I would have loved to seen the old Southroads mall when it was a mall. Its still there, just mostly not accessible. And now Promenade Mall is about to go under as well. Two empty malls on the same street....
That's pretty much the fate of most malls these days. The mall is going the way of the Dodo bird. It's just not a feasible business these days with online shopping so prevalent.
I lived over 23 years starting about 1972 a half mile from the original Southland Shopping center, then Southroads mall was built accorss the street, and then Southland was closed almost a year to be totally enclosed and reopened as Promenade. During that time the first half of Woodland Hills opened and put a big dent in shopping in that area, along with a lot of other small businesses around, Eastland was hoping to compete and help move Tulsa east, but had financial trouble for 10 years and was not able to recover.
I was as electrician on the first half of Woodland Hills as it was coming out of the ground. It was out in the middle of nowhere in a cow field with cows still wandering around. I did not take my lunch one day, had to drive 2 miles to 51st street to get the nearest burger at that time. What a change now.
I was as electrician on the first half of Woodland Hills as it was coming out of the ground. It was out in the middle of nowhere in a cow field with cows still wandering around. I did not take my lunch one day, had to drive 2 miles to 51st street to get the nearest burger at that time. What a change now.
USMC deployed me to Tulsa in early 1974 as a Recruiter and I spent two great years here before being transferred back to the FMF. I married an Okie gal while on that tour and my daughter was born in Saint Francis. Tulsa was very different. The Mingo Valley ended at 21st St. I lived in an apartment just east of 21st and S. Garnett ($150.00 per month). I always thought it was the biggest small town I'd ever been to. Since then I have moved about but returned often to visit and lived back there 2009 - 2015. I very much enjoy visiting Tulsa.
At least not as a retail mall. They seem to be thriving as a business center though.
Toward Eastland mall, the City of Tulsa was getting ramped up for higher traffic, more houses and other businesses out that direction, even more schools like what happened with growth to the south with Woodland Hills. For some reason the financial backers withdrew leaving the project high and dry as steel was being erected. Yep, completed later but could not make it as a retail mall, now mostly office type businesses. But that has happened else where. Williams center shopping mall with the skating rink downtown for example has been office space for several years, not enough daytime traffic to survive, virtually no night time shopping. Is it Penn Square or Sheppard Mall in OKC? I think one has been office space for many years also. Once the area builds up, real estate rental take too much of the shop profits to survive. The original owners, Dayton-Hudson properties built Woodland Hills mall out in the middle of nowhere south of Tulsa for $3 mil hoping someone might come out shopping in that area and later sold it for $15 mil and the traffic jams with it. haha
Not just online. The thugs took them over. People don't want to go there.
The last time we went to an indoor mall, the thug kids, some ethinc pre teens took pleasure of running into us as a couple while walking 4-6 abreast.
They wanted us to move aside. It's called "flushing the quail". Google it.
Outdoor malls are the way to go now. No thugs gonna walk in snow or heat.
That would be Sheppard Mall. Penn Square started as an open type shopping center in 1960 and then was enclosed in 1982 and then renovated in 1988 to add a second floor. The parking garage was added later. Penn square is still a very viable shopping mall, one that I avoid as much as possible from Thanksgiving on past New Year's Day.
Penn Square Mall
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