Belk, Hanes Mall, Winston Salem, North Carolina. Photographed 5/17/2005.

Belk, Hanes Mall, Winston-Salem, North Carolina. Exterior view. Photographed January 30, 2011.

Belk, Hanes Mall, Winston-Salem, North Carolina. Exterior view. Photographed January 30, 2011.

Belk, Hanes Mall, Winston-Salem, North Carolina. Exterior view. Photographed January 30, 2011.

Belk, Hanes Mall, Winston-Salem, North Carolina. Upper level mall entrance. Photographed with camera phone 7/23/05.

Belk, Hanes Mall, Winston-Salem, North Carolina. Lower level mall entrance. Photographed with camera phone 8/02/05.

Belk, Hanes Mall, Winston-Salem, North Carolina. Mall entrance. Photographed January 30, 2011.

Belk; Hanes Mall, Winston-Salem, North Carolina. Upper level mall entrance. Photographed November 26, 2010.

Belk, Hanes Mall, Winston-Salem, North Carolina. Upper level mall entrance. Photographed January 30, 2011.

Belk, Hanes Mall, Winston-Salem, North Carolina. Lower level mall entrance. Photographed January 30, 2011.

Belk, Hanes Mall, Winston-Salem, North Carolina. Escalator well. Photographed with camera phone 8/02/05.

Belk; Hanes Mall, Winston-Salem, North Carolina. Escalator well. Photographed November 26, 2010.

Belk, Hanes Mall, Winston-Salem, North Carolina. beneFit cosmetics counter. Photographed with camera phone 8/02/05.

Belk, Hanes Mall, Winston-Salem, North Carolina. Clinique cosmetics counter. Photographed with camera phone 8/02/05.

Belk, Hanes Mall, Winston-Salem, North Carolina. Men's Nautica sportswear department. Photographed with camera phone 8/02/05.

Belk, Hanes Mall, Winston-Salem, North Carolina. Men's Big & Tall department. Photographed with camera phone 8/02/05.

Belk, Hanes Mall, Winston-Salem, North Carolina. 'Today's Woman' department. Photographed with camera phone 8/02/05.

Belk, Hanes Mall, Winston-Salem, North Carolina. Parking lot sign. Photographed January 30, 2011.

Hanes Mall, Winston Salem, North Carolina. Photographed 5/17/2005.


Hanes Mall, Winston Salem, North Carolina. View of ceiling and skylight detail near Belk. Photographed with camera phone 7/05/05.

Hanes Mall, Winston Salem, North Carolina. View of South Mall center court, looking up at upper level food court. Photographed with camera phone 7/23/05.

Hanes Mall, Winston Salem, North Carolina. South Mall, looking towards food court. Photographed with camera phone by Billy Coore 12/15/2006.

Hanes Mall, Winston Salem, North Carolina. View of sign in North Mall near JCPenney. Photographed with camera phone 7/23/05.

Hanes Mall, Winston Salem, North Carolina. View of elevator near Belk. Photographed with camera phone 7/23/05.

Hanes Mall, Winston Salem, North Carolina. Carousel in North Mall. Photographed with camera phone 8/02/05.

Hanes Mall, Winston Salem, North Carolina. Carousel in North Mall. Photographed with camera phone by Billy Coore 12/15/2006.

Hanes Mall, Winston Salem, North Carolina. South Mall, looking towards Macy's. Photographed with camera phone by Billy Coore 12/15/2006.

Hanes Mall is North Carolina's largest shopping mall, with over 1.6 million square feet (150,000 m²) of retail space. The mall also has one of the most unique designs of any mall in the state.

The original mall north section of the mall was opened in 1975 with Belk, JCPenney and Sears. The mall later expanded southward to include Ivey's (Dillard's), Thalhimers (Hecht's / Macy's) and a new food court.

The interesting thing about the design is that you have to walk through JCPenney to get to either side of the mall. (Wilkipedia)

Nordstrom, Short Pump Town Center, Richmond, Virginia (Richmond City Watch)


Nordstrom, Short Pump Town Center mall entrance, Richmond, Virginia (Richmond City Watch)

Chesterfield Towne Center; Richmond, Virginia. Mall entrance. (photo by Pat Richardson)


Chesterfield Towne Center, Richmond, Virginia (Richmond City Watch)

Cary Towne Center, Cary, North Carolina. Photographed 5/1/05

Cary Towne Center is a mall in Cary, NC, a suburb west of Raleigh, NC. Cary Towne Center, as it is known today, originally opened as Cary Village Mall in 1979. Today, the mall is anchored by Hudson-Belk, Dillard's, Hecht's, J.C. Penney and Sears with 1.1 million square feet (102,000 m²) of retail space. (Wilkipedia)

Thalhimers (later Hecht's and Macy's); SouthPark mall, Charlotte, North Carolina

Thalhimers (later Hecht's and Macy's), SouthPark mall, Charlotte, North Carolina. Mall entrance, 1991. (courtesy Pat Richardson)

Thalhimers (later Hecht's and Macy's), SouthPark mall, Charlotte, North Carolina. Model shopping in ladies' shoe department for photo shoot, 1988. (courtesy Pat Richardson)

Hecht's (former Thalhimers, later Macy's), SouthPark mall, Charlotte, North Carolina. Mall entrance with "photoshopped" Hecht's signage, 1992. (courtesy Pat Richardson)

Hecht's (former Thalhimers, later Macy's), SouthPark mall, Charlotte, North Carolina. Mall entrance, 1994. (scanned from SouthPark directory)



Hecht's, SouthPark mall, Charlotte, North Carolina. 1988-2004 facade (Photo by cantnot)


Hecht's, SouthPark mall, Charlotte, North Carolina. Revised facade (Photo by cantnot)


Hecht's, SouthPark mall, Charlotte, North Carolina. Revised mall entrance (Photo by cantnot)

Hecht's, SouthPark mall, Charlotte, North Carolina. Temporary signage with new Macy's sign placed underneath. (JerseyBoy)

Hecht's, SouthPark mall, Charlotte, North Carolina. Temporary signage with new Macy's sign placed underneath. (JerseyBoy)

Hecht's, SouthPark mall, Charlotte, North Carolina. Temporary signage with new Macy's sign placed underneath. (JerseyBoy)

Macy's, SouthPark mall, Charlotte, North Carolina. Temporary signage with new lighted Macy's sign placed underneath. Photographed with camera phone 7/8/06.

The Macy's store at SouthPark was originally opened as Thalhimers in 1988 and was the anchor of a major expansion of the Charlotte mall at 140,000 square feet on two levels. It was the first and only Thalhimers store in the market.

The design of the building was a post-modern spin on the Modernist architecture of SouthPark, utilizing white glazed brick, but eschewing the early '70s style building setbacks and anodized aluminum window trim of its fellow anchors in favor of a dramatic rounded entrance marquee, blue mosaic-tiled accents at the entryway and frameless glass doors (modified in 2001, citing security concerns).

In 1990, Thalhimers was purchased by the May Department Stores Company which operated the chain as a separate division until 1992, when it was folded into May's Hecht's division. A companion Hecht's location opened at Carolina Place Mall in 1993, eight miles south of SouthPark, and another new Hecht's location opened in 2005 at Northlake Mall some 15 miles north of this store.

In 2002, work started on a major expansion of Hecht's SouthPark to coincide with a major mall expansion and renovation. A new facade was added and a new interior and mall entrance were constructed. The project was completed in March 2004, and the store now covers 200,000 square feet on two levels.

In 2005, The May Department Stores Company merged with Federated Department Stores. The Hecht's division was eliminated and the former Hecht's stores will soon be operated by Federated's Macy's division. Hecht's SouthPark is scheduled to officially convert to Macy's in September 2006.

Belk, River Ridge Mall, Lynchburg, Virginia (LynchburgDining.com)

Belk, River Ridge Mall, Lynchburg, Virginia, Mall entrance under renovation in 2005-2006. Photographed with camera phone 9/28/05.

Belk, River Ridge Mall, Lynchburg, Virginia. Mall entrance detail. Photographed with camera phone 9/28/05.


Belk, River Ridge Mall, Lynchburg, Virginia, Fragrances department, slated for renovation in 2005-2006. Photographed with camera phone 5/20/05.

Belk, River Ridge Mall, Lynchburg, Virginia. Cosmetics and Fragrances department under renovation. Photographed with camera phone 9/28/05.


Belk, River Ridge Mall, Lynchburg, Virginia. Escalator well, slated for renovation in 2005-2006. Photographed with camera phone 5/20/05.

Belk, River Ridge Mall, Lynchburg, Virginia. Escalator well. Photographed with camera phone 9/28/05.


Belk, River Ridge Mall, Lynchburg, Virginia, former Men's Suits and Shoes department, slated for renovation in 2005-2006. Photographed with camera phone 5/20/05.

Belk, River Ridge Mall, Lynchburg, Virginia. Men's Chaps Ralph Lauren sportswear department. Photographed with camera phone 9/28/05.

Dillard's, SouthPark mall, Charlotte, North Carolina, proposed new facade (Architecture+)

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.

former Montgomery Ward, Carolina Circle Mall, Greensboro, North Carolina, showing the upper level entrances facing US 29.


former Montgomery Ward, Carolina Circle Mall, Greensboro, North Carolina, showing the upper level side entrances.


former Montgomery Ward, Carolina Circle Mall, Greensboro, North Carolina, showing the lower level loading docks and garden center.


former Montgomery Ward, Carolina Circle Mall, Greensboro, North Carolina, showing the freestanding auto center across the street from the mall.

Montgomery Ward at Carolina Circle Mall in Greensboro, North Carolina opened in 1976 and was unequaled in its architectural outlandishness.

The new suburban store, relocated from a more sedate downtown location, featured angled concrete berms originally covered in brightly colored ceramic tile on the exterior of its upper level. Its multiple entrances angled skyward with soaring transoms over the doors with round keyholes cut into concrete fascias on three of the entries.

Not content to play it subtle inside, Montgomery Ward's Greensboro store single-handedly wins the award for worst interior design. Wards tried every bad ‘70s decorating fad they could from avocado and gold shag carpeting to a ‘conversation pit’ style stereo department. As the mall around it began to fail, almost nothing was updated at Wards, leaving the store oversized and trapped in a serious time warp.

By the early 1990s, the store began to downsize its selling space and reconfigure its departments, resulting in a low-cost remodel that never truly erased its former '70s self. By 1997, citing security and climate control concerns, Montgomery Ward closed off most of its exterior entrances and eventually its mall entrance, which led to the mall owners closing off the interior of the mall, which by then only contained a handful of stores.

Still, even as the mall it was attached to faded into obscurity, only the 2001 closing of the entire Montgomery Ward chain could kill this store, wich maintained decent sales and a loyal customer base until the end.