Columbia Place Mall: Columbia/Dentsville, SC

The very first two-level shopping mall in South Carolina was Columbia Place Mall, opening on the northeast side of the city in 1977 near the convergence of then-incomplete I-77, I-20 and the newly constructed SC 277 freeway.  It is an ideal location geographically, and it was uniquely large for the city and its time.  With all it had positive, it appeared it would eventually become dominant.  The past year, however, was not a good year for the mall and it is clear that this mall was not what it once was.  After all, Columbia Place is a fairly large mall in a city that is absolutely over-malled, and the scene today presents many challenges for the 33 year old center.

When looking at the mall around 2000, the anchor line-up looked solid for the mall with Rich's, Dillard's, Sears and JCPenney.  The Rich's location, South Carolina's first location of the iconic Atlanta institution, was the only such store in the city.  It arrived along with three mini-malls scattered across the city anchored by their discount division Richway, so Columbia Place was at the time a very ambitious arrival.  It was also undoubtably worrisome for older and smaller Dutch Square Mall.  People in the city were obviously impressed, because the mall stayed largely successful for over 25 years.  The only problem was that something was not being considered: none of those stores were Columbia's stores.  Regardless, that did not seem to matter since Columbia in that period was increasingly resembling a junior Atlanta retail-wise.

Looking from the former Dillard's wing toward Macy's.  The first photo is of the center court, decked out on Decker Blvd.

Walking towards the former JCPenney along the main mall concourse.

Mall map, which shows a very basic two-level mall.  It is at least up-to-date.

In layout, Columbia Place is also ironically similar to Cumberland Mall in Atlanta.  Sears was the south anchor, JCPenney the north anchor and Rich's the west anchor on the back side.  A food court opened on the upper level near Sears.  The mall was also always a two level mall, catering to a similar super regional demographic like Cumberland Mall.  The only difference was that the east anchor opened as Belk instead of Davison's.  In fact, Belk's position there was strange when considering that there actually was a Davison's operating downtown when the mall opened that suprisingly did not join the mall.  Belk did not have any other mall-based locations in the city when it opened, either.  Over time, the mall became somewhat of a run-of-the-mill mall, but it was one of only two two-level malls in the entire state up until the time that Richland Mall was built on the site of a much smaller open-air mall.

While the mall has vacancies throughout, no part of the mall seems to be having more trouble than the former JCPenney wing.  Piccadilly Cafeteria and other shops hang on, but it is quite empty.  To the left was a two-story built-in Old Navy, which recently closed along with many other inline stores.  While this mall failed to impress me, that does not mean that I like seeing this happen.

 

JCPenney was split in two after they left at the peak of the lifestyle center craze.  The upper level functioned as Steve & Barry's until early 2009 while the bottom level continues to operate as a Burlington Coat Factory.

View of the court area in front of the former JCPenney.  These Christmas lights tend to make the mall more festive, but are a bit frustrating for photo purposes.  I say that as if they were planning on me coming and taking photos.

Columbia Place was a retail rock up until the turn of the century.  By that time, the mall was beginning to see changing demographics as the prosperity began to move further out in the county.  The first change occurred in 1998 when Belk was replaced by Dillard's, which initially looked to be an upscaling of the center.  However, nearby Decker Mall, housing Kroger Sav-On and Target, emptied out in 1999 with both stores moving further up Two Notch Road.  Nevertheless, the mall received a complete renovation in 2002 that was meant to keep the mall competitive.  Nevertheless, the retail scene had changed dramatically since it opened.  What was two malls in the city in 1977 became four malls with Columbiana becoming the dominant regional draw and Richland Mall diluting the customer base of Columbia Place.  The sucker punch, though, came in 2005 when a shiny new lifestyle center opened at the intersection of Two Notch Road (US 1) & Clemson Road known as Village at Sandhill.  Not only did this draw retail from the periphery, but it also stole away JCPenney.  The mall did manage to fill the void, however, bringing in Steve & Barry's on the upper level and Burlington Coat Factory on the lower level.  2005 also saw the transition of original anchor Rich's into Macy's, the first time the Macy's name had returned to the city since the downtown store closed more than a decade before.

 Moving now into the Sears wing, the mall's escalators tend to drop down in non-descript central locales away from center court.  The little girl is actually an advertisement by the mall encouraging advertisers to buy a banner.  These banners are one of the ugliest things to happen to malls as of late, but I guess they're needed to pay for the enormous heating and air-conditioning bills.

Standing in front of Sears.  The food court is off to the left.

Now back to Macy's.  Note the staircase has not been fully renovated unlike the rest of the upstairs walkway judging by the very 70's corduroy concrete.  Macy's mall entrance, which still carries the Rich's design, was a bit of a disappointment.  As one of only two Macy's and formerly Rich's in South Carolina, indeed such detail was probably not given as much priority.

A closer look at Macy's.  While the sign is backed by black reflective glass, it is also cut into the diagonal shapes so popular in that period that were commonly used for cedar-sided buildings.

Looking up to the ceiling from downstairs in the center court.  These octagonal skylights are definitely from another time.  What I do not like, though, is the ceiling includes the introduction of the industrial ceiling treatment, which made an unfortunate debut in the late 70's and exploded in popularity in the 90's.  Why cant it go out of style like now?

Since the 1990's, medium-sized cities with multiple malls like Columbia have discovered multiple malls found it more difficult to compete due to store consolidation, retail saturation and declining demand.  This caused weaker players to fall behind with one mall emerging as the strong, leading mall.  Columbia Place is in that awkward position right now with Columbiana clearly emerging as the superstar of the city to the west and Village at Sandhill poised for eventual dominance in the east.  Beginning in 2009, the situation went from bad to worse when Dillard's decided to bail out from the mall, leaving only one location in the city at Columbiana.  Old Navy, a large two-story junior anchor, also left on the same wing where JCPenney was.   On top of that, Steve & Barry's also left when the chain went bankrupt early in 2009.  The mall now only retains Sears and the only Macy's location in the city, though Burlington Coat Factory keeps the old JCPenney half-occupied.  The survival of the mall completely depends on the retention of Macy's, which is bound to make management nervous considering the available anchor pad at Columbiana, space intended for Dillard's at Village at Sandhill and the empty anchors at Richland, which despite Richland's dying state has still maintained a semi-upscale status.

Approaching the former Dillard's, which opened as Belk.  Dillard's renovated the interior but made no such attempts on the exterior.  It is likely the only instance I know of where a Dillard's took over a Belk.  It lasted there 12 years and thoroughly employed those Belk arches.

Here is a closer look.  Any ideas on who might like this store?

A look inside from the lower level.  Seeing this ominously reminds me of when I was able to look straight into the closed Belk/McRae's at Century Plaza. 

A view of the Sears mall entrance from the lower level.  Nothing special here, unfortunately.  Sears and Macy's seem to have a special place in their heart for older malls who lost most of their other anchors.  If they didn't, there would be quite a few more abandoned malls.

The mall itself is also not a very enjoyable shopping experience.  The parking lot at the mall was noticeably empty compared to other malls, and most national chain stores have left the mall.  Not only was the mall lacking in selection, but mainly it was boring.  The departure of Dillard's could not have happened at a worse time.  If they had left back in 2005, the mall could have possibly retrofitted with a lifestyle addition, which would be difficult to finance today.  It is possible the mall has some solid plan to turn around, but the prognosis is not good.  However, Belk may be interested in taking its former store location back, so who knows?

 

Macy's from the outside.  Because the lower level is actually buried, the west entrance is open with a catwalk connecting the upper level entrance.  Inside is an atrium with stairs on the left, an elevator on the right and a strange nook showcase room next to it.  Inside that room are mature trees which scrape against the glass on the elevator.  The metal trellis is also showing some signs of deterioration with significant rusting on part of it.

A view of the showcase room, which was being used as the Christmas shop.  Someone took a video of the elevator looking into this room, which can be found on You Tube.

A look at the former JCPenney, now Burlington Coat Factory on the lower level, and the Columbia Place mall entrance.

I only hope that somehow if Columbia Place does completely die that it will be for the gain of Richland or Dutch Square.  With three troubled malls and one dominant, I believe that one of the three troubled malls might emerge rejuvinated provided what Macy's decides to do.  Macy's holds the key to save any of three malls.  If Macy's jumps across town and joins Columbiana, all three will eventually fail.  If instead Macy's holds on or joins the two weaker malls, then two malls will survive, giving multiple shopping options to the growing city.  Only time will tell how this will end when the dust settles, because the retraction of Dillard's and exit of Parisian from the market prior to the Belk buyout has been difficult for the malls in the city.  It would help if a dark horse entered such as Nordstrom considering a location at Richland, for instance.  Columbia Place has served the city well, but I only wish that it had been made a bit more appealing.  While this is only one factor, I tend to think that if it was more interesting, it would be more competitive.

 

Former Dillard's/Belk. This is one of the worst Belk designs.

A not-so-good shot of the Sears from the parking lot.  Lighting was poor around the mall in many areas.

I took this while leaving Columbia Place.  If I don't make it back for two or more years, will this mall be here when I get back?

For more views of Columbia Place, check out this You Tube video.

Sky City is now on Facebook!

We interrupt your regularly scheduled nostalgia to announce that Sky City is now on Facebook.  This is a long time coming, and this will allow fans of the blog to upload photos, start discussions and interact more with Sky City than is currently possible right now.  With a creaky old e-mail and sadly moderated comments section (because I don't think my readers should be subject to spammers and oddballs), I felt like there was too much of a disconnect between my site and fans, and I hope to reach beyond my little corner of the world.

I must admit that I am a little behind the times with this, so its time for me to take the site a step further.  Sky City has been a lot of work, and a sustained effort has proved difficult many times in the past.  Therefore, this will allow me to hopefully expand my little site to a wider audience.  Also, I wanted to apologize to those who joined my previous "Southern Retail History" group...I was learning the ropes of Facebook groups, and the name was a little vague, so that was a false start.  However, this is the real deal.

Please feel free to join and bring your friends too!  The blog has open membership for now, and I think this new group will make it easier to interact with fans, contributors and returning visitors to my site.

Decker Mall and the Lost Richway Malls: Columbia, SC

Columbia once had an astounding number of enclosed malls for a city of its size: seven total malls.  Of course, three of these malls were not malls in any form of the traditional sense.  These three were all tiny one-level malls built around discount chain Richway, which is why I dub these malls "Richway Malls".  Richway Malls were indeed small, only containing about 15-20 stores including a movie theater.  They were all excellent concepts in their time, but the fickle big box nature of them left them obsolete.  Charlotte had three Richway Malls as well, and Atlanta had one.  Decker Mall is not unique in the Richway Malls group except in one aspect: it is the last one of the three still standing and operational.  In fact, a visit to this mall was a trip back to the late 1970's, so those of you hoping to find an unmodified 70's mall still operational will not be disappointed.  I definitely was not either.

Decker Mall opened in 1977 with anchors Richway, Kroger Sav-On and a theater.  Its location is on Decker Blvd just east of Two Notch Road.  Columbia Place Mall, originally anchored by Richway's parent company Rich's, is less than a mile away, and both opened almost simultaneously.  While Columbia Place is a major regional mall, Decker is a very tiny and simple mall that blends in architecturally with the former Richway.  What architecture is on the mall is a very rounded, dated and extreme 70's modern, however.  The former Richway, of course, has the famous wedge skylights as well, though the design of the store is less boxy than its Georgia counterparts were.

 

A look along the Richway/Target wing.  The first photo was one of the ramps in center court with detail of the old brown linoleum tiles around the planter.

 

Approaching Richway/Target.  Strangely, the orange wall on the left is a relic left over from Richway.  Target never bothered to paint this over to match their store, suggesting that this mall was not at all important to their store.  A similar orange-painted wall like this was found at the side of Richway at Roswell Mall.

 

 

A look at the Richway mall entrance area.  It appears that part of the entrance was actually walled over to eliminate the connection to the mall.  The door on the left was an emergency exit.  The design was apparently to funnel shoppers to the same front door used by the store so that there was a mall entrance without multiple entrances.

Decker Mall opened at almost the same time as Bush River Mall across the city.  Like Decker, the anchor lineup of Bush River was identical, and Bush River was also a clone to Decker in every way.  A visit to Bush River Mall was essentially the same as a visit to Decker Mall, so with this post I am roughly giving you Bush River Mall as well.  Bush River Mall, however, fell on extremely hard times later in its life and no longer exists.  The third Richway Mall, Woodhill Mall, was somewhat different because it lacked the Kroger Sav-On, instead anchored by Tapp's.  I understand, however, that it was otherwise identical to Decker and Bush River.

My one attempt at detail of the skylights.  It's very spooky looking.

Walking back down the Richway wing with the latter photo showing center court and its subsequent sharp left turn and ramp down.  The store ahead is the DMV office.

Decker Mall was not a mall I remembered in Columbia.  I also did not really remember much about replica Bush River except the view from Bush River Road.  Nevertheless, I went to it several times and was amazed I never remembered it as a mall.  In fact, all I remembered about Bush River Mall was the Richway, yet I am sure that I went to some stores within the mall at some time and seem to vaguely recall walking up a ramp toward Richway.  It seemed the Richway at Bush River complete with its big sunrise logo sign and Cinema sign on the highway stood out very strikingly to me at 6.  That sunrise, of course, was replaced with the Gold Circle "G" just after I moved away before being sold to Target in 1988.  Gold Circle, owned by Federated Department Stores who also owned Richway, replaced Richway in all the Columbia Richway Malls in 1987 and 1988.  The only other thing I noted at Decker Mall different from Bush River is that the word "MALL" was prominent in red letters on the Bush River location next to Richway, while no prominent signage was noted anywhere at Decker Mall, including along Decker Blvd.  Maybe that was removed.

Now, I'm walking down the Kroger wing with the goofy designed place on the left, which I later realized was the former theater.  I think this was either a twin or triple screen theater, but definitely before the stadium seating era.  I absolutely dig the "space age" design even though it's tacky.

Decker Mall today is no longer a retail destination and to all appearances is at the end of its life, but mysteriously it hangs on due to the presence of a few key non-traditional tenants in addition to the general decline of the Decker Blvd area it is located.  Why that decline is significant is because it attracts more locally operated businesses and attractive lease terms, when such places would likely not locate there in a different area.  In fact, the mall is actually over 50% occupied!  At some point, Target closed and left the mall, most likely around 1999 much like what happened at Bush River.  Kroger Sav-On looks to have also left the mall for about as long as Target.  Today, Arcadia Storage, an air-conditioned storage facility took over the old Richway location along with the few retail and non-retail tenants operating in Decker Mall including the local DMV office, which is of course a major draw, and a church which operates in the old theater.  The mall is old, rough around the edges, dingy, but amazingly had no signs of roof leaks or neglect.  In fact, in a strange way the mall still has character.  While not glamorous, it is a definite a must-see for vintage mall aficionados along with Innsbruck Mall in Asheville. 

 

Now approaching Kroger Sav-On.  The Kroger Sav-On concept is actually no more than the standard Kroger today, but it offered a particularly wide selection and more complete shopping experience in the era it was introduced, making it a combination grocery/discount concept.  A few stores in the area still have this name.  That white and black rippled wall is a 70's design I have not seen in years, but I do not know what it is called.

A more standard-looking Kroger Sav-On is located across from Richland Mall for comparison and a view of the logo.

Decker, in comparison to the other Richway malls, is symbolic of not only its vintage, but also the ills of the area it is located.  Bush River Mall had a gruesome fate, but it has since redeveloped into a shiny new Wal-Mart Supercenter.  What happened to Bush River was that when Target left the mall in 1999, so did everyone else.  Absolutely nothing was left in the mall, and it was abandoned soon after.  The mall was essentially trashed at that point, and somewhere in that same period a significant portion of it burned to the ground, leaving odd parts of the mall standing as well as the former Richway.  The remaining shell was demolished for Wal-Mart in 2005, so no sign of Bush River Mall ever existing remains today.  Decker Mall also had a similar exodus of key anchor tenants, so why is this mall so different from Bush River?

Looking back along the Kroger wing back toward center court.

This goofy planter is wedged between the two entrances at the center of the mall.  No previous photos of this or Bush River made it clear where this exactly was, but it is located between the two entrances and is rounded on the outside as well.

The major planter in the center court, shown in better detail.  These plants are skinny, wild and woolly but still do not trump the jungle planters at Innsbruck in Asheville.

 

Why do old malls like this always have something kind of strange and a bit creepy?  Right off center court is this strange little back door, also including that accordion-type stuff like that next to the Kroger Sav-On entrance.

Woodhill Mall's failure was due solely to the failure of Tapp's.  Tapp's was the strength of the mall, and when it failed so did the mall.  Target, however, actually did not leave the mall at any point.  In 2004, the mall was simply torn down along with the Target and redeveloped with Target opening in the new shopping center.  The new shopping center still bears the Woodhill name despite the fact that it bears no resemblance to its former self.  The Woodhill location is the most affluent location of the three Richway malls while Decker is currently in the most depressed area.

Now, heading outside to look at some of the other quirkiness of Decker Mall.  Here is the entrance on the Kroger wing.  The Pharmacy sign o the left was a separate drugstore entrance right next to the mall entrance.  Note the old-style font used for "Pharmacy".

 

The center court entrance is outright bizarre.  Two entrances are beside each other with one set higher than the other.  Inside, this is the "center court" with a ramp dividing the two areas.

 

More detail of the main entrance.  Note the mall sign in the center, which is also a directory.  More detail is shown below.  Also note the rounded wall between the two entrances.  This is nook with the small planter shown in the photo above.

 

Decker Mall has nothing to be ashamed of.  It does look like they were a little more full further back, but this is impressive for an anchor-less archaic mall.  I am guessing the last two panels were for Kroger Sav-On and Target.  One of the labelscars read "A+ Learning Center".  I am actually most impressed with the actual retail stores operating in the mall even though they are all very small local businesses.

Today, there is not much to say positive in regards to the future of Decker Mall, but there is a lot to say positive on how the owners have managed to keep it partially filled with no major stores.  The scenario it is in right now is the best scenario period.  A possible remedy would be to somehow lure Kroger back to the center or Publix to the site by allowing them to rebuild the store.  Another is to just knock it down, but the economy in general as well as locally is going to make that more difficult.  Maybe Wal-Mart is also interested in that site, but it is not nearly as well located as Bush River Mall was.  Bush River has high visibility from an interstate while Decker is nowhere near one.  No matter what the outcome, Decker Mall remains and hopefully will continue to operate so that at least others can show their kids what the 70's and 80's were like.

I could have done a little better job showing the old Kroger Sav-On, but you can make out the labelscar i the photo along with a bit of an overview of the mall.

 

Lastly, I'm looking at Richway, whose final tenant was Target.  It operated as Gold Circle for a short time in 1987-1988.  I am guessing all Richway stores would have eventually become Gold Circle had they not been forced to sell off the chain.

Tapp's Department Store: A Lost Columbia Institution

Many outside department stores have attempted to dominate the market of Columbia.  White's out of Augusta was undoubtedly the most successful at doing this, and Rich's arrived with a bang in 1977, bringing three Richway locations along with them to the city.  However, the last store Columbia has been able to claim its own in any recent memory is Tapp's.  Tapp's, named for founder James Lemon Tapp, was like many homegrown department stores.  It had one dominant downtown department store and a very small suburban expansion in its later years.  It was considered the upscale department store in the city, while White's catered to a more middle-brow clientele.  A third store known as Berry's on Main also joined the original downtown line-up, though its existence was short-lived in comparison to Tapp's.

Photo of long-closed original downtown store taken on opposite corner of Main & Blanding.

Tapp's was a very distinctive store downtown, featuring a very early streamlined modern design completed in 1940.  That building was the second built since the store was first founded in 1903.  The downtown store was the first east of the Mississippi to offer an air-conditioned shopping experience, and a restaurant was included in the basement level .  In 1952, two additional stories were added to the downtown store [1].  This store still stands today at the intersection of Main St and Blanding St, and is the one pictured here.   More on the history of Tapp's [link].

Close-up of upper floors and logo.  Was this same logo used on the suburban stores or was this older?  For such a simple structure, it is elegant and classy.

Tapp's was very interesting in that its first ever store was not in South Carolina at all, but as actually in Dalton, GA in 1890. However, it was sold before 1900 [2]. Another store was operated in Charlotte in the mean time before coming to Columbia. [2] Fast forward to the late 20th century, Tapp's suburban expansion was somewhat haphazard.  It was first introduced outside of downtown at Trenholm Plaza in 1965. This is east of downtown in the more affluent area near present-day Richland Mall at the intersection of Forest Dr (SC 12) & Trenholm Rd.  Following that was the opening at Columbia's first enclosed shopping mall, Dutch Square, in 1970 as the mall's east anchor.  The last location to open in Columbia came in 1978 with the opening of a store at Woodhill Mall, a tiny mall also anchored by Richway.  All of Tapp's suburban stores were small one-level stores that were considerably smaller than the downtown flagship.  While that brought the chain to four total locations, the store would not expand again in Columbia past the late 1970's. However, a store would open in 1986 at Jessamine Mall (now Sumter Mall) in the location of the former Capitol Department Store. [2] It would be their last new store. In the article, James Tapp was quoted as "We have been competitive from the beginning. When we cease being competitive, we cease to exist". [2]

Street-level entrance and surrounding black tiles do not disappoint.  Is this building well-maintained or just well-preserved?  It looks almost like new.

Part of an ad announcing the opening of Tapp's last new store in Sumter, 1986.  The rest of the ad suggests the store was far less upscale than I originally thought.  The ad included Arrow shirts, Lee jeans, Izod and...Jams (yes that is LOL worthy).

Tapp's maintained its position on the Columbia retail scene for over 90 years, but the store was unable to compete with the glut of much larger new chain department stores in the city catering to a somewhat upscale demographic such as Dillard's and Birmingham, AL-based Parisian.  In September 1995, Tapp's announced it was ending business.  Unfortunately, its closure left a void on the city with the downtown store remaining vacant to this day.  Two suburban locations have since been torn down including the Dutch Square location and the store at Woodhill Mall.  The Dutch Square location was rebuilt as an AMC theater and Woodhill Mall was demolished in 2004 to make way for a regular strip mall.  The Trenholm Plaza location looks to have been since repurposed.

[1] Tapp's Department Store - 1644 Main St.  Live Columbia [Blog]. 18 August 2008. 
http://livecolumbia.wordpress.com/2008/08/18/tapp%E2%80%99s-department-store-1644-main-street/

[2] New Tapp's Store first outside of Columbia area. The Sumter Daily Item. 26 February 1986. Page 1B.