Charlottetown Mall is a

shopping mall A shopping mall (or simply mall) is a North American term for a large indoor shopping center, usually anchored by department stores. The term "mall" originally meant a pedestrian promenade with shops along it (that is, the term was used to refe ...

located in

North Carolina North Carolina () is a state in the Southeastern region of the United States. The state is the 28th largest and 9th-most populous of the United States. It is bordered by Virginia to the north, the Atlantic Ocean to the east, Georgia and So ...

. The first enclosed shopping mall, it opened on October 28, 1959.

Atlanta Atlanta ( ) is the capital and most populous city of the U.S. state of Georgia. It is the seat of Fulton County, the most populous county in Georgia, but its territory falls in both Fulton and DeKalb counties. With a population of 498,715 ...

Lenox Square Lenox Square is a shopping mall in the Buckhead district of Atlanta, Georgia. With 198 tenants and of gross leasable area, it is the third-largest mall in Georgia. The mall is currently owned and managed by Simon Property Group, and is consider ...

opened two months earlier, but it was an open-air mall at first. The mall was situated on a parcel on the southeastern fringes of Charlotte's "center city" area.

Rouse Company The Rouse Company, founded by Hunter Moss and James W. Rouse in 1939, was a publicly held shopping mall and community developer from 1956 until 2004, when General Growth Properties (GGP) purchased the company. Beginnings - Moss-Rouse Company T ...

was the mall's developers.

Stores and design

The center featured one

anchor store In retail, an "anchor tenant", sometimes called an "anchor store", "draw tenant", or "key tenant", is a considerably larger tenant in a shopping mall, often a department store or retail chain. They are typically located at the ends of malls. Wit ...

: Bon Marché, an

Asheville, North Carolina Asheville ( ) is a city in, and the county seat of, Buncombe County, North Carolina. Located at the confluence of the French Broad and Swannanoa rivers, it is the largest city in Western North Carolina, and the state's 11th-most populous cit ...

-based department store with no connection to the Seattle-based retailer of the same name. Other major tenants included

Colonial Stores Colonial Stores was a chain grocery stores once found throughout much of the South. Most were transformed to Big Star Markets in the 1970s and later most became Harris Teeter or A&P. History David Pender Grocery Company The chain evolved ...

supermarket, Rose's five and dime,

Eckerd Drug Eckerd Corporation was an American drug store chain that was headquartered in Largo, Florida, and toward the end of its life, in Warwick, Rhode Island. The chain had approximately 2,800 stores in 23 states as far west as Arizona. In November 199 ...

and Milton's, a posh Ivy League haberdasher. The mall was mostly one-story, although the "Central Mall" (middle of the mall) featured a second level with an auditorium and an

S&W Cafeteria S&W Cafeteria was a Charlotte, North Carolina-based chain of cafeteria-style restaurants. The chain specialized in low-cost, Southern-style food. Branches were located in the Southeastern United States from Washington, D.C. to Atlanta, Georgia. ...

. The "Central Mall" also featured a fountain, bird cages, and tropical foliage.

Logo and Advertising

Charlottetown Mall had a distinctive crown logo that was on all of its public trash cans and on the door handles at all the entrances/exits. This logo was designed by Dorr M. Depew, owner/operator of Depew Advertising, the Charlotte firm that provided graphic and advertising support for the new mall. Depew also wrote and produced radio commercials for the new mall, using Edwin Franko Goldman's well-known concert march "On The Mall" as the musical background.

Fate

By 1964, Bon Marché had closed at the mall; their store was quickly replaced by

Ivey's Ivey's (J.B. Ivey & Company), a former department store chain, was acquired by Dillard's, Inc. in 1990. Ivey's was based in Charlotte, North Carolina, and was founded in 1900 by Joseph Benjamin (J. B.) Ivey. History J. B. Ivey opened the first Iv ...

. Two other malls which opened in Charlotte - SouthPark Mall and Eastland Mall (in 1970 and 1975, respectively) soon grew to draw business away from Charlottetown Mall, causing the older, smaller mall to decline. Charlottetown was first renovated in the 1980s, when it was converted into an

outlet center An outlet store, factory outlet or factory shop is a brick and mortar or online store in which manufacturers sell their stock directly to the public. Traditionally, a factory outlet was a store attached to a factory or warehouse, sometimes allowin ...

(though several traditional stores were retained) and renamed "Outlet Square".

converted its store to an outlet store before closing altogether. Eventually, the former Ivey's was taken over by

Burlington Coat Factory Burlington, formerly known as Burlington Coat Factory, is an American national off-price department store retailer, and a division of Burlington Coat Factory Warehouse Corporation with more than 1,000 stores in 40 states and Puerto Rico, with it ...

. The mall was renovated a second time in 1989 and renamed "Midtown Square," and two parking garages were added. Unfortunately, neither of the renovations resuscitated the rapidly dying mall. The

was converted to a

Big Star Markets Big Star was an American supermarket chain founded in 1937 as part of the David Pender Grocery Company. History The Big Star stores were self-service supermarket operations which began to replace the small full-service stores Pender's had operated ...

, and later to

Harris Teeter Harris Teeter Supermarkets, Inc., also known as Harris Teeter Neighborhood Food & Pharmacy, is an American supermarket chain based in Matthews, North Carolina, a suburb of Charlotte. , the chain operates 261 stores in seven South Atlantic states ...

before closing in 1988. After several years in

dead mall A dead mall (also known as a ghost mall, zombie mall, or abandoned mall) is a shopping mall with a high vacancy rate or a low consumer traffic level, or that is deteriorating in some manner. Many malls in North America are considered "dead ...

status, Midtown Square closed. The mall and the cinemas - which also closed - were bulldozed in 2006. Currently, a mixed-use complex was built on the sites of the old cinema and shopping mall. The retail segment will include a two-story

, with Home Depot Design Center on the first floor and

Target Target may refer to: Physical items * Shooting target, used in marksmanship training and various shooting sports ** Bullseye (target), the goal one for which one aims in many of these sports ** Aiming point, in field artillery, fi ...

on the second. In addition, the complex will feature of additional retail, as well as condominiums, offices, and restaurants. The project, being developed in a joint venture by Charlotte-based Pappas Properties / Collette Associates and Birmingham-based Colonial Properties Trust, is scheduled to open in late 2007.

External links

uptown magazine: Uptown Charlotte's intown neighborhoods

Metropolitan, "Charlotte’s First Urban Mixed-Use Community"
{{Charlotte malls Defunct shopping malls in the United States Shopping malls in Charlotte, North Carolina Shopping malls established in 1959