Friday, January 20, 2012

Inglewood Mall Morgan City LA

Here is another fascinating mall from Louisiana. Several Louisiana posts and an update on Mall of the Mainland are on the way, stay tuned. The Inglewood Mall is located just east of downtown Morgan City Louisiana at the corner of 9th and Brashear Rd. (1025 Victor II Blvd), in a city of over 12,000 residents. The mall is shaped in a cross pattern with no large department store anchors and entrances on three sides. The small corridor on the south side of the mall does not have an outside entrance. Unfortunately the mall doors were locked on the 1st visit (on a weekend), so I could not go inside. On my second visit during the week the doors were open, and so were a few offices. This mall featured an A and G Cafeteria, The Computer People store, K and B, and was built in the 1970's. Currently a Tampico Restaurant, Lake Cinema, a bank, and a few offices are open for business. There is no online information about what happened to this mall; we would appreciate any comments that can tell us more about this mall. The mall was obviously built in an area that could not support a mall with a large enough population. Any comments about some more stores that were here in the past or important events will be appreciated.

This is the east entrance to the mall. K and B was just to the left of the entrance behind the middle tree. The Tampico restaurant appeared to be nearly empty on this weekend day.

This former K and B location has seen better days. Water damage or humidity has really taken its toll on the interior of the store. The pharmacy "prescriptions" can still be clearly seen with the peeling K and B purple wall paper.
The cinema is the most lively part of the mall even though the cinema does not appear to have mall access.


This is the entrance to the west wing of the mall next to the cinema.
The east wing facing west. This mall is stuck in the 1970's and I will make a return trip on a weekday in the future to take a walk inside and get better photos. The mall appears to be in good repair despite the aged look.

The west wing facing east.

The north wing facing south.


The second visit Jan 2012; when the mall was open.
It is never a good sign when "we are open" is on the sign of a business.
The entrance to the cinema.
The main entrance to the mall.

The interior of the mall did not have many lights on and was very dark. The businesses open inside of the mall are the court reporters, a bank, an office for the Morgan City government, a medical supply shop, Tampico Restaurant, and there are a few other storefronts that were labeled, but were closed on my visit.

This dead end in the mall looks to have been a back entrance to the cinema.




I can see why most of the lights are off; there are hundreds of bulbs around the skylights. The bill would be high even with a switch to florescent bulbs.

Inside of the mall; I was able to get a much better shot of the K and B store. I visited this store in 1998 when it was still open. The mall did not have any retail stores left in 1998 either.


This is the entrance to the Tampico Restaurant 'after hours club"

The storefronts in the mall are all retro 1970's/1980's and very well preserved.



11 comments:

  1. Excellent post,I bookmark your blog to my browser bye.

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  2. I lived in that area as a child in the late 80s early 90s as I recall there werent a lot of stores then, Do remember going to the k and b after eating at tampicos though.

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  3. Yeah those creepy lights and the RETRO ceiling tiles really date this mall. I'll have to make a road trip down one day when I'm bored just for fun.

    Makes no sense why they built a mall in Morgan City with Lafayette, B.R., Houma, and N.O. in such close proximity. My guess? Another "victim" of the oil boom and bust. Probably built when the oil economy was booming and then the "bust" of the 80s and poof... useless mall.

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    1. I don't think the mall has ever been successful the place is small and they did not have a large department store to anchor the mall. It is a great place to visit and see a virtually untouched 1970's mall. The mall is only open Monday through Friday during the day.

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    2. Living in Morgan City means that if you want to go to a "mall" the closest one is in Houma and all others would take a day trip. Lafayette Baton Rouge and New Orleans are all well over an hour away.

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    3. The Houma Mall is a decent option with some good stores. I think that the population of Morgan City was projected to be much larger when the mall was built before the oil bust of the 1980's. It looks like the mall was built with the intention of having two anchors and the movie theater. The two hallways North and South seem to be designed to have been for anchor connections.

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  4. I live in Patterson (right outside of MC) I dont remember that mall ever having anything much outside of tampico's and the cinema. Both still get tons of business though.

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  5. FYI: As far as the rumors go, the mall has been sold. Walmart is building a "grocery shopping center" next to the mall (as is we really needed it). Rumors are saying that Wal-Mart has bought the mall and is going to tear it down to build a wearhouse. Supposedly everything (including Tampicos) is being torn down except for the movie theater. I'm not sure what the final verdict is so I don't want to say anything for sure but it is being talked about.

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    1. Wow looks like I made it here to document this just in time. I also visited the mall in August of 2014, so I will do an update soon on the property. There were a few new businesses operating inside of the mall so it looked to be on the upswing. I would hate to see this mall go because it is such a cool time capsule from the 1970's.

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  6. This isn t a true updated report ..i own iRefurbish www.irefurbishllc.com we are located inside the mall we have been there since 2011 there is also a latino cothing store , hair salon , learning center , and a few more things in the mall ... and yes the movie Theater put on their board (we are open ) that is due to a false report that said that the mall is being torn down .

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    1. Thank you for the update, I wish your business nothing but success. I don't know if you saw my more recent post about the mall from 2014 where I listed the stores/businesses in operation including your business. Be sure to check it out and let me know of any updates so I can do my best to keep my article current. Check out the link below for the post I am referring to.

      http://southernretail.blogspot.com/search/label/Inglewood%20Mall?m=0

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