My apologies for the lack of content throughout the past 5 weeks. Lots of things going on with life outside of the blog to keep up. Hopefully I can get a few posts out this month.
Here is another one of the small-town malls in Northeast Texas. Palestine Mall opened in 1980. Original anchors were JCPenney, which opened in late 1979 prior to the mall opening (Closed September 2020), Kmart opened in October of 1979 prior to the mall as well (Closed in 1986), and Bealls which left the mall in 2006. This mall is slightly over 200,000 square feet of retail space. Aaron's and Burke's Outlet are located in the 1991 expansion just to the West of JCPenney but without mall access. This section of Loop 256 is the main retail corridor of Palestine Texas, which has a population of just over 18,500 residents.
The size and shape of this mall is similar to Marshall Mall in Marshall, University Mall in Nacogdoches, Heartland Mall in Brownwood, River Hills Mall in Kerrville, and probably a few others that I am forgetting about.
The former Kmart which closed in 1986 later became Wonderworld, Goody's, and Trinity Valley Community College.
Now for a drive around the back of the mall building. Former Kmart building pictured here with the mall entrance to the far right.
The former Bealls.
And the JCPenney.
Now to the front of the mall again. The additional and currently only retail portion of the mall. Aaron's and Burke's Outlet.
The road sign for the mall was very faded. The other side of this sign was even worse.
Now we will go into the mall through the center court entrance.
After a short walk, we reach the former Bealls which is now the Palestine Public Library.
Not sure what this store was, but it looks really cool.
Looking towards the former Kmart mall entrance.
You have to love these walkways. The plants were alive and the carpet was well maintained.
Another interesting store space.
The tiny corridor that leads to the back mall entrance.
Skylights in front of the former Kmart. A nearly exact copy of the skylights at the former Marshall Mall.
Another view of the same area in front of the former Kmart.
A look inside of the college that is inside of the former Kmart.
Looks like an old restaurant space next to the former Kmart. Former El Chico maybe?
The former Kmart/Mall entrance has the same brick type as the Marshall Mall.
The college really made a nice walking area in the former garden center "prison yard".
A look at the exterior doors of the Kmart Mall entrance.
The view when you walk into the mall from the above entrance.
Another view of the former Kmart entrance.
The corridor to the back Kmart mall entrance.
Now we will walk to the other side of the mall.
Former Waldenbooks. I took a few different photos to try and get the Labelscar, it was very faint.
Empty store space next to the former Waldenbooks.
Empty space on the other side of the former Waldenbooks.
These benches have plugs for people to sit back and read or do business near the library.
The center court.
The former Bealls which left the mall in 2006. The library opened in 2010.
Pretty sure this was a former Gordon's Jewelers.
Part of the VA clinic.
The JCPenney court is up ahead.
More empty spaces near JCPenney.
Farmer's Insurance agent.
JCPenney court skylights.
Another interesting store space next to JCPenney.
As you can see, the mall entrance to JCPenney was closed. Not sure if this had been done prior to the announcement of the store closing.
A look inside of the store through the glass. We will see more in just a bit.
You can see clearly across the mall from the JCPenney mall entrance. The courtyard here is maintained very well with healthy trees and plants.
Pretty nice entrance.
A closed off business near JCPenney.
A thrift/consignment store that appeared to be closed.
The Texas Workforce Office.
Another retro storefront. I couldn't make out the labelscar on this store.
Back to the center court. This center court looks nearly identical to the court in Marshall Mall. The only difference is that the center that drops down has been covered up to eliminate the stairs.
One of the custom benches advertising Palestine.
The entrance to the Texas Workforce Offices.
This store definitely had a retro sign. Unfortunately it appears that this gift shop was closed.
The Nail Salon was still open and doing business.
There are not many malls in Texas with a historical marker. Here is what the marker honoring Mary Kate Hunter says.
| (November 8, 1866 - April 15, 1945) Born just outside Palestine in 1866 to Nathaniel and Jennie (Beeson) Hunter, Mary Kate Hunter played a significant role in recording, promoting and preserving the history of Palestine and Anderson county. Educated at Palestine Female Academy and Sam Houston Normal Institute, she studied piano with classical musicians across the United States and in Germany, and taught piano to countless Palestine children. As a clubwoman, she was a charter member of the Self-Culture Club in Palestine, organized in 1894; served as a delegate to the first annual meeting of the Texas Federation of Women's Clubs in 1898;organized a local chapter of the Women's National Foundation in 1921 for the preservation and study of local history; and founded and led the Fort Houston chapter of the Daughters of the Republic of Texas. A supporter of voting rights for women, Mary Kate Hunter organized and was first president of the Palestine Equal Suffrage Association, and held statewide office in the Texas Equal Suffrage Association in 1915-16. In addition to her civic duties, Hunter also was a published poet, editor of a local society journal and board member of the Texas State Library. She extensively researched the history of Palestine and Anderson County and conducted dozens of oral history interviews with early area residents. At her death in 1945, she bequeathed her voluminous collection of material to the Palestine Public Library, where it remains in use as an important record of Anderson County history. (2001) |
Now for the JCPenney which was the last original anchor of the mall left.
Retro door pull signs.
The foyer with all of the Covid rules, I don't miss those days at all.
The store was about the size of the University and Marshall Mall JCPenney stores that both closed back in 2017.
Reminds me of the Kmart A/C vents.
Dark Mirrored jewelry cases that were definitely from the early days of the store.
Looking into the mall.
Pretty standard small town JCPenney store. They had a few dividing walls to make the store feel larger.
The tiny home and decor department.
Shoes, intimates, and housewares.
Shoes, with housewares, customer service and the salon down the entrance hallway.
Not much left down the hallway. Even the customer service counter had been removed.
State-of-the-art security system, lol.
Another view of the back hallway of the store.
Another view of the housewares and home goods.
This tiny JCPenney even had a tiny toy department.
The back checkout counter.
Girls department with the clearance corner further down the walkway.
They had a few fixtures for sale, but there were not too many available at this point in the sale.
Shoe department.
Back corner of the store facing towards the front.
Closeout section of the store.
A closer view of the available toys. JCPenney made a push to bring toys back to their stores once Toys R Us went out of business. With Macy's stores getting Toys R Us departments, I wonder how JCPenney is doing in this category.
Center of the store again from a different view.
Main entrance checkout counter.
Main mall entrance with the former Kmart to the right.
Another closeup of the faded mall sign. I couldn't get too close due to a new Chik Fil A construction site blocking off part of the parking lot.
The design of this entrance looks identical to the Marshall Mall entrance.
That's all for now. More to come!
I remember seeing the video of this mall that Jeff posted to his YouTube channel a couple of years back. I visited Palestine, TX in the early 1990s, around 1991, and so I may have visited this mall. If I did, I don’t remember the visit. It’s neat to get a closer look at the mall via your blog though as it helps to get some highly detailed photos of some of the stores.
ReplyDeleteI wonder if the Aaron’s and Burke’s Outlet building at the end of the mall used to be a Safeway. It looks a lot like a Safeway and the roundrel scar on the side of the front of the store looks like an old round Safeway medallion that they used to put on their stores including their Houston stores. If I had to guess just by the looks of things, I would say that was a Safeway. I know Kroger has an old Greenhouse location in Palestine that is an odd location as Kroger really doesn’t have any other stores in between Dallas and Houston that isn’t clearly an East Texas store. Granted, I guess Palestine is East Texas.
I heard about the sale of the mall and hopefully the new owner is able to inject some life back into the mall. As it is, I like the idea of having a public library at the mall. It is usually a central location for a library and it brings people to the mall. The mall has some other public services, but those probably don’t bring as many visitors as the library. The earthtones and ‘indoor park’ look of the mall seems untouched from 1980. It’s neat to see so many wooden storefronts as those were so common at malls back in the day. Unfortunately, it would be nice if some of those storefronts had actual stores in modern times! The presence of a Texas historical marker in a mall is very strange, but rather neat. Hopefully that will make it harder for the owners to ever close the mall, but I suppose the marker could move to wherever the library might move if that ever happens.
I have not been to a JCPenney since they got sold a few years ago. Hopefully their inventory is better than what I’ve seen at Kohl’s in recent times. Kohl’s inventory is looking a bit thin and the stores are increasingly in a state of disrepair. The last time I was there, none of the price scanners worked and those price scanners are necessary since the electronic price tags Kohl’s use weren’t working either. It was pretty shabby. Even given Kohl’s low bar, I wouldn’t be surprised if JCPenney is doing worse.
I’m glad to see that the blog is back after a bit of a break! I was recently at Willowbrook Mall and if anyone says malls aren’t popular anymore, they weren’t at Willowbrook Mall that night as I had to park very far in the back! I was just wanting to visit the Comcast/Xfinity store there which is pretty much the main draw at the mall for me these days.
There is a lot to like in the Palestine Mall. Unfortunately, this area just doesn't have the population to support a lot of retail establishments. Chik Fil A and Starbucks recently opened near the mall so there is more traffic there now, but the days of retail at the mall are pretty much gone. With Burke's Outlet and Aaron's being the last holdouts even though they are not attached to the mall corridor. I know that the interior lighting has been upgraded since my visit, but I didn't notice any other changes in those photos.
DeleteI haven't really paid too much attention to JCPenney with the exception of a mall visit or two around Christmas time. I didn't notice much difference than before with inventory. I did buy some Louisiana sports gear at the Lake Charles JCPenney location on a 40% off sale. I also went to the Kohl's at that mall, but just to cut through and briefly look at their sports gear (which was lacking).
Deerbrook Mall also has its busy moments, usually on the weekends. There is usually a decent amount of foot traffic during the week as well, but not very busy.