Opened in 1957 as the Parkway Shopping Center, it served as the retail hub for Huntsville's growing south side. In 1974, a tornado struck the south end of the center. In 1976, the open-air center re-opened as the enclosed Parkway City Mall, with 474,000 square feet of space and Montgomery Ward, Parisian and Pizitz anchoring.

Twenty years and one weird pineapple themed renovation later, Parkway City Mall was languishing. In just a few years, staple stores such as Camelot Music, Spencer and Montgomery Ward were gone. Although Parisian and McRae's did well, the rest of the mall was going down hill. B level stores were scattered throughout the mall, with empty storefronts occupying the rest of the facility. On any given day, the mall's main patrons were old mall walkers and the occasional shopper.

I remember the drab brown facility on South Parkway. It blended into the landscape and, with its low profile, was difficult to notice from Memorial Parkway. On the inside, center court was a box fountain at the intersection of the two main halls. There was no food court, no good sit down restaurants, and few good fashion stores. Renovation ideas were thrown around beginning in the early nineties when the 1.5 million square foot Green Cove Mall was announced for extreme south Huntsville. They would change the name to Parkway Centre and all hoped for a facility that affluent south Huntsville deserved. Then, in 1999, it was announced.

CBL, who a few years earlier had abandoned their proposal for Green Cove Mall, joined with Colonial Properties and made a damn good, anti-sprawl and pro-urban infill decision. Instead of building a new facility on the outskirts of town, they proposed a complete demolition of Parkway City Mall and construction of a two-level 650,000 square foot upscale replacement, Parkway Place.

First, in late 2000 at the mall's north end, the vacant Montgomery Ward and adjacent wing were demolished to make way for the new Parisian, which would open more than a year before the rest of the mall. In April 2001, the rest of the mall was closed and subsequently demolished. It was sad seeing it go, but when Parkway Place opened its shining new facility in October 2002, it was well worth it.

Links
-Article from July 2001 at ICSC.org.
-Article from May 2003 at ICSC.org.
-Image of Parkway City Mall from TerraServerUSA.com.
-Image of Parkway Place from TerraServerUSA.com.
-Website for Parkway Place.