US 80 East and Big Town Boulevard
Mesquite, Texas
Ground was broken for the first fully-enclosed shopping mall in the Southwest in August 1957. The complex-to-be was built on an 80-acre tract, located 7 miles east of center city Dallas, in suburban Mesquite.
BIG TOWN MALL was developed by Denver's Gerri Von Frellick ["Fray-lik"] and designed by the Tatum & Quade firm of Dallas. A grand opening was held on February 26, 1959. At this time, the shopping venue spanned approximately 750,000 leasable square feet and housed forty-nine tenant spaces.
A 3-level (104,000 square foot), Dallas-based Sanger Brothers anchored the north end of the complex, with a 2-level (124,500 square foot) Montgomery Ward on its south end. There was also a 1-level (38,000 square foot) J.C. Penney on the northwest corner. The shopping concourse facing the Sanger's store was known as Broadway, with the north-south corridor referred to as Main Street.
Charter tenants included Western Auto, Bond Clothes, Rexall Drug, an F.W. Woolworth 5 & 10, Woolworth's Cafeteria, Wrigley's supermarket and Town Square (a 600-seat public auditorium). The General Cinema Corporation Cinema At Big Town showed its first feature on February 27, 1964. This venue, and the Big Town BowLanes, were added as southern outparcels of the mall proper. A (101,000 square foot) Woolco discount mart was built east of the mall and opened for business in the spring of 1967.
Mesquite, Texas
Ground was broken for the first fully-enclosed shopping mall in the Southwest in August 1957. The complex-to-be was built on an 80-acre tract, located 7 miles east of center city Dallas, in suburban Mesquite.
BIG TOWN MALL was developed by Denver's Gerri Von Frellick ["Fray-lik"] and designed by the Tatum & Quade firm of Dallas. A grand opening was held on February 26, 1959. At this time, the shopping venue spanned approximately 750,000 leasable square feet and housed forty-nine tenant spaces.
A 3-level (104,000 square foot), Dallas-based Sanger Brothers anchored the north end of the complex, with a 2-level (124,500 square foot) Montgomery Ward on its south end. There was also a 1-level (38,000 square foot) J.C. Penney on the northwest corner. The shopping concourse facing the Sanger's store was known as Broadway, with the north-south corridor referred to as Main Street.
Charter tenants included Western Auto, Bond Clothes, Rexall Drug, an F.W. Woolworth 5 & 10, Woolworth's Cafeteria, Wrigley's supermarket and Town Square (a 600-seat public auditorium). The General Cinema Corporation Cinema At Big Town showed its first feature on February 27, 1964. This venue, and the Big Town BowLanes, were added as southern outparcels of the mall proper. A (101,000 square foot) Woolco discount mart was built east of the mall and opened for business in the spring of 1967.
In later years, one of the features of BIG TOWN MALL was Lollipop Park, an enclosed children's amusement area. It included rides such as a mini-train, mini ferris wheel, Sky Fighter, roadway, Brownie tractors and helicopters. There was also a Magic Mountain Indian Village.
The malling of the Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex intensified after the completion of NORTHPARK CENTER {8 miles northwest, in Dallas}, in 1965. In 1971, TOWN EAST MALL {4 miles east, in Mesquite} opened for business. In order to compete with all of the malls that were being developed in its trade area, BIG TOWN underwent a renovation in 1975. Ward's was expanded -to 164,200 square feet- with additions on the store's east and west sides. A face lift refurbishment was done to the mall in 1988.
Unfortunately, BIG TOWN was soon in decline. The Sanger Brothers store, now operating under the Sanger-Harris nameplate, was merged into the Houston-based Foley's chain in 1987. The store closed for good in 1989. Woolworth went dark in 1993, with Montgomery Ward shutting down in March 2001.
By the turn of the 20th century, BIG TOWN was a dilapidated, virtually vacant hulk. Only a few stores with exterior entrances were still in business. Demolition plans were finalized in early 2006. By September of the year, BIG TOWN, and most of its outparcels, were a pile of rubble.
A redevelopment plan, envisaged by Dallas' Kent Jones, proposed building a sports and entertainment complex on the site. This would have included baseball fields, soccer fields, an amphitheater and indoor training facility, with additional space for lodging, restaurants and retail. Unfortunately, The Great Recession caused this redevelopment project to be abandoned.
The vacant mall site was sold to an operative of the Dallas-based SLJ Company in August 2012. In April 2016, it was announced that Dallas' 42 Real Estate development company was building a (334,000 square foot) shipping hub for the FedEx Corporation. This facility was dedicated in August 2017.
Sources:
The Dallas Morning News
preservenet.cornell.edu/publications/Longstreth Branch Store.doc
Dallas History Message Board / "Big Town Shopping Center" / September 28, 2003 / Don Davis
https://www.cinematreasures.org
http://www.city-data.com / Dallas Forum / "Mesquite's Big Town Mall"/ Mike Cochran
http://www.bizjournals.com
"Sanger Brothers" article on Wikipedia
