The Shops at Tanforan, San Bruno, CA

 A dead mall

Just south of the cemeteries of Colma on the Bay Area’s peninsula is the city of San Bruno.  Close to San Francisco International Airport, its sole enclosed shopping center lies just off the BART line.  But what may seem just like any old struggling, late twentieth-century retail complex actually has quite a history behind it that stretches long before The Shops of Tanforan was even conceived in the late 1960s.

1 & 2- The main entrance to the Shops at Tanforan.  3-  JCPenney.  4- The former Sears store.

Just a (very) short walk from BART’s San Bruno Station, I first found myself in the lower-level food court.  The entrance motif, which is duplicated in the main entrance, resembles the hull of a boat floating above the shoppers’ heads.  The décor was modern and tasteful, if not very unique or memorable, but there were few shoppers or tenants to enjoy it.  While a JCPenney and Target remain as anchors, the rest of Tanforan has definitely seen better days.

Just inside the Shops at Tanforan’s front entrance.

Opened in 1971, the varied history of the location deserves a mention.  It served as the Tanforan Racetrack in the late 1800s hosting competitions for everything from horses to automobiles.  The famed Seabiscuit called Tanforan his home for a bit.  In the 1910s, the site became a World War I training center.

The Tanforan Memorial

Its most infamous role was serving as the site of the Tanforan Assembly Center, an internment camp for Japanese Americans during World War II.  It was one of the largest of these facilities and mainly served as a detention point before the internees were transferred to Utah.  In 1942 the center was shuttered and became a Naval personnel depot before once again serving as a racetrack after the war.  A memorial located between the San Bruno BART station and the mall now stands to commemorate these tragic events.

1 to 5- Around the Shops at Tanforan’s center court.  6- JCPenney’s mall entrance on the south end of the mall.

From its opening as Tanforan Park Shopping Center, Sears and JCPenney bookended the complex as the sole anchors.  A third anchor, The Emporium, was added not long after in 1971.  Built midway down the mall’s concourse, the building was purchased by Target in 1996 where the retail giant resides to this day.  Over the years, a Barnes & Noble joined the lineup in addition to a BJs Brewhouse and Century Theaters.  But like so many of its peers in the non-dominant, mid-range category of shopping malls, The Shops at Tanforan started a precipitous decline in the late 2010s.

The Shops at Tanforan pamphlet ca. 2020.  View the full PDF version here.

The complex’s reputation was scarred by a shooting in 2019.  Forever 21 left later on the same year.  Original anchor Sears locked their doors in 2020, actually lasting quite a bit longer than much of the chain.  The inline stores started emptying out, leaving the upper level as a near ghost town.  Though it remains open, the JCPenney location was sold in 2020 and anyone following the industry knows that it will probably be the next big domino to fall.

1- The former Sears entrance on the mall’s north end, now an automobile dealership’s showroom.  2- Looking south toward center Court.  3 & 4- Target’s mall entrances.  5- Empty storefronts in the main concourse.  6- The food court. 

The Shops of Tanforan served its market well, but, unfortunately, that market has evolved past it.  It’s sad to know that one day the old place will serve as just another footnote in the long and not so illustrious history of the site in San Bruno.

The Shops at Tanforan official website

Cookeville Mall, Cookeville, TN

 A relic of retail

(Source)

Home of Tennessee Tech University, Cookeville is a college town of around 35,000 located in the Highland Rim close to the Cumberland Plateau.  I’ve only ever been there once or twice while speeding through on I-40 between Nashville and Knoxville.  The only thing memorable about the town was that there was an actual shopping mall just off of that interstate.

1- Christmastime at Cookeville Mall in the late seventies.  2- JCPenney’s mall entrance.  (Source for both)

It was nothing more than a low slung strip of a building masquerading as a strip mall, but the skylights over the center of the building gave it away.  There was a JCPenney on one end and Peebles on the other.  However, it was soon out of our sight as we sped by at a good 75 miles an hour.

Cookeville Mall lease plan ca. 2010.  View the full PDF here.

Cookeville Mall opened in 1977 as the only enclosed shopping center between the villes of Nash and Knox.  JCPenney and Nashville based Harvey’s served as the dual anchors located at each end.  It almost immediately shifted the town’s retail center from downtown to its southern fringes.

1- A mall store just after the mall’s opening in 1977.  2- The same store as a community room in 2021.  (Source for both)

By the new millennium, however, Cookeville Mall felt the pinch of newer outdoor competition as well as shifting consumer habits.  Today the facility still hosts JCPenney and several other big box stores while the enclosed section features some national names mixed in with local mom and pops as well as community spaces.

(Source)

Cookeville Mall Revisited

Campus No. 805, Huntsville, AL

 An extant asset

I know that this place isn’t technically a mall.  Even though it has a common corridor with different places of business that can only be accessed from this indoor corridor, it’s not a mall in the traditional sense, but this is really a pretty cool place in Huntsville’s quickly gentrifying Westside.  In fact, Campus # 805 along with Lowe Mill Arts Center jumps started this renaissance in West Huntsville.

1- Map of Campus No. 805.  2 & 3- Yellowhammer Brewing Company.  4- Butler Green, the athletic fields of the former school turned into a park.  5 to 8- Straight to Ale Brewing, located primarily in the former school’s gym.

Campus No. 805 now serves as the home to Straight to Ale and Yellowhammer Brewing, two local microbreweries.  The setting for this home is a former Huntsville city public school, shuttered as enrollment dropped due to the deteriorating neighborhood surrounding it.  But they saw the potential in both the building and the neighborhood.

1-2- Straight to Ale’s front exterior.  3 to 5- The refurbished exterior of the former Butler High School/ Stone Middle School.  6- Hops and Guac on the facility’s western end.

The main building, now called the Stone Center, opened as S.R. Butler High School in 1951, the second of the then emerging town’s high schools.  It served this role until 1967 when the building became outsized for the number of students moving into the area.  It became Roy L. Stone Middle School when a newer and larger campus for Butler was built nearby.

1 to 4- The bottom level interior of Campus No. 805.  5 & 6- The “secret entrance” to Straight to Ale’s speakeasy behind the lockers.

Stone Middle School closed in 2009 and sat empty for more than half a decade before being purchased by developer Randy Schrimsher.  His vision was something unique to the region and would become in lynchpin in the city’s coming explosive growth. Straight to Ale and Yellowhammer were the first to join, and the place has seen much success since.

1 to 4- Stairwells and hallways at Campus No. 805.  5- Monkeynaut!  6- The entrance to Hops and Guac.

Straight to Ale settled into the gymnasium, where squeaky shoes have been replaced with brewing equipment.  Much of the memorabilia marking the place as a former school remains, including the green and gold basketball court.  Yellowhammer made their home across the school’s athletic field to what is now called the Student Union Building.  The old athletic fields were developed into a city park, which ties the entire campus together.

Campus No. 805’s upper level.

Walking the white cinder block halls certainly can bring one back to their own school days.  Orange lockers still line the hallways, though behind the classroom doors lie art studios, dance halls and even axe throwing.  Bars such as Hops n Guac, Lone Goose Saloon and even a speakeasy whose doorway is hidden behind unassuming lockers can be found throughout.

1 to 3- Straight to Ale’s brewery equipment in the former gym.  4- Beer and video games.  5 & 6- Regalia from the building that was once a middle school.

These days, there has been much successive development behind Campus No. 805.  Along what was once a depressed stretch of Governor’s Drive, new development has exploded.  New apartments are being built while the entire Mill Creek neighborhood is being redeveloped.  Just a block away, another entertainment venue, Stovehouse, has opened in a repurposed oven factory.  It’s exciting to see, and none has been built out yet to its full capacity.  I can’t wait to see what comes next.

Campus # 805 lease plan ca. 2021.  View the full PDF version here.

Campus # 805 official website