Edgewater Mall is an enclosed

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

Biloxi, Mississippi Biloxi ( ; ) is a city in and one of two county seats of Harrison County, Mississippi, United States (the other being the adjacent city of Gulfport). The 2010 United States Census recorded the population as 44,054 and in 2019 the estimated popu ...

, United States. Opened in 1963, its anchor stores are

Belk Belk, Inc. is an American department store chain founded in 1888 by William Henry Belk in Monroe, North Carolina, with nearly 300 locations in 16 states. Belk stores and Belk.com offer apparel, shoes, accessories, cosmetics, home furnishings, ...

Dillard's Dillard's, Inc. is an upscale American department store chain with approximately 282 stores in 29 states and headquartered in Little Rock, Arkansas. Currently, the largest number of stores are located in Texas with 57 and Florida with 42. The ...

JCPenney Penney OpCo LLC, doing business as JCPenney and often abbreviated JCP, is a midscale American department store chain operating 667 stores across 49 U.S. states and Puerto Rico. Departments inside JCPenney stores include Mens, Womens, Boys, Gir ...

, and Premiere Cinemas.

History

The mall was built in 1963 as Edgewater Plaza. Among its first tenants were Godchaux's,

Gayfers Gayfer's was a regional department store chain in the southern United States. Based in Mobile, Alabama, the chain of stores operated from 1879 until 1998 when it was taken over by Dillard's. History C.J. Gayfer migrated to Mobile, Alabama, from ...

, and

J. J. Newberry J. J. Newberry's was an American five and dime store chain in the 20th century. It was founded in Stroudsburg, Pennsylvania, United States, in 1911 by John Josiah Newberry (1877–1954). J. J. Newberry learned the variety store business by working ...

. In the early 1970s, the mall was expanded with a new wing ending at

Sears Sears, Roebuck and Co. ( ), commonly known as Sears, is an American chain of department stores founded in 1892 by Richard Warren Sears and Alvah Curtis Roebuck and reincorporated in 1906 by Richard Sears and Julius Rosenwald, with what began a ...

. The addition of this wing required the demolition of the Edgewater Gulf Hotel. Sears opened in July 1972. J. J. Newberry closed in 1979 and became

the same year.

McCrory Stores McCrory Stores or J.G. McCrory's was a chain of five and dime stores in the United States based in York, Pennsylvania. The stores typically sold shoes, clothing, housewares, fabrics, penny candy, toys, cosmetics, and often included a lunch coun ...

operated a dime store in the mall until 1996. A year later, the mall underwent a major expansion and renovation program that included the addition of

McRae's McRae's was a mid-range regional department store chain founded and based in Jackson, Mississippi, with locations in Mississippi, Alabama, Louisiana, and Florida. The nameplate was in existence for more than a century. History Samuel P. McRae fo ...

(now

) as an anchor, along with the expansion of the JCPenney and Sears stores. A second story was added to the Sears store, while the JCPenney store was expanded into a space previously occupied by a

Jitney Jungle Jitney Jungle was a chain of supermarkets that began in Jackson, Mississippi, in 1919. It was a private Forbes 500 company and one of the largest privately held grocery store chains in the United States. It was acquired by Winn-Dixie in 2000. Or ...

supermarket. The Gayfers chain was sold to

in 1998. The mall was damaged by

Hurricane Katrina Hurricane Katrina was a destructive Category 5 Atlantic hurricane that caused over 1,800 fatalities and $125 billion in damage in late August 2005, especially in the city of New Orleans and the surrounding areas. It was at the time the cost ...

in 2005. Sears was the first store to reopen after the hurricane. Dillard's, which suffered the most damage from the hurricane, was rebuilt and did not reopen until 2008. In June 2017, Sears announced that its store at the mall would close in September 2017, dropping the number of anchors from 4 to 3. In November 2018,

Premiere Cinemas Premiere Cinemas, officially known as Premiere Cinema Corporation., headquartered in Big Spring, Texas, is a privately held motion picture exhibitor. It is among the largest independently owned motion picture exhibitors in the U.S. and is ranked by ...

opened in the former Sears location.

References

External links

Official website
{{Shopping malls in Mississippi Shopping malls established in 1963 Shopping malls in Mississippi Buildings and structures in Biloxi, Mississippi

History

See also

References

External links