The Malling of Jacksonville

[DjDonnyD]

Hey Lake Lander,
I have A question about the floor plan for Philips Mall. Can you contact me at DjDonnyD@aol.com. I will make it worth your while! Please contact me! Thanks!

Also, anyone who has any Philips mall Info. Please Contact me! Thanks All!

[thelakelander]

There's a ton of stuff regarding these malls in the Special Collections department at the Main Public Library.  The next time I'm down there, I'll try to scan some more images to upload to this thread.

[Knowbusiness]

Market Square only lasted a couple of years. When it opened as Market Square, there was an Oshman's Sporting Goods in the old Woolworth's spot, and a clearance center for the Body Shop or something else like that in the old Food Fair/Pantry Pride space. I can't remember if Jefferson Ward's was there then or not. There was talk of building a high rise office building where the Garden Center for Ward's had been, but obviously, that didn't happen. Renna's moved down to an area where the JM Field's had been. It was intended to be a combination Food Court/amusement/arcade area, but it never took off. Most of the inline space was filled to the old JM Field's space, and there was a Sam's Club in the back corner parking lot, which later became a skating rink.

A Taco Bell and McDonald's opened in outparcels about the same time and it looked promising, but the overall area around the mall was still not good, so it didn't make it.

Bambi did live on the street across from your house. She was a wild one.

[thelakelander]

The Taco Bell and McDonald's are still operating in their same locations.

[Knowbusiness]

Metro Square Office park opened in November, 1999. The skating rink behind the mall in the old Sam's space was called Skate World and had an ice skating rink in it.

Oshman's closed in July, 1995. Below is part of an article regarding the mall's 2nd demise.

Oshman's Sporting Goods is closing Saturday, leaving other tenants of Jacksonville's Market Square Mall to wonder about the Southside center's future.

Once touted as the "Southeast's Biggest Shopping Center," the 35-year-old mall at Philips Highway and Emerson Street used to boast a movie theater, department stores, an arcade and grocery. Today, about 10 stores remain after the mall's bumpy ride through the 1990s.

In 1994, it sealed off its north corridor and closed an adjoining food court.

The decision to close came because the Jacksonville store was not performing

[Knowbusiness]

Publix and Roses anchored the Expressway Mall for years. Burlington Coat Factory moved into the Roses space when it closed in the mid 80s. The supermarket was one of the first two stores Publix opened in Jacksonville in March 1971.  But it closed in June 1995. One month later, Burlington Coat Factory moved to the former Kmart at Regency Plaza shopping center on Atlantic Boulevard.

The former mall now houses various churches.

[thelakelander]

Expressway Mall was torn down about two years ago.

[deathstar]

Sorry, I just saw the mention of Roosevelt and needed to vent about its poor design lol.

And Charles, we hear it all the time from customers griping about no space on the aisles. If there was any way for us to work overnight we absolutely would. But the business is so high volume, that bonus buys (buy one, get one's, 2/5.00's, etc..) get wiped off the shelf in a matter of minutes.

[Knowbusiness]

Interesting on the original Roosevelt Mall layout. Both Sections of 3c became store space, although a large part of 3c on the right was a fitness center in the early-mid 80s.

[thelakelander]

Some more images.....

Normandy Mall


Roosevelt Mall

[jacksonvilleconfidential]

This thread reminds me of a timeless quote from one of my favorite movies of all time, Clueless (1995)

Mel: I'd like to see you have a little direction.
Cher: I have direction!
Josh: Yeah, towards the mall.



As if!

[Knowbusiness]

Here is a link to a T-U article about the renovation of old Philips Mall into the office complex. It has a picture of the back of the old Montgomery wards, with part of the old sign still there.

http://www.jacksonville.com/tu-online/stories/031899/bus_1E1metro.html

[YellowBluffRoad]

Knowbusiness said "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."

There was a Rose's anchoring that one early on also. Stein Mart eventually moved in to the old Rose's space.

[Ocklawaha]

Being an Ortega brat, downtown Yukon (Ginger snap cookies, if you bailed out the Sunday School window and walked down to the market with your tithe money!)  Wesonnnett, god WHAT a cool hardware store, even got a few rides to Brasil for there! Venetia Village, great fountain at the Rexall and the best darn Danish Wedding Cookies in the world. Ortega village home of the Euro import toy store. Cedar Hills Shopping Center, something for everyone in the family. All of this and ROOSEVELT MALL, took the prize in beauty indoors or outdoors, depending on which era one refers to. To this day, IMO it was far more artistic, tropical, artsy, then any other North Florida Mall. In fact it has me wanting to do some research, and maybe one of you or Lake can help... Who designed the Roosevelt Mall, before the AC and Roof over? I ask because one of my favorite shopping places on earth today is a similar, almost "twin" design, call "SAN DIEGO" in Medellin, Colombia. The only major difference is a couple of traditional Spanish plaza's, but even there the art work, water features and such are a carbon copy.

San Diego Mall, is showing it's age very gracefully, compaired to our own Landing, Gateway, Regency etc... Even though there are another dozen upscale versions, much larger, and much closer to "the money", we still enjoy a yearly trek to San Diego. The fortune of this part of Colombia, is that there are NO INSECTS, and year around 72 degrees. El Tesoro Mall, the largest (I think) is a giant "H" pattern, on a steep slope of the Andes. A turbulent creek tumbles and roars down through the Center of the "H" with a tropical jungle amusement park spread out along "trails". It is stunning. So is Oviedo Mall, with it's large under the floor parking. Something every business in town has. NOBODY builds large surface parking lots in Medellin.

BTW, the giant copper? brass? angled pipe tower sculpture, that once stood in the center of Roosevelt, is now displayed just North? of the Admin building at JU.

OCKLAWAHA

[stjr]

Knowbusiness said "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."

There was a Rose's anchoring that one early on also. Stein Mart eventually moved in to the old Rose's space.

At the University strip, there was a Hallmark card shop to the left of the Publix's Danish Bakery (it had both a store and street facing entry) and an Eckerd Drugs next to Roses on the western end.  I am thinking there was another store after Roses and before Stein Mart but the name escapes me at the moment.  I believe there was also a Lord's Gift Shop in the corner of Roses and Publix.