Developed by the May Department Stores and originally anchored by a Famous Barr department store in Mehlville, the South County Shopping Center opened in the fall of 1963, spurring increased residential development around the intersection of what would become Interstates 55, 270 and 55, just west of the Jefferson Barracks Bridge.
This was the fourth store in the Famous Barr chain, and featured 150 individual departments and may, if I calculate correctly, was the first to possess one of distinctive domed roofs that would later grace the stores at Northwest Plaza, West County Mall and St. Clair Square.
The store and mall cost $10,000,000 and was designed by Victor Gruen Associates; initially the mall contained thirty stores in addition to the Famous Barr anchor. 3,500 parking spots assured that plenty of shoppers could pack the mall.
The dome was 125 feet in diameter and 40 feet tall.
The question arises, of course, what will happen to this large anchor tenant’s huge square footage when it closes (the going out of business signs were already posted when I visited and are visible in some photos). Multiple entrances into the mall are through the Macy’s, the successor to the Famous Barr, and large numbers of storefronts are now vacant in some sections of the interior.
I’ve always enjoyed the hexagonal roofs cantilevered and supported by thin steel columns, accented by rubble curtain walls alternating with large windows.
The mall itself, now heavily altered, had large clerestory windows that allowed light to shine into the interior. It was a beautiful space.
Later anchors, such as the JC Penney, had a certain panache to them.
The Dillard’s, which I suspect was originally a Stix, Baer and Fuller’s, reminds me of the one built at Jamestown Mall.
Speaking of Dillard’s, I took a stroll inside the mall, and while the original one-story wing that links Macy’s and JC Penney’s is still open, the two story wing connecting the Dillard’s to the rest of the mall has undergone a renovation, so to speak. The entire second floor has been blocked off, relegated to a sort of twilight purgatory while stores on the first floor are still open.
Upstairs, a blank wall, similar to what occurred when Chesterfield Mall was fading away, greets shoppers.
A little passageway is left, leading to a staircase for egress.
I’ve always loved the clean lines of the 1960s and 70s in malls, and this staircase is one example of that fading style of architecture that doesn’t get into college textbooks, but was still the most accessible to the common person. It is still open, probably for fire code.
And it wouldn’t be a 1960s mall in St. Louis without a hulking office building nearby! Just like Crestwood Plaza and Northwest Plaza, just on the other side of Lindbergh Boulevard is the Lindbergh Building.
