Malls
Do you remember the Bell Tower Mall? They had a Woolco and an Edwards Department Store. Edwards was phased out when Wal-Mart came to the Upstate. I don't remember the other stores and it wasn't as nice as McAlister Square. Bell Tower Mall was located on the old Furman University campus (before they moved the university to North Greenville). Since Bell Tower Mall was in a bad neighborhood there were a lot of robberies, purse snatches, and rapes at Bell Tower Mall so it fizzled out quickly. Greenville County remodeled Bell Tower Mall and moved all Greenville County offices there in the late 80's. Wade Hampton Mall on Wade Hampton Blvd. was really swanky back in the late 50's and early 60's. There was a Grant's, Belk-Simpson, and other stores. It was made just like the Richland Mall in Columbia with all the stores around a central plaza and the sidewalks were all covered. The construction company my dad worked for built the Mall Cinema theatre there at Wade Hampton Mall. All the men who worked for Reese Construction (where my dad worked) got free passes for themselves and thier families to go to the opening night of the theatre in 1965. The movie, The Yellow Rolls Royce was the first movie played there. I don't remember the movie as I was just 10 but I remember going and feeling like a big shot! "My daddy built this theatre!" For years the Mall Cinema showed $1.00 movies and I went to tons of them when I was young, dating, and in college. A bunch of us would drive over from Clemson to go to moives at the Mall Cinema. It was fun. McAlister Square was the demise of Wade Hampton Mall. Now Bob Jones University uses the mall for a bible school and office complex. Lewis Plaza was on Augusta Road. Mama used to go there to that Belk-Simpson store and the Plaza Drug Store. The closing of the Plaza Lunch Counter closed several years ago made all the local print and television news. There used to be an A&P at Lewis Plaza also. There is still the Plaza Hardware Store there facing Augusta Road It is either an Ace or True Value Hardware store now.
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