When I began working at CVS in late 2006, plans were just getting under way to move the store from its then-current location in the South Crater Square shopping center to its modern location at the site of the dead Walnut Mall in the Walnut Hill section of Petersburg, Virginia. Opened in 1966, it was the only mall for many miles around; the next closest malls were in Richmond. In the 1980s, that all changed. Petersburg was beginning a long economic downturn (from which it hasn't fully recovered), and a new mall was being built in Colonial Heights, less than five miles away. In 1989, Southpark Mall opened, and JCPenney, one of the two anchor stores, closed its store at Walnut Mall in favor of the younger, sexier replacement. The other anchor store, Richmond-based Thalheimer's, kept stores at both malls until a year later, when the chain was sold to the May Company, who decided to shut down the more poorly performing Petersburg store in May 1991, taking the mall along with it. Another mainstay of the mall was People's Drug, which was bought by CVS in 1990. It moved to the South Crater Square location when the mall shut down and reopened as CVS. More information about, and photos of, the mall can be found on Deadmalls, Labelscar, and the blog That Mall's Sick And That Store's Dead. The abandoned mall stood for 15 years past its closure, finally being demolished in 2006. (My one photography regret is not stopping to check it out before its demolition, as I drove by it on a few occasions. I vaguely remember the old mall; being born in 1986, Southpark had opened by the time my memories picked up and we didn't ever go to Walnut.) The next year, a small strip mall opened, utilizing the northern half of the old mall, containing a Food Lion and a few other stores. It still hasn't been fully filled. We at CVS moved there in July 2008, a homecoming of sorts given the former presence of People's Drug there. I grew ever more curious at the remnants of the mall left behind there, until early one morning in August 2010 when I arrived at work early and began driving around the complex taking pictures.
The mall was located at the five-way intersection of Crater Road (US 301), Sycamore Street (US 301 ALT), and Walnut Boulevard, and located on the southwest side of the intersection, bordering Crater and Walnut. This photo, taken in January 2012, shows what the view of the mall's site today. Before the current strip mall opened, traffic could not turn directly from northbound Crater onto westbound Walnut (from the opposite side of traffic to the far right in this photo). In the far background, the second traffic light was the mall's main entrance to the right. The ExpertTire building near it has been around since the mall was open.
As it sits today, the mall's exit road forms a loop that is separated from most of the old parking lot by a curb. The area behind the curb in this photo was itself separated from the rest of the old parking lot by another curb. The grass in the background was the mall site, specifically JCPenney.
Looking southbound from the exit loop road towards the railroad tracks. The water tower is on the left side of the photo. An access road from the loop road to the water tower is how you can still get back to the old parking lot.
Another look at what was once the front southeastern lot of the mall. The grass on the far left side of the photo mostly obscures the curb.
You can see in this photo where the new development ends and transitions to the mall remnants, including the concrete stubs for old light poles.
The building that still stands today houses ExpertTire and a restaurant on the north side and a few small businesses on the south side. The south side also uses the old back part of the southeastern mall parking lot, separated from the loop road by a curb. You can see that the parking space lines are still barely visible.
Looking at the new development from the old back lot.
The south side of the building is somewhat in use, but the parking lot still looks like it hasn't been touched since before I was born.
These Exit signs were leftover from the days when the mall was open, and directed you to follow the loop around to the traffic light. The Mexican restaurant has since become a Chinese one.
In this picture I was as far back into the parking lot as you could go, near where JCPenney's south entrance was. I would occasionally see a Petersburg police car back here, but it's been a long time since that occurred.
Closer view of an old parking space outline. I'm not a fan of these double-line spaces.
An old concrete stub for a light pole.
Finally, looking from the back of CVS towards the abandoned section. This was taken later in the day.
There are more dead malls and lots of abandoned businesses in the Richmond area, so you may see more entries like this.
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