Wednesday, October 14, 2009

Belle Promenade Mall at Night 1999

Here are my videos of Belle Promenade Mall taken at night in May of 1999. The first video is Dillard's just after the store closed. The second video is the former Picadilly entrance and JCPenney after the store closed. Note JCPenney still had the lights on after the store was empty. The United Artist Cinema is in the JCPenney video as well; the cinema lasted a year after this video was taken. Please excuse the focus; the camera did not have a manual focus setting to prevent the camera from losing focus at night.

This is a list of some of the stores that graced the mall. JCPenney, DH Holmes (Dillard's), Champs, Kay Bee Toys, Claire's, Bourbon Street Candy Store, GNC, Eckerd's, Picadilly Cafeteria, Spencer's, Dollar Tree, Waldenbooks, B Dalton Books, Things Remembered, Sbarro's Pizza, Chik Fil A, Fun Arcade, and the United Artists Cinema. The Fun Arcade was in the center court and had entrances that led to the food court and the center court of the mall. The Fun Arcade later moved outside of the mall. I think the arcade moved in the renovation in 1993 to make way for the carousel, but I am not 100% sure on that. The renovation was when the food court had the raised seating area removed. There were so many stores that were in this mall over the years, but I can only remember these. I have another video of me and my brother at the mall that will not be uploaded; in 1986 when our parents took us to get a child identification video. The video shows very little of the mall and it is very embarrassing since I was eight years old at the time.

Here is a not to scale basic layout of the mall.



14 comments:

  1. I really would like to thank you for uploading this video! I have been trying to get pictures or any kind of footage for years and have been unsuccessful!
    Thank you!!!

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  2. Thank you anonymous; these pictures were taken with a terrible old school video camera. The camera did not have a manual focus, so the camera kept going blurry while taping. I have been going through videos from my years living in New Orleans and Houston to see if I can find any old mall or retail footage that I can put on this site. As I find it I will post it so stay tuned.

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  3. I dont see any pictures.. besides the videos?

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  4. it really puzzles me to this day that there are no pictures, a real layout of some sort on the internet. i just find it hard to believe nearly every picture has been destroyed or something. this mall was too good to have most of it's evidence of it's existence gone!

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  5. all belle promenade mall lovers i got good news u can see footage of the entire mall intact parking lot & all. here's what u do. go to tera server.com tipe marrero in the city box tipe louisiana in the state box & tipe barataria blvd at lapalco blvd in the street box. then click on image date u can go far back as 1998 but best image of the mall is 2000 image just before it was torn down. and if u look image dates after 2001 u'll see exactly how the corridors,food court,and cinemas was laid out.

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  6. Thanks for sharing the info on the mall. The images up until 2002 show the mall intact. Terra server is a great view finder.

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  7. bing maps birds eye view still have images of the mall corridors,foodcourt,united artist cinemas,& jcpenny building.

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  8. Thanks for the info, i will check it out soon!
    Here is one picture that I was able to find on the net with the inside of the mall...
    http://e-perez.com/projects/hospitality/retail/

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  9. Great post that may be the only online photos of the interior of the mall. One of these days someone may post some pictures of this once great mall.

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  10. Check out this page; someone had the balls to go inside of the former JCPenney. I had been in this store around the time of the grand opening, several times over the years, and also for the going out of business sale in 1998. http://alexplorer.net/urban/louisiana/belleprom.html

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  11. WOW...excellent find!! With this kind of luck, we'll soon have some more picture that we can add or view!

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  12. When I go back to New Orleans I will check out the library in Metairie off of Napoleon. They have some books called the Jefferson Parish yearly that had pictures of the mall when it was new. It was one of the 1983 or 1984 editions. I should have made copies when I saw these books a few years ago.

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  13. Ladies and Gents...The day has finally come up on us! I have in my possesion some good quality indoor shots of Bell Promenade!
    I will be making a trip to New Orleans in December and I'll see if I can check out the library to see if i can find any more additional photos of the mall.
    Maybe we can even compile all that we have (including some good shots from terra server) and create a new site for the mall?
    Je, what is your e-mail? I'd like to get these shots to you or a place where I can post the pictures that I have.
    - RS

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  14. Southernmalls@gmail.com, just send credits to the photographer for the site, thanks.

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