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| Today's post highlights Lowndes County, MS, retail. |
For today's blog post, we're digging back in the archives a bit for some pictures I took back in 2018 of what was then known as Leigh Mall, in Columbus, MS. As usual with these situations, my years of waiting have resulted in the benefit of much additional information for our story, so -- while the property's story still isn't complete -- I think now is certainly a good time to finally dive into what's been written to-date.
Leigh Mall originally opened in 1973 with anchor stores Sears, Roses, and JCPenney. Unlike many other mall properties which have obvious geographically based names, Leigh Mall was named for the previous landowner. Per an article from The Commercial Dispatch:
The story of Leigh Mall had its formal beginning in 1969 when Columbus native and Atlanta businessman Frank Leigh, who was the southern regional sales director for GM's Buick division, proposed to the mayor and city council a 300,000 square-foot, air-conditioned, enclosed shopping mall. It would be developed in association with Danville, Virginia, developer John Daniels on 30 acres at the planned intersection of Highway 45 North and the proposed Highway 82 bypass.[...After] local opposition rose up, the plans for a mall lay dormant until early 1971. Leigh was now also associated with Jim Wilson and Colonial Properties Inc., of Montgomery, Alabama, who believed it was a good commercial venture and were willing to invest in the project when local investors wouldn't. Not known for his patience, Leigh grew frustrated with some of the negotiations with a major retailer, so he and Daniels sold their interest to Wilson. The sale included the provision that the mall be called Leigh Mall as a tribute to Leigh's aunts and his family who had owned the land.
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| Courtesy Discord |
At the time of my visit to Leigh Mall in November 2018, I was convinced it was strikingly similar to the Greenville Mall on the other side of the state in the Delta, which I had photographed the year prior. As it turns out, my intuition was actually right for once. It would be a couple more years before I came across the above excerpt from the 1990 Directory of Major Malls, which listed out all Jim Wilson & Associates properties and confirmed both Greenville Mall and Leigh Mall were under the same ownership.
Both malls opened with Sears and Roses as anchor stores; as you may remember from the Greenville Mall post, Roses departed its anchor space fewer than five years after opening, making way for JCPenney to move in. Given all the other similarities, I wouldn't be surprised if Roses exited Leigh Mall similarly quickly, but because JCPenney was already an original anchor at Leigh Mall (Mississippi-based McRae's occupied the third anchor spot in Greenville), the former Roses space remained vacant as of 1990.
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| Courtesy JWA |
Not only were the properties both developed by Jim Wilson and Associates, they actually both played an early, pivotal role in the company's formation. The above timeline of Jim Wilson and Associates' history shows Greenville Mall as the very first entry in 1972, reading, "In July of 1972, a young Jim Wilson, Jr. opened Greenville Mall in Greenville, Mississippi, with McRae's, Sears, and JCPenney as anchor tenants." (There's a slight historical inaccuracy there in excluding Roses, but in fairness Roses was ultimately but a blip in the mall's history.) That's immediately followed by an entry reading, "Mr. Wilson opened Leigh Mall in Columbus, Mississippi, in February of 1973 with Sears, Roses, and JCPenney as anchor tenants." A very early photo of the mall's exterior can also be seen alongside the entry (zoom in to see it). It wasn't until 1975 that Jim Wilson and Associates was formed as an entity and opened its first property; the two Mississippi malls were opened independently by Jim Wilson, Jr. in collaboration with a company called Colonial Properties (as discussed above), and technically predated Jim Wilson and Associates proper.
Today, the company is no longer associated with either sister shopping center, but over its lifetime, it has been involved with at least two other mall properties in the state of Mississippi. In 1999, it assumed management and leasing duties for Biloxi's Edgewater Mall (not pictured on the timeline above), today a highly successful, 867,000 square-foot property (which JWA still manages). And earlier, as can be seen on the timeline, Jim Wilson and Associates' "Metrocenter Mall in Jackson, Mississippi, opened in March 1978 with Sears, Dillard's, Gayfers and McRae's as anchor tenants." (The 1990 mall directory shown earlier confirms that Dillard's was originally D.H. Holmes, which actually was added a year after the rest of the mall had opened.) This link to Mall Hall of Fame has historical information on both Edgewater and Metrocenter.
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| Courtesy newspapers.com |
While not the subject of this post, Metrocenter is certainly an interesting topic, and probably one of the most infamous when it comes to Mississippi malls. Located at the intersections of I-20, I-220, and Highway 80, Metrocenter remains the largest enclosed shopping center in the state, but has been sitting abandoned for many years. Although eventually superseded by Ridgeland's Northpark Mall, Metrocenter's decline is said to have begun not upon Northpark's opening in 1984, but rather upon Dillard's consolidating its operations -- which by that time had taken over both the D.H. Holmes and Gayfer's anchors -- to just one anchor space in 1999. Dillard's would exit the mall entirely in 2004, and Belk, who had taken over the McRae's, closed in 2009. Sears lasted until January 2012, leaving only Burlington Coat Factory, which had opened in the former Gayfer's space in 2007, as the sole anchor of the mall. The mall interior closed in August 2018, and Burlington, the last retail operation, finally closed in May 2022.
All of that is easily researched (in fact, it's just a summary from the mall's Wikipedia page), but what a lot of people don't know is that Metrocenter actually did have a brief -- if absurd -- revival post-closure. This post from Abandoned Southeast does an incredible job of sharing history and photos of the mall from its inception through to present-day. A local individual, Emily Seiferth-Sanders, purchased a portion of the mall in January 2020 and asserted that it would make a grand return, with national retailers, the food court, and studio apartments; a video walkthrough of the space with Sanders' commentary can be seen here. Emily Seiferth-Sanders, however, was a known criminal with an arrest record and jail time, and sure enough, not only did none of her plans for Metrocenter ever materialize, she also never paid any taxes on it, and was arrested again in December 2022, with the mall ownership officially transferring to the state.
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| Advertisement for "planned" developments. Courtesy Facebook |
Quite a bizarre turn of events... I do believe that the mall interior was made publicly accessible for at least some duration of time during Sanders' ownership (opening in November 2020 and still open through April and July 2021; see also the mall's Facebook page), but I was never brave enough to venture out that way. The property isn't in the safest of areas, and upkeep has been practically nonexistent, with overgrowth, potholes, and -- most recently -- a sizable water leak that has yet to be fixed, due to confusion on just who exactly owns the property and is responsible for the repair.
Based on what I wrote above, you would think that the state owns the whole mall, but that's only true for a portion of the property. The City of Jackson had previously owned several spaces, but finally absolved its interest upon selling the D.H. Holmes anchor to film producer Curtis Nichouls in 2024. (The city council discussion consisted of the following; see about 0:45 in this video: "So the city is not gonna have any interest any longer in the Metrocenter?" "No." "Sold."). Elsewhere in the mall, the City of Jackson had leased office space, but terminated its lease agreement the year prior, citing "deplorable conditions," including pests, mold, and no air conditioning. I believe there is still a separate owner for that space (and possibly other portions of the mall, too?), who evidently has done nothing to improve the conditions but did take the time to sue the city for discrimination upon exiting the lease. (A judge dismissed the lawsuit.)
All that said, Metrocenter simply refuses to die. I'm not sure of the current status of Nichouls' development, but the ultimate plan as last reported was to create a film studio and accompanying film school. And just last week, it was announced that an entity with ties to country music star Randy Travis had purchased the former Gayfers/Burlington anchor, with possible plans to open a country store and travel center -- claims which spokespeople have steadfastly denied, despite Travis being seen meeting the governor and touring the property. Whether all these grand plans actually materialize into something or simply fizzle out like Emily Seiferth-Sanders' short ownership remains to be seen, but it's all certainly worth keeping an eye on.
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| Inside the old Dillard's space, preparing for construction. Courtesy WAPT |
Anyway, that's enough about Metrocenter; let's return our attention to Leigh Mall. Our first interior photo (shown below), just as with the Greenville Mall, is of one of the payphones stationed in the mall corridors. This was the first similarity I clocked between the two malls; in looking back over these images, I've also realized that the floor tiles are the exact same at both properties.
It's worth noting, however, that the floor tiles are not original (although the payphones are). Rather, The Commercial Dispatch reported that "In 1997 Robert Lee and Coyote Development of Dallas purchased the mall and commenced a multi-million dollar renovation. On Sept. 25, 1998, the mall celebrated a grand reopening." The link I used back in my Greenville Mall post is now broken, but that mall, too, underwent a $2 million renovation in 1996; based on the identical floor tiles in both malls (which had originally opened with carpeting -- "harvest orange nylon carpet" in Greenville's case!), I'd have to assume it was the same company that purchased and renovated both properties. Presumably, this would've been when Jim Wilson and Associates divested the two sister malls.
My interior photos of the Leigh Mall are not particularly exhaustive, but at least it's more than just eight pictures like I took of the Greenville Mall interior! The first store we're stopping at is Payless ShoeSource, which should definitely give you an idea of how long I've been sitting on these pictures (if my saying they were taken in 2018, a year after Payless's first bankruptcy, hadn't already).
Outside of the Payless were some coin-operated children's rides, including one from The Busy World of Richard Scarry and one from Bob the Builder -- both of which I remember from my childhood. Next door was a closed RadioShack.
In the front right corner of the mall is a restaurant space with both interior and exterior access points. It was operating in 2018 as a hibachi place, but the architecture is quite obviously left over from its previous tenant, Garfield's Restaurant and Pub, which -- no surprise -- had an identical restaurant in the same spot in the Greenville Mall. Garfield's was still operational in Greenville at the time of my 2017 visit, but has since closed; already a broken chain back then, it appears now to be down to its last surviving location, at the documentary-famous Jasper Mall in Jasper, AL. (I may have to try and visit one day!)
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| Courtesy Colliers International |
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| Courtesy Colliers International |
The anchor space next to the Garfield's restaurant is the former Sears, now occupied by Hobby Lobby (you can also see this in the 2019 directory screenshots posted above the image). At the Greenville Mall, Sears was located on the opposite end.
Incidentally, Hobby Lobby now operates a store at the Greenville Mall, too. The former JCPenney store there, which was closing at the time of my 2017 visit -- Columbus and Oxford closed in the same round, alongside other Mississippi stores in Corinth and Meridian -- officially reopened as Hobby Lobby in May 2024, about 15 months after it was announced in February 2023. Frustratingly, there are absolutely zero images online of the new store, although I was able to find this TikTok video briefly showing the mall entrance.
Here are some mall corridor shots as we approach center court. Bath & Body Works, a mall stalwart, is visible on the left in the above pic, but otherwise most of the spaces are empty (confirmed by the directory posted previously). Bath & Body Works relocated to another spot in Columbus outside of the mall in 2024.
A little further back (closer to the Hobby Lobby) were some more lively spaces, although the Kirkland's shown above in 2018 had already closed a year later according to that 2019 mall directory. I suppose the older Kirkland's logo could probably have acted as a hint of the store's status. Not to go off on too many tangents, but I've got two further discussion points regarding Kirkland's. First, I thought it was nice that they revived this logo in their 58th anniversary marketing this past year (see below).
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| Seen at the Southaven, MS, Kirkland's in September 2024 |
Second is that the Mid-South chain (originally founded in Jackson, TN, in 1966) did not survive into 2025 under independent ownership. The company reported that it was nearing a bankruptcy filing in 2023; a lifeline came in October 2024 by way of an arrangement with Beyond, Inc. (fka Overstock), which provided funds to pay off Kirkland's existing debt in exchange for new debt that will convert to equity shares owned by Beyond. Beyond initially planned to rebrand select Kirkland's stores as "Bed Bath & Beyond Home," as I shared in this blog post last November.
This May, after reporting substantial doubt about its ability to continue as a going concern, Kirkland's fully relinquished its intellectual property to Beyond in exchange for an expansion of its credit agreement. Beyond plans to lease the IP back to Kirkland's for use in its existing stores; however, Beyond -- which now has a significant seat at the table due to its stock ownership -- simultaneously intends to convert "a number of [Kirkland's] locations" to its brands, including one pilot buybuyBaby store, the aforementioned Bed Bath & Beyond Home stores, and at least four physical Overstock stores... which, you may recall, was originally going to be Beyond's deal with Dirt Cheap, before that company went out of business. "The Overstock stores will be geographically placed so that the vendors can ship easily to them and customers can return products in a more efficient manner," according to CEO Marcus Lemonis. While I'm intrigued to see where these conversions take place, I'm also concerned about the future of the Kirkland's brand and stores.
Once again, though, I digress. Here's a close-up of Leigh Mall's Bath & Body Works store, occupying one of the four corner spaces of center court, followed by a shot of center court itself. The skylights are nice and -- again -- very reminiscent of Greenville Mall. I wonder how many elements at both malls are original as opposed to added on or changed during the 1990s renovations.
Burke's Outlet occupied the rear anchor space at the mall, originally Roses (just like Greenville Mall). The store survived long enough to be renamed Bealls, but wound up closing in December 2024. "With this store's departure from the mall," The Commercial Dispatch wrote, "that leaves Claire's, Cato, Prestige, Five Below, Hobby Lobby, Mobi Care, Dollar Tree, Planet Fitness, American Deli, City Gear, Hibbett Sports, and outparcels Trustmark and Hardee's, as the shopping center's remaining open stores." More on the current status of the property to come towards the end of the post.
The wall to the left of the Burke's/Bealls space featured some tiles arranged in the shape of the letter "C," presumably for "Columbus." Another corner of center court shows two vacant spaces once belonging to Cookie Store and Accessory Corner; and while the skylight looks pretty enough, some roof damage is also visible between a couple of those light fixtures.
As we move past center court into the remainder of the mall corridor, here are a couple pics looking back that direction. A decently large junior anchor space on this side of the mall, also with its own interior and exterior entrances, was Books-a-Million, one of six locations (at the time) in Mississippi. A small-format BAM store, previously a Bookland, had closed in Corinth in January 2018, leaving locations in Jackson, Columbus, Meridian, Hattiesburg, Biloxi, and Southaven.
Some more close-up pics of the Books-a-Million mall entrance, complete with Joe Muggs Coffee signage. The Columbus BAM wound up a pandemic victim, shuttering "temporarily" in early 2020 only for that closure to become permanent. Later that same year, the Jackson location conducted a liquidation sale, only for the closure to be reversed by late August 2020; the store continued operating a few years longer, ultimately liquidating again and closing in May 2023. That left only four Books-a-Million stores in Mississippi, a total now tied with Barnes & Noble, which has locations in Tupelo (the winner in that town: BAM closed its Tupelo store in 2011), Gulfport, Ridgeland, and, most recently, Flowood, a new-concept store which opened in a former Bed Bath & Beyond in July 2024. Given Jackson's BAM closure vs. what is now two B&N stores in the metro, it seems clear which chain won here, too, but sadly other areas of the state such as Columbus are now without either bookstore chain.
Continuing onward down the corridor, next door to Books-a-Million is a former Zales Jewelers. This space looks to have been vacant for some time based on the logo on the labelscar. It's also somewhat unusual to see an in-line jewelry store like this, as someone who is much more accustomed to seeing them placed in corner spaces! (Not that Leigh Mall's layout lent itself to very many corners, though...)
The Children's Place found itself in the unenviable position of occupying a spot all by its lonesome at what is otherwise a dead end, adjacent to the freshly shuttered JCPenney (above) and a similarly vacant corridor leading to an exterior entrance from the rear parking lot (below).
This quiet corridor was once occupied by a "mall cinema" (creative name), but was now seeing its only action come from mall walkers (refer back to my pic of the payphone at the start of our tour, which was located on this hallway next to the cinema). I did find the shot of the two empty movie poster holders to be neat, though. In fact, longtime readers may recognize it from a teaser photo I shared back at my 100 Posts celebration in November 2019! For anyone curious, now that I've finally just about made it through all those pics, here are the entries they belong with...
1. Leigh Mall, Columbus, MS (this post, published June 2025)
2. Vintage Pharmacy (Walgreens, former Rite Aid), Columbus, MS (published April 2020)
3. Vintage Fred's Closing, McComb, MS (published December 2020)
4. Broken Chain: Barnhill's Buffet, Jonesboro, AR (published February 2020)
5. Factory Stores at Batesville, Batesville, MS (published January 2020)
6. Getwell Drug & Dollar (Fred's Concept Store Closing), Middleton, TN (published June 2020)
7. Broken Chain: Sheridan's Frozen Custard, Cordova, TN (published May 2021)
8. Retro-Iconic Sonic, University Avenue, Oxford, MS (published April 2022)
9. (as-yet-unpublished... any guesses?)
10. (Sunset on) Fred's Closing, Batesville, MS (published July 2023)
Cato occupied the corner spot at the intersection of this mall cinema hallway and the main corridor, and based on the tenant listing from December 2024 listed earlier, it sounds like they are still in operation on the premises to this day. Good for them! I wonder if the old logo seen here has been updated at all since then.
Wrapping up my interior pics by rounding the corner beside Cato and the old JCPenney, and taking one last look at the Books-a-Million store. The BAM will soon be making its way to my flickr page, so be sure to watch out for that! Below, too, are some pics of the Hibbett Sports and Sports Additions stores in the mall, taken from the chains' respective websites. It sounds like Sports Additions has since closed, but Hibbett is still open; both chains actually are owned by the same company, I was surprised to learn. I'm guessing I didn't photograph them because they were probably two of the only spaces that had actual customer activity going on.
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| Courtesy Hibbett |
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| Courtesy Hibbett |
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| Courtesy The Commercial Dispatch |
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| Courtesy The Mississippi Link |
Time now for my exterior pictures of the property, beginning with the Books-a-Million. Unfortunately, much like my interior documentation, my exterior photos aren't overly expansive, but they're something, at least.
According to the article which announced the store's closure, BAM had been in Columbus since at least 1989. I do wonder what its junior anchor space was occupied by originally. The Greenville Mall had a similar junior anchor that I proposed may have been a Piggly Wiggly, based on a store listing in an early mall advertisement. It was located in approximately the same spot within the mall layout, too.
A BAM trailer can be seen parked right next to the store, in the space between it and the vacant JCPenney. Further beyond JCPenney, a Dollar Tree is visible -- this space was renovated after Cowboy Maloney's Electric City moved across the street in early 2017 (see image below). Five Below now occupies the space immediately next to Dollar Tree, at the edge of the mall property. I don't know if the Cowboy Maloney's space was part of the mall originally or if it was a later addition; either way, it doesn't seem to have ever had mall access.
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| Notice Cowboy Maloney's on the far left edge of the picture, as well as JCPenney while it was still open. Courtesy LoopNet |
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| Courtesy The Commercial Dispatch |
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| Courtesy WTVA News |
My photo of the main mall entrance didn't turn out that well (dang tree, blocking the view!), so I've supplemented it with a couple of additional pics. The setup, once again, is extremely similar to Greenville Mall, with the divided roadway leading straight to the entrance and all. Notice exterior signs placed for interior tenants, including Rue 21 and GNC (which I did not photograph, but which were both operational per the 2019 directory) and Burke's Outlet (with newer logo here, but the older logo still present inside).
As I mentioned earlier, Hobby Lobby took up residence in the former Sears anchor space, located on the right-hand side of the mall, opening in 2013. The former Sears Auto Center outparcel was vacant at the time of my visit in November 2018, but had only just closed down: apparently, after the Sears department store closure in January 2012, a Sears Hometown store opened in the former auto center in December 2012; sadly, however, it closed in summer 2018. I'm surprised by how well my picture above aligns with the one from the newspaper below!
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| Courtesy The Commercial Dispatch |
My last exterior shot looks north along Highway 45, towards a rather sad-looking Leigh Mall sign with the redundant text "Shop Leigh Mall." I'm aware my exterior pictures are decently lackluster, so below, I've gathered together a bunch of much higher-quality ones from a 2019 auction listing.
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| Hobby Lobby (former Sears) |
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| Dollar Tree (half of former Cowboy Maloney's) |
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| Planet Fitness (occupying the back half of the Sears) |
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| BAM |
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| Hibachi (former Garfield's) |
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| Burke's Outlet (still old logo) |
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| Former JCPenney |
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| Dollar Tree neighboring space (now Five Below) |
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| Former store between mall entrance and restaurant (labelscar reads "Spy's"?) |
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| Sears loading docks |
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| Rear mall entrance |
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| Front mall entrance |
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| Numerous aerial views |
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| Right side and front |
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| Mall front |
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| Hwy 45 in the foreground; Hwy 82 in the background |
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| Mall rear |
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| If you zoom in, you'll see a high-rise mall sign in the back of the property (adjacent to the Burke's entrance), in addition to one in the parking lot that's identical to the one at the front of the mall |
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| Notice also the Hardee's, Trustmark, and Sears Auto Center outparcels |
If all those images didn't distract you, you'll notice that I said they came from a 2019 auction listing: indeed, Leigh Mall shortly after my visit went up on the chopping block, and was sold to Hull Property Group out of Georgia for $3.5 million. Though some tax incentive back-and-forth and further retailer departures have complicated things somewhat, Hull has by and large made good on its promise to revitalize the property by transforming it from an indoor mall to an outward-facing shopping center, rechristened in 2023 as Columbus Place. Work is ongoing as of this writing to continue the conversion efforts, attract new tenants, and build and lease new outparcels. Below are some pictures of the former mall interior, as well as its new exterior taking shape.
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| Courtesy Google Maps |
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| Courtesy Google Maps |
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| Courtesy Google Maps |
What remains of the interior has been spruced up with new lighting, refreshed wall finishes, and numerous eye-catching local flair posters (including one for the local Columbus Air Force Base) -- but that 1990s-renovation floor tile is still hanging on! In the last pic (of center court), looking in the distance it appears as if Hobby Lobby's mall entrance has closed. I'm unclear if any of the interior mall is still accessible or, even if it is, if the plan is for it to remain accessible long-term.
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| Courtesy LinkedIn |
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| Courtesy The Commercial Dispatch |
The first image above is a rendering of the property, evidently back in the planning stages when the name change had yet to be devised and before Bath & Body Works had moved out of the mall. Cato and Claire's are still operational, but I'm not sure specifically where on the property they are located. As we know, Five Below ended up opening on the far opposite end, next to Dollar Tree. It's also fun to see the Garfield's/Hibachi facade completely intact in this rendering.
The second image shows the property pretty much as it appears today -- separated into many distinct storefront facades, but unfortunately, most of those appear to be vacant, while Hull continues to attract new tenants. Rue 21 and Bealls, advertised on the fencing here, have since closed, although to its credit, Rue 21 survived the company's first two bankruptcies (with the third seeing the entire company go out of business). The bones for most of these facades were already present (for instance, the former JCPenney, BAM, and the main Leigh Mall entrance, looking from left to right), but the property still has been given an overall refresh and cohesive look. Here's wishing the new owners, and the City of Columbus, good luck and success with the future of the former mall now known as Columbus Place.
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You might think we're finished, but there's still one last piece to add -- an epilogue to our story, if you will. Alongside Sears's opening at the Leigh Mall site in 1972, a time capsule was buried, with instructions to open it during Columbus's bicentennial anniversary in 2021. The time capsule was the idea of Earl Martin, Sears Public Relations Director, who was involved in the openings of numerous Sears stores throughout the southeast. Of Columbus's location, Martin said, "This was the most fun. This is the only time capsule we ever buried."
The time capsule was unearthed in October 2021, with the city mayor, local media and historian, owner of Hull Property Group, and even Earl Martin all present for the event. Unfortunately, many of the items inside had been waterlogged -- itself a historical callback to the flood of 1973, the year the mall opened, which had flooded the mall with three to four feet of water. It is believed that the water had been sitting in the capsule case that entire time.
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| Unearthing the time capsule |
Great articles about the time capsule can be read here and here, both courtesy of The Columbus Dispatch (which is also the source of all of these images). As for the contents? "Newspapers, a Bible, soggy cardboard boxes, 1972 annuals from Lee and Caldwell high schools and MSCW, photographs, a 1972 Olympic Games souvenir coin, and a lot of water." Local archivists and librarians are working to salvage what they can.
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| Earl Martin (with nametag) and other officials sift through wet materials |
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| Assorted time capsule contents |
Earl Martin also found his Sears business card exactly where he had left it. For his part, not only was Jim Hull onboard with the time capsule opening ceremony, he also wants to bury another one. "We think this is such a wonderful idea," he said. "Y'all think what y'all want to put in it. We're going to try to have it sealed, so it's going to be dry. ... Y'all get something clever and fun that speaks to the people in 2072."
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I hope you guys enjoyed this post exploring Leigh Mall. I'll have more content in the future. Until next time, then, and as always -- thanks for reading, and have fun exploring the retail world wherever you are!
Retail Retell
