Macon Mall: Macon, GA

The second largest mall in the state of Georgia is a mall located in Macon, GA.  It is one of Georgia's largest cities, but still a city located in a metro area just shy of 400,000 people with two other shopping malls to compete with.  In the mall race of the 70's and 80's, it seemed most every city in Georgia was aiming to have the biggest and the best shopping mall in hopes of creating not just a mall, but a tourist attraction.  For most of its existence, Macon Mall was just that: a particularly large shopping mall with much to offer that had everything by that standards of the day.  When it opened in 1975, it was a two-level mall with four anchors making it on par with the newest and largest malls in Atlanta.  Nearby Westgate Mall with no department stores was no match for the behemoth, which hosted Sears, Belk Matthews, Davison's and JCPenney.  Westgate itself was groundbreaking as Georgia's very first enclosed mall, but it also never had anything beyond a grocery store or five-and-dime store as an anchor...an unfortunately hopeless scenario.  While Westgate faded away, Macon Mall quickly became the shining star of Middle Georgia.  It would maintain this position for over 30 years, and for a short period of time it became the largest mall in Georgia.

The original Macon Mall was supremely outlandish compared to today.  Filled with seemingly millions of lightbulbs, dark browns and dark reds it was a disco relic within a short time.  Nevertheless, it was attractively designed with plentiful fountains, space and popular stores of the period.  Its quickly dated and expensive to maintain appearance, however, led to the mall's first renovation in 1983.  Three years later, one of its original anchors Davison's would revert to Macy's.  At this point, its only competition came from smaller Houston Mall while fading Westgate would revert to an outlet mall and would lure Wal-Mart in a desperate bid to survive.  Nevertheless, both malls found themselves in a prime retail corridor as Eisenhower Pkwy (US 80) filled with new strip malls between the exits on I-75 and I-475 to take advantage of the traffic from the huge mall.  Macon Mall, however, was placed in a strange spot located halfway between the two interstates instead of within view of at least one of them.  Westgate had that advantage, but they were never able to take advantage of it since I-75 was not completed in the area until around the same time that Macon Mall opened.

The first photo shows Macon Mall in its 1970's disco-era glory.  Photo is from Malls of America.  The second photo shows a contemporary view of center court between Belk and Macy's (former Davison's and Rich's).  Note the presence of amazing fountains from the period built straight into the floor.  These fountains survived the 1997 renovation, and this is not the only fountain found in the older part of the mall.

Throughout most of its history, the mall was in a unique position in that it did not have any real competition.  This was hardly the case in Columbus or Augusta where a mall rivalry was ongoing that Macon Mall was spared from due to Westgate's poor timing.  It seemed like the mall was invincible and able to draw from all of middle Georgia from where it stood.  This led the mall to renovate again, this time expanding the mall on the other side of JCPenney in 1997.  Incorporating JCPenney as part of the mall, this allowed a huge new addition on the other side, which upscaled the mall bringing in Dillard's and Parisian.  It should be noted how odd it is that JCPenney ends up sandwiched in as part of the mall itself when the mall decided to expand straight through it.  Malls expanding through JCPenney seem to happen more than one would think.  As to Dillard's and Parisian, both stores were in major expansion mode in that time, and this solidified their presence in Georgia.  Curiously, neither Gayfer's nor JB White ever located a store in Macon, and Dillard's arrival came prior to the buyout of Mercantile Stores.  It is a shame that none of those stores had considered Westgate beforehand, however. 

A look from just outside of Macy's toward Belk across center court from the upper level.  This mall is so full of eye-catching appeal throughout if only it had retained some of the color that it had originally.

A look along the Sears wing reveals the troubles.  On the left appears to be a vacant Old Navy.  The Old Navy moved down the road to a very large power center a couple years ago.

Sears mall entrance view from second level.  The landings at the base of the steps surrounded by a rotunda of plants is something I wish I would see more often.

View down an entrance wing along the second level near Sears.  Baskin Robbins is on the right.

The same stairway as viewed from the base in front of Sears.

The addition of Dillard's and Parisian brought a four anchor mall to six anchors, and suddenly the largest mall in Georgia...until Mall of Georgia opened.  Now at nearly 1.5 million square feet, to all appearances the mall was invincible.  Two new parking decks were constructed to handle the increase in business and decrease in parking.  Rocky Creek was also relocated on a new course further away from the mall to allow for the expansion.  Previously, it flowed approximately where Parisian was.  In the years following the expansion, the mall was packed all the way to the highway due to its near monopoly on regional retail.  What is also nice is that in the last renovation that the mall did not strip out all of the planters and fountains, which is something I appreciated much.  Curiously, Macy's changed the following year after the 1997 renovation over to Rich's, apparently an early attempt to test how successful Rich's was outside of the Atlanta area.  Rich's would then change back to Macy's in early 2005.  As late as 2006, the mall was in a distinct position of dominance with a huge selection of stores and a complete selection of department stores from low-end to upper-middle.  How could this go wrong?

Any mall that refuses to put in planters quite frankly deserves to go under, so it is a shame that the ones that actually kept things like this are the ones that seem to be struggling the most.  This mall would feel a lot more empty and drafty without such features as this. This is on the lower level heading away from Sears.

Fountains are a prominent built-in feature in center court.  The only problem I see is the risk of falling in this one.  It is like a bathtub in the middle of the mall.  This is the same fountain featured in the second photo.

My camera did not want to focus on this very well, but with some sharpening it came out almost right.  Here I got more detail of the sprayers in the fountain as well as the tiled "islands".  I like it a lot.  Now bring them back everybody else.

This one I think I liked the best of all of them...a terraced cascading fountain built around the stairway in front of the west mall entrance to JCPenney.  This used to be the east end of the mall until the mall was routed straight through it to a new wing added in 1997.

More detail of the fountain in front of JCPenney.  This reminds me of the terraced waterfalls found in parts of the Blue Ridge Mountains.  This also unofficially marks the entrance to the food court wing.

The problem was, trouble was brewing on the horizon in some very painful ways.  First, the wave of department store consolidation was about to hit Macon Mall.  Second, the area around Eisenhower had seen a noticeable decline since the mall opened.  In 2006, parent company Saks, Inc who owned Parisian was hoping to unload the chain, which was not performing to the company's expectations.  Hoping to focus all of their attention on Saks Fifth Avenue, the company went up for sale in 2006 with Belk outbidding Dillard's to purchase the chain.  Belk did not intend to keep the Parisian name, so this posed a big problem for malls with both stores.  In the case of Macon Mall, Belk simply closed the Parisian and kept their existing store in the old Belk Matthews, which had just dropped the "Matthews" part of the name the year before.  This was the first major vacancy.  The more glaring problem, though, was the obvious fact that the mall had a growing crime problem.  With no other options, the stores in the mall simply dealt with it, but General Growth provided the escape by opening up a new open-air lifestyle center called "The Shoppes at River Crossing" in 2008.  A tornado hitting the mall in May of the same year doing minor damage makes me wonder if that was some kind of omen...it also damaged Westgate Shopping Center on the former Westgate Mall site.

Entering the newer wing of the mall just outside of the east mall entrance of JCPenney.  This previously led to Dillard's and Parisian but now leads to nothing.  A few stores linger on this stretch as well as some local art shops, but it is largely empty.

A look down the Parisian mall entrance wing to a store that has been vacant since 2007.  If Parisian still existed, I wonder how the fortunes would have been for this part of the mall.  Belk might have used this store for awhile, but any hope of this was shattered when the lifestyle center opened.

Empty storefronts abound on this part of the mall, but this is by no means a slow process.  Much of these stores closed within the past two years, and they do not look dated at all.  If only...

Approaching here is what was once the Dillard's mall entrance.  While it is efficient in this horrible economy, it still makes me cringe to think of this becoming a courthouse.

When looking at this map, the answer seems pretty obvious: keep the Dillard's for the courthouse but knock down the rest of the 1997 mall addition east of JCPenney.  From this map, the rest of the mall looks like it would be fine if that excess space was removed.  I love the current mall logo by the way.  A mall named after the city it is in seems like a general good plan, but the alliteration of "Macon" and "Mall" has a nice ring to it.

"The Shoppes at River Crossing" has been a thorn in the side of Macon Mall.  The new center opened in the wealthier part of the city away from the crime and worsening decay on the opposite side of the city where Macon Mall sits.  This new center opened in former vacant land at the intersection of GA 87 and New Forsyth Road (Old GA 148) just north of I-75.  With it, the center took the Dillard's from Macon Mall leaving the whole east wing added only 11 years before void of anchors.  Even worse was what is taking place along Eisenhower.  Strip malls are emptying out, including the redeveloped Westgate, which once housed Media Play and Home Depot and now is down to nothing more than Burlington Coat Factory...a sure sign that all is not well in the area and that the area is overbuilt.  Nevertheless, a major strip mall down the road housing a relocated Home Depot, Dicks Sporting Goods, Best Buy and other tenants proves that the area is still viable.  Unfortunately, that strip alone is also pulling from the mall as well as much of the other retail in the area.

Another view of the dead weight on the mall looking back toward JCPenney.  A mere three years ago this was a swanky addition with two nice department stores.  Note the dead Hollister on the left.

The upstairs tells the same story.

I was 17 years old when this addition opened, and to me it doesn't seem that long ago.  Time flies too fast.

Next to the food court is this dead restaurant with no attempt made to even hide it.  Was this Panera Bread?

Looking along the upper level of the food court wing, which seems to be a combination of mostly vacant shops and seating areas.  In the back is a carousel, but I was unable to get a better shot.

Macon Mall is surviving, and it is hardly dead by any means.  The original part of the mall continues to keep all four of its anchors filled including Belk, which maintains its location in the mall.  However, the number of vacancies is creeping higher and many national stores have fled the mall recently.  While I would hardly say the situation is hopeless, I definitely think these are serious problems the mall is facing.  What the mall should do right away is to force all tenants in the old Dillard's/Parisian wing to relocate into the older part of the mall.  After this is completed, the mall should then seal off this part and demolish it like it had never existed.  The spirit of competition has historically discouraged such drastic measures as simply downsizing a mall, but in this case I think that it is pertinent for them to seriously consider this.  The chance of anchors coming to fill these spots is slim, and the mall is successful enough right now to maintain itself in its original size.  Pride aside, the mall has four successful anchors that appear to be staying right where they are, and the oversizing of the mall in 1997 came more than 20 years after the original mall opened. 

I was having so much trouble getting my camera to focus on this trip.  Better pics from "cantnot" can be found on LiveMalls. 

Looking down below is a fountain I absolutely did not notice when walking through before.  This one is just east of center court.  I feel like I need to get more of this place, but at its size it was quite difficult to cover everything.

One other shot of the fountain in front of JCPenney looking toward center court with a corner of the food court on the left.  I was unable to get any pics of the food court, either.  It was half-empty.

This is showing the Belk mall entrance when it was still Belk Matthews.  This was taken by Edric Floyd in 2006.

Personal views aside, Macon Mall did not rate high in comfort when I visited.  The huge Macon police presence suggested that the crime problem has soared, and this was confirmed after doing a little research.  Not only that, but the mall has been changing hands and losing value.  Its last owner, Colonial Properties, went into foreclosure with the mall today owned by Jones Lang LaSalle.  Furthermore, apparently plans are underway to convert the old Dillard's into a new Bibb County Courthouse.  While that sounds highly efficient, that also sounds highly tacky if they keep the mall in between.  I can't think of many stores that would want to locate on the "courthouse" wing.  In my opinion, if that is the grand plan then definitely tear down the mall back to JCPenney so that a tasteful degree of separation exists.  Of course, perhaps the idea is if the mall fails it will all convert to county offices, which is still a bit presumptuous at this point.

Macy's, which opened as Davison's and also operated as Rich's.  This store was a little different from the prototype used in the early 80's.

This photo from 2005 came just barely after the change from Rich's, and left behind here is a Rich's label scar hidden under the new sign.  Why I didn't just photograph everything at the mall that day I will never know.  I would have loved to have seen this mall in its prime, because I didn't expect what happened would actually happen.

Dillard's is gone, but the evidence remains.  It closed in late 2008.

JCPenney is plain, blocky and sandwiched between a very big mall.

Belk, which operated as Belk Matthews later than most Belk partnership stores.  This store is a clone to the store at doomed Carolina Circle Mall in Greensboro, NC.

In March 2005, I captured this photo of the same building when it was Belk Matthews.  I included this photo on an earlier post. 

Parisian attempted to bring upscale retailing to the Deep South, but today the store is vacant as a victim of consolidation with Belk in 2007.

In all, I hope for the best for Macon Mall and it is a bit sad to see a mall that was once a shining pinnacle of retailing lose its luster.   It is just hoped that while the mall remains in a viable position that the owners will consider downsizing to remove the obvious weak points of the mall.  Many factors are hurting the mall including downward shifting demographics, new competition, a souring economy and a retail market that is overbuilt, possibly on purpose in order to move the better stores away from the area.  Whatever happens, hopefully it will work out because it is one of the more fascinating malls I have visited with a rather grand history.

Curiously I still covered this mall directory just because it said Rich's.  This shows when the mall was owned by Colonial Properties Trust.  Then it was called "Colonial Macon Mall".  Note Belk Matthews shown here as well.

Cullum's of Augusta

Cullum's of Augusta, GA was a store that historically would be easier to overlook if it had not been part of Georgia's most famous dead mall, but it is a store that deserves mention coming from an era where high class department stores found in only one city - possibly even one location - were once the norm.  In fact, it is the disappearance of stores like this that have left a void in smaller cities for people looking for high fashion merchandise when giants like Nordstrom and Neiman Marcus are most likely never going to consider coming to such places.  Cullum's was that for Augusta...a better shopping experience that was lost at the close of the modern era of retailing.

Cullum's got its start after 1944 when Saxon-Cullum, Augusta's oldest and most prominent department store, was sold to Davison-Paxon of Atlanta, later Davison's and Macy's.  It is assumed that the Saxon partner simply took the money and retired, but apparently the Cullum half of Saxon-Cullum took the cash earned from the sale to start their own department store in downtown Augusta, which became Cullum's.  The new Cullum's would cater to the elite of the city while Davison-Paxon would continue to market to the same carriage trade demographic previously held by Saxon-Cullum.  Thus, for 34 years Cullum's would become a relatively short-lived tradition in Broad St. retailing with the chain itself lasting a few years longer after the downtown store closed.

These two ads were from the Augusta Magazine in 1978 forwarded to me via Sandy Lewis promoting the opening of their Regency Mall store.  The first shows a beautiful drawing of the now long-abandoned store.  Their logo surprised me at how thin and stringy it looks...I didn't even realize I was looking at the name first time I saw it.

Cullum's popularity brought it to additional locations in Augusta and Aiken, SC.  A couple of these locations, however, were very small stores that would classify more as a shop than a department store, and all of these stores were located in strip malls in lieu of enclosed malls.  Other locations besides Broad St. included Kalmia Plaza (Aiken) and West Town Shopping Center (Martinez/West Augusta).  Smaller boutiques were also found at Daniel Village and National Hills Shopping Centers.  Two of those locations were aided by the presence of larger department stores with Kalmia having a Belk and National Hills having White's [1].  While malls were never previously a part of Cullum's history, their last location to open would be their only mall-based location.  That location was at the Regency Mall location in South Augusta, which opened with the mall in 1978.  Regency Mall would also draw the only other location of Ruben's, another standard of Downtown Augusta that remains to this day.

This pic shows a crowd of baby boomer teenagers waiting in a considerably long line for the showing of "A Hard Days Night" at the Miller Theater on Broad St.  The movie dates the image to 1964 with the Cullum's sign captured to the right of the theater.  This photo is also from Sandy Lewis.

The opening of Regency Mall in 1978 was devastating to downtown retail.  Nearly every major department store left Broad St. for the gleaming new mall, but little did people know the trouble that would come of the fact that Regency was poorly planned, poorly located and that it would be quickly supplanted by Augusta Mall.  For a city its size, two very large two-level shopping malls were bound to cannibalize each other, and Regency was in second place from the day Augusta Mall opened.  Nevertheless, then-new Regency took White's from downtown in an era of blind optimism in regards to malls.  Cullum's would also leave downtown to join the mall as well in a 60,000 square foot two-level junior anchor, and it was an unwise decision for the store.  After all, it was their largest suburban store that was also the furthest removed from its wealthy base.  The competition from Davison's and newcomer Rich's at Augusta Mall also pulled business away from the store meaning that it began struggling as it was unprepared for the newer mall environment.

This image, which looks far more recent, shows the lengthwise Cullum's sign on the side of the building on the right, though the other logo in the photo above is not visible anywhere.  Photo sent by Sandy Lewis.

Sometime in the early 1980's approaching its 40th anniversary, the entire Cullum's chain was liquidated.  While it is unclear what happened to the other locations, the Regency location was later sold to Greenville-based Meyers-Arnold, which opened in the former location around 1985.  Not only did Augusta lose a truly upscale department store, but this also spelled the beginning of troubles for Regency Mall as well.  Locals did not take to the unfamiliar and far more downscale Meyers-Arnold, which would soon be bought out itself by Upton's of Atlanta.  Today, residents of Augusta have to travel to Atlanta or Charleston to find a store like Cullum's, so for those that can remember it, it is a store that is undoubtedly lamented with nothing like it to take its place today.

This image from Jarrett Edwards is apparently from a yearbook, and it suggests the elegance that this store once had.  I tend to wonder, though, if the claim here that a high brow magazine rated it "Fashion Store of the Century" is true.  If so, this must have been a veritable Neiman Marcus, Jr.

Upton's, the last tenant in the old Cullum's at Regency Mall, closed in 1993.  This means that this store has been abandoned for 17 years, though the mall continued to operate until 2002.  Meyers-Arnold was also here briefly before Upton's arrived.  This photo is from 2003, 10 years after the store first closed.  Apparently Upton's just wasn't what people were looking for in Augusta.

[1] Lewis, C. (2010, May 3). J B White. [Electronic mail message].

JB White at Greenville and Savannah Malls

The JB White stores at Greenville and Savannah Malls proved to be two of three outpost stores of the relatively small chain of department stores.  While White's had a history in Greenville, it was a definite latecomer to both the Savannah and Spartanburg markets.  While the one in Spartanburg anchored a very successful mall (causing the immediate death of Hillcrest Mall), the Savannah and Greenville stores seem to have been relatively quirky, flanking malls filled with big promises but last-choice anchors.  The Greenville Mall store is now long gone and forgotten.  However, the Savannah Mall store continues to hang on in an otherwise troubled mall as the lone remaining department store anchor basically stuck due to a lack of suitable replacement sites.  Both malls had ill-fated Montgomery Ward, and both tried Parisian as an attempt to present a fresh, upscale image that apparently instead led to the sale of Parisian later.  While Savannah Mall seems to be on the downswing, it successfully reinvented itself a few years ago.  Millions spent on Greenville Mall, on the other hand, failed to turn around its fortunes in the long term and most of the mall has been demolished.

The JB White at Savannah Mall was among the most unattractive location in the entire chain.  With a combination of brutalism and postmodern design, the store looked like a big brick block with a couple stucco arches thrown in.  They did, however, use the nice script logo found on the stores built in the 70's and 80's.  Dillard's continues to operate here today.  Photo by C. Lewis.

Ill-fated Greenville Mall was one of several malls that the mere presence of White's seemed to be the main thing that kept them viable.  Greenville Mall was largely a failure from the day it opened, and had it not been for White's, the mall would likely have failed sooner than it did.  As one of three malls in the city, only one survives today, which is Haywood Mall.  The White's at Greenville Mall as a whole was a bit of an anomaly...it was essentially carried over from its downtown Greenville location in a market considerably more competitive than Columbia or Augusta.  When it came along, it competed with both Belk Simpson and Meyers-Arnold on the lower end and Ivey's on the higher end.  Rich's complicated the issue when it arrived in 1980.  With such a glut of stores and all choosing to flank the other two malls in the city, this left White's as the only real draw to a mall otherwise anchored by Montgomery Ward.  The sale to Dillard's created an overlap with Haywood Mall as they had already built anew onto Haywood Mall along with a massive addition.  Dillard's was hardly interested in maintaining two stores cannibalizing each other in the long term, and its closure of the Greenville Mall store devastated the mall.

JB White at Greenville Mall prior to the 1995 expansion and re-design of the store.  This store looks exactly like a JCPenney from about 1970.  In such a knock down, drag out retail environment it was in I can see how its design was outmoded rather quickly.  Photo by C. Lewis.

White's reinvented itself into this beautiful, gleaming (appropriately) white store.  Unfortunately, it was still knocked down and drug out less than 15 years later after Dillard's failed to maintain the sparkle.  Photo by C. Lewis.

One of Dillard's major difficulties today is the backlash from the amount of local department store chains it bought out.  While they have managed enough success to remain viable, this change alienated quite a few shoppers who felt Dillard's did not cater to them in any way.  This was very true in the failure of Dillard's at Greenville Mall, but this may have not had any bearing on what happened in Savannah.  In Savannah, White's was hardly a familiar store, but the disappearance of Levy's a few years before made it possible for them to fit into the market better than if they had arrived a decade prior.  This is why the Dillard's location at the mall has remained successful despite the problems in Savannah Mall.  In all, Dillard's has still performed well in the former market of White's, but in these two malls it has proven to be more of a challenge.  How much better really was White's doing in these places before the buyout?  It tends to make me wonder what the company's long-term strategy really was such as White's moving closer to the Atlanta or Charlotte markets.

Remembering JB White Department Store (Updated and Corrected with New Photos)

Big city department stores throughout history tended to get the spotlight. Much of that is obvious: they are more recognizable, a symbol of that major city and they historically tended to be far more large and upscale than their small city counterparts. While it is worthwhile to remember the Marshall Fields and Rich's stores of the past, the smaller chains deserve some attention of their own. The one I am showing today is JB White...a major chain that served as the principal department store for two mid-sized cities in the South.  Founded by James Brice White in 1874, it was one of the first department stores in the country and established itself as the leading department store in Augusta, GA and Columbia, SC.

A view of the downtown store in Augusta prior to the removal of the signs on the outside.  This store operated until 1978.  Photo by C. Lewis.

Started in Augusta, GA the chain expanded to Columbia, SC prior to 1900 while maintaining its flagship in Augusta. Its flagship store was located on Broad St in Augusta, and it closed in 1978 when it was replaced with a new store at Regency Mall.  The last downtown flagship store opened in 1925 as a three story structure and was expanded to four stories in 1945 to compete with the arrival of Davison's of Atlanta [1].  White's also expanded to Aiken, SC early on as well, presumably in the 1920's.  They later went to Greenville in the 1940's (in the former Ivey-Keith location downtown) [2] .  Expansion to Spartanburg and Savannah would come much later.  In all, it was a store that was more fashion oriented than Belk, but less elegant than Rich's or Davison's in Atlanta during that period.  In other words, it was the ideal department store for both cities in that period.

An image of White's in Aiken.  This looks to have been a drawing of the store at a strip mall named Mitchell Shopping Center.  The White's would later move to a larger store at Heritage Square.  This image came from a yearbook and was submitted by Jarrett Edwards.

White's later location at Heritage Square in Aiken.  This store was demolished when the strip it was in was redeveloped for a Kroger and Home Depot.  It did not become Dillard's.  Photo by C. Lewis.

White's, unlike Rich's, was not passed on to subsequent family members after James Bryce White retired.  Instead, he sold the store in the early 1910's to HB Claflin Co., a company that owned other department stores including Lord & Taylor.  When HB Claflin later went bankrupt, the company was split into Associated Dry Goods and Mercantile Stores Company.  ADG covered larger market stores while Mercantile took the smaller markets, which White's fit cleanly into.  This began the chapter of JB White as a division of Mercantile Stores.  The Milliken Family owned the majority shares in Mercantile, so their influence would steer the direction of Mercantile's stores, including White's, throughout the remainder of its history.  Other major stores under the Mercantile banner included Castner-Knott of Nashville and Gayfer's of Mobile.  James Bryce White's retirement would see him spending the remainder of his years in Italy, but he continued to support the community that brought him his wealth through the construction of a YMCA in Augusta and the creation of a scholarship still offered each year to a student at Augusta State University [1].

This photo, apparently from the early 1990's, shows the JB White store at Dutch Square.  This is the only store I remember, and I seem to remember the logo was rather difficult to read at 6 years old.  Note that this is one of three different styles of logos used on their suburban locations.  Photo by C. Lewis.

White's first suburban expansion came in the early 1960's. Its first of such locations in Columbia was in 1961 at the original Richland Mall, a small open-air mall flanking the large two story White's. Its second came in 1963 with the opening of a two-story store at National Hills Shopping Center in Augusta...an otherwise small strip mall that also featured an A&P supermarket. White's also opened in a strip mall in Aiken somewhere in that same time period in Heritage Square Shopping Center.  In 1970, its largest suburban location yet opened up at Dutch Square Mall west of Columbia offering three levels of shopping as well as two suburban stores for Columbia.  By 1978, more stores were opened including Greenville at Greenville Mall and Regency Mall in Augusta.  The Regency store sadly replaced the downtown flagship.  Strangely, even though the chain was Augusta-based, the chain sought for an almost exclusive South Carolina strategy outside the city. This would not change until 1990 when JB White opened a store in Georgia at Savannah Mall.

This photo of White's at National Hills Shopping Center looks to date to the 80's.  This was such a classy logo, I can't understand why they did away with it.  Note there was no "JB" in front of this version of it.  Special thanks to Michael Lisicky for sharing this rare photo.

Unbelievably, it wasn't just Michael Lisicky that captured this store.  This photo by C. Lewis, an Augusta native, was captured in the same time period.  The store was clearly a hopping place that day!

The 1990's saw the beginning of difficulties for White's along with the rest of Mercantile. Pressure to compete in an environment of department store consolidation finally was beginning to catch up with it and the Mercantile Stores company as a whole as the chain by then had more stores than shoppers. Nevertheless, new stores were constructed all the way until the sale of the company in 1998 to Dillard's. Stores built in that period included a store in West Columbia at Columbiana Centre Mall and at Westgate Mall in Spartanburg, both opening in 1995.  White's location at Greenville Mall was also extensively renovated and expanded in 1995 as part of the enormous effort to revive what had been a dated, dumpy and dead mall.  The last store that was built opened in 1998 at Augusta Mall. JB White moved to Augusta Mall to escape the troubled and failing Regency Mall, closing its older Regency location after only 20 years. This new store was nearly identical in design to the remodel at Greenville Mall.  Not long after that store opened, the chain was sold.

Michael Lisicky also took this later photo of J.B. White with its very plain and boring 90's logo on the same store at National Hills Shopping Center.  I absolutely cannot stand their later logo, so Mercantile was definitely not appealing to customer loyalty with that atrocity.  This style logo was also used on the store at Augusta Mall that is seen on the Wikipedia photograph.

After the sale, the stores did not exactly all convert to Dillard's. The problem was that Dillard's already had a presence in the Columbia market, so three of the stores instead went to Belk. Two of those were done to prevent overlap in the same mall. Not only was Belk trying to get re-established in the Columbia market, but also Dillard's was trying to solidify its own market in the region after purchasing the entire Ivey's chain 8 years before. Dillard's was also interested in a swap with Belk for stores in the Tidewater area, so this worked out well for both parties. Because of this, while all other stores converted to Dillard's, all of the Columbia locations instead became Belk.

The National Hills Store viewed here as Dillard's.  Photo by Jarrett Edwards taken shortly before the store closed.

A couple views inside the National Hills store.  The grainy quality is because they were camera phone pics blown up from very low resolution.  Both photos by Jarrett Edwards.

White's, like Rich's, had a very loyal following. Despite it resting under the Mercantile banner, the store maintained strong ties with the community.  The store strongly supported community events, and fashion director Marion White Linder (no relation) would do charity fashion shows in support of the local children's hospital.  The chain also promoted itself with popular midnight madness sales, and their return policy was comparable to Nordstrom today and Rich's in the 1970's.  Today, the store lives on primarily through the preservation efforts of the original downtown store. In 2007, the old downtown store was converted to condominiums with parts of the old painted sign and logos intact on the building.

The former JB White store at vacant Regency Mall in Augusta in 2003.  This store has been closed for 12 years now.

This photo really thrills me!  This was the same Regency Mall store in its much better days.  The photo looks to be about 1990 and it features a clear version of their second logo.  This photo is also courtesy of C. Lewis.

The second to last generation of White's at Columbiana Centre in Columbia.  A nearly identical store was added to Westgate Mall in Spartanburg the same year this store opened.

LIST OF FORMER WHITES LOCATIONS
(Known stores shown, please fill in on ones missing on this list)

AUGUSTA

Downtown/Broad Street (1925-1978)

National Hills Shopping Center (1963-1998, converted to Dillard's and closed as Dillard's in 2007)

Regency Mall (1978-1998)

Augusta Mall (1998, converted to Dillard's same year)

AIKEN

Heritage Square Shopping Center (Dates unknown)

COLUMBIA

Downtown (Dates unknown)

Richland Mall (1961, converted to Belk 1998)

Dutch Square Mall (1970, converted to Belk 1998)

Columbiana Centre Mall (1995, converted to Belk 1998)

GREENVILLE

Downtown (1940's-1978) [2]
Greenville Mall (1978, converted to Dillard's 1998 and demolished 2008)

SAVANNAH

Savannah Mall (1990, converted to Dillard's 1998)

REFERENCES

[1] Lewis, C. (2010, May 1). J B White. [Electronic mail message].
[2] Anonymous blog comment posted April 30, 2010.

Jasper Mall: Jasper, AL

The biggest factor in what drove me into blogging about malls and dead stores is the hope of recapturing the way these places looked in my childhood.  While most malls these days have been disappointingly been renovated multiple times, a scant few maintain their original goodness.  One of these is an easy to overlook mall in the small city of Jasper, AL.  Jasper Mall is easy to overlook for the obvious reasons that it is independently operated, located in a very small city and is also a very tiny mall itself.  Anywhere else, it would not last any time at all but it is actually a thriving mall.

Located on US 78 north of the downtown, the mall sits in the middle of the original by-pass route around the city, which evolved into an extensive retail corridor in the 1980's.  Originally, it was anchored only by JCPenney and Kmart when it opened in 1983.  No changes of any kind happened to the mall until recently when Belk strangely added a new store to the back of the mall on what had obviously been previously a rear entrance.  Another oddity to the mall is that it seems to have one of the few remaining operational Garfield's Restaurants: a regional chain serving malls in smaller markets that I had thought was completely out of business.  It is overall very dark inside, but it is a welcome sight for an 80's baby that was raised in dark, moody malls.

A view of the left front entrance corridor.  This actually goes straight back dissected with the Kmart entrance to the left and main mall to the right.  Since Kmart mall entrances tend to orient themselves directly to the mall itself, entrances to them double as mall entrances.  The Kmart at Bradley Square Mall in Cleveland, TN is the same way.  The first photo shows early 80's vintage brick planters in front of the JCPenney.

Beginning down the mall would be like walking into the 80's except for the stores, which clearly are more modern versions of themselves.  Very little natural light is found in any part of the mall.

Here I am approaching center court.

I decided to throw in some detail of the planter.

Since the mall is apparently a living, and actually thriving, museum of 80's architecture, the mall features multiple shades and patterns of light and dark brown linoleum tiles throughout.  Interspersed between them are many brick planters surrounded by benches as well as a few sunken seating areas as well.  The mall also has a continuous slope uphill from Kmart to JCPenney as well as a slightly staggered concourse, which gives the mall presence making it feel larger than it really is.  Any renovation to a lighter, brighter mall would actually make the mall look small and dumpy.  The mall itself sits near the top of the hill with the back parking lot carved deep into the hillside.  The area it is located in is actually quite mountainous, and it reminds me a lot of more familiar Jasper, GA.

A look at the Belk wing, which clearly predates the Belk store.  I assume this originally led to a back entrance.  I wonder how much adding Belk here helped.  It seemed to make no difference in the middle Georgia malls having both Belk and JCPenney.

Belk's gleaming mall entrance with obviously a home store addition on the left and a closed Sound Shop music store on the right.

Looking back from Belk to center court.  The front main entrance is in the background.

The front main entrance features one of the few Garfield's Restaurant locations still open for business.  All of the others I have seen were closed including one at Quintard Mall in Oxford.

I am looking back here through center court.  Chick-Fil-A to the left is in the foreground, the Belk sign can be made out in the background and apparently a new store is in progress on the right.  An American Eagle would be nice.  I'm sure the teenagers here aren't the most pleased by the fact that most stores here are lower end.

Conventional wisdom with malls says that for a mall to survive it must be updated continuously.  However, this mall proves that is only true if there is competition nearby.  That is definitely not the case with Jasper Mall, and the mall was not only busy but full of stores.  In contrast, several smaller malls I visited in middle Georgia that got a massive renovation recently looked to be emptying out.  Perhaps adding Belk made all the difference, but most of all it is the fact it is a mall covering a fairly large region under-represented by retail.  It is also far enough from Birmingham and even further from its prime retail corridor east of the city.  However, only time will tell how much the completion of I-22 into Birmingham will have on the mall.  I-22, currently a "Future" interstate moved much of the major traffic away from the mall, and is currently complete other than a direct connection to I-65 in Birmingham.  Such changes will likely bring major growth to the Jasper area as well as the possibility of another major shopping center closer to the new interstate, but for now everything looks very safe for the 27 year old mall.

It seems the only natural light comes from these elusive skylights and the filtered light through the checkered fixtures.

A look at the JCPenney wing looks almost like an 80's postcard except for the edge of the kiosk on the left.  I love it (except the kiosk).

A little closer to JCPenney, it looks like an old Foot Locker has been converted to a mom 'n' pop operation.  I honestly do not recall any major shoe stores in the mall unless Payless was there somewhere, but you can find plenty of jewelry stores there.

I really got a kick out of the court in front of JCPenney.  Note the sunken seating area in the middle.

The sunken seating area and planters in front of JCPenney are shown in greater detail.  It sure beats a flat spot with those ugly shiny beige floor tiles, over-sized flower pots and tacky chairs.  I hope the mall owners never take this away...this is still attractive!

The area around Jasper itself is strange enough.  While the area features outdoor tourism in the nearby Bankhead National Forest, most of the area is predominately rural in nature.  It is also dubiously known for its violent weather including several extremely violent tornado outbreaks which likely discouraged many people from moving there.  Several F4 and F5 tornadoes have hit in or near the area in recent history.  It has also been insulated from sprawl development from Birmingham since most of the growth has moved east/southeast instead of northwest.  Nevertheless, the area is still quite appealing with its big rolling hills and valleys, proximity to nearby hemlock-filled canyons in Bankhead Forest, recreation on Lewis Smith Lake and fast, easy access between Birmingham and Memphis.  Vacation homes dot the landscape north of Jasper up towards Smith Lake.  In all, though, it reminds me a lot of northwestern Georgia about 20 years ago with its blend of rugged scenery, rural back country and small urban areas.

A look down the Kmart wing with three shades of floor tiles featured here.  Not bad.

Kmart's mall entrance features a checkerboard of filtered light above, angular planters and bench seats.  These look like the photos I saw of University Mall in Tuscaloosa in its early days.  I like it still.

Detail of one of the built-in wooden bench seats.

Another view of same court in relation to its rear entrance and adjacent shop (Rue 21).

A look down the back entrance corridor, which serves as a dual mall entrance and Kmart entrance.  Long, empty mall entrance corridors have wisely been taken out of modern mall design.

In all, if you are looking for a big mall with a big choice of higher end stores, then you probably will not like Jasper Mall much.  However, if you live in a small town and want some place to hang out with a few decent stores then you will probably like Jasper Mall.  If you are like me and looking for a mall that looks like the early 1980's over 25 years later, then you will absolutely love Jasper Mall.  For me, personally, I tend to find satisfaction in these small town malls just for the fact they add something interesting to the outlying areas and are rather quaint through their retention of vintage design elements and compact design.  I certainly wish that modern store chains would do more to enhance these junior malls, though, by tacking on to them instead of spreading all over the area killing them in the process. It is just my hope that they never change the way it looks.  While it may not hold a candle to any mall in Birmingham, it is still fun to visit places like this especially when they look the way they were originally intended.  If only the big city malls would do the same instead of embracing the antiseptic hospital-like appearance they love today.

Kmart/Mall entrance from the front of the mall.  At least Kmart, unlike Wal-Mart, tries to incorporate their stores into the malls they're in.

Back entrance to the mall and Kmart from the outside.  This enters the "long, empty corridor" I mentioned in a photo above.

Front entrance to the mall with Garfield's on the right.  The Belk sign is added to recognize its hidden position in the mall.

JCPenney here actually looks pretty decent compared to their stores from 1980.  It is tasteful.

Belk here is the afterthought featuring a stucco-clad Southern-style canopy.  It seems modern Belk stores really try to look like Deep South on a budget.

Jasper Mall's road sign.  No comment really.