A relic of retail
-UPDATE BELOW-
9 June 2024
In complete defiance of most of the world's opinion, I've always loved Memphis. Having worked for Northwest Airlink, I spent quite a lot of time in the Tennessee city. Fortunately enough, the trip there was usually spent tens of thousands of feet in the air where, during the entire thirty minute flight between my hometown and The Bluff City, there appeared to be a whole lot of nothing. One time, however, after I had separated from the airlines, my partner at the time and I decided to make the trip by car. On paper, the drive between Memphis and Huntsville seemed to be all right except for one thing - Mississippi. Don't get me wrong, the Magnolia State isn't all bad. The casinos at Tunica and Biloxi are doable. Also, it was in the small northeast Mississippi stop-over town of Corinth where I made quite the serendipitous discovery- Harper Square.
1- Harper Square from the main entrance. 2- Sears and the main entrance. 3- The north end including Sears. 4- Looking down the south façade.
My partner was such a good guy. I don't think he quite understood my passion for shopping mall history, but he gladly went along with me whenever I found something that I wanted to document. So even though we were in a hurry to get to Memphis, he was more than willing to stop for a while as I excitedly explored this new discovery.
Harper Square lease plan ca. 2004. View the full PDF version here.
Corinth is a small town of just under 15,000 but is the only settlement of any significance between Florence, Alabama and Memphis. We had stopped at your average small town strip mall to fill up on gas and to get a bite to eat, but I noticed something different about the place. There was an arched portico just off center on the main strip which turned out to be an entranceway to an indoor common area. Like a moth to a bug zapper, I was drawn to this fascinating feature and couldn't wait to find out what was behind those doors.
1- The big blue message board just inside the mall. 2- Wooden benches and stone floor treatments lent the corridor a Main Street, sidewalk-y look. 3- Bingo! 4- View from the back of the mall to the front entrance.
It was tough trying to find any history of Harper Square. From what I can surmise from the architecture, it probably opened sometime in the mid to late seventies. There was a small Sears anchoring the north end and a Save-A-Lot grocery store at the south end. Toward the middle was the small, enclosed portion. Inside was a dark, narrow passageway with a couple of seating areas. The floors were made of concrete speckled with small stones all underneath a drop ceiling and fluorescent lighting. No skylights interrupted their monotonous pattern to let in any natural light. At the end of the corridor was what we agreed had to be the zenith of Corinth nightlife- the Tri-State Bingo.
Detail of some of the “features” of the indoor portion.
I love making discoveries such as this. Without an eye for retail-detail, I would have never seen Harper Square as anything more than a tired old strip mall. But what I discovered was so much more- a tired old indoor/outdoor hybrid thingy. I only ever visited that one time in 2004, so I can only hope that the relic still stands to this day. I mean, what the hell else are the poor Corinthians supposed to do on a Saturday night?
Harper Square’s unique lighting apparatus.
-UPDATE-
-9 June 2024
It seems we lost another mall. The small indoor portion of Harper Square was eliminated to make room for an Aldi and Marshall’s. Bingo has been replaced by jars of off-brand peanut butter and ill-fitting underwear. They even replaced the cool lighting apparatuses; is nothing sacred? In the grand scheme of things, I know it’s not a huge loss. But a loss is a loss and another indoor shopping destination, albeit a rather tiny one, has moved on to the giant parking lot in the sky. Sigh.
Harper Square lease plan ca. 2023. View the full PDF version here.
I believe the Save-a-Lot was originally a Piggly Wiggly.
ReplyDelete