Lenox Square, Atlanta, Georgia. Exterior view, December 31, 2007. (photo courtesy cantnot of Grocerying)

Macy's, Lenox Square, Atlanta, Georgia. Exterior view (with The Great Tree), December 31, 2007. (photo courtesy cantnot of Grocerying)

Bloomingdale's, Lenox Square, Atlanta, Georgia. Exterior view, December 31, 2007. (photo courtesy cantnot of Grocerying)

Neiman Marcus, Lenox Square, Atlanta, Georgia. Exterior view, December 31, 2007. (photo courtesy cantnot of Grocerying)

Cotswold Mall, Charlotte, North Carolina

Updated (5/6/08) with vintage aerial view

Cotswold Mall, Charlotte, North Carolina. Cover of mailing from early days of the mall. (courtesy Pat Richardson)

Cotswold Mall, Charlotte, North Carolina. Aerial view of shopping center, 1966. (courtesy Pat Richardson)

Cotswold Mall, Charlotte, North Carolina. Interior mall view, date unknown. (courtesy Pat Richardson)

Cotswold Mall, Charlotte, North Carolina. Interior mall view, date unknown. (courtesy Pat Richardson)


Cotswold Mall, Charlotte, North Carolina. Moonlight Madness Sale advertisement, February, 28, 1975 (Pat Richardson)

Cotswold Mall wasn't Charlotte's first enclosed mall (that distinction goes to Charlottetown Mall), but it was the first that was truly in the suburbs. Anchored by Harris Teeter, Ivey's, Roses, and The Collins Company, Cotswold Mall opened in the 1960s and featured both interior and exterior entrances for its stores.

Various remodeling schemes and anchor changes would change Cotswold Mall from an enclosed mall to exclusively a open-air center with a neighborhood focus, but it still stands, fully occupied, at the corner of Randolph Road and Sharon Amity Road, not far from SouthPark.

Before & After | Thalhimers / Hecht's; SouthPark, Chalortte, North Carolina

Updated with "real" Hecht's picture and additional text. (4/17/08)

Thalhimers (later Hecht's and Macy's), SouthPark mall, Charlotte, North Carolina. Mall entrance, 1991. (courtesy Pat Richardson)

Hecht's (former Thalhimers, later Macy's), SouthPark mall, Charlotte, North Carolina. Mall entrance with "photoshopped" Hecht's signage, 1992. (courtesy Pat Richardson)

Hecht's (former Thalhimers, later Macy's), SouthPark mall, Charlotte, North Carolina. Mall entrance, 1994. (scanned from SouthPark directory)

Two of these photos were taken approximately three years apart, and one of them is a placeholder created by SouthPark mall in the interim as a placeholder. Can you spot the fake? Several LiveMalls posters have.

In 1990, Thalhimers, the Richmond, Virginia-based unit of Carter Hawley Hale Stores, was purchased by the May Department Stores Company which operated the chain (which included the above location at SouthPark, opened in 1988) as a separate division until 1992, when it was folded into May's Hecht's division, which was based in Washington, D.C.

Previously on LiveMalls
Macy's (Thalhimers/Hecht's), SouthPark

The Collins Company; Charlotte, North Carolina

The Collins Company; Cotswold Mall, Charlotte, North Carolina. Exterior view, circa 1966. (courtesy Pat Richardson)

The Collins Company; Charlotte, North Carolina. Newspaper advertisement, circa 1976. (courtesy Pat Richardson)

The Collins Company; Charlotte, North Carolina. Newspaper advertisement, circa 1972. (courtesy Pat Richardson)

The Collins Company was a regional chain of specialty department stores.

Miller & Rhoads; Eastland Mall, Charlotte, North Carolina

Miller & Rhoads, Eastland Mall, Charlotte, North Carolina. Apparel advertisement, circa 1978. (courtesy Pat Richardson)

Miller & Rhoads, Eastland Mall, Charlotte, North Carolina. Cosmetics advertisement, circa 1981. (courtesy Pat Richardson)

Miller & Rhoads, Eastland Mall, Charlotte, North Carolina. Sale advertisement, circa 1981. (courtesy Pat Richardson)

In the mid-1970s, Richmond, Virginia based department store chain Miller & Rhoads opened a number of specialty department stores in new malls throughout Virginia and North Carolina, including this two-level location at Eastland Mall in Charlotte.

Although modestly successful, Miller & Rhoads specialty stores began closing shortly after the chain's parent company, Garfinkel, Brooks Brothers, Miller & Rhoads, was acquired by Allied Stores in 1982. By 1986, Allied had exited the North Carolina market except for Raleigh, whose Miller & Rhoads store closed in 1990 when the chain went out of business.