DUNNAVANT'S MALL

South Memorial Parkway / US 231 & 431 and Governors Drive Southwest

Huntsville, Alabama

Plans for Huntsville's second shopping mall were announced in March 1963. DUNNAVANT'S MALL was being developed, by Huntsville's Charles Cummings, Junior, Incorporated, on an 8.7 acre plot southeast of HEART OF HUNTSVILLE MALL.

DUNNAVANT'S MALL was designed by Reed-Mullins & Associates. It was to encompass approximately 84,900 leasable square feet and be anchored by a 1-level (30,000 square foot), Huntsville-based Dunnavant's department store. This mercantile opened for business October 10, 1963. It would be the chain's first -and only- branch.

The 1.5 million dollar shopping center was built as a fully-enclosed structure and was the Rocket City's first interior mall. An official grand opening was held November 29, 1963. There were ten charter stores and services. Among these were Maurice's Dress Shoppe, Propst Drugs and a Merle Norman Cosmetic Studio.

When fully-leased, DUNNAVANTS MALL contained eighteen stores under its roof. The complex was expanded, with a north store block, in the early 1970s, which increased its gross leasable area to approximately 111,300 square feet.

The Dunnavant's chain was defunct by the mid-1970s. Within a few years, a plethora of newer and larger Huntsville shopping malls was providing more competition than the aging facility could endure. It was shuttered and sold to the Health Care Authority of the City Of Huntsville, who repurposed it as the HUNTSVILLE HOSPITAL MEDICAL MALL.

Sources:

Huntsville (Alabama) Times

www.citydata.com / "Things You Don't See In Huntsville Anymore"

Madison County, Alabama Tax Assessor website

"Huntsville, Alabama" article on Wikipedia