Who remembers "The Mall"? (Huntsville: city hall, Home Depot, shopping center)

[Mouldy Old Schmo]

Huntsville 's first mall, it opened in the 1960s.
DeadMalls.com: The Mall: Huntsville, Alabama
My family and I went there once in the early 1980s. I remember Loveman's was already closed.

[TimCity2000]

Didn't it become The Fountain or something? I remember going to Toys R Us as a kid, but even then the rest of the mall was kind of a ghost town.

[writerwife]

I remember it. Used to go to Loveman's frequently. Well.. all of them,, lol. I was younger and it was a mall. Down the road from Traylor Island.

[RocketDawg]

Originally Posted by Mouldy Old Schmo

Huntsville 's first mall, it opened in the 1960s.
DeadMalls.com: The Mall: Huntsville, Alabama
My family and I went there once in the early 1980s. I remember Loveman's was already closed.

I first came to Huntsville in June 1966. As I recall, The Mall was opened in April 1966. It was THE place to go at the time, and was full of people constantly. I'm pretty sure that the two anchor stores were Loveman's and JC Penney, one of which later turned into Books a Million. The Mall, along with the Parkway, was pretty much the undoing of shopping in downtown Huntsville. It was a pretty large shopping center in its day.

And yes, it was later dubbed The Fountain but basically all that's there is Home Depot, a fountain, and Costco.

There was also Dunnavant's Mall and the Heart of Huntsville, but both of them were quite small.

Huntsville has changed a lot since then with monstrous suburban sprawl, but downtown still looks pretty much the same ... tiny. They'd already built City Hall, the Century Bank (I think that was the name ... may have been Central), and the courthouse, so I guess most of the early growth in Huntsville was downtown but all that was already there when I first came.

[Preston3124]

Remember it? Absolutely. I was there with my Mother on opening day. JC Penny, Lovemans, Woolworths, Piccadilly, London Transit, National Shirt Shop and Newsome's records. Maybe a bookstore called Andans?

[RocketDawg]

Originally Posted by Preston3124

Remember it? Absolutely. I was there with my Mother on opening day. JC Penny, Lovemans, Woolworths, Piccadilly, London Transit, National Shirt Shop and Newsome's records. Maybe a bookstore called Andans?

Yes, Andan was more of a news stand ... had newspapers from just about everywhere. They had books too but it wasn't one of the mega-stores like Books a Million and Barnes & Noble are now

I don't remember Woolworth or Picadilly being in The Mall. Seems like there was a Woolworth in Parkway City at one time, and the Picadilly was in Dunnavant's wasn't it?

It's been a long time.

[Preston3124]

Originally Posted by RocketDawg

Yes, Andan was more of a news stand ... had newspapers from just about everywhere. They had books too but it wasn't one of the mega-stores like Books a Million and Barnes & Noble are now

I don't remember Woolworth or Picadilly being in The Mall. Seems like there was a Woolworth in Parkway City at one time, and the Picadilly was in Dunnavant's wasn't it?

It's been a long time.

Piccadilly was definitely in The Mall. My grandmother used to take my cousin and me to eat there all the time. Britlings cafeteria was in Dunnavants Mall. I remember Woolworths had a diner in it also. Seems like there was a drug store (Rexall?) with a diner in it too. I don't know that all these places were in The Mall when it opened, but I'm pretty sure they all were in there at one time or another. There was a grocery store in there at one time also. Foodland?

[writerwife]

Ah.. Penny's. I was trying to remember what the other big store was. Loveman's is what later became Toys r us, correct?
I thought Picadilly was elsewhere too but then.. I forgot all about Britlings.

[AU HSV]

Bill's London Transit
Russell Stover

[nALgirl]

What about the square dancers by the fountain on Saturday night?