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Happy 20th Birthday, Valley View Mall!


StevenRocks

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July 17, 1985 is a day that will live in Roanoke retail infamy. That day, Valley View Mall opened its doors and effectively killed Crossroads Mall, downtown Roanoke, and Roanoke-Salem Plaza's hopes of ever being regional retail destinations again, and seriously wounded Tanglewood Mall, the previous reigning king of regional malls in Southwest Virginia.

http://livemalls.blogspot.com/2005/07/happ...alley-view.html

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I remember that day well.  I was almost 10 and I was upset that I didn't get to go on opening day.  I did watch all the TV coverage and saved the newspaper articles for a long while.  Wish I still had them.

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It's funny the memories that brought back. I too was at VV on opening day. I remember almost nothing about the experience except that I got a free flashlight.

Last time I was there (~2 years ago), it seemed like the mall had taken a turn for the worse, despite the crazy growth on the outskirts of mall grounds.

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Last time I was there (~2 years ago), it seemed like the mall had taken a turn for the worse, despite the crazy growth on the outskirts of mall grounds.

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Welcome to UrbanPlanet, BGW :)

Valley View doesn't look very good these days at all. Not only has everything been painted beige, it's also lacking in retail excitement.

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wow I never noticed this from your pic but it had a Miller&Rhoads!....man I wish I could have been old enough to remember the flagship store on Broad in DT Richmond :(

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Coupe, I thought your Mom took you to see Santa at M&R downtown Richmond!! It was a beautiful store - very big - and it had a lot of class. Across the street was Thalhimers, and it was almost as big and was more New York "chic" than M&R. Both stores had beautiful window designs. Thalhimers had a Santa, too, but the REAL one was at Miller & Rhoads! :lol:

Wasn't there a M&R downtown Roanoke? But Hieronimus was THE store in Roanoke. It was near the American Theatre on the main drag (was it called Jefferson Avenue?). :)

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she did! I just can't remember which one it was...IT's the legendary REAL santa, the one that continues on today at the GRConvention Center. He's the one that even comes down the chimney after feeding the reindeer on the roof :lol: Sadly, all I remember are the escalators for some reason....

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The clock near the elevators on the ground floor was "the" place to meet downtown. :)

But we digress! Roanoke is the subject here, and a charming city it is.

I love the market area with Mill Mountain Playhouse and the many cafes and shops. And that great pedestrian bridge that crosses the tracks to the beautiful Roanoke Hotel. And I'm really excited to hear that the new Art Museum is getting ready to break ground, though I'm not exactly sure where it is located. :)

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wow I never noticed this from your pic but it had a Miller&Rhoads!....man I wish I could have been old enough to remember the flagship store on Broad in DT Richmond :(

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That Miller & Rhoads and Thalhimers were the highlights of Valley View. I mean everyone was excited that we had a modern mall and all, but having the two really fashionable full-sized department stores in town was something else.

Yeah, I wish I could have seen the Downtown Richmond Miller & Rhoads, too. From Burt's description, it sounded awesome. I always really dug their suburban stores.

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yea see I had just seen a documentary that went into detail about the Thalhimer's and M&R on Broad st...question stephen,...at their greatest extent, how large (# of stores) were M&R and Thalhimer's?

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They got to just short of 30 stores apiece.

Thalhimers was the stronger of the two chains, opening large and small stores all over Virginia, North Carolina, and curiously, Memphis, Tenn.

Miller & Rhoads was strongest in Virginia, with limited penetration into larger North Carolina markets with small specialty stores.

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interesting...I never new how large they were. IT's a shame they couldn't have at least been purchased by some larger dept. store instead of just closing up for good....

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Thalhimers actually was purchased as an operating chain by May Company in 1990. The official case of death was "consolidation." May folded Thalhimers into Hecht's two years later.

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