I enjoyed reading John Shearer's article concerning the history of Northgate Mall. I want to add my list of stores that were not mentioned.
The Leader was the place to shop during the "preppy" heydays of the mid to late 1980's. The Leader, owned by Herb and Ival Goldstein, also had locations downtown, Brainerd Village, and Belle Meade in Nashville. At Northgate, it was located toward Sears in the old G.C. Murphy location. The last location of The Leader was at Hamilton Place, downstairs close to Sears. The Leader closed all locations by 1988.
Craft Castle was located in the exterior of the mall, close to where Applebee's is today. Craft Castle was a predecessor of Michael's and Hobby Lobby. It was a small store, probably about the size of one department of the big box craft shops.
Tender Sender was ahead of its time and was located in a small space between Paraphernalia and Vanitas. This franchise offered gift wrap services, as well as preparing and shipping packages via UPS. This outlet was short lived; it closed in about three years.
Habersham Plantation was close to Sears across from Wicks N Sticks. This home decor store offered everything from candles to furniture, all with a rustic feel.
Federal Bakery was located across from Eckerds, which is now the Half Price Book store. The iced thumbprint cookies were my favorite!
Karmelkorn was located across from Federal Bakery by Eckerds. The only other Karmelkorn I have ever seen like the one at Northgate is in Gatlinburg on the Parkway.
Also, don't forget that the first Chick Fil A in Chattanooga was located in Northgate, still in the original location. The first Chattanooga area GAP store was also at Northgate.
I worked in high school at Tender Sender, and then in college, I worked at The Leader both at Northgate and Hamilton Place. I remember going Christmas shopping (beginning in fifth grade) with a friend at Northgate. Our parents would drop us off to shop. Can't imagine doing that today with my fifth grader in Memphis!
Thanks for the memories!
Dana Shappley Goodwin
Memphis
dana.goodwin@excite.com
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I have been enjoying the articles about the history of Northgate mall in Hixson. That was a wonderful place to hang out when one was young. They had a vast variety of stories that one could shop to their hearts content.
Murphey's, the corner where the food court is, was a huge store. At the southwest corner of the center of the mall used to be a hot dog stand that sold the best cheese hot dogs. You would buy the plain hotdogs then move over to a table at the corner of the shop to fix them the way you wanted to. They had the best onions to go on your hot dogs.
For those who do not remember what a record album is, there was a wonderful music store there. It was named Record Bar. It had the latest records and cassettes from varies artists. The store used to be where Payless Shoes is today. Baskin Robbins Ice Cream was in the mall as well. It used to be where Claire's is today. Burger King found its home where the Finish Line sports is today. Hickory Valley farms had a store that one could go in and sample some of the wonderful treats that they sold. One could go in there for lunch and come out full. They had little covered testing trays that would have different types of summer sausages, cheese, nuts and other wonderful goodies. It was free. They had a machine that dispensed sunflowers seeds. The Piccidilly Restaurant was the big place to eat back in the day. The line would be out the door and down the mall on Sundays.
In the middle of the mall was a huge fountain. It always was very pretty and people would toss their spare change in the fountain. They always kept the fountain so clean and sparkling. The reflections of the water would dance on the ceiling.
When the mall first opened, they had a putt-putt golf course just to the left of Sears. I remember playing it when I was a little child. After awhile they pulled it out and made a place to ride little go-carts in a circle. My siblings and I did that as well.
When we were school age, it was tough to wear your school jacket to the mall. The Hixson students wore their black and yellow jackets. The Red Bank students wore their Royal Blue and white jackets. The other schools were Soddy-Daisy, Baylor, McCallie, Brainerd and GPS.
There used to be an International Pancake House where Pinera Bread calls home. That was the hot place to eat on Friday nights or Saturday mornings. It has moved to Hwy 153.
The holidays were always fun at Northgate especially Christmas. Santa was always an exciting time. When they opened the mall Santa was in the middle of the mall. The "workshop" was wonderful and put one in the holiday mood. Santa would be in the Hixson Christmas parade and they would bring him right to the front of Northgate. My father was once one of their Santas back in the late 80's.
Those are my memories of Northgate mall.
Laura Crane
Red Bank
ToBSketching@aol.com
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Shopping malls in the late 70’s and early 80’s had, for lack of a better word, “personality.” I feel very fortunate to have been a youngster during the early years of Northgate Mall. Thank you for bringing back great memories.
Naming all of the shops that used to occupy the mall is one thing, but stories and memories they generate are much cherished moments during my childhood. I know that this may be hard to read, but here are a few of memories of Northgate in its heyday:
How many remember shopping for shoes in Sears? My reward for sitting through an unbearable shopping trip with my mother was a quarter to put in a small booth at in the shoe department that played an episode of “Tom & Jerry” on a small television screen. How many remember the Castles at both ends of the mall that told you fairy tales if you inserted a coin and picked up the phone receiver?
I can remember the sounds of the video arcade and the smells of the Pizza Hut like it were yesterday. If I couldn’t bum a quarter from my father I could always play one of the three Atari 2600 demo kiosks in the anchor stores. I remember filling up empty pita shells at the salad bar in what has to be the “coolest” Burger King that has ever existed. Did anyone else pay $0.25 extra to have them drop an egg in your Orange Julius before they mixed it up? I still remember eating at the all stainless steel, “Greasy Spoon” diner that was at the entrance of JC Penney that now contains, of all things, the ladies lingerie department. The Banana Splits served at the narrow Baskin Robbins Ice Cream shop beside the GNC always tasted great, and they had the best water fountain I have ever found. Outside the mall the Steak Chalet was serving up the best potato fries you have ever tasted. Showbiz Pizza had good pizza, but their combo pizza had corn in it.
My dad used to frequent the gun shop that occupied the area where the driver education shop currently exists in the back of the mall. JC Penney used to have a nice rifle selection also…it was upstairs near the booth that contained Boy Scout supplies. I remember my dad buying stinky cigars below the escalators at Sears and smoking them while walking around the mall looking for my mother. I can’t remember the name of the record store that occupied the slot where Hot Topic currently sits, but I do remember my father browsing a vast selection of 8-track albums. I tell a lot of people about this store and they don’t believe me. All the 8-tracks were behind glass and you browsed them by reaching through a hole in the glass that was big enough for your hand, but too small for the album to “disappear.”
Did anybody else make a bee-line to the Swiss Colony to try all those fancy cheeses? The old location was beside the Arcade and is currently a shoe shop. They were there before Pier 1 and you walked through barrels to enter the store. It just wasn’t the same when they moved between the Radio Shack and the pet store…which both also moved to another location in the mid-80s. I wonder how many of those funny chairs that hang from the ceiling Pier-1 actually sold.
I’ll be willing to bet that Xavier, the Sears Petland’s resident macaw, is still alive somewhere and still biting fingers if you don’t first give him a peanut.
I believe that I was too young to see Star Wars at the theatre, but I do remember watching Empire Strikes Back and the Return of the Jedi there. We watched ET at 4 Squares because it was $0.99…sorry Northgate.
I wonder what happened to the great big clock that I used to tell how much more time I had till we went home? I wonder how many pennies they pulled out of the great big fountain in the center of the mall. I know that many of the quarters in that fountain made their way to the arcade (I was eight…gimmie a break).
I am glad that some of those memories are still there. I vow to patronize Piccadilly at least once a week for as long as they will serve me. They recently got rid of their register that magically rolled out change for an electronic model. I wonder if they know that it is another thing that will have to exist in my memories. At least they still sell mints for $0.10 each. I still pop into Chuck E. Cheese from time to time for nothing more than to smell the pizza and hear the beeps of all sorts of gadgets begging for a token. I still close my eyes every time I sit in the center lobby of the mall and hear the splashing noise that fountain made over a quarter century ago.
Thank you for the memories.
Matthew Craigge
Chattanooga
matthew_craigge@yahoo.com