Town & Country Discount Store

Something that has been very curious to me is the discovery of a defunct discount chain that apparently everyone forgot about: Town & Country.  In 1961, they were purchased by Lane Bryant, which quickly expanded the chain.  Prior to the purchase they were a Harrisburg-based operation with six small discount stores and a catalog service.  As they grew, they were mostly located in Pennsylvania, but they expanded to three locations were in Virginia, two in Maryland, and one in West Virginia.  Quite a few of the former locations still exist today, most repurposed in some form or another since they were generally smaller stores of around 30,000 square feet that were relatively easy to redevelop.  In all, it looks like the chain had at least 21 locations at its peak, and it catered to small and medium sized markets.

1969 photo of the Town & Country store located in Winchester, VA (Photo by Tim Legg)

It is not entirely clear how Town & Country was marketed, but judging by the ads they were a store that focused a bit more on hard lines than soft lines (although its parent company was a clothing store), and it sold a little of everything sort of like Kmart did at the time.  Its catchphrase was that it offered a "Golden Guarantee".  While the stores carried a wide variety of merchandise, they did not appear to offer any services such as a pharmacy, auto center, garden center, restaurant, optical, etc.  This explains how they could offer a wide variety of merchandise in only a 30,000 square feet store.  Perhaps this lack of services was a factor that led to their demise since it was not an all-in-one shopping experience.  It made it difficult to make them stand out against competitors like Woolworth/Woolco, Murphy's Mart, and Newberry's.  It seemed that Kmart's expansion into its territory was what led to its seemingly planned demise.  No mention was ever made that the store chain was actually unprofitable as a reason for its closure.  Most likely it was a corporate decision to focus on their core business: Lane Bryant.

Town & Country grand opening flyer at North Hanover Plaza in Hanover, PA in 1965.  It was the 12th in the chain.  Image from "The Evening Sun" from September 15, 1965.

Clearly the logo didn't match the exterior in the first iteration of the store.  It would be replaced with an awesome looking logo by the 1970's.  Image from The Evening Sun from September 15, 1965.

October 12, 1966 ad from The Evening Sun.

1970 saw the enclosure of North Hanover Plaza into North Hanover Mall.  The portion with Town & Country was fronted by an enclosed strip that ended at the former store.  Kmart looks to have greatly expanded the store in later years.  Image from April 1, 1970.

The 1971 reopening introduced us to that AMAZING "turbo" logo that was in use in the first part of the decade.  Note the update to the entrance to accommodate the enclosure of the strip in front of the store.  Image from The Evening Sun from June 29, 1971.

The interior of the updated Town & Country at North Hanover Mall.  It looks small and cluttered by today's standards, but this was apparently spacious for the time.  Image from The Evening Sun from June 29, 1971.

The store chain used three different logos, and the second generation logo was memorable...a mid-century turbo-style font.  Many of their stores featured a distinctive "hooded" canopy feature over the front entrance with sloping sides and a glass front that was quite similar to classic Mobil stations built during the same period.  Not much else is known about them except that they went out of business in 1977, and Kmart took over many locations as an attempt to expand into the Mid-Atlantic region.  Kmart locations that opened in these stores operated into the 1990's.  That means that most likely Kmart was willing to finish the leases on these stores considering that they likely operated on a 30 year lease with most locations open only around 10-15 years as Town & Country.

One more flyer from the grand reopening.  Image from The Evening Sun from June 29, 1971.

Constant logo changes could not have helped the bottom line of Town & Country.  This is the third and final version as shown in this ad from The Evening Standard from June 29, 1974.

Norman Rockwell dads are waiting to be showered with gifts on Fathers Day.  They also want you to make sure you shop the specials at Town & Country!  Image from The Evening Standard from June 29, 1974.

Maybe the Blues Brothers should have crashed into Town & Country instead of Dixie Square Mall, because "This place has everything!".  Image from The Evening Standard from June 29, 1974.

The New York influence comes out in this ad.  It was pretty clear that "Every day's a sale day at May's" was playing through their head when they came up with that slogan.  It's also a bit ironic to see bone thin cartoon women with no butts in a clothing ad from a store whose parent company is Lane Bryant.  Image from The Evening Standard from June 29, 1974.

Kmart has since closed or replaced every store that originally opened as Town & Country, all much smaller than the typical Kmart.  Along with J.M. Fields and others, it was one of the early casualties of the highly competitive discount store market that today is down to primarily just Wal-Mart and Target with no regional discount stores left in the Mid-Atlantic states.  Stores like Ames, Hill's, Murphy's, Jamesway, Clover, and others were all later casualties, but they lasted much longer than Town & Country and had a more significant footprint.

Part of why I wrote a post on this store is that I kept bumping into these stores.  When I saw this former store in Harrisonburg, VA, I was DYING to know what store it used to be.  Needless to say, finding out it was an obscure discount chain nobody had ever heard of was pretty exciting.  Look closely and you can see the angled canopy, which has been largely covered up on the front with this detestable stucco update.

The unceremonious end of Town & Country usually ended up like this one: a single store subdivided into two or more stores.  Of course, this Big Lots has obviously been here awhile as it still sports the older logo.

Interior detail, including angled canopy, at the Big Lots (former Town & Country/Kmart) in Winchester, VA.

A complete list of former Town & Country locations (as of 1974) is below along with the present tenant (if the building still exists).  The known locations to have existed include the following:

1. Altoona, PA (3100 Pleasant Valley Blvd.)
• Now a Nissan dealership (Courtesy Motor Sales)
2. Beckley Plaza Mall: Beckley, WV
• Was later Kmart, currently Schewel's
• Kmart relocated in a new store to left of existing shopping center in the 1990's
3. Carlisle Plaza Mall: Carlisle, PA
• Opened 1964, closed 1977
• Was a mall anchor on the east end of the mall
• Was replaced by Kmart, which itself closed in 1995 and relocated
• Former location was demolished for Lowe's along with a portion of the mall
4. Chambersburg, PA (1363 Lincoln Way East)
• Subdivided between Napa Auto Parts & Essis & Sons Carpet One Floor & Home
5. White Oaks Shopping Center: Cumberland, MD
• Subdivided between Big Lots & Aaron Furniture Rental
• Aaron's was formerly Rite-Aid
• Larger Town & Country location
6. Hagerstown, MD (562 Northern Ave)
• Currently Gold's Gym
7. North Hanover Mall: Hanover, PA
• Opened 1965, became Kmart in 1977
• It was the 12th location opened
• Kmart closed and relocated to a Super Kmart in February 1995
• Was Black Diamond Antiques after Kmart closed
• Presently Dick's Sporting Goods
8. Harrisburg, PA (100 E. Park Shopping Center/4200 Derry St)
• Building gutted with only the roof and walls intact (unrecognizable) and in that state at least a decade
• Was the site of a spectacular fire in the 1970's that destroyed the original building
9. Cloverleaf Shopping Center: Harrisonburg, VA (131 S. Carlton St)
• Subdivided into three tenants, including Big Lots and a Chinese restaurant
10. Hazleton, PA (702 W. Broad Street)
• Free-standing store
• Was probably a Kmart location before Kmart opened in a former Ames at Laurel Mall in 1994
• Was Ollie's Bargain Outlet, now vacant
11. Latrobe Shopping Center (Latrobe 30 Plaza): Latrobe, PA
• Subdivided between Dunham Sports & Planet Fitness
12. Lemoyne, PA (1023 State Road)
• Road name appars to have been changed to Gettysburg Road
• Location unclear, but appears to be close to Capital City Mall
• Most likely where Big Lots and Aldi have subdivided a store next to AMC Camp Hill 12
• First location to close, closing in 1976
13. Greater Lewistown Plaza: Lewistown, PA
• Located either where Weis is currently or where Ollie's is currently (across the street from each other)
• Weis may have been in current Ollie's and relocated into the former Town & Country
14. Pottsville, PA (North Claude A. Lord Blvd/Rt. 61)
• Appears to be where Giant is currently located
15. Westerly Parkway Plaza: State College, PA (424 Westerly Pkwy)
• Unclear of where it was located in the shopping center
• May have been demolished
• Weis may also be present location
16. Staunton, VA (1106 Greenville Avenue)
• Current location of Goodwill & Super Shoes
• Appears to have been subdivided
17. Sunbury, PA (Shamokin Dam)
• Appears to be Orchard Hills Shopping Center
• Currently Tractor Supply
18. Uniontown Shopping Center: Uniontown, PA
• Currently Tractor Supply Company
19. West Chester, PA (1115 West Chester Pike)
• Appears to be current location of Shop-Rite
20. Williamsport, PA (3500 W. 4th St)
• No longer retail
• Now home to 3D Creative Services, a metal working shop
21. Winchester, VA (1090 Millwood Pike)
• Was previously as Kmart, currently Big Lots
• Kmart appears to have relocated in 1994
• Kmart's later location closed in 2014 and is today subdivided between Dick's Sporting Goods and The Fresh Market

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