Sunday, August 23, 2009

Belk (former Leggett); Valley Mall, Harrisonburg, Virgina


Belk; former Leggett (Valley Mall), Main exterior entrance. Originally uploaded by Joe Architect.

9 comments:

  1. It's almost the one-story twin to Eastland from a distance, but a closer look reveals a plethora of small differences. It's a wild little store.

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  2. I have always liked how Belk has always used unique architectural designs for many of their stores, and this store is a perfect example. I think my favorite non-closed Belk design is the Belk at the Independence Mall in Wilmington, NC.

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  3. There is a definite Belk 'look' and it's unmistakable. My favorite was the old Belk SouthPark facade. I never saw it truly replicated.

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  4. What about the stores with those Dillard-esque arches? I see them a lot in my area.

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  5. I grew up in Belk territory, so I always found Leggett's using the Belk font to be appealing, even though the stores differed only by name. Belk built cool stores by 1970s standards, while the "big city department stores" avoided the small town malls. For that reason alone, Belk has a place in my heart.

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  6. Anonymous: I've never seen a Belk that looked like a Dillard's, but the "Carolina Place" exterior treatment Belk used in the late '80s and early '90s on its more prominent stores was vaguely Dillard's like. In fact, one of the stores from that era, the former Belk at Hamilton Place in Chattanooga, is now a Dillard's.

    Ken: I agree. Belk's golden era of expansion into malls was fueled by remarkable store design. They did a lot of research to create the distinctive look and feel, and went where no one else would go geographically and demographically. For many years they were rewarded handsomely for their pioneering spirit, but as other chains moved in, Belk became just another name at the mall, though no one matched their attention to architectural detail

    I still have a soft spot in my heart for Belk and Leggett, too. The Leggett logo was really nice in the Belk font, but I really dug the hyphenated names just as much or more. The Belk-Leggett (Danville and Durham)logo was simply beautiful.

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  7. There are a few stores up in Tn. that have those arches that are supported by huge columns. There's one in clarksville that reminds me of that. When it first opened it was bigger and better than dillard's. I has nver been updated since it opened in the late 80's.

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  8. I saw a picture of one of these online today. They were pretty stores, but Belk has been slow to update them, as you said.

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