There are actually two shopping malls
in my home town, and the subject of this blog is actually a fair ways
east of the bigger, more
popular one.
About a year ago, I
had mentioned that I was planning on doing a photo-blog sort of thing
about the shopping mall I'd used as the base of operations for the
Mystery Science Theater fan series I was doing in the early 2000s.
I'd intended to just go there, get the pictures I needed and get it
all written up and posted by the end of the year. Unfortunately,
life happened, and things didn't work out quite as planned, as they
tend to.
In the last couple
months, however, I've managed to remedy that, at least to some
extent. I'm more in a place where I think I should just get on with
it, and the “urban explorers” and “retail documentarians”
that inspired me in the first place are still kind of a thing on
YouTube. With that in mind, I may as well get this knocked out and
see if any of my favorite “retail recorders” might be interested
in having a look at an old mall in Sioux Falls.
As
much as I'd like to give more history than I'm going to here, the
only thing I could find that said much useful without getting into
college-level research was this
2015 article in the Argus Leader, that basically says it opened
in November, 1968, and has been through some major changes in the
last 50 years or so.
I don't recall
having done much actual shopping there over the course of my life.
I've spent a fair amount of money at the Best Buy, and still pay
regular, if infrequent, visits to the arcade and movie theater there,
but beyond that, there really hasn't been much there for places I've
needed to shop.
To start the
pictures off, here are the outside signs telling us the name of the
place:
I think this one
may be what remains of the original sign for the place, telling us
some of what's in there, including the theaters and Hancock Fabrics,
which I think is still there. Now, I know the logo has changed in
recent years. I can't remember what it was before, but I do remember
it being different when I was a kid. And the big digital billboard
they've got there now used to be the marqee for the movie theaters.
I know they changed that out in the last five to 10 years because it
was still movies only when I moved into my current apartment 12 years
ago. But that's not the only thing that's changed:
The whole
“Professional Center” thing makes sense, what with all the
bankers and lawyers and whatnot that have offices there now,
alongside what remains of the retail.
As for the retail,
at present, there are what I'd call three anchor stores: Scheels
Sporting Goods, South Dakota Furniture Mart, and the previously
mentioned Best Buy:
From
here, it's time to have a look at some of what's inside the mall. I
quite like the sign above the main entrance to the place, though I
should point out that yes, this is my own picture in spite of how
similar it is to the one on the promo site the city has:
I should say that
while none of the photography here is especially great, these ones
from inside the mall were taken much closer to closing time and under
darker lighting conditions, simply because most of them were taken on
a significantly earlier trip.
With that in mind,
here's the map of the mall:
I gotta say, I
quite like the pedistal design of the map, but given my skill as a
photographer, I'm not sure there's much I could have done to avoid
getting the reflection of the light fixture there. I probably could
have tried again the day I was there getting the outdoor shots and
one or two more of the inside, but I was running low on time, so I
just skipped it. In part, it's because there's a lot of ground to
cover in there. Here's a pair of shots of the corridor my character
usually came in through on the way to “his theater”:
I'm not entirely
sure, but I think some of the store fronts in that hall had changed
between when I took the short shot and when I took the long one. It
was kind of hard to tell, though, and I didn't pay as much attention
as I should have.
This is where the
movie theater was in the mall originally, and I remember it being at
that location when I was a kid in the early and mid 1980s, as I went
there to see at least one movie with friends. It took them awhile to
make it into something else when the theater moved to its current
location and became a multiplex because I remember still seeing the
old box office, at least, there when I was in high school in the 90s.
It's been a few things since, most recently a gym of some sort, if
memory serves.
This is supposed to
be where the mall's public restrooms are. They were closed for
remodeling when I took this shot. I didn't really have a decent
chance to take a better one on my more recent trip, though I don't
think I could have done any better anyway. I think these may have
been the ones from the movie theater.
I thought this
little table was neat. There were a few of these around, but the
benches like the one in the top left were more common.
As for retail,
there wasn't much that stood out. Aside from the arcade and the
theater, the only one that stood out was the hearing aid place:
I think I may have
gone to grade school with the daughter of the people who owned this
place in the 80s. That was a long time ago, though, so I might be
misremembering.
The Electric
Rainbow may be the only proper arcade of its sort left in town. It's
the only one I know of, at least. And what's really cool about it is
that the paint job on the walls inside is holding up pretty well
after 20-plus years. Last time I looked at the murals there, the
signature was of somebody I went to high school with. I wonder what
she'd think of knowing that they're still up after all this time.
I've actually seen
quite a few movies in the West Mall 7. In the late 80s and 90s, it
was a regular, first run place that showed the same new movies as the
other theaters in town. There's a part of me that wants to say it
was out of business for awhile, but I'm not entirely sure how
accurate that is, simply because I didn't have much time or money for
movies between when I got out of high school and late 2001, when I
happened by and found that tickets there were going for $3 a pop
instead of the $5 or more most other places were charging. I'm not
sure when the change actually took place. I just remember finding
out by mistake when I'd gone to the mall to goof around for a while,
and decided to see the first Shrek movie since I had time and a
ticket was so cheap.
I don't think
there's anything in the storefront where these nifty lights are right
now. I think it used to be a bank, but it's since moved to another
location somewhere else in town. Since they're right near the back
way in and out of the theater, I may as well show that, too:
That
particular bit of neon has needed a little help for awhile now, but
that's understandable, considering the price of a movie ticket there
is only $3.50 now, even after all this time. That yellow newspaper
dispenser there is for the Sioux
Falls Shopping News, the local free want-ad paper. I had a route
with them when I was grade school and middle school. I kind of miss
it now, and if I thought I had the time and energy for it, I might
take one again.
That's
certainly all the pictures I've got for now, and I can't really think
of anything else to say about the place itself, so it's time to wrap
this up. I really enjoy that I can still go to the Western Mall,
though I'm honestly not sure how much longer that will last. It
wasn't especially busy either time I went there to take pictures, and
the second time was on my way home from work. I'd like to think that
this piece will be enough to inspire somebody who actually knows what
they're doing to come have a look at the place, especially if that
somebody happens to be one of the YouTubers that inspired me: This
Is Dan Bell and his Dead
Mall Series, Retail
Archaeology, and Ace's
Adventures. All three of these channels do good work, and I
always enjoy watching them. I hope a few of my readers will, as
well.
So, thanks for
reading. I hope you all liked the pictures and maybe visit the mall
sometime. Until next time, folks, stay safe, have fun, and DFTBA!
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