Category: Malls

Post Relating to Malls

Kroger Superstore Produce Department, 1977 (Image sourced from WFAA-TV/SMU Jones Film Collection, April 7, 1977)

Vintage Texas Retail Videos in 1080p from the Jones Film Collection

Editor’s Note: Today’s post is a guest submission from HHR’s good friend Anonymous in Houston Those who have been reading Houston Historic Retail for some period of time know that I did a two-part series (Part I and II) in early 2021 about the excellent retail videos available at The Portal of Texas History website operated by the University of North Texas Library. Most of the videos at The Portal were supplied by Dallas-Fort Worth …

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Macy’s San Jacinto Mall location prepares to close by March for demolition of closed mall

Howdy readers, I have some sad, but not unexpected news today. The end is finally in sight for San Jacinto Mall. While this is a sad day for mall lovers everywhere, this has also been a long time coming, and almost everyone would agree that the property should be redeveloped rather than left to sit in the state it currently does. Originally envisioned back in 1978 by Paul Broadhead & Associates, a mall development company …

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Thompson’s Antique Center to close doors, leaving Northwest Mall with no retailers by 2022

Greetings readers, I have some sad news for you as we approach the end of the year. Northwest Mall’s final retail tenant, Thompson’s Antique Center, is set to close their doors for the last time December 31st. The shutdown comes with little notice to the public, and a similarly small amount of heads up for vendors. After speaking with one vendor at the antique center, they supposedly received only about a month’s worth of notice. …

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After buying a birthday gift here for a sibling and years of hearing radio ads for the "Good Feet Store", I made up a parody version "Thanks to the ThinkGeek store!"

So long ThinkGeek, it was nice while it lasted!

To those of you familiar with the mall scene, may be somewhat aware of the sudden closure of ThinkGeek stores all across the country. This has been going on for the past few months in a nationwide and somewhat sporadic manner. In Friendswood, the Baybrook Mall location, “Temporarily Closed” sometime earlier this year, with their relatively active social media going dark in February. The Deerbrook Mall location held a going out of business sale and …

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MarcoPlaza Polo or whatever happened to Pasadena Town Square Mall?

Howdy Folks, and welcome to my (Mike’s) contribution to the Month of Malls! Today we’re taking a look at Pasadena Town Square/Plaza Paseo/Marcoplaza Mall, a location that has been on my radar for a few years so let me start off by explaining how I found out about Pasadena Town Square Mall. In 2017 when my coverage of Northwest Mall began to gain popularity I had a reader get in touch with me about a …

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Dining Out on Highway 6, a reflection on the dead restaurants near West Oaks Mall

Howdy folks and welcome to a companion piece for the Month of Malls. While not a full mall post, our center topic today are the dead restaurants near West Oaks Mall. These eateries are mostly adjacent to West Oaks Village Shopping Center, as opposed to the mall itself. However, let’s start off talking about full service eateries in West Oaks Mall. While the mall had its fair share of staple food court tenants, up until …

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This entrance is just to the left of the food court entrance shown earlier. The eyebrow-shaped awning predates McDonald's recent fascination with the aesthetic by decades.

Happy Birthday First Colony Mall, sorry we sorta forgot!

Editor’s Note: Today’s guest post, written by my favorite scincidae, billytheskink, is part two in our Month of Malls! Be sure to check out Part One! -Mike March 2021 came and went, and we failed to wish First Colony Mall well on its 25th birthday!  Sincere apologies for this egregious oversight.  Hopefully this belated happy birthday post full of photos and reminiscence (and also more photos!) from a Fort Bend County kid can in some …

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This photo shows how massive the lobby is. I wonder if this is a legal requirement, or zoning? I feel they could do without the glass doors, and could easily place product out here.

Permit Roundup: Slim Chickens inside the Loop, Taco’s A-Go-Go at Greenway, and a few more Village Medicals

Howdy folks, and welcome to another Permit Roundup! Unfortunately, last week, I ran out of time before I was able to complete the post, and it looks like I’m going to run into a similar issue again this week. While I won’t have time to write a full article, I do still have time to pull the data needed. I’m also included the interesting pieces that were skipped last week. I’m unfortunately going to be …

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Here's a mall entrance in between the Sears anchor and the old Montgomery Ward. The Forever 21 is where the old Luby's Cafeteria once was. In fact, the greenhouse you can faintly see off to the right by the tree was once part of the dining room. (Photo courtesy of Mike/HHR)

Happy 40th Anniversary, Willowbrook Mall!

Editor’s Note: Today we begin Houston Historic Retail’s Month of Malls! Our 3 Wednesday posts will feature all new Mall content! Lets start off Part One with Northwestern Houston Resident Expert Anonymous in Houston! -Mike Those who have visited the Willowbrook Mall area in Northwest Houston know that several words can be used to describe the territory, but ‘sleepy’ is probably not one of them in current times.  However, prior to the official opening of …

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This was originally titled Geoffrey's Tree House, and had TRU stickers on the steps

Who’s living in Geoffry’s House now? The Houston Galleria Toys ‘R Us Failure

Howdy folks! I know if you’re here than by now, you know what to expect mostly retail from my blog, but today’s topic is probably one you’re familiar with even if you don’t follow retail goings-on. The bankruptcy of Toys ‘R Us took almost everyone by surprise back in 2018 (can you believe it was 3 years ago?!). Not to reiterate the entire story, but the situation that landed TRU in bankruptcy put them in …

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