An extant asset
-UPDATE BELOW-
20 December 2025
Almost all signs have been obliterated of the first of the three malls of my youth to fall. There are a couple of old “tombstone” signs still sitting just off of the main roads surrounding the spot where it once stood, but the main building and even the out lot movie theaters are gone. The only remaining structure even slightly showing signs of Madison Square Mall is the Holiday Inn located just to the northwest outside of the ring road.
1- The main entrance off of University. 2- Trader Joe’s. 3- The Holiday Inn, the only structure remaining from the mall days. 4- The view of MidCity coming off of University Drive. 5- The view from the north. 6- The view from the east.
Although it is sad that Madison Square is gone, I'm pretty stoked about what's being built. MidCity District is under construction in full force and it already seems to be a hot spot for new stores coming to what is now Alabama’s largest city. It’s attracted a Top Golf, Dave and Buster’s, REI, Wahlburgers and Trader Joe’s. And it’s still growing, with many urban style apartments, an amphitheater and even a kayak course in the works.
1- MidCity Drive, the District's main street. 2- Looking south down MidCity Drive. 3- REI is one of the retail anchors of MidCity. 4- Dave and Buster's. 5- Morgan Echol's colorful shipping container art piece. 6- The Little Richard mural.
On my most recent visit in October of 2022, I finally got to see what all of the fuss was about The Camp. Calling itself “Huntsville’s coolest outdoor destination” there are several food truck style food vendors, coffee shops and stages of various sizes. It hosts special events such as Mardi Gras and Halloween festivities. It’s kind of hard to describe as there are very few places like it.
Scenes of The Camp, all decked out for Halloween.
The 8,000 seat Orion Amphitheater.
Also under construction are several more hotels and apartment buildings including Encore MidCity and The Metronome net-zero apartments catering to Huntsville’s transient military and government workers. There are murals and artwork scattered throughout, such as a portrait commemorating Little Richard, who was buried in Huntsville not far from the site, and a colorful shipping container mural by Morgan Echols located in the center of the main retail strip.
The residential buildings of MidCity under construction.
I’ll always be a mall guy through and through. Hell, that’s what this blog is about. But even I know that shopping malls in the traditional sense are on their way out. Even the best performers in their markets are having struggles. Madison Square Mall’s time has surely passed, and the city has moved on. The plans look great and there’s much more to come, and I can’t wait to see what else MidCity brings to the fast-growing Rocket City.
MidCity District pamphlet ca. 2022. View the full PDF version here.
Though I don’t love that MidCity offers no interior walkways to waste hours of my day, non-MTV watching adult me really likes what’s there now. It’s really much more in tune with this new version of Huntsville, Alabama. It seems the trade-off for the city’s amazing progress and growth is losing some of the outdated places that we loved. No more Southern Adventures or Funtasia; The Mall or University Six. But now I can find amazing locally brewed beers, one of the largest privately owned artist facilities in the country and a revitalized downtown packed with new hotels, restaurants and bars. It’s a good trade-off; and I’ll always have my memories.
The outdoorsy western side of MidCity including High Point Climbing & Fitness, the future Apollo Park kayak course, and Top Golf.
-UPDATE-
-25 December 2025
MidCity District continues to grow and expand along with the city in which it is located, and there is still much more to come before the master plan is realized. On my last post in 2022, there was still plenty of open space to be developed. Much of this has since been claimed as more developments rise on the grave of Madison Square.
[2024] MidCity District’s commercial offerings are centered around Mid City Drive and the Fame Avenue Retail Row.
Eating establishments Blue Oak Barbecue, Tupelo Honey, Starbucks, Tous les Jour and Dragon Bao have been added to the lineup. Wahlburgers, one of the first restaurants to sign on with MidCity, was also one of the first to depart. Their space, however, was quickly taken by Asian street food vendor Dragon Alley.
[2024] 1 & 2- Stax Street. 3 to 6- Wellory Living apartments under construction. 7 & 8- Makers Way.
Floriana Italian restaurant of Washington D.C. has also announced their first Alabama location at the two level NOLA building, with its design reminiscent of Bourbon Street. Other retailers recently opened in the project include Squeeze Massage, Bank Independent and Google Fiber.
The two residential buildings still under construction in 2022, Metronome at MidCity and Encore at MidCity, have both since opened their doors. In the meantime, two other large scale apartment dwellings have had their groundbreakings as well as their own debuts in the same time period.
[2024] 1 & 2- Encore MidCity residences. 3- The corner of Makers Way and Sanderson Street. 4 & 5- The nearly completed Metronome Apartments. 6 to 8- The central parklet at the heart of MidCity District.
Wellory Living, a net zero, five story apartment complex featuring retail space along its first level, sits on the property’s far eastern end between Makers Way and Old Monrovia Road. Anthem House makes its home in the center of the district across MidCity Drive from Metronome. The alleyway between the two forms the main street of the project.
[2024] 1- The Orion Amphitheater. 2 & 3- The Anthem House and Indigo Hotel under construction. 4 to 6- The finishing touches being added to Apollo Park. 7 & 8- Stax Street facing the east.
In addition to the multiple living spaces being developed, another hotel has started welcoming guests at MidCity District. Joining fellow IHG branded Holiday Inn, one of Madison Square’s original tenants and one of the oldest on the site, is Hotel Indigo and their five level complex located between Anthem House and Top Golf.
MidCity District pamphlet ca. 2024. View the full PDF version here.
The Orion Amphitheater continues to attract top talent as well as rave reviews. Since its debut season in 2022, its stage has hosted acts such as Weird Al Yankovic, Snoop Dog, Billy Strings, ZZ Top and Lana Del Ray, among many others. In 2024 Billboard Magazine named Orion as their top east coast amphitheater in their yearly review of top music venues around the world.
[2025] 1- The Orion Amphitheater in the southwestern corner of MidCity District. 2 to 8- The now completed Apollo Park and its kayaking course.
Adjoining the amphitheater and still under construction in 2022 is the recently completed Apollo Park. Owned and operated as part of the City of Huntsville’s Parks & Recreation department, the green space features a full kayaking course. It joins Top Golf, REI Co-op and High Point Climbing as another option for the outdoors enthusiast.
[2025] 1 to 5- The Anthem House apartments and Indigo Hotel open for business on Nunnuhsae Park Drive. 6 to 10- Along still uncompleted Americana Place.
On my most recent visit in November of 2025, I picked a bitterly cold, overcast and gusty day to visit the site once hosting Madison Square Mall. Starting close to the Hotel Indigo, I walked east down streets that, just last year, were mostly gravel and Alabama red clay.
With temperatures in the mid-twenties, even at midday, I was amazed at the speed of the development at MidCity District. At the south end of MidCity Drive just past the alleyway formed by the Metronome and Anthem House lay the center court, if you will, of the project.
[2025] The small greenspace in the central area of MidCity District between the Anthem House and the Metronome residences.
The diminutive triangular parklet where the street split into two seemed to be the focal greenspace of MidCity’s residential portion. Other landscaped plazas and water features were located in alleyways within and between the buildings while wide sidewalks provided plenty of room for what hopefully will be abundant pedestrian traffic in the future.
[2025] A stroll along Mid City Drive heading north.
And there’s still plenty of room to grow. As I walked eastward, on my left were multistory residences while on my right were empty lots waiting to be built upon. Future phases call for the addition of a boutique hotel, several more residential buildings, abundant retail space, and a move of The Camp to an area just south of The Metronome.
MidCity District pamphlet ca. 2025. View the full PDF version here.
I zig-zagged my way through more of the MidCity District, hands nearly numb due to the high winds and low temperatures, passing the single and double level retail establishments north of Stax Street past Fame Avenue Retail Row. With names such as this and Anthem House and Encore as well as the presence of the Orion Amphitheater, the overarching theme of music can be found in almost every facet of the development.
[2025] The retail area radiates out from the intersection of Mid City Drive and Stax Street.
MidCity District along with nearby Bridge Street Town Center have seemed to given the area a reputation as one of the top commercial districts in the region. This idea was further enhanced with the announcement that IKEA was opening their first store in Alabama, albeit one of their smaller footprint concepts, at adjoining retail complex University Place.
[2025] 1 to 3- Makers Way on the eastern side of MidCity District. 4 to 7- The newly built Wellory Living net-zero residences between Makers Way and Old Monrovia Road. 8 & 9- The eastern side of the Metronome Apartments. 9- Encore at MidCity residences.
I made my way back to my hotel in downtown Huntsville soon after to finally warm up after the brutally cold exploration. It still amazes me that all of this is being built in my little hometown in North Alabama, once unironically and affectionately referred to by some as Huntspatch, with much more on the way.
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