Fort Henry Mall/Kingsport Town Center: Kingsport, TN

When it comes to malls, Kingsport seems to be falling behind.  After Kingsport Mall closed and was torn down in 2002, it was a ripe opportunity for Fort Henry Mall to shine, and it appeared for awhile that elements were coming together to make that happen.  While the plans have been laid to rescue this mall from its unfortunate trip to tacky land, apparently shoppers have not been very happy for awhile considering how much this mall has lost ground to its competition in Johnson City.  Even worse, it seems the mall is falling into the Cookeville curse with tenants actually being lost to area strip malls in lieu of a newer mall or lifestyle center.  The mall was still very busy for a Friday night, but nowhere near the mob at The Mall at Johnson City.  This should not be the case, though, with Fort Henry Mall offering over 500,000 square feet of shopping, three solid anchors and two levels of shopping.  In addition, Johnson City is still 25 miles away and Fort Henry Mall sits at the center of a thriving retail corridor.  The fact that the mall is still not fixed may just be a case of bad luck, bad timing and/or a bad economy, but maybe there is there something I do not know?

When it opened in 1976, Fort Henry Mall was on top as it wiped out downtown shopping bringing in a first-class mall experience to the mountain city.  Anchors when the mall opened included Parks Belk, Miller's, Sears and JCPenney.  It was the biggest and best mall in the region dwarfing the then-Miracle Mall in Johnson City and drawing shoppers around a large radius including bordering areas of Virginia and North Carolina.  Close-by Kingsport Mall, only five years old at the time, could not compete and began its long, slow death over the next 25 years.  Bristol also did not have its own mall yet, which helped it gain traction as a super-regional center.  The completion of TN 137, now I-26, also helped bring in shoppers despite the fact the mall is somewhat difficult to get to from any freeway.

The two scenes above along with the lead photo are along the lower level in the main part of the mall starting in front of Belk (Parks Belk) continuing to the theaters (Miller's) in the last photo.  Shouldn't garden malls have more plants?

The completion of Fort Henry Mall left Bristol envious and Johnson City's Miracle Mall reeling, so Bristol was the first to challenge the mall.  Bristol Mall was similarly large like Fort Henry Mall, and it opened in 1978 eroding parts of its base, but the malls seemed to co-exist peacefully for many years to come.  Bristol Mall also was apparently built by the same developer with a highly similar design and identical anchors.  Miracle Mall at this point had to go much further to survive, more than doubling the mall's size in 1982 and anchor offerings as well, changing its name to The Mall at Johnson City.  Fort Henry Mall then assumed a less substantial position in the market, but still a dominant one for years meaning that the Tri-Cities could clearly support three fairly substantial malls with similar stores and anchors.  Kingsport Mall, meanwhile, lurked in the shadows like the bullied kid it was.

Here, I am looking along the JCPenney wing, which extends from the upper level in front of Miller's to the store entrance.  This appears to be the healthiest wing of the mall.

Close-up shot of the JCPenney mall entrance.

Over the years, the successful mall would see a few anchor changes.  Miller's was the first to change in 1987 converting to Hess's and again to Proffitt's in 1992.  Parks Belk would change next with Proffitt's buying them out in 1995.  The result would be two Proffitt's stores in the mall.  With Proffitt's, the former Parks Belk would become the main store while the former Miller's/Hess's would become the men's and home store.  In 2006, Proffitt's was bought out by Belk with the original Parks Belk store again become Belk in 2007, just without the Parks.  The second Proffitt's became a men and kids store, but only briefly with Belk closing the store in 2008.  The lower level of the second Belk, which operated previously as Miller's, Hess's and Proffitt's ultimately became Marquee cinemas.  The upper level, closed during my visit, was being prepared for a future new food court.

I am not sure what went wrong, but my camera would not cooperate, so I got a lot of blurry shots.  Apparently my camera was having problems with the freaky color scheme.  This is on the lower level wing extending from the Miller's court to the open-glass window that forms a never-filled anchor pad.

This is the same angle as the above photo, but on the upper level.  This part of the mall had the most vacancies as well as mom 'n' pop stores.

Upper level here of the court in front of what used to be Miller's.  A new food court is planned here in the near future behind the walls of the empty anchor.  The style of this court is ugly in every way.  The ceiling for sure needs to be raised with high windows, skylights or something.  The new lighting only highlights what looks wrong.

In addition to the four anchors, the mall was also clearly retrofitted for a fifth anchor from the beginning located on the southeast entrance of the mall.  This pad is two levels and features a large glass window on the second floor with steps going down to the first level in front of it.  It is unclear what the mall hoped to attract, because Montgomery Ward was obviously disinterested in leaving Kingsport Mall and the better department stores in other cities were still overlooking the region.  Perhaps they were thinking Thalhimer's, Stone & Thomas, Ivey's or Castner-Knott would give them a full deck, but obviously not.  People in the region still hold out hope for Macy's and Dillard's, but so far Dillard's only seems to be interested in parking at The Mall at Johnson City.

I have to say I really liked this style of mall entrance that Parks Belk used here.  It is simple, but distinct looking.  It was also nice to capture the old-style Belk logo here: an endangered species.  Labelscar captured this mall entrance while it was still Proffitt's.  This store was Proffitt's from 1995-2007.

The mall, while somewhat troubled, is not in a time warp.  Fort Henry Mall would see two renovations since it opened. One of those was in 1989 and the second came in 2005.  It is not clear how much was done in the 2005 renovation, but at least one of those renovations resulted in the gaudiest carpet ever encountered in a mall.  This carpet is in a groovy psychedelic pattern that defies all good taste, which is a mistake I am sure they are overeager to rectify.  It seems that both renovations were purely cosmetic as items such as railing and other interior decor still resemble much of what was in the original mall.  I am sure the 2005 renovation was primarily commenced to remove much of the greenery and water features that may have survived in the 1989 renovation.  I am sure the original mall, like many malls of that period, was quite a sight for the area residents who probably were somewhat disappointed in Kingsport Mall.

Here are a couple views from the upper level of the mall along the main mall concourse.  The first photo is looking towards the former Miller's/Hess's and the second photo is looking back towards Parks Belk/Proffitt's.

The terrain of the Tri-Cities region is very mountainous, which makes retail development difficult.  All of the malls of the Tri-Cities have bizarre floor plans designed to deal with this issue, and Fort Henry Mall is no exception.  While the mall is two levels, the two-level portion only extends from Belk (original Parks Belk) to the now-closed second Belk (originally Miller's).  JCPenney is located at the end of a one level wing off the upper level on the original Miller's side.  Sears is located at the end of a one level wing off the lower level on the original Parks Belk side.  This overall gives the mall a backwards "S" shape.

I am back to the extension of the upper level from Miller's to the big glass front anchor pad.  This is by far the most fascinating part of the mall since it offers a view from the upper level as well as a rather unusual mall entrance.  Stairs connect the end of the hallway to the lower level.

A view of the stairs and windows overlooking the parking lot.  The outside entrace is visible behind the glass in the railing.

Here is a view from the top level outside.  You can see Sears in the background.  The mall redevelopment will extend the mall beyond this window back to the Sears providing two mall entrances to Sears and expanding the mall greatly to hopefully attract better stores. 

Overall, Fort Henry Mall was doing fine over its first 30 years of business.  The problem has a lot to do with the current ownership, which has so far been full of big promises, but have delivered little.  However, it does appear that some progress is underway.  Somera Capitol Management owns the mall, and they also own Laurel Mall in Maryland: another mall desperately in need of reworking.  With General Growth managing the mall, very ambitious plans surfaced to renovate and expand the mall.  In the process, the mall was renamed Kingsport Town Center: at least on paper.  This new renovation would update the decor, extend the mall from the empty anchor pad back to the east entrance of Sears, add a new food court inside the upper level of the former Belk Men's, Home and Kids, vastly improve the plain and dated mall entrances and update the lighting.  As of late 2009, about the only thing actually completed was the lighting, which only helped to spotlight how garish it still looks.  The owners, still publicly optimistic, produced a You Tube video detailing these plans, but just as they had finished shooting the video several major chain stores departed including Chick-Fil-A, Waldenbooks and Radio Shack.  Belk also consolidated their operations into their original Parks Belk store the following summer as well, though that is actually part of the redevelopment process.

I am now moving along the Sears wing extending from the lower level from the Parks Belk court to Sears.  An entrance wing intersects this wing in front of Sears.

Sears here sports the latest logo.  This must be a reasonably profitable store.

I gave in and added this blurry photo for a reason.  Piccadilly Cafeteria is on the right, but on the left it very curiously looks like an old Morrison's Cafeteria.  Did Morrison's or Piccadilly move to the current location from that one or was this something else?  This is the fore-mentioned entrance wing next to Sears.

One fact remains with Fort Henry Mall, though, is that this mall has dived to B-mall status, so this redevelopment is in rather desperate need of moving forward if the mall is to avoid ending up like its beleaguered cousin Bristol Mall.   Both malls have been bleeding popular chain stores while The Mall at Johnson City seems to have drawn in the best of the region without even trying.  I would suggest to the owners, however, to drop the pretentious and grossly unoriginal "new" name with Kingsport Town Center.  This is not a cookie-cutter lifestyle center imitating downtown, it is a MALL and to all appearances will stay one.  Additionally, the current name is very unique and original kept as is, and from comments I have viewed other people really like the original name as well.  What about just Fort Henry Center?

Piccadilly Cafeteria sports a modern classical look for a mostly silver crowd.  As a rather traditional, conservative area places like this are bound to do well. 

If my description of the mall is rather confusing, this should help.  Note the main two-level wing, the two single level wings connecting JCPenney and Sears, the two-level entrance wing exetending off the blue court and the small entrance wing next to Sears.  Note the mall map still says "Fort Henry Mall".

Fort Henry Mall's two-level main entrance from the outside.  Unfortunately, they refuse to light up the red "Fort Henry Mall" sign since they have decided to retire that name apparently without any public input.  I would say until you can afford the new signage, light up what you have.  They had the sign along the main road dark as well.

Here is the two-level mall entrance from the side from a distance.  The old Miller's/Hess's is to the right of the entrance.  I was unable to get a decent photograph of Miller's because of the poor lighting and darkness.

Another idea the mall should consider is luring in a new anchor distinct to the region to increase its appeal as part of its renovation.  The mall definitely has room for Dillard's, for example, and the current anchor line-up offers no advantages vs. the other two malls in the region.  I would also suggest a standout renovation for the mall.  Seeing the drawings, the interior renovation looks pretty generic 2000's, so why not experiment with a more distinctive, elegant, moodier look?  Bring in something special like a spectacularly designed center court complete with high windows, a vaulted ceiling and an elegant wood-trimmed ceiling treatment coupled with an elegant water feature at the base.  One mall they could look at is the beautiful Northlake Mall in Charlotte whose design would better fit in with the region.  If they incorporated the food court and center court together in the fashion they did with Northlake, that part of the mall would be far cozier and more enjoyable.  Even the more basic ceiling treatments like those used in Three Star Mall would look nicer.  Sure, this may be Kingsport, TN, which hardly invokes images of glitz and glamour, but it is a region that is starving for better malls thus the overcrowded success of its Johnson City neighbor.  While I am sure the current redevelopment plan will help, I definitely think much more could be done to make this mall special and truly competitive.

JCPenney from the outside lit up for the evening.  The white pine tree looks spooky in front of the sign in the second photo.

Belk here is caught in a time warp with this store, but I still like it.  If you look carefully in this photo you will make out the Parks Belk labelscar behind the Belk sign.  Proffitt's apparently did not leave any labelscar from when they were here, but apparently they painted the awnings to match their green signs.

MORE: See Labelscar's post on this mall, which was photographed when Proffitt's was still at the mall as well as a few other angles I failed to capture.

Kingsport Mall: Kingsport, TN

Back in 2003, a site was created called Kingsport.org that was a spoof of those gimmicky chamber of commerce websites.  The site was indeed hilarious, but it was very very harsh on this mountain city effectively enraging the city leaders, chamber of commerce and likely miffing much of the local populace who were being painted in a less than rosy picture.  To this day, I am wondering what motivated the webmaster of that site who featured, for example, a snarling possum as "local fauna".  It seems like he was getting even with the town for something.  While the site no longer exists, the site featured Kingsport Mall.  Why did they feature it?  To effectively trash the local retail scene as dead, backwards and ugly.  What the webmasters did, however, was actuality give us a rare glimpse into a well-preserved dead mall that opened in September 1970.  Unfortunately, I have only been able to save a couple photos of the mall, which was demolished for a strip mall known as East Stone Commons in 2002.  I attempted to contact the original webmasters of Kingsport.org to no avail.

When Kingsport Mall opened, the mall featured a classic T shape with two anchors: Montgomery Ward and Hill's discount department store.  Also included in the mall were the Martin Twin Theaters, which provided mall patrons a way to kick back after shopping.  The mall featured plain decor, lots of glass, brick, shiny metal and clean lines, which were common in malls built into the early 70's.  It still seemed adequate considering that The Miracle Mall in Johnson City was built on an even smaller, plainer plan though the Johnson City mall had the distinct advantage of better luck and better anchors.  In all honesty, it seemed like a cozy yet largely boring shopping experience especially after Fort Henry Mall opened.

This is the first of several photos I saved from the archives that were posted on Kingsport.org.  In this photo, you see Office Depot, which still exists unchanged, the min mall entrance and Ames in the background.  I cannot tell what store is beyond it, though it appears to be a drug store or dollar store.  The first image with the map of the mall says "unknown" for the last store.  I also suspect a Woolworth or McCrory's was next to the Martin Twin Theaters.  Photo from Kingsport.org.

Kingsport Mall never got much of a chance to soar.  Judging by the design, exterior sign and anchor positioning it looks like the mall is unmistakably similar and probably built by the same people as abandoned Lexington Mall in Lexington, KY. It was built way too small when it opened with a terrible anchor line-up, but such simple floorplans were unfortunately typical for the period.   I assume that in 1970 that the downtown stores did not want to invest into the mall, but only five years later they would all bound across town to Fort Henry Mall, which seemed terribly unfair.  Kingsport was dwarfed, but it was in a good location with anchors that had no intentions of leaving, which made it a decent ancillary mall into the 1980's.

The Kingsport Mall sign has a gothic look, but the overall design is IDENTICAL to the Lexington Mall sign in the link above.  What was taken off the other hexagon sign?  Note Martin Theaters at the bottom.  It looked really hot the day those were taken.  God, I love this sign!  Photo from Kingsport.org.

This looks to be the mall entrance adjacent to Hill's/Ames from the front.  Bassett's Dairy Bar looks to be a local establishment that figured out that no matter how low the rent that a mall with no customers is a poor business model.  Note the Martin Theater in the background.  I recall Martin Theaters owners sent a nasty letter to the owners of Kingsport.org who claimed the theater was out of business at the time, but I wasn't there.  The owners published it proudly.  I guess it was easy to bash the dead mall in town back in the 90's when you thought they would always be there.  Photo here from...Kingsport.org. 

The fact that Kingsport Mall held on as long as it did was pretty amazing.  Montgomery Ward, however, was pretty well stuck considering that Fort Henry Mall opened with both Sears and JCPenney despite the built-in anchor pad for a fifth anchor.  Five anchors back then was unheard of anyway.  Hill's was also reasonably successful until the early 1990's when the chain declined and sold out to Ames in 1998, which itself folded in 2000.  Montgomery Ward also lost its way in the same time span, so an aging dinosaur mall was likewise laden with two dinosaur anchors.  Montgomery Ward itself would last until the chain folded in 2000.  By 2001, the mall was effectively dead other than Office Depot.  Even before both anchors emptied out, the mall had never been updated and looked yellowed and decrepit after nearly 30 years of business.  Most inline stores had closed or moved out by then, and the owners apparently attempted to gradually convert the interior into a strip mall.  Office Max itself was squeezed into the northern portion of the mall cutting off the Wards former mall entrance from the rest of the mall.  The result was that the remaining mall was even smaller and more dead than before, thus becoming fodder for the Kingsport.org mockery of the mall as a "shopping mecca".

 I believe this was taken along the back side of the mall, and this shows part of the old Montgomery Ward.  The better pictures did not seem to be available.  If anybody saved the photos from this site when it existed, please send them my way!  Photo from Kingsport.org.

The mall office actually looks pretty sharp for a dead mall never mind it is obviously filling space of a former actual store.  The homemade "Mall Office" sign, however, suggests that the management is out to lunch 6 out of 8 hours daily and that you better call ahead if you want to talk to them about leasing in the mall where one of the two parties will be laughing after the meeting adjourns.  Of course, that is if, first, you don't just get the recording that informs you your call will never be returned.  Photo from Kingsport.org.

Apparently Kingsport's crowning as a "shopping mecca" took an ironic twist after the mall was demolished in 2002.  Only the original Montgomery Ward building remains, which is now split into Hobby Lobby and a row of small tenants along the former northern outside entrance.  Office Depot, however, remained unchanged through the redevelopment other than small tenants tacked to the right side of it much like what happened to the old Montgomery Ward. Converted to a strip mall, this indeed brought new excitement to a long dead corner bringing in big box stores including Ross Dress For Less, TJ Maxx, and PetSmart.  Smaller tenants were also built onto each side of the old Montgomery Ward building and along outparcels that numbered closely to what the mall once offered.  Locals today even claim that the new East Stone Commons is more successful than Fort Henry Mall.  The center today is fading somewhat, but still far more popular than the old Kingsport Mall ever was, and the redeveloped mall did indeed become a "shopping mecca".  With Fort Henry Mall to the south and massive new development to the east, the mall's already excellent and central location for the city's suburban shopping district is a big part in why it is doing well today.  Now, if only they would purchase the land behind it to tack on a new mall addition into the existing redeveloped strip...

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.

Pal's "Sudden Service" Restaurants: Fast Food in the Tri-Cities Region

Aside from the Miracle Mall (better known as The Mall at Johnson City), Johnson City in my previous post offered few other points of interest retailwise.  Perhaps part of this can be attributed to the fact that most everything there aside from the struggling downtown area is new.  While this is also largely true of Kingsport, Kingsport is the largest of the Tri-Cities, and it is absolutely full of surprises.  It had the first mall in the region and it still has an abandoned 1960's strip mall relic, another big struggling mall and of course, the rather interesting Pal's fast food restaurants.

An older style of Pal's in downtown Kingsport, which I assume is the original location.  It definitely has that 1960's vibe.

Another view a bit closer to the building.

Pal's is found in Northeast Tennessee and Southwest Virginia, but mostly Tennessee.  It's furthest south location is Greeneville, furthest west Morristown and furthest north Norton, VA.  I did not have a chance to try it while I was there, but I can honestly say that it looks to have a standout menu compared to many larger chains for a rather diverse palate much like Hardee's used too.  Serving items such as the "Sauceburger", "Chipped Ham", "Chiliburger" and a chili dog alongside the usual burger and fries sounds a bit unique and fun.  Considering how the chain has grown, it must be decent.  It definitely seemed to attract more business than regional chain Jacks in Alabama did, but nothing on here could be easy for the waistlines of the area (except maybe the Chipped Ham sans mayo).

This much newer location is a bit frightening.  Most look like this.  This is across from Fort Henry Mall in Southland Shopping Center, which once housed a (Kuhn's) Big K.

Besides the food, what also stands out about Pal's is the absolutely frightful decor used on the place.  The logo itself is the name inside a sunburst, and the buildings themselves have hideous turquoise tile topped with a big fake hot dog.  In fact, the only location I saw that was different was in downtown Kingsport, which I am guessing is the flagship.  Both styles are featured here for comparison as well.  I guess it was good I went downtown or I wouldn't have seen both.  The older style looks more like a vintage 1960's piece in the vein of the early Burger Chef, but I found it was more eye-catching and appetizing than a cotton candy colored cube.

Here is the sign at the Southland Shopping Center location across from Fort Henry Mall.  After eating a Sauceburger, play vollyball with them.  Maybe they'll do tenis next week.

The whole phenomenon of local fast food joints are curious, though it is well known that all started out as such.  Probably why some are national while others are not has a lot to do with the location.  Consider that McDonald's and Taco Bell both started in California, which is probably how they obtained a national following vs. something found in a place like Kingsport.  I can think of many other examples of local chains like Pal's including fore-mentioned Jack's in Birmingham, The Varsity in Atlanta, Lion's Choice in St. Louis, Krystal in Chattanooga, Rush's in Columbia among others.  Some, such as Lion's Choice, I would love to expand out of their region.  In all, local chain restaurants are always part of my curiosity of making retail trips to cities across the South, I am glad to feature this rather unique local flavor.