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Northwest Mall History


IronTiger

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OK, I recently went to Northwest Mall and was amazed how even though it was long past glory days, it was still relatively well occupied. It was the first time I had ever gone there in person.

 

What I want to know more about is that little building in front of Foley's / Macy's.

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/8243916/mysterybuilding.png

I seem to remember that it was a CiCi's Pizza until a few years ago, but what it did it start out as? The answer came when I was looking for a PDF of the mall, it had a site plan with Foley's, JCPenney, an outparcel movie theater (later SRO, now El Chapparal?), a tiny post office (even closer to the freeway, gone by '95), "JCPenney T.B.A." (the old JCPenney auto center, later Firestone), and "Foley's T.B.A." (this building).

 

Was it a Foley's Auto Center? I mean, there was one downtown, so it's not out of the question entirely, is it?

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It was an automotive something or another,but I don't think it was affliated with Foleys (I think it was a Bridgestone tire dealer, maybe a Firestone). A lot of the parking area and pad buildings are gone due to the 610 expansion and road construction.

 

The fact the Northwest Mall is still standing amazes me. Not only is it LONG past redemption, but parts of it are unusable (Foley's/Macy's was done in by Hurricane Ike). I haven't been there in over twenty years but drive past it daily. The only activity I ever see around it is construction equipment...it doesn't get many customers.

 

The Galleria is less than three miles up 610 from it. The best thing for that place is to be torn down...that will probably happen in the next few years.

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Firestone is on Hempstead Road, it was Penney's auto center until '83.

 

I got the idea from http://mallimages.mallfinder.com/Glimcher/dimages/oldpdfs/NorthwestMall.pdf'>here (page 24).

 

It's obviously some years out of date, but "JCPenney T.B.A." is the auto center, the Post Office is gone, the theater is now El Chapparal, and Foley's T.B.A., which IIRC was Cici's Pizza at last count, was possibly...what?

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  • 1 month later...

When the mall first opened the auto store was part of Foley's.  I believe the downtown store also used to have a tire store way back when I was young- it was in the parking garage building across the street where the Foley's deli was later.  Right across from the bakery section in the downtown Foley's.  Anyway, when Foley started streamlining and focusing more on clothes, they dropped things like the bakery, sporting goods, books, audio, and the tire stores.  At that point the NW mall tire shop became an independent store.  Moved away from the area and started going to different malls so I don't know when it closed for good.

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  • 8 months later...

The name of that tire shop in front of Foley's was Jim Ross. Acamarillo is correct, it was part of Foley*s and Penney's auto center was on Hempstead Highway, which later became Firestone. Where Cici's was, originally was Beall's department store. Cici's was a part of the actual mall building, but you could not access it through the inside. The same was true with CompUSA. Only entrance was outside.

I wish I'd have known you were going to check out NW mall. You could've seen some goodies that the general public doesn't know about...like the mostly intact Woolworth's lunch counter and restaurant that's still buried within the confines of the mighty Northwest.

IronTiger, Foley*s used to sell everything. Appliances, electronics, yard equipment, pretty much whatever you needed. They had to have a variety of goods, if nothing else, just to fill that 10 story beauty on Main.

NW Mall will not be NW Commons anytime soon, lol.

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I was trying to find a relatively complete list of the stores that were in Northwest Mall when it opened, but the closest thing I found was a partial list in the Bayou City History column on the mall from last year:

 

http://blog.chron.com/bayoucityhistory/2012/05/northwest-mall-in-pictures/#5327101=0

 

I had been trying without success to remember the name of a restaurant that used to be in the mall, but after reading this I'm pretty sure it was Le Petit. My recollection of it was that it served fare that was slightly better than fast food, with a cafeteria-style line you went through to place and pick up your order. It was also a bit more dimly-lit than the rest of the mall and was not in a fully-enclosed storefront, but had only a waist-high wall separating it from the mall corridor. Purpledevil, do you remember this place?

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My sources (an old book from the 1970s called "Houston Today", checked it out from a library) say that Almeda Mall and Northwest Mall both had 71 stores at start (this may or may not include the department stores). If you find the Almeda Mall store opening list, you've found Northwest Mall's.

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there was a hey day for NW Mall?  lol

 

Considering its close to the Galleria and then Northline and caught in an odd location...was it designed to succeed?

 

 Imagine if HISD's facilities weren't located on it....how dead would it really be.

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there was a hey day for NW Mall?  lol

 

Considering its close to the Galleria and then Northline and caught in an odd location...was it designed to succeed?

 

 Imagine if HISD's facilities weren't located on it....how dead would it really be.

HISD HQ is down the road a bit, not at the mall.

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Um...Northline was open before NW. Only mall that preceded Northline was Gulfgate, and Palms Center if you count it as a mall. I never set foot in the Galleria until I was a teenager, in the 80's, but it seems like The Galleria opened fairly quickly after NW.

...and yes, NW Mall had a heyday! Lol. HISD is across 18th. They do nothing to help the mall's occupancy, other than employees eating at the food court.

Mkultra25: I remember the place you're talking about, but I don't think the name was Le Petit. Seems like Le Petit was the name of the clothing store that catered to smaller sized women.

The most dimly lit restaurant in the mall was always El Chico, to me. That was directly across from Piccadilly's in the food court.

As for the article, thanks! I had never seen that story in the Chron. That B. Dalton's mentioned, which was in the Penney's wing to the left of Visible Changes, was where I'd go to get my Pro Wrestling Illustrated fix. The Battlestein's was what Beall's was before it was Beall's.

My problem is that I don't know what's occupying the spaces now, so I can't give an accurate description of what's there now, only what used to be. I haven't set foot inside NW since Piccadilly's closed. When i saw the white wall covering the entrance, the wife and i turned back around, got in the car, and headed to Almeda. Same exact Piccadilly's, only dressed up in green accents. God, I used to love watching the trays move down that conveyor belt at Piccadilly's. I was such a dorky kid.

Methinks I'm going to go to NW Mall sometime real soon and document what occupies the space now, and what it was in my childhood and post my findings here, if you guys and gals are interested in seeing such a thing.

Anyone remember the kick ass boat that Foley*s had in the kids shoes department?

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I know my colleague and I walked around the mall and took a couple of pictures. The fountain outside of what was Penney's still works, at least as of April of last year. Antique mall's huge. I didn't buy anything, but I know I didn't walk the entire building.

 

It's still pretty neat, but I feel that time is ultimately running out for it.  :(

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I liked eating at that Woolworths lunch counter. Some of my favorite burgers ever.

 

Most people don't realize before we got to the era of big box specialty stores, the major chains - sears, penneys, wards, foleys - all sold a full line of goods. You name it, they probably had it.

 

Two of my favorite stores in NW were H&H Music, right outside of Penneys and near Woolworths, where I got my trumpet, and Farrells ice cream in the 80s.

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That's what was next to Ritz Camera! H&H Music! Could not think of the name of it, thank you, acamarillo!

I checked with my sister, the clothing store I thought was Le Petit was actually called "Petite Sophisticate". So, Le Petit may have indeed been that restaurant's name. My sister said she believes it was named Madeline's, but that don't sound right, at all.

Farrell's Ice Cream...man does that bring back memories. Orange Julius was always my favorite place in the mall when I was young, but a Farrell's banana split couldn't be matched.

IronTiger, you said the antique center is huge, and it was a pretty good sized J.C. Penney's, but my brother in law went to check it out after it opened and said that the center was only occupying the first floor, with the escalators encased in yellow boarding and the elevator blocked off. Are they using the upstairs now? I'd be interested in knowing what they are using the old catalog, hair salon, and optometrist areas for now. I have got to go look for myself. I hope Carolyn Thompson doesn't frown on picture taking.

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Anyone remember the kick ass boat that Foley*s had in the kids shoes department?

 

A stroke of genius from a sales & marketing perspective. Every kid I knew whose parents shopped at that Foley's was always eager to go shopping for shoes there so they could get on the boat. Has anyone ever come up with a more effective way to actually get kids excited about shoe shopping?

 

IronTiger, you said the antique center is huge, and it was a pretty good sized J.C. Penney's, but my brother in law went to check it out after it opened and said that the center was only occupying the first floor, with the escalators encased in yellow boarding and the elevator blocked off. Are they using the upstairs now? I'd be interested in knowing what they are using the old catalog, hair salon, and optometrist areas for now. I have got to go look for myself. I hope Carolyn Thompson doesn't frown on picture taking.

 

When I went there several months ago, only the first floor was in use. I had been to the Antique Center in its old location and wanted to check things out in the new one. I'd bet they're using the upstairs for storage, if anything. 

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You are sure right mkultra. It was a great thing to give our parents a break from us too, I'm sure. They used to have to drag me off that boat. Funny story now, not so much then. My mother got so fed up with me one time, she went to the men's counter, purchased a belt, marched me outside the door, and proceeded to "explain to me" why I should get off the boat when she tells me to.

I'll never forget, the salesman asked her what size belt she needed. Her response, of course, was "big enough to whip his ass". I bet you can imagine how I felt getting whipped in front of the entrance while other parents and their kids were peering and pointing. Ah yes, "the good old days", lol.

I'm going to go check out the mall for myself. I haven't been in it in several years, and I'm interested to see how full it is now, since you said it was pretty full on your visit, IronTiger. It had gotten pretty low on tenants once I quit going to the mall several years ago. The Penney's wing looked almost haunted with Penney's and Old Navy shuttered back then. Just got to figure out how to explain to the wife exactly why I suddenly want to go to NW Mall and take pictures. I figure she's going to give me quite a look...

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So I happened to be in the area late yesterday afternoon and decided to take a quick detour over to the mall. If you haven't been in some time, you will probably be quite surprised to see how close the new road expansion comes to the old Foley's/Macy's building. Also, if you ever wanted to see the unmistakable paraboloid roof of Delmar Fieldhouse again, now's the time, as demolition is well underway (Swamplot recently reported that a demo permit had been pulled, so I expected it to happen quickly). 

 

My last few trips to the mall had all been on weekends, and if not "pretty full", there were a decent number of people wandering around. Not so around 4PM on a weekday - it was absolutely deserted. I think there were more retail employees than customers in the entire mall. Since it was way past lunchtime, the food court visitors had already come and gone, so I'm not sure how much lunch traffic there is. When I used to work near Greenspoint several years ago, I'd occasionally hit the food court there for lunch, and it was invariably packed with workers from the nearby office buildings (Exxon, etc.) while the rest of the mall had very light traffic. 

 

I didn't go into the Antique Center as I only had a few minutes to spare, but there were some cars parked outside the entrance, so maybe they're doing more business than the other stores. 

 

I hadn't really noticed before, but the decor of the old Woolworth's store does appear to be mostly intact. The windows are blocked off from the back so they can be used as display cases advertising some of the other stores, but there's enough of a gap at the top of where they're blocked off that the original wallpaper inside is clearly visible. I'd love to see what else remains inside there.  

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Well....the restaurant area is still there, but the actual Woolworth's store is long gone. The exterior side is (or was) SRO, the mall side is a hodge-podge of small retail, last I saw of it.

I'm going to take whatever pics I can, hopefully this weekend. Not sure how stringent NW security is these days, and whether or not they'll allow me to snap freely within the mall.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

I asked this in another thread, does anyone know how to post pictures from the mobile site? I don't see anyway to attach pics, and I'd like to share several sets that I have. Someone requested my pics of Kaplan's Ben Hur, and I have all kinds of other pictures from my growing up in the Heights during the 70s that I think would interest some of my fellow posters.

I mean, it appears that most people that know of 1407 Studewood as Fiesta, or Clayton's, or maybe even Weingarten's. I have a half an album of pictures when it was Carl Cohen owned "Studewood Food Market" from the 60s & 70s, because my mother ran the snack bar in the back for 20 some odd years. Yes, that store had a full separate snack bar next to the meat market back in the day, not the steam line that was in the front by the door.

Any of you that may frequent Jimmy's Ice House on White Oak ought to know "Bitsy". If so, I can show you a picture of her as a very young woman. (I used to have a crush on her when I was a little kid) If she were to ever read this, she'd know who I am pretty quickly. I just can't attach....help! E-mail is great, here on the forum, or whatever. I certainly would like to share my memories. :-)

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My favorite memory of Northwest Mall (well, I only went there once) was with one of my friends, while waiting for the antiques center to open, I looked at the inactive fountain that's in the court and lamented of the fate of the mall fountain. And hey presto, it turned on almost immediately after, almost as if someone had seen us looking at it and decided to flip it on that day. (I may or may not have written anything on Yelp about the antique center)

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