former Dillard's (former J.B. White), National Hills Shopping Center, Augusta, Georgia (Photgraphed 1/1/08 by cantnot)This recently closed Dillard's started life as a J.B. White department store in 1963. It became a Dillard's in 1998 when that company purchased J.B. White's parent company, Mercantile Stores.
Dillard's operated the National Hills store until early 2008, when the decision was made to permanently close this location and relocate to the new Village at Riverwatch, though at the time of this writing, a firm opening date has not been reached for the new location.
Although I've never actually been to this store, it's always struck me as kind of...odd. A non-mall Dillard's from before the current "lifestyle center" fad? And a fairly old store, at that. Still, Dillard's isn't dumb, so they must have seen something in this store to keep it around for 10 years. Was it one of those dreaded clearance centers, or was it a mainline Dillard's?
ReplyDeleteIn the early '60s, this kind of setup wasn't ubiquitous, but it wasn't uncommon either. Department stores typically would set up a suburban branch at just about any good location: freestanding, strip mall or regional mall.
ReplyDeleteI imagine Dillard's kept it for so many years because it performed well, probably skewing to an older, more affluent crowd than the typical Dillard's.