Monday, May 11, 2015

Temple Mall, Temple Tx

Here is the Temple Mall, which opened in 1976. This mall is located on the South Loop and 31st street near the hospital and main shopping area of the city. Temple is less than 30 minutes away from Kileen and is also a fast growing area. This mall is almost the exact same size as the Kileen Mall at 550,000 square feet, but has a different layout. There is not much information online about this mall, so I will take guesses on the previous anchors.
We will start with the interior of the mall.
Here is the Dillard's corridor.
Looking from near Dillard's to the food court and Macy's.
The entrance to Macy's which is also the front of the food court.
The JCPenney corridor near the cinema.
The JCPenney corridor facing the opposite direction.
The directory.
A view of the IMAX and cinema entrance.
The front of the Dillard's store up close with the old wood panel front. This is very similar to the Dillard's at the Brazos Mall which was previously a Joske's.
Now let's look at the outside of the mall.
The front of the mall facing the loop.
Macy's, this is the only Macy's in the Waco/Temple/Kileen area.  
A former Steve and Barry's. The front of the store has been modified, but looks like it may have been a Wilson's/Service Merchandise in the past.
JCPenney
The IMAX cinema with the JCPenney.
Dillard's

11 comments:

  1. Thanks for the photos of this mall. It’s an interesting mall, but I think the Killeen Mall looks more interesting (at least it does from the photos). Of course, the Killeen Mall has a Sears so it would be a much more useful mall to me than this one. I would have to assume that the RadioShack in the mall directory has closed since the photos were taken.

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    1. Yeah I agree with you about Kileen Mall being more interesting. I think this mall had the last major renovation in the early to mid 1990's judging by the look of the place. One thing that really stands out here is the massive Tilt located across from the cinema. This mall is just the right size and has a decent mix of stores for the area. Sadly there is no Sears at the mall.

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    2. Yeah I agree with you about Kileen Mall being more interesting. I think this mall had the last major renovation in the early to mid 1990's judging by the look of the place. One thing that really stands out here is the massive Tilt located across from the cinema. This mall is just the right size and has a decent mix of stores for the area. Sadly there is no Sears at the mall.

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  2. It was last renovated in the very early 90s if not late 80s. It used to have a wood parquet floor. You are correct, it used to have a Wilson's / Service Merchandise. Which was the sporting goods store you mentioned, then a Stein Mart, then a women's store with an odd pseudo French name.

    It had a Sears up until the mid 90s.

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    1. Anonymous, do you know why the Sears left this mall? It seems odd that Sears in the 90's would leave a mall in a growing community.

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    2. A Sears appliance store opened here: https://www.google.com/maps/@31.0628033,-97.3660426,3a,75y,21.42h,84.82t/data=!3m7!1e1!3m5!1sMVk4nrxxrWhGwcj0_lovkg!2e0!6shttps:%2F%2Fstreetviewpixels-pa.googleapis.com%2Fv1%2Fthumbnail%3Fpanoid%3DMVk4nrxxrWhGwcj0_lovkg%26cb_client%3Dmaps_sv.tactile.gps%26w%3D203%26h%3D100%26yaw%3D344.6077%26pitch%3D0%26thumbfov%3D100!7i16384!8i8192

      Maybe because of this and maybe because the Killeen Sears was sufficient for the area.

      2021 Update: This mall is in really bad shape as far as tenants go. Macy's has closed and Penney's is about to. In late January, Christmas decorations were still up. :(

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    3. Thanks for sending this info over. Is that the sign from the mall location that they are using on the appliance store?

      Did the Temple Mall get Dillard's to replace the old Macy's? I read something about that a while back but never followed up. With how retail is going these days, the population of Temple and Kileen is probably only enough for one shopping mall. It looks like both malls have taken hits recently.

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  3. The clothing store in the former Wilson's/Service Merchandise/Stein Mart/Steve & Barry's was called L'Patricia. Foley's replaced the Sears in 1995.

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  4. I have been wracking my brain trying to remember a name of a store in the Temple mall that has long been closed down....Service Merchandise! Thank you!

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  5. Toys r us express is long gone

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  6. Rip the old fuddruckers

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