Alexandria Mall Alexandria La

Now for a new Louisiana mall entry. The Alexandria Mall opened in 1973 and was expanded in 1986. We will start with the outside of the mall.

Dillard's, which opened in the 1986 expansion.

Burlington, ULTA, and the food court entrance, all are also part of the 1986 expansion.

Bed Bath and Beyond formerly Weiss and Goldring.

Slinkee's which was Wellan's and later Stein Mart.

Sears

Slinkee's 

The ULTA and food court entrance.

Burlington/ Mervyn's.

Dillard's

Burlington with Mervyn's labelscar. For some reason only the mall entrance and one outside entrance were reopened by Burlington. 

The Alexandria Mall is fairly large mall at almost 900,000 square feet on one floor. I am going to break this one down into 4 sections. Many of the photos were taken at the end of the business day so there were not many people in the mall.

Section one the Dillard's and Burlington section of the mall. Here is the view of the mall when you enter through Burlington.

The Burlington is a former Mervyn's that was barely changed when Burlington took over the space. 

Here is the Dillard's entrance and the nearby stores. 

Looking from the food court exit to the Dillard's/ Burlington wing.

A closer view of the Dillard's entrance.

More of the Dillard's/ Burlington corridor.

Section two food court. There are several food outlets and a new ULTA store is this section of the mall.

Lots of detail here in the food court, this is the nicest section of the mall. 

Section three, the center section of the mall. Here is the JCPenney entrance.

This store was a Beall-Ladymon and taken over by Stage Stores. 

The middle of the mall is full of shops and kiosks.

A retro late 90's early 2000's Foot Locker on the left.

Section four Bed, Bath and Beyond and Sears.

The play area is in this section of the mall, but not much else. As you can see a former Sam Goody was last here. 

This was formerly a Weiss-Goldring department store.

Looking back towards the rest of the mall. The entrance to Bed Bath and Beyond is to the left.

From the play area to Sears only one store was occupied, a gift shop.

The Sears store keeps earlier hours than the rest of the mall.

This looks like it could have possibly been a Piccadilly Cafeteria. This mall entrance is right next to the Sears entrance.

Looking into the mall from the Sears entrance.

More views of the mall near the Sears entrance.

Another view of the Wellan's which is occupied by Bed, Bath and Beyond. The mall entrance is to the right of this photo.

Looking back into the mall near Stage. 

Westview Village Shopping Center Waco Tx

Westview Village Shopping Center opened in 1957 and has over 300,000 square feet of space. This shopping center has one large subdivided anchor space and a small center mall space. The shopping center is nearly full and still looks much like it probably did in the 1950's with the exception of different stores. It is a real treat to see a shopping center like this one in 2014 (when these photos were taken) thriving and doing well.

The subdivided anchor has a Vegas Buffet, Michaels, and Hancock Fabrics. This anchor was a Cox's Department store with two levels. That store opened with the center and closed in 1995. It appears that only the first level is being used for the current stores.

The sign for the center mall portion of the shopping center.

Here is the outdoor center mall portion which houses mostly offices and services.

The mall portion is not climate controlled, but has good ventilation and was breezy despite the heat outside. This is the view from the main entrance to the back.

Now here is the view from the back entrance to the main entrance.

The entrance to the central mall portion of the shopping center. Check out the retro letters and signage.

Here is the road sign for the center.

At the other end of the mall we have a Pep Boys and Cavender's along with more small shops.  

As an added bonus, here is the retro Arby's just down the street. Not many of these old Arby's signs have survived.

There was another nearby mall that was mostly demolished in the early 2000's called the Lake Air Mall. The Lake Air Mall now exists as a shopping center and you cannot tell it was ever a mall. The Lake Air Mall opened in either 1957, 1962, or 1962 depending on who you ask. I may cover this center in the future, but for now this is the end of the Waco/Kileen/Temple area coverage. 

Retro Toys R Us Waco Tx

Here is possibly the last vintage 1980's style Toys R Us in Texas and Louisiana. This outside store signage was probably modified when the Kids R Us was added. All the rest of the retro elements inside and outside of the store remain including the paint scheme, video game pickup counter, and signage. 

Night shots.

Now for the inside of the store. We will start with the retro video game aisle. This store still has tags that you bring to the cashier to ring up games. Once you pay for the game you have to go to the pickup window to get the game.

The sign for the electronics pickup area.

Here is the pickup area for the games. This is the first store I have been to in years that still has this system of picking up video games and electronics. 

The Kids R Us addition looks slightly out of place in this retro store.

Looking at the crisscross lighting of this aisle. This must have been one of the main center aisles before the Kids R Us was added.

Some vintage store signage and old cartoon characters in the video section. 

The front of the store still has the old checkout signage that has been removed from most modern Toys R Us stores.

According to this overhead sign, I can get gift certificates at the customer service area.

Another view of the front of the store.

And finally a retro exit sign to finish the trip back in time.