Springdale Mall, Mobile, AL

 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.

Springdale official website

Century Plaza, Birmingham, AL

 A dead mall

1 & 2- Century Plaza's exterior along Crestwood Boulevard.

2 & 3- Century Plaza Lease Plan, ca. 2002.  View the full PDF version here.

The Birmingham retail market has been in recent decades dominated by two major shopping facilities- the Riverchase Galleria and The Summit.  But before the retail juggernauts opened in the southern suburbs and consolidated the region's retail presence, Birmingham's shopping options were primarily anchored by Western Hills Mall in the west, Brookwood Village in the south and central parts, and Eastwood and Century Plaza malls to the east. 

Century Plaza's center court area after closing. (Source)

In the mid-nineties I lived for a few months in nearby Irondale while taking classes at the University of Montevallo.  Both Eastwood and Century were so close that I almost always frequented them both over Riverchase.  I always preferred Century Plaza over its older neighbor as it had more of a selection, it boasted that cool nineties pastel makeover and was missing that dingy, empty, soon-to-be-a-super-Walmart smell. 

In and around the abandoned Century Plaza after closing. (Source)

Century Plaza opened its doors in the same year that I came to be, 1975.  Sears, the first store to open, was joined by other original anchors JCPenney, Loveman's of Alabama and Atlanta based Rich's.  At 700,000 square feet and a full two tiers throughout, it was the largest indoor retail facility in the metro area.  Between it and Eastwood, the Crestwood Boulevard area was the most popular retail draw in the area through the seventies and early-eighties.

Around the Century Plaza exterior after closing (Source)

Century Plaza did well for more than a decade.  It even soldiered on through the closing and redevelopment of its neighbor across the street.  The Loveman's changed nameplates to Jackson, MS based McRae's while Rich's, after a takeover by Cincinnati based Federated Stores, was re-christened Rich's-Macy's.  The location, however, closed before all stores in the chain dropped the Rich's to simply become Macy's.  Being the first of the anchors to close, it would soon be joined by the others.

Shots of Century Plaza after closing (Source)

JCPenney closed in 2006, while McRae's became Belk the same year before closing soon after.  Sears was then the only anchor remaining as the rest of the mall was vacating at a high rate.  When the interior of the mall closed in 2009, only 40 of the original 100 stores remained.  Later that same year, the final store at the mall, Sears, closed its doors.  The venerable retail name opened before the mall and had outlasted it.

Inside Century Plaza after closing (Source)

The mall sat vacant for over a decade and many plans for the land, located in an area of economic decline, were proposed.  None came to fruition and the large, red monolith sat in full display of decay off of a major thoroughfare.  The demolition man finally came in 2021 and Century Plaza was unceremoniously razed to make way for an Amazon distribution center.

Century Plaza on Wikipedia