Becker Village Mall (Roanoke Rapids, NC–Dead Since 2002?)

So, last Monday my friend Gary & I drove out to Roanoke Rapids, NC to find different sodas and drinks. He told me when he was doing research on the city that there was a mall there; Becker Villiage Mall and it had a JC Penney and a Belk. I always like to visit new malls dead or alive so I was excited about this.

I knew things were going to be bad the minute we saw the sign. That is one oudated sign!

We walked in and Gary said, “Oh.my.God” and I said, “I’m in love!!”.

There were only three, four people walking in the mall. One was a custodian.

Upon doing research, we learned that this closed in 2002–when most of the mall packed up and moved out when KMart shut down.

This place looks like it was here from day one.

Gary took this picture from the bathroom hallway. My friend Sarah saw the pic on Flickr and said, “that’s a mall? weird. it looks like the science building at my school.” She also supplied the Becker photo.

I took a picture of the JC Penney as we were driving away.

So, this place only had six stores open:

JC Penney
Belk
Clarie’s
Shoe Dept
MasterCuts
Hibbet Sports
and some generic “urban” store called Hit Wear.

The mall was small and about the size of two drugstores. When we both came home, Gary did research on the mall. Apparently KMart closing in 2002 killed this place. He found some things of interest:

totally oudated floor plan of the mall

An article from June of 2002 about renovations to the mall–sorry, I did not see any renovations to this mall. it seemed pretty dated.

Another article from the same paper from 2003. This one is about more stores moving out of the mall

Gary also showed me a pdf that had a picture (albeit very small) of the mall during its heyday. I don’t have the URL for it though.

Chuck E Cheeses (1994?) Hampton, VA

11th birthday? (1994?)
Originally uploaded by Look In The Tunk.

This was the last Birthday Party at Chuck E Cheeses ever. Unfortunately I can’t remember what birthday this was. I’m thinking maybe it was my 11th in 1994 because those shoes look like the shoes I wore to my 5th grade “graduation” a few days prior. But I also remember having a birthday party at my house with a couple of friends from school. Maybe I did both? Yeah, I think I may of done both. I’m not sure.

I look miserable. And that dress is like 2 sizes too small.

This Chuck E Cheeses moved to another shopping center in Hampton a few years ago.

From The April 6, 2006 Daily Press

This has been on my desktop since like April 8th. I have a “browken” computer at the moment [just look up “emac freezes up” on google and you’ll know why] and things fall by the wayside.

Abandoned Junior High (forgot name!! Franklin, VA)

Abandoned Junior High (forgot name!! Franklin, VA)
Originally uploaded by Look In The Tunk.

I know, its not a store, but my car has been broken for a month now and I haven’t been able to go anywhere to take pics of abandoned stores and such:

I had a job interview at the Martin Luther King center across the street from this place. It just blew my mind that Franklin has an abandoned school. I was with my dad so I could only take one pic. I wanted to walk across the street and take a walk around the building. I wonder when it shut down. (well, it probably moved)

//edit//

It’s Hayden Junior High , built in 1953.