View source for Draft:Columbus Square Mall

{{short description|Indoor shopping mall in Columbus, Georgia}}
{{under construction}}
'''Columbus Square Mall''' was an American indoor shopping mall in [[Columbus, Georgia]].  It was one of the first indoor shopping malls to open in the state of [[Georgia (U.S. state)|Georgia]].<ref name="FA01">[http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_km4464/is_200605/ai_n16392272 Library's Resources, Beauty Captivate]</ref>

==Rise==
Columbus Square Mall opened in 1965.<ref name="FA01"/>  The style of the mall was typical for that time period, a single-level with [[anchor store]]s on each end of the primary corridor.  The two original anchors were [[Sears]] and [[JCPenney]]. One interesting fact was that the Sears store was independently owned by the Sears, Roebuck and Company.  The store was simply attached to the separately owned mall.  In the late 1970s, Columbus Square expanded, adding another wing which extended from the rear of the main corridor and terminated with a third anchor, local department store Kirven's, which continued to operate a large downtown store for many years after opening the Columbus Square location.  Another famous local store at Columbus Square was Kiralfy's, a women's clothing store.

==Fall==
In early 1993, with attendance declining, Kirven's went out of business, leaving one of the mall's three primary stores vacant and beginning a slow but steady process of store closings in the rear wing of the building.  The entire rear wing was eventually closed off, and the few remaining tenants were relocated to the front of the mall.

The mall soon began to fall into a state of disrepair, and the facility began to be perceived as a place of crime and violence among local residents, further reducing attendance.  JCPenney relocated to [[Peachtree Mall]] the following year, leaving the mall with only a single anchor store.  In 1999, the city exercised the option to buy the mall after voters approved the building of a new library at the location with a 1% sales tax. The Sears building was not included in the purchase. The mall was soon demolished. Sears remained open as a stand-alone store, its former mall entrance walled in, until the mid-2000s when a new Sears store opened in [[Columbus Park Crossing]] in [[North Columbus, Georgia|North Columbus]]. At that time, the school district bought the Sears property.

The site is now home to the Columbus Public Library, which opened January 3, 2005.<ref name="FA01"/> In January 2008, the Sears building was demolished to make room for a new [[Muscogee County School District]] administration building.  This event put an end to the final chapter of the mall's history.

== Further reading ==
<ref>{{Cite news|date=1994-12-30|title=Mall Deal|pages=27|work=The Atlanta Constitution|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/59542046/mall-deal/|access-date=2020-09-18}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news|date=2011-10-21|title=Momentum starts to build for a Midtown area revival|pages=A1|work=Ledger-Enquirer|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/59542125/momentum-starts-to-build-for-a-midtown/|access-date=2020-09-18}}</ref>

==References==
{{reflist}}

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{{Shopping malls in Georgia (U.S. state)}}
[[:Category:Demolished shopping malls in the United States]]
[[:Category:Shopping malls in Georgia (U.S. state)]]
[[:Category:Shopping malls established in 1965]]
[[:Category:Buildings and structures in Columbus, Georgia]]
[[:Category:1965 establishments in Georgia (U.S. state)]]
[[:Category:1999 disestablishments in Georgia (U.S. state)]]
[[:Category:Shopping malls disestablished in 1999]]

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