Staunton Mall
Part 2
Corridor in front of the former Peebles, leading to the center entrance (the one with “Hot Wok” over it in the exterior photos). This corridor contained a few stores, historically Country Cookin (a local chain of restaurants serving southern cuisine), LensCrafters, and Claire’s. A gate in this area could be lowered in order to allow Country Cookin to operate later than the rest of the mall. The large “THANK YOU FOR SHOPPING WITH US” signage dates from the Colonial Properties period.
Customer service and security desk in the center corridor. I remember that this is where the security guard, a black woman who appeared to be in her fifties or sixties, would typically be when she was not doing her rounds. She was a nice lady, but at the same time, you didn’t want to mess with her.
Signage at the center entrance to Staunton Mall. One is a handwritten sign reminding patrons of special COVID-19 rules, and the other states the rules of conduct in the shopping center. In the latter sign, I am definitely breaking the no-photography rule, but considering that the mall would soon be gone, I also didn’t care.
Interior of Cell Express, located in the old Claire’s space. The store still looks like Claire’s inside.
As an aside, if you remember those short-lived green wheels on my scooter from college, you should know that they came from here.
The former Country Cookin space, which was built out for Hot Wok in the fall of 2020. Hot Wok had been a tenant in the mall’s second food court (near the movie theater) since 1999, and relocated to the former Country Cookin space in 2020, presumably because it was a much bigger space and a much more visible location. Then the mall management pulled the rug out from under them, so to speak, giving them a notice to vacate along with the other remaining tenants not long after they opened in their new spot. Ultimately, Hot Wok moved locations again, to the space that Country Cookin occupied after they left the mall, in the Martin’s shopping center on Richmond Avenue.
Former LensCrafters store. This is where I got my first pair of glasses in 2001.
A gift shop occupies the former doctor’s office attached to LensCrafters.
Main mall corridor between Peebles and Montgomery Ward, facing north. The center court is immediately behind the camera. Note the inconsistent tile placement in this section of the mall. I can only assume that when they dug up the mall in 2010 to replace that sewer line, the tiles were not placed back in the original pattern.
Close-up of the weird tile in this area.
Former location of Fine’s, a retailer of trendy clothing for teens. Fine’s opened in the mid 1990s along with a number of other new tenants in the mall around that same time, and was relatively short-lived. It later housed a store called BonWorth. It is shown here in use as a location to store inventory for the Cinderella Project of the Shenandoah Valley, a nonprofit which provides middle and high school students with suitable attire for prom, graduation, and other milestone events where they otherwise would not have been able to afford it.
Former Fashion Bug store. Fashion Bug left the mall in favor of a new space in the Martin’s shopping center on Richmond Avenue. This space later housed Head Over Heels Gymnastics.
Former Afterthoughts space. Afterthoughts was a Claire’s-like store that offered ear piercing, and sold accessories for girls. My sister got her ears pierced here in the mid 1990s. Following Afterthoughts’ closure, a Chinese massage studio took up residence in the space.
The mall up to this point, facing south (towards JCPenney).
A former pretzel place in the food court. Prior to being built out as a pretzel place, it housed a coffee shop called the Chippery.
Former location of Sweetie’s Trading Post, which later became E’s Trading Post following an ownership change, now walled off and covered with modern and historical photos of people working out.
Mall entrance for Church United, housed in the former Safeway/Sears Surplus/Goody’s/Gold’s Gym space. I was most familiar with this space when it housed Goody’s, which lasted around ten years, give or take, from the mid 1990s until around 2006. This was the legacy Goody’s company, prior to Stage’s acquisition of the brand.
The mall entrance for the space when it was Gold’s Gym, photographed May 7, 2007. Gold’s Gym used the original Goody’s entrance, and apparently, the operators of the facility did not like people using the space like it was part of a shopping mall, posting this rude sign on the mall entrance telling people not to walk through the facility to reach the parking lot. My understanding is that they had to leave the gate open in order for it to function as a fire exit. However, for all of the money that they spent building out the space, if they didn’t want to be part of the mall, I’m surprised that they didn’t replace the mall entrance with fire exit doors that would allow egress in an emergency but prevent walk-through traffic during normal conditions.
The same entrance in March 2016, after Gold’s Gym went independent, becoming Staunton Health and Fitness. After all of those years, they still don’t want the pass-through traffic, but apparently couldn’t change the mall entrance to fire exit doors. Staunton Health and Fitness eventually left the mall, taking up residence in a former car dealership down the road, and presumably solving the pass-through traffic problem once and for all.
Colonial-era signage directing patrons to the mall restrooms and the movie theater. The “Staunton Mall” logo covers the original Colonial Properties Trust logo, which resembled a shooting star.
The movie theater corridor, containing two restaurants, a video arcade, and the movie theater.
Former Angelo’s Pizza (later Laconi’s Pizzeria) space in the food court. This was the only restaurant in the food court to have its own seating area, separate from the seating in the mall itself.
Original Hot Wok location. Hot Wok opened in this location in 1999, and continued to operate in this space until the fall of 2020, moving to the former Country Cookin space in the front of the mall (shown earlier) at that time. I briefly mention Hot Wok in a 2004 Journal entry.
Sign left at the old Hot Wok location explaining that the restaurant would be closed temporarily in order to accommodate the move to the new location at the front of the mall.
Food court seating in the main corridor, in front of Hot Wok, Angelo’s, and Church United. As you can see, it was a very small food court – much smaller than the original food court – located directly in the main mall corridor.
Former Dog Days space. Dog Days was the only holdover from the original food court that was located in the JCPenney wing.
Video Zone was a classic video arcade located across from the movie theater that opened in 1994. Sadly, the owners of Video Zone opted to close down and sell all of the games rather than relocate when the mall closed.
A photo from February 20, 2006 showing Jessica Lynn Siple playing Dance Dance Revolution at Video Zone.
The movie theater in Staunton Mall operated under a few different names over the years. It was operated by RC Theaters as Mall Cinemas, and later became a Regal Cinemas property. The theater closed in 2010, and remained closed until 2017, when it reopened as Legacy Theaters. Interestingly, the box office was always freestanding in the mall corridor, rather than attached to the theater.
The lobby of the theater on August 30, 2014, about four years after Regal closed, and three years before Legacy Theaters opened.
Movie poster holders in front of the theater on August 30, 2014, still holding the final posters from when Regal Cinemas closed in 2010.
Returning to the main corridor, next to Hot Wok was the former GNC space. The final tenant in this space was a store called Starfire’s Purple Moon Magick, which is “a professional metaphysical store who regards metaphysics as a spiritual philosophy or way of life.” As Starfire’s, the store looked like this when it was open. In any case, it still bore a strong resemblance to the tenant that it was built out for, i.e. GNC.
Former Cryptic Tattoo Society space. Prior to the tattoo shop’s arrival, this space served for a long time as a nail salon, first as Happy Nails & Tanning, and later as Le’s Nails.
Former Boyd’s Hairdressers space. Boyd’s was a longtime tenant of the mall until the mid 2000s, originally located near JCPenney in the Staunton Plaza days, and relocating to this space when the mall was enclosed. They left the mall in favor of a space across the street at the Orchard Hill Square shopping center. I wrote a Journal entry about my experience at this location back in 2004. This space never saw another tenant again after Boyd’s left. Since then, the entrance was walled in and used for vending machines, and the former hair salon itself was apparently being used by the mall for unspecified purposes.
South entrance to the Montgomery Ward store. This was a small store, and utilized their “Focus” store format, which focused on electronics, appliances, and furniture. In that format, this entrance went to the “Electric Avenue” section of the store, which sold electronics. After Wards closed in the early 2000s, the space was used for four years by Steve & Barry’s, a discount clothing store.
Interior of the former Wards store, viewed through the south entrance. The appearance that it has here comes mostly from the Steve & Barry’s days. Steve & Barry’s didn’t gut the space before doing their buildout, instead building their store on top of what was left from Wards. They put their wood flooring over the original tile, and put their big shelving over the original walls. The ceiling was original from the Montgomery Ward days. Unfortunately, the roof was in very poor condition here as well, as the scent of mold, likely due to water intrusion, was noticeable when standing near the entrance.
The Steve & Barry’s space on November 25, 2008. At this point in time, the merchandise was all gone and the store had ceased operations, and the liquidator was selling off the remaining store fixtures.
Mall evacuation map on a column near the entrance to Wards. Elyse and I removed this map from its frame and kept it as a souvenir.
Coin-operated gumball kiosk next to the entrance to the former Wards.
This area, outside of the former Wards store, is where the original Staunton Plaza ends, and the expansion built during the conversion to Staunton Mall begins.
The beginning of the Belk wing, built as an expansion in the late 1980s during the conversion to Staunton Mall. Architecturally, the Belk wing is much more spacious than the original part of the mall, having a wider corridor than the part that was originally part of Staunton Plaza.
The former home of Big Dipper, an ice cream shop in Staunton Mall that sold Hershey’s ice cream. After Big Dipper closed here, the space was redecorated for another ice cream shop called Flavor Cravers, which itself had closed by 2014. The space appears here as it did when it housed a second location for Stuarts Draft-based Sooner BBQ, which operated here from 2017 to 2019.
The same space as it appeared on August 30, 2014. This was after Flavor Cravers had closed, and before Sooner BBQ redecorated the space.
Former Hofheimer’s shoe store. Hofheimer’s closed here in the mid 1990s, and housed a number of independent stores in the following years, most notably another shoe store named Bootleggers, as well as the final mall location of E’s Trading Post.
“Please enjoy food, drink & smoking before visiting the store” sign outside of the former Hofheimer’s. This sign has been there since the Hofheimer’s days, though various people apparently had broken pieces off of it over the years.
Next to the ice cream shop was Athletic Annex, an independently owned sports apparel store. Athletic Annex closed in December 2013 upon the owner’s retirement. A similarly themed business called Montie’s Sports operated in the space for a period after Athletic Annex closed.
Children’s play area, sponsored by WHSV-TV, the local ABC affiliate out of Harrisonburg, and done up in a TV news theme. This play area was installed during the period when Colonial Properties Trust owned the mall. Note that the rules sign mentions “Colonial Mall Staunton”.
News anchor desk and TV-3 branded camera facing the anchor desk. This mock-up camera actually contained a real camera in the red box, pointed at the anchor desk. Two televisions nearby displayed a live feed of what the camera saw, allowing kids to see themselves on television.
Elyse sits at the anchor desk on March 30, 2016.
Coin-operated children’s carousel, located behind the play area.
This store was a bit unusual, as it had a very high ceiling and contained an upper floor in the back of the space. The original tenant, and presumably the tenant for whom the upper level was built, was Flowers By Jay. A later tenant in this space was Hassett’s, an outdoors store that was previously in Waynesboro. The final tenant was Zoomtown Body Arts, which painted the walls to the bold fuchsia color seen here.
This space originally housed a store called “Hip Pocket”. The final tenant was a consignment shop called “Nothing Over $Twenty“, which came to the mall in 2019.
Former RadioShack store space. RadioShack operated in the mall until 2015, when it closed as part of a round of store closures during the company’s first bankruptcy.
This space housed a number of different businesses over the years. Among other tenants, a pop-up Spencer Gifts store was located here for a brief period, it housed a gift shop called Goose Creek during the Colonial Properties era, and it served as the original location of Staunton Miniature Speedway before it moved to larger quarters in the former Piece Goods Shop space at the other end of the mall.
The Belk wing contained two jewelry stores, located more or less across from each other. One was Lemon’s Jewelers, shown here. Lemon’s left the mall in favor of a new location near the Walmart store in Waynesboro in the mid 2000s.
The other jewelry store was Glassner Jewelers, a small regional chain of jewelry stores, located next to Athletic Annex. Glassner closed in early 2009 along with the rest of the company.
Family Barber & Beauty was a longtime tenant in Staunton Mall, having been in the mall as far back as the Staunton Plaza days. They stayed at the mall until the end, and relocated to a new space in Fishersville after the mall closed.
Mall entrance next to Family Barber & Beauty. Like at the other mall entrance, the “Thank You For Shopping With Us” text dates from the Colonial Properties era.
West entrance to the Montgomery Ward space. As I understand it, this was the main entrance to the store, as compared to the south entrance, which was more of a minor entrance. In the Focus Montgomery Ward format, this entered into the furniture and appliances area.
Court in the Belk wing, between the entrance to Montgomery Ward and the mall entrance.
View from the Belk wing court, facing south towards Hofheimer’s.
The Belk wing court was also where the mall would have its Santa Claus and Easter Bunny setups. Here, Elyse and I smile for the camera in an Easter display on March 30, 2016, after the Easter Bunny had already gone home for the day. The entrance to Montgomery Ward is behind us. This is also the same location where Katie and I posed with “Santa Harry” back in 2004.
Jackson Hewitt Tax Service office, immediately to the left of the Wards entrance. Jackson Hewitt occupied a space that was built out in the late 1990s for a CFW Intelos (later nTelos) store.
Next to Jackson Hewitt was this space that originally housed Richard Bartley Optical, which later became Pearle Vision.
This space originally housed a Hallmark franchise. The final tenant was the Augusta County Railroad Museum, which came to Staunton Mall in 2013. Interestingly enough, the Augusta County Railroad Museum was at the Waynesboro Outlet Village at the end of its existence as well, back in 2006, and appears in my photo set covering the final days of that shopping center.
The largest space in the Belk wing was Wills, a bookstore that opened during the late 1990s, combining what was previously multiple storefronts into a single large space. Wills later became Books-A-Million, and closed in 2008 in favor of a new location in Waynesboro. My sister worked at this location in the summer of 2007.
The former Books-A-Million space on November 25, 2008 after Books-A-Million vacated. Books-A-Million never did its own buildout when it took over Wills, instead just rearranging the shelving and putting up its own interior signage, making this a rather unconventional looking Books-A-Million location. After Books-A-Million left, the space was used by CrossFit Staunton for a number of years. The final tenant was a secondhand store.
“Wishing Well Coin Race” in the Belk wing. This was a device where you put a coin in a slot at the top, and then the coin rolled in circles before eventually falling into the hole in the middle.
Belk wing, facing south.
Belk wing, facing north.
These two store spaces have been walled off for as long as I can remember. It is possible that these spaces were never leased throughout the mall’s entire history, according to a longtime mall tenant that I corresponded with online.
Former Atlas Tuxedo space. As I understand it, they were an original tenant in the Belk wing, having come there from an earlier space in Staunton Plaza prior to the conversion to a mall. Atlas remained here until the mid 2010s.
Northernmost store space on the west side of the Belk wing. This space originally housed a store called Record Corner. It was apparently fairly short-lived, as it was gone by the time I became familiar with the mall in 1992.
Northernmost store space on the east side of the Belk wing. This space was originally occupied by Holliday’s Shoe Store, but it was vacant by the time that I became familiar with the mall in 1992. The space was briefly used in the late 1990s to store the fixtures for Payless ShoeSource after they closed and vacated their space in the JCPenney wing, and it was later used for a kiddie gymnastics facility in the 2000s.
The Belk store. This store was built as Leggett during the facility’s conversion to an enclosed mall in the 1980s, and opened in 1987, replacing an earlier store in downtown Staunton. The store was converted to the Belk nameplate in 1996 following the full acquisition of Leggett by Belk (though the two companies were somewhat related prior to that). The wall around Belk’s mall entrance was originally mirrored, and was changed to the tan color seen here around the time that Belk changed its logo. Belk is expected to remain through the redevelopment of the property.
And that’s Staunton Mall, I suppose. For more information on Staunton Mall, I highly recommend this article from Sky City Retail History, as well as this Expedition Log video, which was made the day before these photos were taken. I also give major thanks to the folks in the “I grew up in Staunton, Virginia” group on Facebook, as they helped me fill in many of the gaps in my own recollection when making this photo set. Meanwhile, with the long-overdue demise and redevelopment of the mall, I suspect that the future of the former Staunton Mall property looks brighter than it has in quite some time.