We did it! On 6/16/2020 we passed a million pageviews! I can't thank everyone enough for my blog passing this huge milestone of one million page views. I am going to do something a little different for this post. Feel free to comment down below on your favorite blog post or ask me a question.
I started this blog on April 24, 2009 with the intention of bringing attention to my local retail properties. Malls and stores like Kmart
were locations of some great memories with my family and friends back in the day. A lot of these places are gone, so I wanted to contribute to making sure the memories of these places did not fade away. I have lived in either Louisiana or Texas for my whole life, which is why I focus on these states. When I started the blog in 2009, only a few Texas and Louisiana properties had been covered by Deadmalls, and Labelscar. A few of my earlier articles were published including at the original Mall History Page here. YouTube at the time was the popular outlet for Deadmall content as it is now. I thought it would be easy to cover these places and post them rapidly on the blog. 11 years later, I have more than realized that covering these properties is time consuming and not as easy as I thought back then. There are also parts of both states that for some reason or another, I have not been able to cover. I cannot thank the creators of the earlier retail sites such as Deadmalls, Labelscar, and Caldor Rainbow for their hard work and dedication to preserve retail history, as well as giving me the idea of creating this page. Regional blogs such as this one were few and far between back in 2009. Most of those earlier pages and blogs are no longer updated. I do my best to research and collect the facts about these properties at the time they are covered here on the blog. My readers have been more than helpful with getting the facts correct through emails and comments.
If you would like to reach me by email to submit an article or comment you can reach me at. I will happily accept user photos or blog posts with full credit given.
southernmalls@gmail.com
If you would like to reach me by email to submit an article or comment you can reach me at. I will happily accept user photos or blog posts with full credit given.
southernmalls@gmail.com
Here is how the process works for creating a post.
Step 1: Identifying and documenting.
This process takes into account my time off, travel costs, and the urgency of going to the place. Sometimes when multiple places I want to visit are closing, I have to make the choice of which one to visit in my limited time off. Once I document the place, I save the photos to my computer and backup disk.
Step 2: Creating the post.
Now this is one step that I don't really have a method for. I try to stagger small articles in between large articles to keep my blog flowing. Sometimes life and work gets in the way of providing frequent posts, but I do my best to continue to work behind the scenes. Some articles require more research than others and take months to finish. Some articles take only a couple of hours or so to put together. I have a constant 10+ posts in this stage at all times. Sometimes I want to hurry up and post a small article and sometimes I am motivated to get the larger articles going.
Step 3: Finalizing and posting.
This is where I do my last bit of research and clean up any errors.
My favorite properties that I have documented.
This was my local mall during my childhood. This mall was probably the most researched and most important for me to document. Even though the mall only lasted 17 years, a lot of good memories were had here. The mall closed in 2000, was demolished piece by piece. As of 2019, a portion of the mall floor is still intact between Walmart and Lowes.
I visited this mall once when it was still doing well back in the 90's. When I returned in the 2010's, the mall had fallen on hard times. The mall had not been updated in quite some time and still had directories with the long demolished Montgomery Ward listed. The mall appears to still be open with a small handful of businesses left.
One of the most recent mall visits, and one of my favorites. What else can I say about this place. This is such a cool property with one of the last remaining Wards signs. Even though retail left the mall by 2002, this place still has a lot of the former mall stores intact.
This was a neon showcase back in 2012. I really wish I would have visited this mall at night and with a better camera. Even though the interior of the mall has closed, the neon mall sign at the Burlington entrance was still on in March of 2020. I can't mention Sunrise Mall without talking about the Legend of Billy Jean scene that was shot here back in the 1980's. The interior of Sunrise Mall closed in March 2019.
Behind the sealed off entrance to Service Merchandise was this mint condition hours of operation sticker. I was able to document this before the entrance was sealed off with sheetrock. As of January 5th 2020, San Jacinto Mall with the exception of JCPenney and Macy's is closed. The majority of the mall was demolished in 2019 including the former Service Merchandise.
The future of the blog.
I will continue to post articles through at least 2021. Most of the properties that I want to cover have been documented here. There are a few more on my radar, but I am planning on finishing up my list by early 2021. After that I am not sure what the future of the blog will be, but I will continue to be active with the comments. So many vintage properties have disappeared or are in danger of disappearing, that there is not much left that I am interested in documenting. JCPenney and Gordmans/Palais Royal stores will more than likely be documented better than I have so far. I still have a very healthy backlog of posts, this is post #400 and I currently have 26 drafts and another 50+ posts that I have collected photos for.
Here are some of the upcoming articles.
Centro Santa Fe CDMX
This massive mall is the largest mall in Latin America, and the largest mall I have ever been to.
This massive mall is the largest mall in Latin America, and the largest mall I have ever been to.
Cielo Vista Mall El Paso Texas
The largest and most popular mall in El Paso. Sadly the Walmart just outside of the mall was the site of one of the worst shootings in American history.
The largest and most popular mall in El Paso. Sadly the Walmart just outside of the mall was the site of one of the worst shootings in American history.
Cortana Mall Baton Rouge Louisiana
Update from 2018 less than a year before the mall closed.
All 3 Houston area Fry's Electronics locations
Each of these stores are unique in their own way. Fry's electronics has fallen on hard times and could be a retail casualty in 2020.
NASA
West Houston
West Rd.
The final days of the Kmart Lake Charles
This is the Kmart I was most familiar with and the one that was the saddest to lose.
Last days of the McAllen Kmart
The final Kmart in Texas closed April 11 2020. In addition to the photos in the last month of business, I recorded some video footage with a VHS filter.
La Plaza Mall McAllen Texas
This mall has a lot of charm even though it was recently updated. This mall is a powerhouse and has a lot to offer. It reminds me a lot of Memorial City Mall in Houston.
Plaza Las Missiones Juarez update
More of Sears Mexico and some surprises.
Memorial City Mall Houston Texas
Yes I finally did it.
Plaza Arcos Bosque CDMX
High end luxury mall in the suburbs of CDMX.
Plaza Juarez update June 2019
The Soriana great wall of TP and more.
Plaza Sendero Juarez and Plaza Sendero Las Torres both in Juarez Chihuahua Mexico
Yes there are two of these malls in Juarez. They are nearly identical except for different anchors and flip flopped food courts.
Plaza Sendero Juarez
Plaza Sendero Las Torres
Plaza Insurgentes CDMX
A small mall located not too far from the CDMX financial district.
Red Bird/Southwest Center Mall Dallas Texas
The mall revisited, but a lot has changed since our first outing.
Multiple Sears locations including my local Deerbrook Mall store which closed in April 2020.
This one hurts, this was my go-to Sears store.
Sears CDMX
11 total floors of retail goodness. Prepare to be wowed by this store!
Main Street Sears
N. Shepherd update
Willowbrook Sears
Sunrise Mall Brownsville Texas
A Sunrise Mall with a much better outcome than both Amigoland Mall and the Sunrise Mall, tow and a half hours North in Corpus Christi.
Sunrise Mall 2020 update Corpus Christi Texas
Sadly the interior mall is locked up, but we took a walk around the entire mall while visiting Wilcox Furniture and Burlington.
Toys R Us I-10 Memorial location
Yet another sad TRU location in the final days of operation. I fell short of documenting the entire store when an employee had me leave the fixture area which at that point was most of the store.
The new Toys R Us
Toys R Us return to Houston in December 2019.
Valley View Center Mall May 2019 update. Most of the mall has been demolished except for the AMC cinema on the third floor.
This was photographed just before all of the vacant storefronts in the mall were sealed off by sheetrock. This is the weirdest thing to see since the mall will eventually be completely demolished.
West Oaks Mall 2019 update and more
A slightly newer update on the state of the mall with some behind the scenes photos.
All of these articles and so much more.
