Tuesday, March 1, 2011

Deerbrook Mall Humble Texas

Deerbrook Mall was opened in the mid 1980's in the Northeast suburb of Humble Texas at the intersection of Highway 59 and FM 1960. Deerbrook Mall opened with Sears, Macy's, Mervyn's and Foley's as the main anchors and the mall is two stories. The mall also had most of the trendy stores of the day in the first five years including a hologram store, Oshman's, Kay Bee and Circus World toys. The mall was originally painted with a typical 1980's dark color scheme but later changed to lighter colors. The mall did well until the mid 1990's when the mall was stagnant and losing stores. The mall was soon sold and the new owners remodeled attracting a new AMC 24 cinema and a new JCPenney anchor a couple of years later. The mall rebounded quickly and it is one of the top seven destination malls in Houston. The mall was also remodeled again in the mid 2000's to the current style. Some of the changes over the years to the mall are that the food court originally had a full size McDonalds and Chik Fil A. Both restaurants were moved and downsized to make way for the massive entrance to the AMC cinema in the remodel. Barnes and Noble also moved in around 2000 and the Casa Ole was moved up to the second story of the mall to make room for the bookstore. Macy's became Dillard's and Foley's became Macy's. Mervyn's closed and became Cicruit City on half of the upper level and Steve and Barry's on the lower level.

The current mall-map.


Here is the entrance to Palais Royal; you can see the anchor space that has never been filled to the right for an anticipated sixth anchor.


Here is the AMC 24 Cinema; the cinema is built over a small parking lot.


JCPenney is the newest anchor at the mall.


The entrance to Casa Ole and Sears


Sears


Total Home, formerly Circuit City. The store basically slapped a new sign up and moved furniture in the shell of the former Circuit City. This anchor was originally a Mervyn's.


The mall has a very open floor plan with lots of skylights.


This is the entrance in between Macy's and the former Mervyn's.


Dillard's is three stories here. This was a location that was acquired from Macy's and changed over to Dillard's in the late 1990's.




Here is the Barnes and Noble in between Sears and Dillard's. This was formerly a Casa Ole restaurant.


The Total Home store takes up half of the second floor of the former Mervyn's.


You can see the design did not change from the Circuit City that was previously located here.


This is the only part of the former Mervyn's anchor that has not been redeveloped.


Macy's was Foley's until they were acquired in 2005. This location was damaged during Hurricane Ike and completely gutted to the shell and rebuilt. This store is also three stories.



This is one of the few malls that still has a cafeteria.


The front of Dillard's around closing time


Outside of the Macy's entrances; the original glass logo of Foley's in the 1980's still stands.


The food court was redesigned in 1996 when the AMC Cinema opened.





14 comments:

  1. Forever 21 is now in the old Mervyn's. It uses THE ENTIRE building.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Does anyone remember the Carousel that was in the food court in the 1990's did they remove it when the food court was renovated, does anyone have pictures of the carousel

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I wish there more pictures of Humble from the '90s period. There were so many great places that you just can't find any trace of online, like Golf 'N Games, Fun Factory, the AMC Theater where Planet Fitness used to be, and so on. Even the arcades in the mall are mostly forgotten (Tilt downstairs and the one upstairs where Chic-Fil-A is, Aladdin's Castle I believe).

      Delete
    2. You are right, there were a ton of options back in the day. Golf N Games was on the other side of the tracks from Pancho's, Fun Factory near where the General Cinema/ Movie Tavern was, and the AMC. I can't remember the name of the upper mall arcade, but I remember the huge Chik Fil A with seating and the McDonald's with a play area that both were moved over to make room for the AMC mall entrance in 1995. Tilt lasted a while, but finally moved out in the mid 2000's if I remember correctly. If you did a deep dive at the library you may be able to find some old photos of these places.

      Delete
  3. Do you know when the carousel was removed from the food court, how different was Deerbrook in the early 1990's, does anyone have pictures of how Deerbrook was back then

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Deerbrook was actually not doing well in the early 1990's until the cinema was added. The carousel was removed around the mid 1990's renovation which corresponded with the cinema addition to the mall. I remember the McDonalds used to take up half of where the cinema entrance is now and Chik Fil A was the other half of the cinema entrance. There was an arcade roughly where the Chik Fil A is now that had a small entrance which led to a decent sized arcade in the back. Taco Bell was also in the food court in the 90's before the cinema arrived. Kay Bee Toys was where the Casa Ole is now. Walgreens was where Payless is now, and there was a Waldenbooks next door or just down the hall. Casa Ole was where Barnes and Noble is now. Sam Goody was next to Sears on the first level. There have been many changes in the mall tenants over the years, but the mall is much busier now than it has ever been.

      Delete
  4. Wow I could not believe that Deerbrook was struggling when it was a young mall, I always thought it was doing well, I remember the old Dinosaur playground next to JC Penny, and the change of stores over the years, I remember when Dollar Tree used to be in the mall by Kay Bee Toys, Can't believe how much Deerbrook has changed over the years

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Greenspoint was the more successful mall until around the time Deerbrook added the movie theaters. Deerbrook was never struggling as bad as Greenspoint now, but it was not considered successful until the mid 1990's. In the early 1990's Deerbrook had several empty stores and some spots in the mall especially towards Sears where only a few stores were open. There was a Ruby Tuesday restaurant at the entrance just below the movie theaters in the 1980's-early 90's.

      Delete
  5. I kept reading "Foleys became Macy's" however it appears to be a new Macy's Stores(bright white, low ceilings, no lablescars) Good to know it was rebuilt as a macy's. I thought only Almeda and Northwest mall received damage.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. The Deerbrook Mall store received heavy roof damage, and they went ahead and updated the exterior of the store during the remodel. The old mirrors with the flower apostrophe from the old Foley's logo are still up inside of the mall entrances. I wonder how many people look at those and wonder what they are from.

      Delete
  6. I was a kid living in Kingwood when Deerbrook opened. Good memories of running around that place in the 1980's.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. That area has changed so much since then. Deerbrook was struggling to fill store spaces up until the mid 1990's. Once Greenspoint tanked and the AMC opened, Deerbrook really became a great mall.

      Delete
  7. What was the store across from Lubys that sold the magic eye pics. Dark inside like a gallery? Also sold those sand pictures where you flip it and the sand makes a beach or space scene

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I remember this store, it was there in the early 90's. I wish I could remember the name. It was in a small store space then they moved it to roughly where the Shoe Dept. Encore is today. They also had a ton of holograms. I still have a hologram keychain that I bought there and it still works. I had one of the small framed holograms, but I have no idea where it went.

      Delete