Hudson Belk, Crabtree Valley Mall, Raleigh, North Carolina 10/20/07

Previously on LiveMalls
Hudson Belk, Crabtree Valley Mall

Hudson Belk, Crabtree Valley Mall, Raleigh, North Carolina. The original three-story portico with two multi-tiered chandeliers before it was obstructed by an addition to the mall's parking deck, 2003. (Wake County, North Carolina Real Estate)

Previously on LiveMalls
Hudson Belk, Crabtree Valley Mall

Hudson Belk, Cary Towne Center, Cary, North Carolina. (Wake County, North Carolina Real Estate)

Previously on LiveMalls
Hudson Belk, Cary Towne Center

former Thalhimers (later Hecht's and Lord & Taylor), Crabtree Valley Mall, Raleigh, North Carolina. Sealed mall entrance with announcemnt the openeing of its latest tenant, a Hudson Belk Men's Store. Photographed with camera phone 3/24/07.

Previously on LiveMalls
Lord & Taylor, Crabtree Valley Mall

Hudson Belk, Triangle Town Center, Raleigh, North Carolina. Upper level exterior entrance. Photographed with camera phone 7/15/05.

Previously on LiveMalls
Hudson Belk, Triangle Town Center

Hudson Belk, The Streets at Southpoint, Durham, North Carolina. Lower level mall entrance. Photographed by camera phone 12/9/06

Hudson Belk, The Streets at Southpoint, Durham, North Carolina. Upper level mall entrance. Photographed by camera phone 12/9/06

Hudson Belk, The Streets at Southpoint, Durham, North Carolina. Mall entrance. Photographed by camera phone 12/9/06

Previously on LiveMalls
Hudson Belk, The Streets at Southpoint

Hudson Belk, The Streets at Southpoint, Durham, North Carolina. Lower level entrance. (ctcharlotte.com)

Hudson Belk, The Streets at Southpoint, Durham, North Carolina. Escalator well. (ctcharlotte.com)

Previously on LiveMalls
Hudson Belk, The Streets at Southpoint

Hudson Belk, Crabtree Valley Mall, Raleigh, North Carolina. Former Women's Shoes department, scheduled for renovation in 2005-2006. Photographed with camera phone 7/15/05.

Hudson Belk, Crabtree Valley Mall, Raleigh, North Carolina. New Women's Shoes department. Photographed with camera phone 7/15/05.

Hudson Belk, Crabtree Valley Mall, Raleigh, North Carolina. Escalator well, viewed from Level 2. Photographed with camera phone 7/15/05.

Hudson Belk, Crabtree Valley Mall, Raleigh, North Carolina. Up escalator on Level 1. Photographed with camera phone 7/15/05.

Hudson Belk, Crabtree Valley Mall, Raleigh, North Carolina. Signage on south exterior wall. Photographed with camera phone 7/15/05.

Hudson Belk, Crabtree Valley Mall, Raleigh, North Carolina. South entrance on lower level. Photographed with camera phone 7/15/05.

Hudson Belk, Crabtree Valley Mall, Raleigh, North Carolina. South entrance on upper level, with bridge connecting to parking deck. Photographed with camera phone 7/15/05.

Hudson Belk, Crabtree Valley Mall, Raleigh, North Carolina. East entrance doors on lower level. Photographed with camera phone 7/15/05.

Hudson Belk, Triangle Town Center, Raleigh, North Carolina. Mall entrance. Photographed with camera phone 7/15/05.

Previously on LiveMalls
Hudson Belk, Triangle Town Center

Hudson Belk, Crabtree Valley Mall, Raleigh, North Carolina. The three story portico without its signature chandeliers, with a skybridge under construction for a new entrance. Photographed with camera phone 6/23/05.


Hudson Belk, Crabtree Valley Mall, Raleigh, North Carolina. View of Level Two from down escalator. Photographed with camera phone 6/23/05.


Hudson Belk, Crabtree Valley Mall, Raleigh, North Carolina. Upper and lower level mall entrances. Photographed with camera phone 6/23/05.

Lord & Taylor, Crabtree Valley Mall, Raleigh, North Carolina

former Thalhimers (later Hecht's and Lord & Taylor), Crabtree Valley Mall, Raleigh, North Carolina. Mall entrance, circa 1972. (Scan from thesis by Phillip Long, Courtesy Malls of America)

former Thalhimers (later Hecht's and Lord & Taylor), Crabtree Valley Mall, Raleigh, North Carolina. Mall entrance, circa 1975. (Courtesy Elizabeth Smartt)

former Lord & Taylor, Crabtree Valley Mall, Raleigh, North Carolina. Mall entrance, shortly after opening in 1995. (Crabtree Valley Mall)

former Lord & Taylor, Crabtree Valley Mall, Raleigh, North Carolina. Mall entrance. Photographed with camera phone 7/15/05.

former Lord & Taylor, Crabtree Valley Mall, Raleigh, North Carolina. Lower level mall entrance. Photographed with camera phone 6/23/05.

former Thalhimers (later Hecht's and Lord & Taylor), Crabtree Valley Mall, Raleigh, North Carolina. Sealed mall entrance with announcemnt the openeing of its latest tenant, a Hudson Belk Men's Store. Photographed with camera phone 3/24/07.

The former Lord & Taylor at Crabtree Valley Mall, Raleigh, North Carolina, started its life as a branch of Richmond, Virginia-based department store Thalhimers in 1972. In 1990, Hecht's department stores in Washington, D.C., a division of the May Department Stores Co. of St. Louis, acquired the Thalhimers chain and renamed the stores Hecht's by early 1992.

A year later, Hecht's started construction on an 180,000 square foot, two-level location in an expansion wing of Crabtree Valley. The 100,000 square foot former Thalhimers store was then converted to a Lord & Taylor in 1995.

Things calmed down for nearly a decade until May Department Stores, which owned both Hecht's and Lord & Taylor at the time, announced plans to close the underperforming Lord & Taylor in 2003. Plans were originally to sell the remainder of the store's lease, but due to lack of interest from buyers, the store limped along as a clearance center for the chain until the end of the original lease in 2006.

Federated bought the May department store chain in 2005. That left Federated with two department stores at Crabtree Valley Mall: Hecht's and Lord & Taylor. Federated closed the underperforming Lord & Taylor in February 2006, but in an odd move, entered into a new five year lease on the space.

In early 2007, Belk, Inc. announced that the upper level of the shuttered Lord & Taylor space will become the new men's department of Hudson Belk, which is also located at the mall. Scheduled to open in May 2007, with 69,000 square feet of space, it will be Belk's largest freestanding men's store.

No plans have been announced for the lower level.

Hudson Belk, Cary Towne Center, Cary, North Carolina. (Wake County, North Carolina Real Estate)


Hudson Belk, Cary Towne Center, Cary, North Carolina. Mall entrance. Photographed with camera phone 5/19/2005

Hudson Belk, Crabtree Valley Mall, Raleigh, North Carolina, 5/1/2005. The three-story portico with two multi-tiered chandeliers is original and was partially obstructed by an addition to the mall's parking deck (left) in 2003.

Hudson Belk, The Streets at Southpoint, Durham, North Carolina (webshots.com)

Hudson Belk, The Streets at Southpoint, Durham, North Carolina. Lower level entrance. (ctcharlotte.com)

Hudson Belk, The Streets at Southpoint, Durham, North Carolina. Escalator well. (ctcharlotte.com)

Hudson Belk, The Streets at Southpoint, Durham, North Carolina. Lower level mall entrance. Photographed by camera phone 12/9/06

Hudson Belk, The Streets at Southpoint, Durham, North Carolina. Upper level mall entrance. Photographed by camera phone 12/9/06

Hudson Belk, The Streets at Southpoint, Durham, North Carolina. Mall entrance. Photographed by camera phone 12/9/06

The new millennium, stagnant sales, and a revamped corporate structure were Charlotte, North Carolina-based Belk, Inc.’s incentives to evolve its store prototypes. From 2001 on, Belk stores tended to get smaller than before, and were located in more strip malls and lifestyle centers than regional malls, reversing a three decade trend of large stores in regional malls.

The company did not completely abandon malls, especially in its core markets in the Carolinas, as is seen in this Hudson Belk store in The Streets at Southpoint mall in Durham, North Carolina. Opened in 2002, it presents a contemporary face on Belk’s mall offering. The 180,000 square foot, two-level store reflects Belk’s ‘Millennium’ design, with a more open interior, large glass-covered entries, a clerestory skylight topping a oval escalator well, and a Carmen!Carmen! Aveda Prestige day spa; one of only a handful in the Belk chain.

Belk closed three Hudson Belk stores in the Raleigh-Durham area to open the Southpoint store. The former South Square Mall store (opened in 1975), seven miles west, closed in January 2002 and was demolished when the mall was torn down. A Sam’s Club opened on its site in 2004. The former Northgate Mall store (opened in 1995), located across town, closes in February 2004, with plans for it to be replaced with a multi-screen movie theater and several smaller shops. The University Mall store (opened in 1973), located ten miles to the west in Chapel Hill, also closed in January 2002 and was replaced by A Southern Season gourmet grocery store.

Hudson Belk, Crabtree Valley Mall, Raleigh, North Carolina. The original three-story portico with two multi-tiered chandeliers before it was obstructed by an addition to the mall's parking deck, 2003. (Wake County, North Carolina Real Estate)


Hudson Belk, Crabtree Valley Mall, Raleigh, North Carolina 12/30/04


Hudson Belk, Crabtree Valley Mall, Raleigh, North Carolina, 12/30/04. The sheer mass of the 251,000 square foot building is evident from this distance, which is adjacent to the mall's Convenience Center.

Hudson Belk, Crabtree Valley Mall, Raleigh, North Carolina 10/20/07


Hudson Belk, Crabtree Valley Mall, Raleigh, North Carolina, 5/1/2005. The three-story portico with two multi-tiered chandeliers is original and was partially obstructed by an addition to the mall's parking deck (left) in 2003.


Hudson Belk, Crabtree Valley Mall, Raleigh, North Carolina. The three story portico without its signature chandeliers, with a skybridge under construction for a new entrance. Photographed with camera phone 6/23/05..

Hudson Belk, Crabtree Valley Mall, Raleigh, North Carolina. Signage on south exterior wall. Photographed with camera phone 7/15/05..

Hudson Belk, Crabtree Valley Mall, Raleigh, North Carolina. South entrance on lower level. Photographed with camera phone 7/15/05.

Hudson Belk, Crabtree Valley Mall, Raleigh, North Carolina. South entrance on upper level, with bridge connecting to parking deck. Photographed with camera phone 7/15/05.

Hudson Belk, Crabtree Valley Mall, Raleigh, North Carolina. East entrance doors on lower level. Photographed with camera phone 7/15/05.


Hudson Belk, Crabtree Valley Mall, Raleigh, North Carolina. Upper and lower level mall entrances. Photographed with camera phone 6/23/05.

Hudson Belk, Crabtree Valley Mall, Raleigh, North Carolina. Escalator well, viewed from Level 2. Photographed with camera phone 7/15/05.

Hudson Belk, Crabtree Valley Mall, Raleigh, North Carolina. Up escalator on Level 1. Photographed with camera phone 7/15/05.


Hudson Belk, Crabtree Valley Mall, Raleigh, North Carolina. View of Level Two from down escalator. Photographed with camera phone 6/23/05.

Hudson Belk, Crabtree Valley Mall, Raleigh, North Carolina. Former Women's Shoes department, scheduled for renovation in 2005-2006. Photographed with camera phone 7/15/05.

Hudson Belk, Crabtree Valley Mall, Raleigh, North Carolina. New Women's Shoes department. Photographed with camera phone 7/15/05.

Hudson Belk at Crabtree Valley Mall is 251,000 square feet on three levels and opened in 1972. This is one of Belk's flagship locations and its most productive store, sales-wise. It is also the largest department store in the Raleigh-Durham area.

The chandeliers on the portico are original and will likely be removed when a new upper level entrance is added to the parking deck. The parking deck was erected in 2003 and ruined the previously stately store facade.

This store was home to the much-loved Capital Room cafeteria, which closed this year. The Capital Room was located directly behind the chandeliers.