Back about 5 years ago when I first started exploring my fascination with abandoned malls and retail history in general I stumbled across a blog called skycity.
There I read about all of these dead and dying malls. It fed my fascination and Eden Mall was definitely one of the main courses to that feeding.
Flash Forward a couple of years and I locate a sky city group on Facebook. A bunch of people just like me with a nerdy fascination with malls and retail. I joined that group and have found some of the best friends I have in my life there.
This past March I visited Eden Mall for the first time with my friend Sunny. It was everything I had imagined and then some. I was intrigued and fell in love with the mall.
Im not going to go into a big history about this mall and its former tenants but I will go over a few basic facts.
- Opened in 1980
- Original anchors were Belk-Cline, Globemans (later Peebles) and Kmart
- Kmart at Eden Mall closed in 1994
- Peebles left the mall in the fall of 2008
- A video from this visit can be found by clicking HERE
If you want to find out more about this mall please go check out my friend’s write up about the blog over at Sky City. That entry can be found by clicking HERE.
Back in the fall Belk announced that they would close the location at Eden Mall, the last anchor and last chain store located at the mall. I knew I had to go back just one last time to visit Eden Mall and the Belk store that retained much of the character and feel of the Belk from my childhood to this day.
The mall apparently had fountains or at least a water feature in the wing near Kmart.
The entrance near Kmart was unlocked and open in March, but when I was back there earlier this month the doors were locked. However that part of the mall was accessible from the interior corridor.
There are still a couple of local shops open in the mall, some sort of flea market, a furniture store and a gym right off the top of my head, but I honestly dont know if any of those had access from inside the mall, which leads me to wonder….how long will this mall be accessible by the public?
The former Kmart auto center and lawn and garden section
And finally, the Belk
I will have a separate entry for this store and its closing up tonight. Thank you for reading and enjoy!
Jamie in Wanderland 