According to Patrick, "If you were facing Sears, the stores on the right side were Richman Brothers, Julie's, Thom McAn, and Chess King. I believe Pet-A-Rama, Stride Rite, and Brittains were on the other side of the aisle. The area directly in front of Sears was very open and had huge columns and large sky-lights."
Thank you to Patrick for these contributions.
SouthPark, Charlotte, North Carolina. View of Brittains, 1975. (Pat Richardson)
SouthPark, Charlotte, North Carolina. View of Thom McAn and Chess King, 1975. (Pat Richardson)
SouthPark, Charlotte, North Carolina. View of Chess King, 1975. (Pat Richardson)
SouthPark, Charlotte, North Carolina. View of Richman Borthers, Julie's and Thom McAn, 1975. (Pat Richardson)
SouthPark, Charlotte, North Carolina. View of Richman Brothers, Julie's and Sears, 1975. (Pat Richardson)
SouthPark, Charlotte, North Carolina. View of Stride Rite and public phones, 1975. (Pat Richardson)
SouthPark, Charlotte, North Carolina. View of Pet-A-Rama, 1975. (Pat Richardson)
A mid-1970s ad for Pet-A-Rama, SouthPark mall, Charlotte, North Carolina. (Pat Richardson)
A mid-1970s ad for Slug's Choice, SouthPark mall, Charlotte, North Carolina. Before The Cheesecake Factory arrived, Slug's Choice was THE restaurant of its era at SouthPark. (Pat Richardson)UPDATE - 6/24/07
SouthPark, Charlotte, North Carolina. Aerial view of Ivey's, 1976. (Pat Richardson)Patrick Richardson found a great aerial photgraph of Ivey's SouthPark from an old edition of The Charlotte Observer. You can see Belk and the mall entrance in the background as well.
Thanks again to Patrick for these contributions.
Previously on LiveMalls
The Evolution of the Fountain Court at SouthPark
Belk, SouthPark
Dillard's (former Ivey's), SouthPark
Macy's (former Thalhimers and Hecht's), SouthPark
Neiman Marcus, SouthPark
Nordstrom, SouthPark
former Sears, SouthPark
Thom McAn..... just when you thought it was safe to go back to the mall. I always wondered, as a kid, "Is he a real guy?"
ReplyDeleteFrom what I can tell, there really was a Thom McAn. I think he'd be a little disappointed about his products these days, but still...
ReplyDeleteBack then sports shoes weren’t the thing as they are now.
DeleteWow!!! Thanks for posting these, Steve! They're great.
ReplyDeleteWhat is/was Richman Bros? I know they're not at SP anymore, but are they still around elsewhere? Everybody else I've heard of, at least.
The first time I went to SP was in 2004, and Sears was still standing, albeit closed. I do remember it being very open, though. And at the time, they had walled off the entrance to Sears, but there still was an open door that you could access a corridor which ran down the front of Sears. (I assume this led to the parking lots on the side of the store.) I stuck my head in the door, and remember seeing the typical Sears frontage decor, but I didn't venture past that.
At least that's how I remember it...
Oh well...hindsight is 20/20, right?
Richamn Brothers was a high end mens' clothing store, suits etc. My first job as a cashier at 16, in 1976. They had a seamstress on site and would alter suits purchased off the rack. Lots of of polyester blend print dress shirts with wide collars and poly blend dress pants with bell bottoms. At that time Julie's had moved from next door and Richman Brothers had expanded to take up their space. Next door was Just Pants and across was Eckerds, which had a counter grill and the most amazing hot dogs! To one side of Sears was Morrisons Cafeteria, and the other had a barber shop and Mels subs.
DeleteGlad you asked, Matt. The Richman Brothers Company was an apparel retailer and was established in Cleveland in 1879. They were known to have "The World's Greatest Clothing Factory."
ReplyDeleteF.W. Woolworth Co. purchased the Richman Brothers Company in 1969 and expanded it to malls around the country before folding it into its Anderson-Little division and closing for good in the 1980s.
The Sears wing has changed the most at SouthPark. I remember when I first went there in 1992, there was still Morrison's Cafeteria, Eckerd Drugs, Tracks Music and Lady Foot Locker. Nowadays you can barely tell where any of that stuff was, much less Sears.
Right along the shared wall between Sears and the mall, there was a long hallway with entrances at each end that led to the parking lots. There wasn't much on those hallways, only a couple of smallish stores with glass storefronts. You can see a little bit of the opposite wall to Sears inside Urban Outfitters.
What an awesome site! I would love to do a history of this great mall. The memories I have from back in the 70s of this mall...it is crazy! I forgot about Thom McAn. I loved the Mel's diner at the opposite end where the Urban Outfitters is now...down that hallway towards the parking lot to the east Sears entrance. Lots of great memories. If anyone has other pictures of the mall they would like to share, please let me know at cis_10@hotmail.com
ReplyDeleteOops...didn't want to be anonymous...sorry about that!
ReplyDeleteThanks for identifying yourself Keith ;-)
ReplyDeleteIf anyone has any pictures they'd like to share here as well, contact me.
There was also a Richman Brothers store at the time South Square Mall opened in 1975. It was on the upper level of the mall near the food court and Montgomery Ward. The Anderson-Little store was on the lower level of the mall next door to THE GAP, KIRKLAND's and J.C. PENNEY. I'm surprised that the Anderson-Little stayed in business at South Square that long before it closed it's doors in 1995. After that,South Square went downhill with several stores closing their doors forever before it was completely demolished in 2001,when it had competition with the bigger and better Streets of Southpoint that opened in 2002 just off Interstate 40 and Fayetteville Road in Durham.
ReplyDeleteI managed that Chess King in '73. Started out as a part-timer, eventually ended up as a buyer in their New York office. Thom McAn was part of the same parent corporation (Melville), as was Foxmoor on the other side of this store. On the other side of Foxmoor, Record Bar and Chick-Fil-A. Great times, great memories. Thanks for posting!
ReplyDeleteThanks for sharing your story.
DeleteHi, Steve. I'm trying to learn who owned or managed Chess King back then. A friend thought one person was named Tom Stallings.
ReplyDeleteThere was a Tom Stallings managing it at one point - somewhere around '72/73. He hired me, actually.
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