The Malling of Jacksonville

[stjr]

Patti's Restaurant had a second location in the front of Roosevelt Mall for a long time.  See the bottom image on the postcard below:

[DavidWilliams]

^^^^Would that have been late 60's? How long was it there?

[stjr]

^^^^Would that have been late 60's? How long was it there?

Can't say for sure, but I would say a good guess would be mid 60's (maybe earlier) to early 70's or so from my memories.

[jandar]

definitely wasn't there in the late 70's when I grew up in that part of town.

[roninvirginia]

When the Roosevelt mall opened in 1961 there was a huge ad campaign. One of the draws to the Grand Opening was to be the exhibition of two pairs of matched Black Swans from somewhere in South America (if I remember correctly). Unfortunately one of the pairs escaped during the offload process on the waterfront in downtown Jax. These two birds merrily began swimming (escaping) down the St. Johns River. It seems these birds are/were paired for life.

I remember this because our family dog (a handsome black and red mutt of undetermined breeding) apparently took umbrage at their presence in the water near our neighborhood on Greenwood Ave. in Avondale. He jumped from the quay wall into the river and took off in pursuit of the trespassers. Much to our shock and dismay he quickly caught one and promptly killed it. It made the front page of the Times-Union the next day. We were so afraid we would lose our dog, but nothing was ever said. They had to destroy the other bird.  Thats my story and I am sticking to it.

[KenFSU]

Though I've been in Jacksonville since 2003, I have never been to the Orange Park Mall. I decided to check it out on Saturday morning. I was actually really impressed by what I saw. They've done a shockingly great job keeping that mall feeling modern and successful. Whereas the Avenues has become somewhat depressing to visit -- with it's empty storefronts, low-rent tshirt shops, and general "dying mall" vibe -- the OPM felt full of life. It was packed out with people, occupancy seemed shockingly high for a 2011 indoor mall, the tenets were of a good quality, and there were a million dining options (Five Guys and Camicakes!). The movie theater and surprisingly nice in-mall bookstore (Books a Million) definitely make it a nice destination for more than just shopping as well. If it wasn't so far, I'd definitely head out there more often.

[Jaxson]

I worked at the Gateway Books stores in Philips Mall and Roosevelt Mall in the early 80s. I remember going to Philips Mall as a kid also. We saw Earthquake in surround sound at the theater. I loved Renna's Pizza and try to stop by and get in at one of their locations when I come to town.

DjDonny, do you remember Chris West or Ron, who was one of the owners of the arcade? I went to school with Chris. Bambi was the manager of the bookstore when I worked there. I also remember gallagher coming into the mall once when he was in town. He was staying at the hotel that was by the interstate in the mall parking lot.

Philips Mall is where the Body Shop clothing store got its start. I was on the mall merchant board with the owner of that store.

There used to be a fitness center across from the Gateway Books in Roosevelt Mall. It was an interesting place. That mall was not fully enclosed originally. the section where the Belks is/was was added when the mall was enclosed

I grew up near the Orange Park Mall and remember riding my skateboard down the hill next to the Sears service center before the mall opened. We used to steal coins from the fountain in the middle of the mall.

I also lived near recengy Square and remember the Big Star that used to be in an outparcel. I saw Jaws at the Regency Twin. I remember that the movie was there for like 6 months straight.

Normandy was the dregs, even in the 70s and 80s.

There were also a couple of mini malls in town. One was the Expressway Mall on Arlington Expressway, where one of the first, if not the first Publix was located in town. There were about 15-20 shops in the mall with a movie theater in the back. It has a Roses department store on one side. The University mall was on University Blvd, west of Philips Hwy. There was a Publix and the first Stein Mart. That mini mall had about 10 shops and no movie theater. One other mini-mall was in Orange Park. I believe it was called Kingsley Town Center and it had 10 shops with a movie theater in the back. there was a Winn Dixie and Townsend's Pharmacy, with a DQ in an outparcel. It was just west of Park Ave on Kingsley.



There was also an Outlets Ltd. Mall on Lane Ave, just off of I-10. I believe it is a Home Depot now with a few other stores.

I don't think that there was a 'Town Center' on Kingsley back in the day, but I remember that there was a Pinch-a-Penny, a Spa Lady and a Dairy Queen there when I was growing up.  I am trying to think of the name of the shopping center, but it escapes me...

[Paisleyparker330]

I have a question...

Does anyone remember the caricature artist that was in Regency Mall back in the 1980's...probably last 80's? I'm trying to find away to get in touch with her....like a needle in a hackstack for sure:)

Thanks...

[redgiant]

I live in Seattle now, but I was born in '61 and grew up in Jax.

A couple notes I saw asked ...

We ate almost every week at the Patti's on Beach Blvd, awesome Italian food. And the American Fitness Center inthat strip mall next to Patti's was always crowded and was the epitome of 80s hair and spandex and leg warmers. It was silly and hilarious and fun to be young then.

The restaurant near the train engine at Phillip's Mall I think was a Lum's. Their hot dogs steamed in beer were pretty famously loved.

Expressway Mall also had a CJ's (Callico Jacks) in the parking lot on the west side out near the service road. It was a big oyster and chicken wing/beer spot for us youngsters.

Regency's original stand-alone building (kind of around where the Jax Navy credit union I think is there nowadays) was a single Regency Cinema, then they split its giant screen down the middle and made it the Regency Twin theatre, where my dad took me to see the release of Star Wars in '77. I remember to this day the little center garden they had outside the entrance between the two ticketing booths on either side, and the Time Capsule they had buried under the garden with a marble plaque etched with "To be opened in the year 2000". And I said to my dad, "Wow, that is a really long time from now".

Much later, they knocked down that stand-alone building and added the Regency 6 inside the mall's middle during a rennovation period. The food court was surrounding the theatres, but I guess later on when they built the bigger 24-theatre building they converted the existing Regency 6 space to food court or stores.

I can still smell Mr. Dunderbach's down by JC Penney's, what a great gernan deli smell it always had with all the food and counter sandwiches.

[lovelylotus]

Hi, I started a new blog called "Malltopia" it's hosted on Blogger.
I am working on a case study because I read this Malling of Jacksonville thread.
I am going to go to the Jacksonville Public Library and go through the microfilm reels to find the news articles where each of the dead and current malls announced their grand opening. I see that the years of their opening are listed on here,
but not the month. It would spare me alot of time if I knew what month each mall opened.
Unless someone knows where there's an archive of newspaper online.
thanks

[thelakelander]

Just go to the main public library's Special Collections Department on the 4th floor.  Ask whoever is behind the information desk for the vertical file on shopping centers and malls.  You'll find newspaper clippings about the openings of all the local malls in the same folder.

[deathstar]

How much, if any, of the original Roosevelt Mall (before and after the enclosure) still remains? Is the Belk building the only building still standing from that?

[thelakelander]

The retail buildings closest to Roosevelt where the Starbucks and West Marine are located were a part of the original mall. The break between them was the mall's central promenade.  The north section of Belk was also a part of the old mall.

[deathstar]

Thanks, Lake. Had always wondered.

[thelakelander]

I came across a few 1980s Gateway Mall shots in the library yesterday: