a bit odd and a strain on the storied store.  Rich's only opened at two malls in South Carolina, and today those are likewise the only Macy's locations in the state.  Belk, however, seems to be dominant at most major malls in South Carolina...almost by default.  The fact that it is the best looking and most fun mall is undeniable as well.  The wood-trimmed ceiling and well-coordinated paint and fixtures give the mall a very rich, elegant appearance.  Though it is stripped today of fountains and planters, I am sure those were likely just as nice back in the 80's.  The exterior mall entrance signs are also quite showy with significant mountain chalet aspects.  I guess the "wood" in the name Haywood must have been some of the logic in doing that.

JCPenney's mall entrance, which is identical to the one at Georgia Square Mall, though it seems the lights have been removed around the frame of the entrance.  No other malls in Greenville had a JCPenney.

Belk Simpson at the mall is a retro goody.  I thought this picture did not come out, but it passes.  Maybe one day I'll get a good daytime shot.

I was unable to get the Sears sign photographed (boring modern one), but I got a pic of this wild entrance treatment.  What drug was the person taking that designed that that made them think this looked good?

Macy's, formerly Rich's.  This picture did not turn out very well, but it pretty much sums it up.  It is the most bunker-like of all the anchors.

In all, Greenville has proved to be quite a hot city.  While not a very large city, it graces the center of a large mid-Atlantic style metroplex that stretches continuously from Anderson to Spartanburg, and this mall is at the core of it.  Greenville's core is trendy, upscale and unique with a large waterfall forming a distinctive park in the center of the city.  Overall, though I was actually quite surprised to see how suburbanized this whole area was.  It was quite amazing following the continuous succession of strip malls, subdivisions and restaurants along US 123 leading into the city.  When considering that, it is understandable that the market is a bit tight there.  The other malls had to compete with both Anderson Mall and Westgate Mall.  Haywood does as well, but its dominance is not likely to wane any time soon.  While my camera did not cooperate for every angle of the mall, these photos show most of the highlights of a substantial mall.  I hope my second South Carolina mall entry does it justice, because I was pleasantly surprised by it.  South Carolina deserves more malls like this one.

This shot turned out to be a blurry mess, but the mall entrances are quite elaborate.  Ruby Tuesday is just inside the door there, and this is not as fancy as the entrance at the food court.  I imagine the original entrance was far more simple.

My sole shot from the lower level.  The wooden floors in the center were a nice touch.

A view from the top floor looking onto the bottom floor.

*Correction on the original post.  There are three, not two multilevel malls in South Carolina

Greenville Mall: Greenville, SC

Greenville was indeed overmalled, and having three malls in a city not large enough to support it is bound for disaster. The only reason this worked as long as it did was that the city has a very central location between Atlanta, Columbia and Charlotte, and all three malls had a significant diversity of anchors. Considering that, Greenville Mall existed most of its life as the accessory, never quite catching on. When it opened in the 1970's, it was anchored by Augusta, GA-based J.B. White and Montgomery Ward and served as competition to McAlister Square Mall. While that might have worked early on, it was crippled not long after it opened by Haywood Mall. In fact, it was headed for death in the early 1990's despite having two seemingly solid anchors. The biggest reason for that is that it was otherwise a one-story oddly laid out mall competing against two very solid malls.

Nevertheless, the owners at the time did not quite give up hope on a languishing mall. Instead, they undertook an elaborate and highly attractive renovation to the mall in 1995, attempting to "upscale" it by adding Parisian as an anchor as well as a supplemental Oshman's Sporting Goods as a junior anchor. Inside, many upscale tenants such as Williams-Somona were lured into the mall, and initially the change was very successful. Nevertheless, the addition of Parisian to the mall was far too risky. Parisian was not familiar to South Carolina, and its ability to attract an upscale demographic proved ineffective in the fickle market of the state. A few years after it opened, the owners of Parisian downgraded the store to more mid-tier Proffitt's, an even less familiar store from East Tennessee.

Some left over arched canopies sit between what is left of the mall and a popular movie theater added late in its life.

The downgrade to Proffitt's was proving a devastating blow to the mall. This was accelerated by the fact that Dillard's bought out J.B. White in 1998, which was likely not suspected in 1995. Dillard's already had a newer and nicer store at Haywood Mall than the older, smaller White's, and the store was immediately downgraded to an outlet after the purchase. Montgomery Ward was also in trouble as a company, a sure sign that the mall would soon be as well. Greenville Mall's anchor issues offered little hope of attracting replacements since the upscale anchor plan flopped, and Haywood had all the good anchors.

Walk inside the mall, and this is all you are allowed to see.  More mall is still standing straight ahead, but it is empty and open to the elements.  The Wards mall entrance is to the left.  I found this sight a bit painful to see.  Another Generation X & Y Main Street has bitten the dust.

Proffitt's had pulled out of the Carolinas somewhere in that time prior to the Belk buyout, and this left an obvious void at the mall where Parisian had tried to save it. In 2000, Montgomery Ward also liquidated, and somewhere in that time span Dillard's closed their outlet. At that point, the last remaining anchor was Oshman's, which was bought out around that time by Sports Authority. Despite a major renovation only a few years prior, the mall was doomed. Absolutely nothing could save it no matter how much money had been dumped into it only five years prior.

A bit more detail of the Sports Authority mall entrance and walled off area with a skylight remaining.

In 2006, demolition began of the by then largely vacant mall. It seemed that all was going well in the plan to modify the mall into a new lifestyle center known as "Magnolia Park", but then something strange happened. In the middle of demolition, work stopped and part of the mall on the east end was left standing. This included the former Montgomery Ward, still clad with its last logo used. This also included the still-occupied Sports Authority. Because of this, the mall entrance into the mall in front of Sports Authority was kept open and a portion of the mall still stands today, though all but the area right in front of Sports Authority was sealed off to the public. The credit crisis was part of what stalled the demolition, so what is left of the mall today stands as a very creepy reminder of one of the most colossal failures of retailing.

Despite the mall's pretentions of being a quintessential 90's mall, this extremely brutalist exterior suggests otherwise.  I see nothing here that is not stark and retro.

Wards here has been vacant for nearly a decade, yet very oddly it just looks closed for the night.  Apparently the store got quite a facelift in the 90's, and it shows.  Wards failure was devastating for many malls despite the public's derision of the chain best known for 70's throwback stores and its status as a distant second to Sears.

Nevertheless, a small part of the new lifestyle center was completed. A new Costco flanks the western end of the mall where White's once stood and a movie theater built during the last renovation on the east end continues to do exceptionally well. In addition, the corridor around it was forgiving of the retail disaster: it has exploded since then. In all honesty, it seems that Greenville Mall is cursed. The first mall failed, the second attempt failed worse and now it seems that trying to redevelop it has also been cursed. You have to wonder how a place could cause everybody that touches it so much trouble.  Still, it was a very important chapter in Greenville retail history, and I wish that I could have seen it just before and right after the 1995 overhaul.

McAlister Square Mall: Greenville, SC

Greenville is a city that has proven to be either quite significantly overmalled or quite possibly underanchored for the malls they have.  Over the city's history, the city has had four malls.  One of those, long-dead Greenville Mall is at present 90% demolished, and two others were completely repurposed: Bell Tower Mall and McAlister Square Mall.  Ultimately, the winner of the mall race became Haywood Mall, a quintessential shopping mall in every way.  Haywood is, in fact, the perfect 21st century mall.  However, before Haywood and Greenville both came on the scene was McAlister Square Mall. 

While long forgotten, McAlister Square is still very much in existance and very much open with normal mall hours.  However, as one of the two repurposed malls, it today functions almost completely as a multi-college satellite campus.  Five colleges hold classes in the mall with the primary schools using the mall today being Clemson, University of South Carolina and Greenville Tech.  A couple stores also continue to function near the main entrance including a cigar shop and a local restaurant that seems to be doing surprisingly great business.  Overall, though, the mall is completely empty when class is not in session.  It is not a traditional mall anymore by any stretch.  However, it's use as essentially a college campus has given it a bit of an interesting history as presidential hopefuls including later President Obama paid a visit to the mall during the campaign in 2008.  Nevertheless, in normal times if you needed a quite place to study on the weekend after class was over, this would definitely be the place to do it.

An older photo of this entrance showed that a more contemporary facade covered this original plain window and sign.  This entrance looks very, very similar to the original mall entrance to Columbia Mall in Atlanta.

Just inside the mall entrance looking toward the old Belk Simpson.  The main mall intersects ahead.  To the left is the one surviving restaurant and to the right is a cigar shop behind Nationwide.

McAlister Square had brighter, happier times.  Located on SC 291 between the downtown extension of I-385 and I-85, the mall was the very first mall in South Carolina not too far ahead of Dutch Square Mall in Columbia.  In design, the interior design was unmistakably similar to Atlanta's Columbia Mall, which opened in 1964.  It opened in 1968 with Charlotte-based Ivey's and Spartanburg-based Meyers-Arnold.  The mall offered a single level enclosed corridor with modern shopping, but the mall itself was quite simple and plain.  While small enough to be perfect for repurposing, it was actually amazing how long it continued to be successful.  In the late 70's, McAlister Square gained an additional anchor and back wing for Belk Simpson.  The anchor addition was likely a reaction to Greenville Mall, which opened in the 1970's not far away.  The mall also saw two anchor changes.  The first occured in 1987 when Meyers-Arnold became Upton's and the second in 1990 when Dillard's snapped up the entire Ivey's chain.  This new wing brought the mall to a clean symmetrical T-shape and solidified its presence in the city.  Right after this, the mall had trouble on the horizon.

Center court includes this stage and trellis-looking thing over it.

Looking down the east wing toward what was Upton's and Meyers-Arnold, today Greenville Tech's satellite campus.  All the other "stores" are related to the colleges.

The mall has no true skylights, just these narrow rectangular windows that likely looked very plain and ordinary previously.  They remind me of pictures I have seen of Dixie Square in Chicago and definitely of forementioned Columbia Mall (in Atlanta).

Greenville created a witches brew for malls: three malls all within a few miles of each other.  Literally, there were three malls in a row only three exits apart off of then-recently completed I-385.  Nevertheless, all three seem to compliment each other for a time because of a very diverse anchor line-up.  Dillard's buying two major local stores is the biggest factor in why things did not work out.  In 1980, McAlister had Meyers-Arnold, Ivey's and Belk Simpson.  Greenville Mall had J.B. White and Montgomery Ward.  Haywood had Rich's, Sears, Belk Simpson and JCPenney.  Only Belk Simpson was overlapping, but for some reason it worked for awhile.  Ivey's also had their exclusive location at the mall.

Looking down the Belk wing and the Belk Simpson mall entrance, which has never been covered up.

By not covering up, we of course get a peak inside at a store in surprisingly good condition for being abandoned for over 10 years.  It looks like work is being done, but nothing is actually happening.  This is apparently just storage.

For 20 years, despite the fact that not much retail was built around the mall, the mall continued to thrive.  Trouble brewed when Dillard's bought the Ivey's chain.  Initially, this change proved harmless because they had no other locations in the city.  Somewhere in that period, the mall was renovated to a tasteful late 1980's design that added some style to it.  It was likely renovated previously in the early 80's after a fire struck the mall, according to a post on deadmalls.com.  Even with the fire and its off-beat location and better nearby competition, this anchor diversity proved to be a blessing and a curse.  What also helped was how poorly Greenville Mall was performing then, meaning shopper loyalty remained at then much smaller Haywood and McAlister Square.  Since it was closer to Haywood Mall than Greenville Mall, this likely also made a difference.

Walking back toward the main entrance on the Belk wing.

Turning a corner from the Belk wing to the Ivey's wing at center court.

Looking down the Ivey's wing.  20 years ago, this place would actually have people in it on a Saturday night.

Ahead is the former mall entrance to Ivey's.  A side entrance to the front parking lot is on the left.  Both anchors had mall entrances next to the anchors.

In 1995, the end was imminent for McAlister Square.  Apparently Haywood Mall had aspirations of greatness, and the Dillard's was lured away to a bigger, newer, brighter store at Haywood Mall complete with a new wing, which greatly increased the size of the city's only two-level mall.  In addition, dying Greenville Mall was suddenly given a huge shot in the arm with a renovation including a Parisian: a new upscale anchor for the city.  Suddenly, McAlister Square was truly looking tired and out of the way.  McAlister Square was unable to replace that lost anchor, but the worst was yet to come.  Belk Simpson closed in 1999, leaving the mall with one anchor and a quickly emptying mall.  Belk had the best reason to leave since they already maintained a store at Haywood Mall less than two miles away.  Upton's folded later the same year when the chain went out of business.  When that happened, what was a maimed mall was suddenly a dead mall almost overnight. 

The back entrance of Ivey's maintains its original configuration.  The front has been modified with college labels and logos.

Belk Simpson maintains a very prominent labelscar.  It is a simple, but stately looking store and I am quite happy this last vestige of Belk Simpson remains although it is a bit creepy looking.

Upton's/Meyers-Arnold was an extremely plain, bunkerlike stores in desperate need of updating even when it did close. 

By 2000, all hope was lost of McAlister Square ever functioning as a retail center again.  It was historically significant, but it was by then a very small, boring, empty mall with absolutely no reason to go there.  What was worse was that the big box and other chain retail of the city also preferred the company Greenville and Haywood Malls meaning the mall relied solely on its anchors to keep it afloat.  McAlister likely would have been abandoned or demolished, but apparently the local colleges looking to expand enrollment took over the mall, converting the White's and Ivey's into satellite campuses.  However, Belk Simpson did not find new life in this conversion.  The store has remained vacant since it closed, though the store does not appear to be in disrepair and is still open to view from the mall itself.  The mall itself also does not pretend not to be a mall anymore.  It is still McAlister Square Mall and still has a very early 90's sign posted along the highway proclaiming it.   In all, South Carolina's first mall proved that it was able to last even if nobody wanted to shop there anymore.

McAlister Square also maintains a very late 80's/early 90's sign continuing to flash announcements.  One of those should be "Thank you for educating yourself at McAlister Square Mall!"

Vintage Western Sizzlin: Clemson, SC

Western Sizzlin was once the undisputed star of the family steakhouse industry. Since the 80's, however, most steakhouse chains with their old-fashioned comfort food, stuff-your-face buffets and aging crowds have fallen out of favor with the young, weight conscious and hipster crowd. Because of that, the chain exists in fewer and fewer locations. Nevertheless, it is far from dead and remains quite successful in secondary and tourist-oriented markets.

Most Western Sizzlins I see today are fairly recently built with their older locations long closed, abandoned or repurposed. None, though, are as puzzling as this location in Clemson, SC. That is because not only is it an original location mostly unmodified, but also because if the chain is not what it used to be, you would never know it by the full parking lot I saw there. The sign and style of this location I have not seen in years, so that is why I wanted to show you this rare treat.