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Richland Mall: The Map   79 comments

Posted at 11:55 am in commentary

As promised below, this is commenter Dennis's map of the original Richland Mall. He also sends this note:

Hi ted

Well, finally, here's a first attempt at a Richland Mall layout, circa 1968.
Please feel free to correct!

Obviously it is just a sketch, and proportions etc. are extremely
approximate. Not to scale!

1. J.B. White's

2. a jewelry store -- King's?

3. no idea -- what was in this area?

4. Hickory Farms

5. The Shop for Pappagallo (women's shoes way too expensive for our family)

6. Baubles 'N Things (not sure about this one)

7. Mr. Popper's

8. Meri's Records

9. maybe this was Baubles 'N Things

10. ?

11. Pet-A-Rama

12. Ruff Hardware

13. Berry's on Main (actually at Richland Mall - always thought this was a
dumb name)

14. Winn Dixie

15. Redwood Cafeteria - not sure this was a plain rectangle; it may have
been an L shape. For a while the corner closest to White's had a separate
entrance and a little soda fountain area.

16. Hickory Farms' second location after the moved "across the aisle."

17. Woolworth's

18. Colonial Stores / Big Star

19. Eckerd's

20. What was here? A little travel agency, maybe? Remember travel agencies, before the internet?

21. Gerald's Shoe Repair

22. Merle Norman Cosmetics (or maybe they were 23)

23. Russell Stover (before they put their own building way out in the
parking lot)

24. coin laundromat; owned by the cleaners next door. The manager had a little walk-thru between the two.

25. dry cleaner's -- Ed Robinson's, maybe?

26. automated Post Office, like the one at old Woodhill Mall. An exercise in frustration every time.

27. Russell Stover's own building, far enough from the mall to make sure
they went out of business.

The white boat shapes in the center walkway were fountains when new, then, like every other property owner that gets completely fed up with the trouble and expense of fountains, the owners turned them into planters. Sometimes they covered them with carpeted plywood and used them as stages. I met Jolly Jim and J.P. Sidewinder there one Saturday. Was there a third one down closer to White's?

The white lines between Woolworth's and Colonial show the bike rack, used constantly by me.

The little gray inset into Colonial was their loading dock, which always
stunk. Speaking of stink, there was a really ugly dumpster in the parking
lot right out the back door of Redwood Cafeteria that reeked and bred vermin in ways that defy explanation.

28., 29., 30. The shady backside of the mall had a few offices that held no
interest for me. One was a State Farm agency, I think, and one was the
mall's business office.

Thanks, Dennis!

Have at it folks..

UPDATE 19 Sep 2010 -- Well, I went down to the library today and ended up looking in the old "City Directories". I hadn't really paid a lot of attention to those, since they tend not to have interesting ads like old phonebook yellow pages. HOWEVER what it turns out they *do* have is complete (or at least pretty complete) listings of shopping center tenants. Herewith the Richland Mall listings for 1962 (which I believe was the mall's first year of operation), 1975 and 1985:

1962:

1975:

1985:

UPDATE 21 June 2011: Added [at top] a view of the old Richland Mall including Whites, Russell Stover, Richland Mall Theater, and part of Redwood Cafeteria from an old Chamber of Commerce promotional book.

UPDATE 9 February 2012 -- Well Richland Mall is rezoning:

According to The State:

The new zoning allows the mall owners “all kinds of options,” including space for offices, residences, hotels, restaurants and schools, according to Mark Williams, Forest Acres’ city manager.

UPDATE 21 May 2020 -- Here's a nifty color shot of the old Richland Mall centrial corridor at the Colonial. Unfortunately I can't inline it due to copyright, but it's worth a click.

Written by ted on September 4th, 2010

Tagged with , , ,

79 Responses to 'Richland Mall: The Map'

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  1. Wasn't Mr. Poppers #10? or was it #9--I remember that the front of the store was rather small.

    Mike

    4 Sep 10 at 3:42 pm

  2. If my memory serves me correct, #3 sold porcelain and glassware. I remember the 'You break it, it bought it' signs throughout the store and the ladies who ran it. They would invariably throw me and my buddies out of the store.

    joel

    4 Sep 10 at 3:57 pm

  3. Was Jackson Camera in #10? I use to buy developing supplies from them and even bought my first 35mm SLR there. An English gentleman and his wife ran the place.

    joel

    4 Sep 10 at 4:00 pm

  4. My dad had a branch of his business in Richland Mall when the mall first opened and kept the branch there for two or three years. The store was Cayce TV and Appliance and it was next to the popcorn store. He could never get the popcorn smell to go away. I used to go and hang out at the mall on Family Night which was Thursday when all the stores were open late. There was always some sort of exibit on Thursday. The fountain was just outside his door and at least a couple of times each week somebody would come in for towels because their kid had fallen in.

    gary

    4 Sep 10 at 4:12 pm

  5. Joel, that was Bob and Nan. It was really good to be able to talk with real photographers in a shop. It seemed that all of Jackson's employees were photo hounds.

    Terry Edwards

    4 Sep 10 at 4:29 pm

  6. Terry, thanks for the info.. It has been 35 years since I last shopped there. I remember clearly the two. I bought a Fujica ST801 from them for several hundred dollars, which is a fortune in today's money.

    joel

    5 Sep 10 at 12:17 am

  7. Dennis,
    Good job with the map.

    Terry Edwards

    5 Sep 10 at 3:01 am

  8. What a fine diagram Dennis, thanks for taking the time to design it. I'm absolutely gobsmacked that you remember the mall well enough to put something like that together. I don't know how close to scale it is, but it's close enough for anyone familiar with Richland Mall to instantly recognize what the diagram is all about, awl tail yew hwat.

    Wish I could help fill out the "mystery spaces" a bit more, but the only two blanks that I can supply with certainty are spaces #9 and #29. Baubles 'N Things was in #9, and a musical instrument store was in space #29. I distinctly remember Baubles 'N Things being in #9 because I had just learned the phrase, "like a bull in a china shop," and one day while walking through the hall between Meri's Records and Baubles 'N Things, I very vividly remember looking in the fancy knick-knack store and thinking that I had better never browse in there, because I would be like the bull in the china shop, and what is a bauble anyway? Had to use the dictionary on this store, and probably because of that, it's one of those subtle moments that still stick in the memory 45 years on for some reason.

    The musical instrument shop in #29 is nameless, but I do very much remember going into this shop many times to look at the guitars hanging on the wall (mostly acoustic with the emphasis on classical) and to play a few chords on the piano that they carried (I'm thinking Baldwin, but that's not for certain). I can't say for sure the years on this store, but I very definitely remember it being there in the beginning of my interest in playing in a band, which would have been in the late-'60s sometime when I was between 12-14 years of tender age. Speaking of instruments, my very first guitar came from shop #17 (Woolworth's). It was a Stella Harmony, and the strings were so high from the fretboard that after a week of playing, my fingers were bleeding.

    The most frustrating thing is trying to remember just which space was Jackson Cameras. I spent a lot of time there starting in the late-'60s. I want to say #10 was Pet-A-Rama, #11 Jackson Cameras, with the Karmel Korn (or something or another flavored popcorn place) in slot #12, but I would never proclaim this as being for stone-cold certain. However, I can say with absolute certainty that Jackson Cameras was between Baubles 'N Things and Winn-Dixie.

    As a kid, I parked my bicycle in the rack you indicated without a lock, and never once had to worry about it. It would always be there a couple of hours later without the slightest bit of damage or missing part. Couldn't do that today.

    Michael Taylor

    5 Sep 10 at 8:53 pm

  9. Excellent job, however I have few minor nitpicks:

    The jewelry store (#2) had a back entrance. I want say they were a Sylvans.

    Berry's on Main funky name stemmed from the fact there was a store on Assembly called B.Berry's on Assembly. I do not know if the two were related. BOM sold mostly women's and childrens clothing while BB sold mostly men's dress clothes.

    There was an ice cream parlor next to Merle Norman at one point.

    Tom

    6 Sep 10 at 9:30 am

  10. Tom - yes it was a Sylvan's. My sister told me that today and I came to write it in. I also remember the ice cream place but I think it wasn't too long-lived. Maybe it went into the spot Russell Stover's had before they moved out to the parking lot?

    Michael Taylor - thanks for remembering the music store! Of course! As soon as I read that a picture of the mostly glass corner shop with the beautiful baby grand piano sitting in it floated up from some deep deep place in my brain. I don't think I ever actually went inside though. Maybe ted can figure out it's name with one of his old phone books under Pianos.

    Dennis

    6 Sep 10 at 8:51 pm

  11. Someone with a 1970 phonebook (hint, hint) could theoretically find every shop at Richland Mall - at least in that year - by looking under each category of store remembered as being there, e.g., Laundromats, Dry Cleaners, Jewelers, Men's Clothing Stores, Women & Children's Clothing Stores, Clothing Stores, Clothing Boutiques, Shoe Stores, Pet Stores, Piano Stores, Insurance Offices, Ice Cream Shops, Popcorn Stores (Cromer's would be found under this category for instance) and so forth and so on. It would be tedious, but not impossible. If the phonebook listing for the store included the official Richland Mall address, we could fairly easily fill in the blanks. However, as I remember it, back then when a store was listed as being at a mall, it merely listed the mall as the address without any numbers to indicate the actual location within the mall in question.

    There is also a very slight possibility that in the front pages of the 1970 phonebook you'll find a diagram of Richland Mall with each store listed. I realize this would be fairly anticlimactic in light of the above diagram, but I seem to remember there being such a diagram of the old Richland Mall in the phonebook for a few years when they first started loading up the front pages with all kinds of public service information such as first-aid protocols, various agency listings, the seating chart for Williams-Brice Stadium, and etc. I notice in this years phonebook, by way of example, they have the seating chart and layout for the remodeled Township Auditorium. It's worth a look for someone with a 1970 phonebook (hint, hint).

    Michael Taylor

    7 Sep 10 at 6:34 am

  12. Unfortunately, I don't have the whole 1970 phonebook. I've xeroxed the "restaurants" section, because those always seem to get the best memories (and because it was still a manageable size in 1970 even at $0.20/page), and various other pages of that and other years, but the earliest phonebook I have under my personal control is 1998 (though it's entirely possible there are some earlier somewhere in the attic..).

    ted

    7 Sep 10 at 11:14 am

  13. New thought - was there a Britton's at old Richland Mall?

    Dennis

    7 Sep 10 at 7:53 pm

  14. Oops, I must have misunderstood you about having the full book. Where are you making copies of those old phonebooks, the Richland County Public Library? I suppose in that case, any of us could go down there and correlate the stores at Richland Mall with the listings in the phonebook. At one silly point in my early life, I almost started a phonebook collection, but when I realized how tall that stack would be in a few years, I didn't get two years worth before I threw them out. This would have probably been the 1968 and 1969 phonebooks; if I had only saved one of those phonebooks.

    Probably the best way to get to the answers we seek here is to pay a visit to the Richland County Tax Office or some such place, and look up the "land records" and other similar materials for the old Richland Mall. The problem with this route is that you may find the answers to all the questions on this board almost literally overnight when you discover that you can actually go back tenant by tenant until the place was built and who built it and why and how. That kind of clarity would take out half the fun of Columbia Closings.

    Michael Taylor

    7 Sep 10 at 8:11 pm

  15. Dennis - I just noticed your question, but yes, I remember a Britton's as well.

    Michael Taylor

    7 Sep 10 at 8:59 pm

  16. Yeah, all the older phonebooks are on the third floor of the RCPL. I've xeroxed a good bit of stuff that I think may be interesting, but if it's a specific question about something I haven't copied, the only thing to do is go look.

    Going to the Tax Office sounds like "work" :-)

    ted

    7 Sep 10 at 9:54 pm

  17. Michael Taylor -- I could not find info on mall tenants from the tax office, just the mall building itself. Renters don't pay property tax.

    Sales/ownership history:

    CENTURY CAPITAL GROUP LLC 02/17/2010 $5.00

    CENTURY CAPITAL GROUP LLC & 02/16/2010 $4,429,000.00

    RICHLAND JOINT VENTURE GROUP 05/25/2007 $1,500,000.00

    MIDTOWN DEVELOPMENT GROUP LLC 11/04/2005 $19,000,000.00

    WINDSOR RICHLAND MALL LP 12/23/2002 $16,000,000.00

    RICHLAND FASHION MALL 11/08/1992 $0.00

    MPH HOLDINGS INC 07/14/1990 $0.00

    MPH HOLDINGS INC 07/13/1990 $342,803.00

    RETAIL PROJECTS OF 12/00/1986 $9,900,000.00

    RICHLAND MALL ASSOCIATES 11/00/1984 $0.00

    R M ASSOCIATES 11/11/1911 $0.00

    FYI the current mall is 394,430 sq. ft.

    The tax office has no info on the old mall building because it's gone. Can't tax it if it isn't there any more. At least, they haven't figured out how -- yet.

    Dennis

    8 Sep 10 at 5:09 am

  18. Take a look at http://skycity2.blogspot.com/2010/01/richland-mallmidtown-at-forest-acres.html
    It is a pretty detailed account of Richland Mall.

    joelc

    8 Sep 10 at 11:19 am

  19. Way to go Denny boy with that list! Isn't the one on the very bottom supposed to be 1961, and not 1911? The current tax records won't have diddly squat about the old mall, but there does exist in that ether world of documents, probably in the form of a microfiche or some equivalent, the old tax records for the original Richland Mall. The records we need exist somewhere or another, and I think they are in the form of "land records."

    I say this without actually having looked up land records, but based on a PBS show by the name of "History Detectives." I was very casually watching an episode of this show a few years back, long before I was interested in looking up stuff about Richland Mall or the Hi-Hatt Club, and after one of the three segments, they were showing how to find the full history of a building (or previous buildings on the land), and the detective said to look up such records as the "land records," because they would show every resident or occupant of a building from the beginning of the original building, along with details about construction and layout and even any remodeling," and that caught my attention for some reason. I just now looked it up on the History Detective site, and I remembered correctly about what it's called, but I still don't know exactly where to find those land records locally. I end up on the Richland County Register of Deeds webpage with no mention of how to access the land records, or any mention of "land records" period. However, a national register of land records put me on that page, so it's a 'go figure' loopty loop.

    I don't know why, but I have a serious hunch that this particular research would be a job that requires actually walking into the Richland County building (or some such legal building), waiting in line, talking to people, and probably spending some money before it's all over. The parking meters alone would take a very large chunk of change to hang around the premises for too very long, at least at the Richland County building. It's the kind of job that detectives seem to enjoy but casual commenters on a blog, not so much.

    joelc - yeah what you said about the Sky City article.

    Michael Taylor

    8 Sep 10 at 8:53 pm

  20. My hazy recollections:

    I think 3 was Lisbeth Wolfe at one point; Britton's at another point.

    Karmel Korn/Mr. Popper's was 10 or 11.

    Somewhere around 22 and 23 was an ice cream shop (Edisto at first, I think, then maybe Baskin Robbins before it moved into the adjoining strip?).

    I thought there was a Berry's up by Redwood, and 13 was Berry's Men's Shop.

    Jim

    8 Sep 10 at 11:18 pm

  21. Now that it has been mentioned, I too remember Brittons and Liz Wolf being there.

    Tom

    9 Sep 10 at 6:26 am

  22. Michael Taylor, if Richco is like Lexco, try looking at GIS information or something like that on their website.

    jamie

    9 Sep 10 at 7:28 am

  23. Richland County GIS - http://www.richlandmaps.com/ - Click on Mapping and I suggest starting with Online Mapping 2.0. It is similar to using Google Maps

    Matt

    9 Sep 10 at 11:50 am

  24. Now that I think about it, #13 probably was Berry's and not Berry's Men's Store, because I think I won a bicycle in a drawing there when I was a kid. But I do remember a Berry's Men's Store somewhere in the mall, maybe #5 before or after Papagallo.

    Jim

    9 Sep 10 at 5:10 pm

  25. Anyone know where the time capsule that was buried next to the movie theater in the mid-to-late 60s is now? I remember hearing that it was being kept at Forest Acres city hall at one point.

    Jim

    9 Sep 10 at 8:29 pm

  26. Yeah jamie and Matt, thanks for the GIS heads up. It's one of the things I had a blast with the other night when I first started trying to find the land records for Richland County. I especially got the goosebumps when I superimposed the 1959 historical black & white aerial photo over the map of the Richland Mall area. Kind of like Google Earth before the computer. I hate to admit this in terms of age, but it shows the future Richland Mall lot pretty much as I remember it when I first saw it: a sandhill with scrub oaks and a few pine trees with a swampy creek running through it at the bottom of the hill. You can even see the area where the Hi-Hatt club is, but of course you can't make out jack about any physical club. As fun as that is, it's still not the official "land records" for Richland County. Land records is a term from the old days that sounds like it's talking about the land, maybe some kind of geographical survey perhaps. But it's really a series of documents that contain the complete history of a particular plot of land, including all structures original and subsequent, occupants past & present. All that said, there is NO guarantee that each and every structure (or parcel) has a complete land record, records from 200 years ago are not that abundant for every parcel of land. However, some plot of land in suburban Columbia in 1959 should have an abundant supply of documents somewhere.

    Here's the South Carolina Land Records & Deeds Directory. Scroll down for Richland County and just for some fun, see how far you can get. The link on the left pulls up a dialogue box where you can enter an address and it seems like you've hit pay-dirt. But when you enter an address, you don't really get much in terms of land records. Click on the link to the right and you get taken to the Registrar of Deeds page. Some records are on-line, some are not, it all boils down to that fact when it comes to getting a complete "land record." This is where you have to walk into the Main Street address listed for the Registrar of Deeds and roll up the old sleeves.

    Michael Taylor

    9 Sep 10 at 8:47 pm

  27. According to http://www.nativesun803.com/post/820133477/the-fate-of-richland-malls-time-capsule-forest
    the time capsule was opened in 1989. A bad seal ruined the contents of it.

    joelc

    9 Sep 10 at 10:24 pm

  28. Definitely some interesting memories there -- He recalls the concrete animals from the first RM re-do! I really liked one of the turtles..

    ted

    9 Sep 10 at 10:42 pm

  29. Tri-City looks a wee bit like the old RM.

    http://skycity2.blogspot.com/2010_09_01_archive.html

    jamie

    13 Sep 10 at 1:15 pm

  30. Folks, major update here!

    ted

    19 Sep 10 at 12:56 am

  31. Bingo Ted! Now that's what I'm talking about. I used to look through the city directories on a regular basis when the library was on Sumter Street, but it never occurred to me that the current library would have that many old directories with all the mall tenants listed so faithfully. Glad you thought about it.

    I notice that I had the right location for Jackson Camera Center, but had the pet store and popcorn store reversed. Makes me feel like at least I haven't completely lost my memory of the camera store. You wouldn't believe how much time I spent there as a youth. Looks like this space was originally the location of Cayce Radio TV & Appliances, something I don't remember. By the way, I just noticed Gary's comment about his father's appliance store this morning with the tenant update, don't know how I missed it originally [Gary, I'm guessing that if you have some photographs of the old Richland Mall and your father's store, you'd post them here, right?]. Also, glad to see the S&S Cafeteria listed, because with all the talk about the Redwood Cafeteria, I thought I had just imagined the S&S having been there. I don't remember the Redwood at all.

    Way to go Ted. I'm guessing you probably looked for the tenant lists for Forest Lake Shopping Center and Trenholm Plaza as well? Maybe Dutch Square and Bush River Mall?

    Michael Taylor

    19 Sep 10 at 5:00 am

  32. Please note everyonethat the location numbers on ted's lists from old phone books have no relationship to the numbers I threw in my digram. If they appear to line up it's just coincidence.

    Dennis

    20 Sep 10 at 12:25 pm

  33. Those location numbers do look like they go down one side of the mall and up the other, though.

    I don't think the name Corn Cabin would ever have come to me.

    Jim

    20 Sep 10 at 1:57 pm

  34. I bought my Wifes wedding ring at the Sylvans. Back in those days Richland Mall was one of only a few places to shop, besides Main St. and before Dutch Square opened. There was Treholm Plaza, Sears and Roebuck on Harden St. I think in the early 60s K-Mart opened on Jackson Blvd.

    Rick

    16 Jan 11 at 3:10 pm

  35. A quick check of my newspaper scan articles from The State indicates that Richalnd Mall opened in 1966 and was renovated and reopened in 1988. Around 2005/06ish is when Midtown Management, LLC bought it and that's when it was renamed Midtown at Forest Acres and during 2010 Kahn development bought it and returned it to its former Richland Mall name...

    Andrew

    16 Jan 11 at 4:38 pm

  36. I want to remember Richland Mall being opened in 1962 or even 1961..cause my Mom, Dad and Grand Dad and Grandmother had a pic. of me and my cousin taken at J.B. White's and that had to be either in the summer of 1963 or 1962. It looked pretty much the same til the 70's and that's when it changed somewhat and stayed like that til it was torn down back in 1989.. and now you see just how "Great" that Mall does now.

    Del Bazemore

    16 Jan 11 at 6:55 pm

  37. Well, I think 1966 is incorrect, as it was in the 1962 city directory..

    ted

    16 Jan 11 at 6:57 pm

  38. All the sources I've seen indicated an opening year of 1961.

    59 Ford Wheelman

    16 Jan 11 at 8:26 pm

  39. The new book about Forest Acres says the Mall opened in 1961.

    Tom

    16 Jan 11 at 9:25 pm

  40. I don't know how The State screwed it up then...

    Unfortunately The State doesn't get everything right at times...

    Andrew

    16 Jan 11 at 10:06 pm

  41. Fish Wrap doesn't put a lot of research into anything anymore.

    tonkatoy

    18 Jan 11 at 8:02 am

  42. ok folks Columbia Metropolitan Magazine has an article trying to point to the future of Richland Mall and the vision thereof...

    Unfortunately S&S isn't helping their efforts though...

    Andrew

    28 Jan 11 at 11:58 pm

  43. Hmm: "Richland Mall anticipates a revitalization like none it's seen before" -- ie, a successful one..

    ted

    29 Jan 11 at 12:23 am

  44. What has happened to Richland Mall since the 1980s proves the saying "new is not always improved." They took a mall that was well liked and doing well, with a unique look and replaced it with a bankrupt ghost town.

    Tom

    29 Jan 11 at 10:38 am

  45. OMG thank u so much.....this is so wonderful to have the stores that used to be featured in the mall, great!

    Aliina J.

    4 Feb 11 at 4:15 pm

  46. Ok folks I have an article from todays The State entitled the following: RICHLAND MALL: It takes time to fill a mall

    Andrew

    10 Jul 11 at 8:38 pm

  47. Bebeep Toys was in there in the 80s. I think it was on the bakside of the mall in number 28 on your map.

    Norm

    5 Aug 11 at 11:56 am

  48. Hey folks, compliments of Kahn Development, I now have a brochure on which the last page is a current site plan of what is now known as Richland Mall

    Andrew

    6 Aug 11 at 9:17 pm

  49. Check out this picture on the glory days of Richland Fashion Mall:

    http://i685.photobucket.com/albums/vv212/dustyr87/307990_10150338442165040_613580039_8099680_1395287577_n.jpg

    What a nice, somewhat full mall!

    Dustin

    29 Sep 11 at 7:38 pm

  50. Judging by the stores that are still in the mall, and the fact that Nationsbank hadn't become Bank of America yet, I would say that this was around '96 or '97. It's amazing how it went down hill so fast.

    David

    30 Sep 11 at 8:48 am

  51. ted

    22 Oct 11 at 1:38 am

  52. Went to Richland Mall Friday; what a dismal experience. I didn't even see any mall walkers. I did see plenty of burned out lights, a sure sign that maintenance is lacking. I wonder what else is being neglected.

    tonkatoy

    19 Dec 11 at 9:04 am

  53. OTOH, the children's theater gift-wrap center on the first floor by Belk is really worth the trip if you are all thumbs like me!

    ted

    19 Dec 11 at 12:07 pm

  54. It was closed when I went by.

    tonkatoy

    19 Dec 11 at 12:35 pm

  55. Last week, it was opening at about 6pm. I guess that's when the volunteers get off work. Don't know about this week.

    ted

    19 Dec 11 at 1:06 pm

  56. Meant to mention this earlier, but commenter Dennis sends in this interesting link on the future of Richland Mall.

    There have been several articles on the ping-pong plaza, which probably makes it a good idea in and of itself.

    ted

    27 Aug 12 at 11:30 pm

  57. Here's one of the Ping Pong articles I was thinking of.

    ted

    29 Aug 12 at 3:27 am

  58. This is interesting AP Newsbreak: Developer Kahn files for bankruptcy

    Not sure what it means for Richland Mall and Sandhill, but it can't be a plus.

    ted

    23 Apr 13 at 5:24 pm

  59. Is it just me or is the site now known as Richland Mall unable to catch a break??

    Andrew

    23 Apr 13 at 8:20 pm

  60. That poor mall has been cursed for years. I wonder which mall has a greater percentage to vacant storefronts, this one or Dutch Square?

    Homer

    24 Apr 13 at 1:11 am

  61. I still say that parking garage killed it. And the stupid layout where you had to walk thru White's/Belk's.

    tonkatoy

    24 Apr 13 at 6:44 am

  62. Homer, I think Richland Mall has a higher percentage of vacant storefronts. Dutch Square has plenty of stores that are ticking somehow (though I don't think very many of the folks contributing to this blog shop at them)

    Andrew

    24 Apr 13 at 1:24 pm

  63. btw tonkatoy reminded me of something I saw not too long ago (can't remember where) that there were prospective tenants for Richland Mall that passed on said mall becuase the layout wasn't what they needed...

    Andrew

    24 Apr 13 at 2:33 pm

  64. This can't be good: Barnes &Noble: The Final Chapter?.

    ted

    27 Jun 13 at 12:26 am

  65. B&N bought Borders following their liquidation which has me wondering if perhaps they bit off more than they could chew...but as long as Belk is there they have a fighting chance of survival.

    I read somewhere on a forum several years ago that Richland Mall's Belk performs better than the Village at Sandhill's Belk.

    Andrew

    27 Jun 13 at 12:55 am

  66. tonkatoy

    11 Oct 13 at 10:18 am

  67. B.Berry's name was just that, not B. BERRY'S ON ASSEMBLY.
    That and Berry's on Main were two separate operations
    that happened to be owned by one family of brothers.
    Joe B. Berny owned and operated Berry's on Main.
    B. Berry's belonged to his brothers Paul and Nathan

    THE NAME: BERRY'S ON MAIN is relative to Saks Fifth Avenue,which has stores all over the US and does not change it's name irritates for each different location.

    The ice cream parlor was named Belle's for the owners mother,
    Belle Fields.

    Berry's held children's Easter fashion shows on the walk in front
    Of the store and had a free Coca-cola fountain inside from 1963 to 1968.

    As a grand opening attraction Berry's offered free rides for children on a stationary helicopter in front of the store.

    The Mall Association had a Santa's house built there and Santa greeted children with candy canes and jolly laughter from the front porch. This continued for a number of years and the house remained for many years after tucked away in the corridor next to Berry's on Main

    Band concerts and Fourth of July Fireworks were annual features in the early years of Richland Mall.

    One year trout fishing was offered from a giant metal pool placed in the passage half way down the length of the mall.

    Berny Levine

    5 Dec 15 at 3:12 pm

  68. From where did the smell of caramel corn emanate in the early-mid 60s? Was it Corn Cabin? Was there ever a store called 'Jack's' there?

    MIke Mc

    21 May 16 at 10:30 pm

  69. My guess is Corn Cabin/Mr. Poppers.

    There was a Jack's shoes nearby.

    ted

    22 May 16 at 12:19 am

  70. Has anyone heard what's going to happen with Richland Mall? Are they gonna tear it down? leave some of it? or what?

    Del Bazemore

    13 Nov 17 at 2:26 am

  71. As much as I would like to see something done with Richland Mall I don't see it in the cards at this point unless someone is willing to fill the occupied space...it's been discussed on multiple occasions here over the years and people do have some ideas that have been mentioned on numerous pages here over the years...everything from rebuilding something in its original form, adding a whole spectrum of entertainment and a shopping center similar to what you find at Sparkleberry Square...the problem is that until you can find people willing to commit to the finished product, nothing is going to get any traction.

    Andrew

    13 Nov 17 at 1:43 pm

  72. Originally Richland Mall was built specifically for the Forest Acres area. It did a fair amount of business when it was new I'm sure, but by the 1980's it was dying. Columbia isnt and will never be the place for stores/malls like Atlanta or Charlotte NC. I think they need to tear it all down except for the old White's store, and rebuild the Mall like it used to be..it would be very "retro" now. But knowing how Columbia is, the Mall is just gonna sit there til it doesnt.

    Del Bazemore

    13 Nov 17 at 3:25 pm

  73. Dropped by Belk's last weekend. Since Christmas, half of the second floor has been curtained off, shades of what happened to the third floor at the old Dutch Square store. Can't be good..

    ted

    15 Jan 18 at 10:57 pm

  74. The second floor of the Belk at Richland Mall has been curtained off as Ted described for a good while now (at least 1-3 years)...I don't go to malls often anymore so idk exactly when it happened but I can't be too hopeful...

    One of my visions for a concept similar to Sparkleberry Square rebuilding of that mall would involve a Belk similar to what is at Village at Sandhill.

    Andrew

    16 Jan 18 at 8:49 pm

  75. Huh, that long? I could swear I was in there between Thanksgiving & Christmas and it was not curtained off. (Though the doors to the North side of the mall were closed)

    ted

    16 Jan 18 at 10:11 pm

  76. Do you define the North side as the side where Parisian was or where Dillard's was??

    Andrew

    16 Jan 18 at 11:37 pm

  77. Forest Drive runs logical (if maybe not exactly mapwise) East/West towards West Columbia, therefore the side closest to Forest Drive is the North side. At least, that's my story, and I'm sticking to it..

    ted

    17 Jan 18 at 12:04 am

  78. I use to frequent Richland Mall as a boy back in the mid to late 60's when I lived in the Belvedere community. It was a really nice open mall back then. I used to sit and eat lunch at the Woolworth's. I first started collecting coins when they started selling them at that Woolworth's. That store that sold the carmel corn was also the first place that I ever saw an Icee machine. Great memories!

    Gary Merrell

    18 Jan 18 at 10:39 am

  79. Here's an article addressing the recent rumors of Publix's move to Richland Mall...

    Andrew

    19 Jan 18 at 11:46 pm

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