Northgate Mall

I think you just blew my mind on several counts:
1. The mall was built the same year I was born, so it's just wild to see what the land looked like prior to Northgate.
2. I spent an inordinate amount of time in that mall and specifically in that movie theater in the late 60s and 70s. (That was back when you could drop a kid off at the movies and not worry about them getting grabbed or molested.) IMO, the theater was never as good after it was split in two. We used to refer to it as "the bowling alley theater". Later, I worked at Northgate for a short time. So I remember it from when I was five and had the flu and tossed my cookies in Roses all the way through the 1990s. To see it all back to back in photos makes me feel...well...old.
3. I now live on the other side of the country. That picture of the piazza with the fountain? That looks EXACTLY like it was taken at the shopping center just up the street. Same brickwork, same fountain, same arrangement, same trash cans even. It's s dismal failure here, too. I don't think I have ever seen anyone using it for any reason. The county didn't even have sense enough to put the bus stop there.

Great photos and history. Thanks!

Great post!

The original center also had a small island of buildings on the east containing a bank or two, barber shop, dairy bar (sounds quaint but was popular), shoe repair, etc. One of your photos shows this island.

My favorite 1950s center is Cameron Village in Raleigh. CV barely survived the '70s, but seems to be thriving now. Being close to NC State helps.

The grass strip along Club Boulevard coincides with Trinity Park's RS-8 zoning, which extends north of Club along most of Northgate's frontage. As I understand it, this "buffer" was left as a concession to the neighborhood when the rest of the mall property was rezoned.

When Northgate's owners attempted to rezone that strip (in 1998?) in order to build surface parking for TK Tripps, a second restaurant, and a hotel, it was clear that the neighborhood wanted that buffer preserved. They perceived it as protecting the homes on the south side of Club from the cycle of commercial encroachment and decline that had already occurred in so many other Durham neighborhoods. We did not want more pawn shops or fast food restaurants on the south side of Club Boulevard and bleeding down Gregson and Duke Streets.

Many of us sought a more creative redevelopment of Northgate's frontage that would have been a more effective transition between the mall and single family residences. I believe that a Ninth Street North/Trinity Heights type of development with a mix of ground floor retail, office, and upper story residential would have been received quite well by the majority of neighbors. However, Northgate's unimaginative plan for traditional strip type buildings surrounded by asphalt and set well back from the street was very unappealing and was ultimately abandoned. Only Tripps was built at that time. I believe the hotel is under construction now.

Great piece! I lived in the 1200 block of Watts Street before, during and after construction of Northgate Mall. I vividly remember riding my bike down to Club Blvd and watching the graders and bulldozers carve out what would become the original mall.

In the mid-60s Northgate Theater was a familiar haunt during the hot summer months.

About this same time I remember that the Kerr Rexall drug store installed a slot-racing layout in their basement to take advantage of the Slot-Racer craze going on at that time.

About that island mentioned - this answers a question I long had about whether the island of service shops predated the mall. I see now that it did not.

The ice cream shop mentioned was Mayberry's, and I think the bank was either BBT or CCB.

I used to have unsolicited copies of The Thunderbolt KKK newsletter shoved thru my VW's window at Northgate. I didn't think much about it until I saw a vintage CBS "White Paper" documentary called the Invisible Empire. It showed a KKK recruiting table set up outside Roses at Northgate in the early 1960s. What made it really neat was that I recognized one of the interviewed recruiters. He was a deacon in Temple Baptist Church

As someone who lives at ground zero--Macy's is visible from my front door--I am afraid that your perspectives are not reflective of life south of the Mall AT ALL. You write that Trinity Park/Durham residents would be better served if the buffer zone between the Mall and Trinity Park were developed into street-front retail/mixed use building. You also suggest that such a development would dissuade homeowners from building privacy fences facing Club. No urban plan or architectural plan for the Mall/north side of Club will change the feel or use of Club as long as Club is a massive thoroughfare. On any given weekday, Club is loud. Thanks to the original heavy-duty windows and storm windows on my home, I hear a lot less of what someone hears on the sidewalk along Club; but no technology can cover over the boom of traffic in that area. (Saturday and Sunday Harley riders as well as the steady stream of tricked-out cars with hip-hop turned up to 11 make my home shake.) Privacy fences have less to do with the Mall than with the massive amounts of traffic, noise, and passers-by who make being outside on one's own property without such a fence unpleasant. When you realize pedestrians walking along Club are using your garden hose to take showers in your un-fenced backyard during the day, you realize it's time to get a privacy fence, especially when said persons vandalize your property after you ask them nicely not to shower in your backyard. Contrary to your assessment of Northgate as a wasteland, I find Northgate Mall to be an excellent neighbor: they groom and mow their lawn regularly. The have security scanning their property and are happy to take my calls if something is wrong. And after the Mall's curfew kicks in, Northgate is quite and safe. What your blog entry fails to address is the real blight around the Mall: the now-closed Checks-Cashed building, and adjacent properties, the condemned Tharrington building, the gas station that is more like a junk yard than a gas station, etc. These are the real immediate eye sores along this stretch of Club. More retail along busy Club? I can tell you right now who will move in to such spaces you imagine being part of your proposed urban-infill idea, provided, of course, they can afford the price tag: more check-cashing joints, more tattoo parlors, more cell phone stores, and more icky chains. As someone who'd have to look at that everyday, I say, No thanks.

I-85, Duke and Gregson, as well as access to Roxboro to the east and Broad (and the Freeway) to the west make Club a natural high-access road. Until the state of North Carolina's NCDOT, the county of Durham, the city of Durham and DATA reconfigure and relabel the traffic in this area, this fact will not change and the impact it has on retail and residential zoning and life will not change.

Homeowners who live in northern Trinity Park buy homes there knowing full well what they're getting into; when I bought my home, there was still a drug store in the Mall, a Harris Teeter where now another stupidly popular cafeteria stands, as well as several other amenities that made walking to the store, rather than driving to it, a possibility. Northgate's turnover--a fact that has less to do with Northgate than with businesses like Harris Teeter phasing out smaller stores in favor of mega-big-box ones--has unfortunately made these creature comforts more rare. But Northgate still has retail benefits that make walking across Club still a part of my weekly life. In spite of its rough patches and less-than stellar aesthetics, I still love my urban corner of Durham; it may be part of snooty Trinity Park, but it's on the edge of it and certainly NOT an influential or powerful or necessarily bucolic part of the core of that neighborhood that you on occasion lay into.

So while I salute you for your attention to my corner of Durham, I have to politely disagree with your proposals.

Richard

It isn't that I don't recognize the disagreeable nature of this stretch of Club Boulevard - what I'm advocating for is an engaged strategy to reclaim it, rather than retreating. And building sufficient enclosure on the north side of the street - in the form of back-of-the-sidewalk residential/office/retail - is part of that effort. When there is such enclosure, and higher density visual interest, studies bear out the fact that traffic moves more slowly - given more open space and blank walls, traffic moves more quickly. Are people with the urge to shower or worse along Club Boulevard more or less likely to do so if there is a set of active storefronts and windows along the north side rather than desolation - studies say less.

In a way something should strike us as curious about this corridor - the check cashing places, etc. that you mention. Why, with the wealth nearby, does Watts/Club/Buchanan have abandoned storefronts and other less-than-desirable uses? It's because Club is an unpleasant strip of asphalt - which, to your point has a great deal to do with the road cross-section, but an equal amount to do with the emptiness on the north side.

Thanks for your comment

GK

I recall walking to this mall when I was growing up in Durham from the 1980's up to the early-mid '90s. I actually remember going into Roses and recalling it having a front entrance with a set of registers and a back entrance with a couple of registers. Even though I was born in '81 I spent so much time at the mall that I have quite a few '80's memories. A few that pop in my head are when the mall ended at the food court before Hechts/Macys was built, and there was a Dollar Store by where Wendys was, literally the placement would be in the middle of the corridor as the mall ended at the food court. There was also a Circus World toy store by the drug store by Sears that I dragged my mom into every visit. Also when I pull back into my distant memory I recall the long corridor that used to end at Belks ending in a very large fountain before Thalhimers was added in '87ish. The fountain was where that corridor veers to the right by where Waldenbooks and The Curtain Shop was, and the mall literally ended there. It's wierd to think that up until that point Sears was the only anchor store at the mall.

I live in Raleigh now so I dont get to that area much anymore but I hear the mall has been a bit stagnant/slowly fading since the Southpoint monster came to town. I recall in the '90s it had some pretty good middle of the road stores, and that it co-existed peacefully with South Square. I remember during this time there was Gap, American Eagle, Disney Store, Kirklands, and Express. I have to wonder if Northgate will ever return to 90%+ occupancy especially as it's status as "the other mall" and the perceived crime issues it has. I'm definately hopeful though.

I've often wondered why with the wealth from Trinity Park/Watts-Hillandale there was such a ...lackluster mall there.

I love the idea of Northgate. I like that it is still locally owned. The Sears tool shop there was incredibly handy every time my power tools were stolen. However, retail whore that I am, when I moved to Durham that mall had a Gap. And Express.

1970's tenants included Tiffany's Bakery, Chess King (Hot-happening disco clothing), Record Bar, Merry Go Round (Women's Clothing), Marianne's(Women's Clothing), Sears, Butler Shoes, Thom McAnn, Hahn's, Pappy's (Pizza), Durham Sporting Goods, Robin's, Virginia Crabtree (Perfume was vented from a box with a hole over the door), Baskin Robbins, The Jewel Box (Jewelry), Carlyle Jewelers, The Arcade, Mr. Frankos (Salon), Added Dimensions, Casual Corner(Women's Clothing), Uniform Shop (Name Forgotten) Brooks, Der Wiener Haus (Hot Dogs) Chik-Fil-A, Swiss Colony, Tharringtons, Young Men's Shop, Young Boy's Shop, A fabric store (Name Forgotten; Piece Goods?) The Curtain Shop, K&V Toys (Name Questionable) Spencer Gifts, Hallmark, Things Remembered, Bailey Banks and Biddle(Jeweler),K&W Cafeteria, Leather and Wood, This End Up, Kerr Drugs, Roses (Where Santa's shed showed up to great fanfare every year). (Not sure of the jewelry store run by the Herndons near theater), Northgate Barber Shop (Names of some of the barbers: Vic, Mac, and Carl)...Can't remember more, but I am sure someone can add to the list or correct mine. It was a terrific place to be as a teen then.

In my opinion, malls and other businesses around check cashing places and other conundrums of blight typically don’t do that very well because the populations that they cater to simply aren’t enough to supplement businesses with more desirable storefronts, therefore you end up with a further perpetuation of less desirable venues on the same level (i.e. Cafeteria ‘such and such’ instead of a Harris Teeter). It could be that the affluent neighborhoods around the area are simply taking their business to other areas that cater to their needs which ultimately would contribute to the decrease in mall revenue and capital to sustain restoration.

Michael is misremembering a few things from his childhood. Thalhimers did not come after Belks but before Belks. Thalhimers was the original department store at Northgate. When Northgate went from being a single strip shopping center to an L-shaped center, Thalhimers was at one end. Not too long afterwards, the place became a mall with Sears at one end and Thalhimers at the other. Eventually, Talhimers built a larger store where the movie theater is now. Belks only came when Thalhimers built an even larger store (third version of Thalhimers at Northgate) where Macy's is now. (Thalhimers was bought by the May Co. and became Hecht's, before the merger of May Co. and Federated which decided to rename all their department stores, Macy's). When Belks decide to leave in the 1990's, the mall owners turned that space into a theater.

Baldwins, a local department store, was also here for awhile. Their store at Northgate outlasted the one downtown.

The original cafeteria was not K & W, but Morrisons.

Retail trivia.

I add my voice to everyone who said this post was great. I grew up two blocks south of Northgate and it was built just a couple years after I was born. (I can recall seeing the raw earth to the west of the street that ran up the back of the original strip when it had just been built.) So I saw it in all its phases. We shopped for food at the Colonial Stores when I was a child. I also remember well liking to go to Roses when I was little and I saw my first movie ever at that theater. Later on my friends and I did our teenage mall hanging-out at Northgate too. I have actually been amazed it has survived so long. Even if it's got problems now, it's track record for adapting to several different retail eras is unusual.

When listing the stores that were at Northgate in the 1960's and 1970's, I can't believe that Van Straaten's was left out. That was THE store for men and boys...in fact, I can remember getting my cub scout uniform from Van Straaten's----there was no other place in Durham to get one but at Van Straatens.

Loved this feature about Northgate---finally a post that I can personally relate to!

I was the one who listed the 1970's tenants from memory. You, "other anonymous", are entirely correct. Van Straatens was an oversight on my part! I also remember going there as a kid with my mom. I was never as interested in it as she was. No toys, no food, no fun. However, as an adult parent, I am appreciative of the quality they offered. Thanks for offering that store's name. Are there others I missed? Any other anecdotes?

Don't forget Robbins -- THE place for young women - moved from Main Street. Saleswomen were there to help and often knew what would suit you best - before you did. Also, the perfume wafted into the air was not from Virginia Crabtree but Sally McDonald.

I don't know how profitable the movie theater is, but it already showing signs of wear. Missing signs outside the auditoriums, scarred and damaged walls, and posters on the walls for movies that opened and closed months ago. I doubt I will be going back any time soon.

Other not-to-be-forgotten stores: Jones & Frasier's Jewelry, a transplant from town and Merle Norman cosmetics. Wasn't the first cafeteria named Spinnaker's?

Some interesting notions here Gary. I worked at NG during high school and in to college at the now defunct Durham Sporting Goods, spent a bunch of time in there. I remember when it was THE place to shop for those of us living in northern Durham. Now this monstrosity is, for all purposes, dead. I would love nothing more than for the mall to take down those enormous parking decks, which are never full.

Oh and anonymous (above my first post) Spinnakers was the restaurant at South Square that served the bread in clay flower pots.

just a thought.. who remembers the little red house for Santa that sat in front roses at Christmas during the 1960s. i always looked at Santa through the little window in front of the house but never went in.. i was scared to death of him .. great times

Fantastic post Gary and very nice memories from above. The one thing that caught my eye was the massive set of warehouses or low level buildings just north of 70 (now 85) from your birds eye NW view of the mall (around Broad Street). Do you know what they were? This is where Costco and (ex) World Market, Ross, Pier One etc are.

Cheers
Mark

Mark

Thank you! Those were the Liggett Broad St. warehouses - I profiled them here:

http://endangereddurham.blogspot.com/2009/03/broad-street-liggett-wareh…

GK

I also remember that B. Dalton Booksellers was there, but they had replaced Will's Book Store from an earlier time. Wasn't there a popcorn store, as well as a gold/silver chain store across from Chess King? Finally, there was a Salads and Such down at the turn before taking a right to Thalhimers.

I firmly second the idea of street-front retail along Club's north side...

...but is there perhaps some real danger that this might cause retail developers to start hungrily eying the south side of the street? And, were this to happen, how well would the neighborhood be protected from this incursion?

W.r.t. bookstores: The B. Dalton was there before Wills (an older small chain based in Greensboro). When the mall demolished Roses to open the new southward wing and food court, Wills split their book and gift operations into 2 stores. They remained open after Barnes & Noble superstores opened at New Hope Commons & Southpoint.

After that, B. Dalton (owned by B&N at that point) closed, and a Walden Books opened. The entire Wills chain closed at some point; the Walden Books stuck it out a while longer (IIRC), but then closed a few years ago.

Northgate also had a religious bookstore for a long time. It used to be (late 80s?) in the main portion of the mall, but later moved to the "Shops at Northgate" strip and reduced their book focus. I'm not sure of their current status, but I can't find them on the current (July 2010) mall WWW site. That site also currently shows a used bookstore in the mail. I'm not familiar with it; I may go check it out now. ;) I'll be really glad if they have a bookstore again, but not so glad as I'd be if they'd get a grocery store back.

Also, one of the early banks at the mall was an savings & loan whose name is on the tip of my tongue.... It went broke during an S&L crisis in the late 80s or early 90s. BB&T bought that failing S&L, which was how they got a presence at Northgate (they were not anywhere in Durham until about that time). There was also an NCNB, which was absorbed into BofA. IIRC, the S&L was south of Roses, and the NCNB was in the separate convenience center that used to be where BofA is now.

My credentials: I lived within walking distance of the mail from 1985 to the mid-to-late '90s, and worked for Wills part of that time. :)

I REMEMBER ROSES HAVING A GREAT LUNCH COUNTER IN THE 1960 S. GREAT CHEESEBURGERS AND SHAKES.WHEN YOU WALKED INTO THE STORE FROM THE FRONT , IT WAS ON THE RIGHT HAND SIDE. AS NOTED BEFORE I ALSO REMEMBER THE SLOT CAR TRACK IN THE BASEMENT OF KERR DRUGS, I THINK IT WAS AT LEAST 8 LANES, WHEN YOU WENT DOWN THE STAIRS IT WAS ON THE LEFT HAND SIDE, VERY LARGE LAYOUT. AS A KID I WOULD LOVE TO PUT THE CARS BACK ON THE TRACK WHEN THEY WRECKED FOR THE DRIVERS.

I really enjoyed this post, all the old photos and history.

I remember that old Northgate Twin! I saw lots of 80s movies there like the Breakfast Club and Indiana Jones. Some of my friends worked at Hungate's (art and hobby store), and I'd always go and visit them and buy another brush.

Another NG memory from the 80s was seeing a vibrant performance of Chuck Davis and the African American Dance Ensemble. Right there in the mall! Free!

My main complaint with the current internal design is the triangle configuration that continually gets me lost when I'm trying to get back to my original entrance. I so appreciate how they have moved a lot of publicly-used services (the DMV, credit union branch, etc) near the entrances. Interesting to consider how the area might be further configured. AS a parting comment, I'll note that I really dislike those fake-downtown shopping areas. I'd rather cities put money into their existing downtowns, not create fake ones.

Where was the original Thalhimers located within the mall prior to the 1986 enlargement? Did it stay in the same location and enlarge or did they tear town the old building and build the new one in a different location within the mall?

Michael, I was born the year Northgate began. Like others, I did not realize the extent of the alterations until I saw the post. That said, I remember the Thalhimers remodel. Although I don't remember if it was torn down or its shell was incorportated into the "new"Thalhimers, its footprint is under the mall, just outside the mall entrance to the old Dillards store. I know Dillards is no longer there, but I haven't lived there in 16 years and don't know the current layout.

@ Anonymous: Dillard's was never at Northgate. Thalhimer's became Hecht's became Macy's. Dillard's was at South Square after they bought Ivy's.

@Michael: The original Thalhimer's was at the opposite end from Sears, and was one story like the rest of the mall. They later built a two story store where the theater is now, and the old store became smaller stores and mall walkway space.

Is there any chance of you doing a piece on ( Former) South Square Mall at any point in the future?

Anyway, South Square & Northgate, I always used to frequent during my younger years ( I'm 22 now). Although SS i visited more. I'm just curious, or would like your input as to why did South Square lost business when SouthPoint was built, and Northgate is more or less still standing?

@John Martin: Thanks! So I'm guessing when you say opposite from Sears that Thalhimers originally had their location where the corridor juts off to the right heading to what is now the movie theater, then the store was demolished and the corridor extended (via where the mall corridor makes the rather abrubt turn) to the current theater location? I really appreciate your knowledge here, have been trying to get clarification on this for a while now!

@Mariomaster5: IMO a big reason why South Square shut so abrubtly was b/c Southpoint was located so close that when it opened Belk and JCPenney immediatly closed, plus I recall hearing that the mall stopped accepting new leases/renewing leases over the last several years once they realized that most of the stores were planning on hopping to the new mall. Dillard's tried to hang on for about 6 months on it's own but I think the fact that it was alone in a dead mall with the store hidden behind parking decks sort of expedited it's closing. Belk eventually closed the Northgate Belk store, rumor has it b/c sales had been declining since Southpoint opened and their lease was up in '05 so they had an easy out. Northgate was actually semi upscaled in '95 when Hechts opened (Northgate had stores like Gap, American Eagle, Express, The Disney Store, Kirklands to name a few). It remained as such until Southpoint opened and has been in slow decline since, although it still has life left in it.

@Michael. You've got the original location of Thalhimer's exactly right. I can also correct Gary's account ever so slightly. He speaks of the shopping center being enclosed in 1974. Not quite right. The original strip center, as his 1962 pictures show, ran perpendicular to Club Blvd. In 1974, they built an entirely new enclosed portion which was perpendicular to the original strip center. That new enclosed portion had Thalhimer's at one end and Sears at the other. But the original strip center remained an outside appendage to the newly created mall, and it stayed like that for a number of years. Eventually the original strip center was demolished, and a new enclosed wing was built on that site.

I love your site, Gary!

If you're interested, check out the blog post I just published about my idea for Northgate Mall. http://townophile.blogspot.com/2012/05/mall-ripe-for-retrofit.html

You have all forgotten Bull Durham News and Tobacco. It was in an odd shaped store that was right inside the south facing door that opend toward the parking deck. The store wrapped around another store and had stairs in it so it was a split level magazine and tobacco shop.

When I moved away from Durham, Northgate was still in its original 'configuration.' I've been to the mall a time or two on my trips back to Durham, and the mall I remember from my youth is unrecognizable to me now. The only stores I remember from my day are Kerr Drug, Burton's, and the Colonial grocery store.

Does anyone remember Ballentines at Northgate? Do you remember the plant/floral shop at the end of the mall where Thalhimers was? That place was full of plants.

Being from the south side and more inclined to go to South Square, I have only vague memories of Northgate. To me, it was always the more blue collar, rougher mall. I remember when Coach K's daughter was mugged in the parking lot in (I think) the early to mid 90s. Used to hang out with a group of kids from Oval Park and we'd walk over to Northgate, but you had to pass through Walltown. Those blocks between Broad and Guess were a real gauntlet. We stopped attempting it after my friend was beat down on Sedgefield one afternoon. I second the call for some kind of development on Club -- even something like what they've done with Erwin Rd by LaSalle would be nice, just more mixed use so there's more need for walkability.

I have such fond memories of my granny taking me to Northgate in her silver 2001 Lincoln Towncar and buying me clothes, shoes, and toys. I remember the smell of the mall so well. it was such a wonderful smell. We would always get ice cream to cap off the day.

We would cruise the mall for hours.

It was such a glorious time.

I remember going to Hungates hobby store from a young child all the way up until I was 14 or so. I was born in 94' so it wasn't that long ago. I remember they kept downsizing every few years. It was pretty sad to see them go the way they did. I heard they completely shut down in 2008, around the last time I went there. I haven't been to Northgate since 2008. I've heard it's a pretty dumpy place now. Maybe they'll straighten things out someday...

Me and my granddad used to joke that sooner or later, Hungates would have been in a phone booth out in the parking lot!

Thanks for the memories, Northgate.