A dead mall
(Source)
My only experiences in Alabama’s oldest city involved brief stays at their airport which itself reminded me of a retro mall with its red brick walls, large court area in the center, and lofty ceilings. However, like most shopping malls with the same features, the terminal will soon be replaced. Just down the road on Airport Boulevard sits the main retail district of the Port City. At the southeastern quadrant of the thoroughfare’s crossing with I-65 lies its first enclosed shopping complex, The Shoppes at Bel Air. And just across the street is what used to be its main indoor rival, Springdale Mall.
1- The early Springdale Plaza. 2- McRae’s at Springdale Plaza under construction. 3 & 4- Interior shots of early mall (Source for all)
Springdale was what I refer to as a “walkthrough” mall, one where an anchor has to be traversed to reach another indoor corridor. But there was just something about Springdale that I always admired, more so than its competitor with its earlier and simpler barbell design, and I wish I would have paid it a visit before all of the enclosed common areas were slowly eliminated over the years.
Springdale Mall lease plan ca. 1975. View the full PDF version here.
Springdale Plaza opened in 1959 as an open air collection of shops, one of the first built within the city at the time. WT Grant and JCPenney anchored the facility at its opening with Mobile based Gayfer’s department store debuting their flagship location at the midpoint of the center a year later. Less than a decade later in 1967 its cross street rival, known as Bel Air Mall at the time, opened its doors.
Springdale Mall lease plan ca. 1990. View the full PDF version here.
Responding to the appearance of this formidable competitor as well as its first expansion in 1974 poaching JCPenney from their lineup, Springdale Plaza embarked on an expansion of its own. An indoor corridor of smaller specialty shops was added just to the east of Gayfer’s with Montgomery Ward anchoring the opposite end. In 1984, McRae’s added their nameplate to the façade with the opening of their freestanding outlet to the west of Gayfer’s in 1984.
1 to 3- Interior shots of the enclosure before closing. (Source for all) 4- Lonely public telephones in the eastern mall. (Source)
In the latter part of the decade, Montgomery Ward downsized their footprint at Springdale Mall by subleasing the northwestern corner of their building to Toy R Us. The following year a second indoor concourse was added to the west of the main facility connecting McRae’s and Gayfer’s. At the same time, Gayfer’s expanded their store by nearly 200,000 square feet to serve as their main flagship location.
Springdale lease plan ca. 2003. View the full PDF version here.
However, this time at peak indoor shopping mall didn’t last long for the already forty year old facility. The nineties brought the skyrocketing ascension of what was already a fairly old retail concept- the big box. Beginning in the middle of this decade the center’s new owners, CBL and Associates of Chattanooga, started the gradual process of powercenter-ing what was by then simply called Springdale. Old Navy and Barnes & Noble were among the first to move in.
Springdale lease plan ca. 2007. View the full PDF version here.
CBL and Associates also completed the first major refresh of Springdale’s interior corridors. Even with these expenditures, however, it was apparent that Springdale was losing the enclosed retail destination game to its seemingly ever-expanding competitor across the street. Drastic changes were needed; and while at first the big boxes were finding homes in the exterior facing portions, demalling to make additional space was inevitable.
1- The Belk exterior. (Source) 2 to 4- the closed Springdale Cinemas, Best Buy and Old Navy outlets at Springdale. (Source for all)
Dillard’s, with a takeover of the Mobile-based brand and all of their branches, took over the 280,000 square foot Gayfer’s flagship in 1998. But the Little Rock-based department store only lasted until 2003 when they bolted for, with absolutely no one surprised, Bel Air Mall. Almost immediately, the one time flagship was darkened, closed, and unceremoniously demolished. Today a Sam’s Club resides on the pad.
Springdale pamphlet ca. 2011. View the full PDF version here.
More changes came in 1999 when Montgomery Ward shuttered their outlet allowing Burlington Coat Factory to move in not long after. But bigger revisions were to follow as the newer western enclosed concourse was eliminated in 2001 and reconfigured to house Best Buy. In 2006 McRae’s was rebranded as Belk while the larger eastern enclosed mall was being chipped away at piece by piece to accommodate more big boxes.
1- The former east mall entrance. (Source) 2- Springdale today. (Source) 3- Sam’s Club, built where Gayfer’s flagship used to stand. (Source) 4- Burlington’s outlet in the old Montgomery Ward space. (Source)
By the 2010s Springdale no longer contained any more interior concourses and ceased to be an enclosed shopping mall. The power center assimilation was complete and the Port City was down to only a single enclosed retail destination, most than likely never to see another built.
Springdale Plaza lease plan ca. 2024. View the full PDF version here.
