Preservation

A Big Bag of Pretzels

Reinvigorating the flavor of downtown

The Community Theater present day.

I recently drove past the now defunct the Pines Mall in my hometown, Pine Bluff, Arkansas. It was opened around 1986. It featured several big chain stores: J. C. Penney; Sears; Dillards; Old Navy, Foot Locker, and the like. There were a couple dozen other smaller stores, a busy food court, and a movie theater. If you were a teenager, this was the place to be.

The Pines opened just as downtown Pine Bluff began to wane. J. C. Penney moved from downtown to the mall. Woolworth’s had shuttered. The Malco and Saenger theaters likewise closed. The big clothing stores, Baim’s and Henry Marx were soon to die. Whatever Main Street once was, the opening of the mall completely killed it. The mall in my opinion, was a typical Pine Bluff move, where a handful of the local gentry made out like bandits and once sated, threw the chicken bones of downtown out their car window.

I grew up during that sweet spot where I got to experience some of what Main Street had been while still enjoying the early peak of the mall. As regular readers have doubtless surmised, I am a bit of a romantic. I never saw a lost cause I didn’t quietly support.

Downtown Pine Bluff is just such a cause. I should note, however, that the downtown I remember isn’t the…