quote:Originally posted by joeycuda:
If you're looking at the Sears entrance, Record Bar was on the right. I believe it originally wasn't the one next to Sears, but the 2nd one from Sears.
Pegasus was across from there, in what later became GNC..that sort of weird corner like space. There was a dark haired girl that was pretty groovy and of course Charles Hart, who was in Radio Tokyo and later worked in the Tenn St. Pegasus. I bought a bunch of KISS tapes in that Pegasus.
Regency Square opened in '78. Southgate is indeed a very old mall to still physically exist. I read it opened in '68 with Roger's Dept Store as the sole Anchor. I'm guessing the attached Wal Mart and 2nd anchor came much later. Not sure when it opened, but the Florence Wal Mart opened in '84 and a few of the managers, including the store manager, Joe Knight, came from Woolco. Blahhh..what a tangent..
So yes..Southgate was probably still thriving around 1980. It probably had over 75% occupancy in the early 90s. Wal Mart moving was definitely a blow to it.
The old Walmart was originally a Woolcoand the mall was built on form there. There was also Thom McAnn (sp?) shoe store, Colony Men's sore, Tommie Lou's Red Rooster, Ford's Shoe store, Burney's Sportin Goods, Zale's, Baskin Robbinsins, and others. Rumor was that JcPenny was supposed to have anchored the other end, bit it fell through. And yes, it was very crowded on the weekends especially. They usually always had some sort of entertainment on the weekends. And the Christmas decorations were always better than Regency.