Signal Hill Mall: History and my First Visit

Signal Hill Mall, which was located in Statesville, North Carolina, will always hold a special place in my heart. My time with the mall starts back on October 16th, 2022. I had just ended a wonderful off-roading trip in the Uwharrie National Forest with a university club I was enrolled in, and I was looking for dead and dying malls to go visit afterwards. I had maybe seen a single video on this mall prior to my first visit. At the time and still today I don't like to give too many myself spoilers when I look at malls to go visit. I rolled up into the parking lot at about 11am, to see a completely empty mall parking lot, aside from cars in front of Belk. I went inside Belk some minutes later to see if I could see into the mall since I thought It wasn't supposed to open for another hour. An employee at Belk said the interior of the mall had been closed for years. By the time I got out of Belk it was 12:02, and despite still seeing no cars, I ventured to the malls front doors.

The front entrance of the mall.

Signal Hill Mall was opened for the first time on August 1st, 1973, featuring anchor stores Belk, Woolworth and Spainhour's. The mall was built by a firm known as C & J Associates, who also developed Newtowne Plaza located next to the mall in the late 1960's. C & J Associates was spearheaded and named after Robert A. Collier Jr, and Avery S. Jones, two local residents of Statesville. The mall originally stood at roughly 250,000 square feet, and opened with 20 stores. The interior tenants present at opening were Blackwelder Furniture Co.; Canterbury Shop; Deb Shop; Gateway Books, Inc.; Jewel Box; LaMarick Beauty Salon; Northwestern Bank; Morse Shoes; Peggy's Fashion Mart; Phil's Shoes; Piece Good Shops, Inc.; Radio Shack; Small World, and Judi Smart Shops. A Winn Dixie grocery store was located at the back of the property as an outparcel. The mall was adorned in tan tile and featured three fountains complete with planter beds, one in each court of the mall. Due to the success of the new shopping center, in 1979 an expansion was started which would relocate Spainhour's from the back-center of the mall to the back left, adding a new concourse where the original space was. This expansion would also bring JCPenney to the mall, next to the new Spainhour's. After the new concourse and anchors were added, this brought the mall up to roughly 300,000 square feet. The anchors had their opening ceremonies on August 6th, 1980, with the new interior stores being opened by a ceremony on October 15th, 1980. The stores that occupied the new space were Endicott Johnson, Chick-Fil-A, GNC, Lerner, Pearle Vision Center, a relocated Merle Norman, and Record Bar, with a Southern Bell Telephone opening in a few months after the expansion was finished.

View from just inside the front doors.

I mentioned that this mall got expanded in 1979 with a 1980 opening. That is the last time this mall would ever get a major renovation. When I walked in those doors that afternoon, I was immediately greeted by 1980 in the present day. However, time did not treat this mall kindly. Immediately the aroma of what I now know as mold hit my nose stronger than anything I had ever experienced. This was only my third dead mall visit, following Northlake Mall and Georgia Square Mall just weeks earlier. I was not accustomed to the sight of so many vacant stores, and truthfully to this day I have not seen anything like it. I remember feeling frightened of the structure that I had just entered. It did not feel as if I belonged inside this mall, and yet there I was. I remember I called my friend, who later visited this place with me, because I was genuinely terrified. To this day as I write this blog, I have not experienced another mall as empty, dim, and rank smelling as Signal Hill Mall was that afternoon, and it would only continue to get worse. I walked around the mall shocked at the amount of empty stores, some I would learn had not been occupied since the 2000's, or even the 1990's. The sole occupant of the mall that day was a lonely janitor sitting by a closed eatery that I later learned was once a Sweet n' Nutty.

The Belk wing of the mall. Belk years ago at that point had walled themselves off from the mall. The red carpet covers part of the fountain that sunk into the ground.

The mall had fared well up into the 1990's, but changes would start to happen pretty rapidly. Spainhour's closed their store at the Signal Hill Mall in late 1992, followed shortly after by Woolworth shuttering in early 1993 as the retail powerhouse floundered. Management would be proactive in filling these vacancies, as by the end of 1993, Peebles, a specialty clothing store based in Virginia, took over the old Spainhour's space. Then, in 1995, Hills, which was an Ohio based discount retailer, took over the old Woolworth space. Hills would not last long at the mall however, as the store would close in April 1997. Management was quick to fill the mall once again, as department store giant, Sears, would begin operation at the mall on October 18th, 1997. The mall was chugging along heading into the new millennium, with stores such as Blockbuster Music, American Tuxedo, Claires, IHOP, Bookland, Chickfila, Kay-Bee Toys, Little Pigs Too, and more in 1996. However, over the next few years, the mall would begin to really show its age.

The Sears wing of the mall. During my first visit, the ceiling in this wing was mostly spotless, and the plants were thriving in their planter bed.

The 1990's would be the final time this mall ever did well. Signs of wear were already starting to present itself. Winn Dixie, the grocery store outparcel on the rear of the mall, would close in 1994, opting to relocate across the street. This space would never be retenanted. Going into the 2000's, the mall was long in the tooth, not having been renovated extensively since 1980. Management at the mall knew this, and plans were being drafted to give the mall a redevelopment. Reportedly, this is the reason why Peebles would leave the mall in 2004, in addition to a few other stores. C & J associates did not renew their leases in preparation for a remodel. However, such a remodel would not come.

The main concourse of the mall, featuring a shuttered Merle Norman Cosmetics, and a former Chick-Fil-A. The raised island structure pictured was raised seating for the Chick-Fil-A. The ceiling in the main drag as seen is terrible.

The main concourse of the mall. Pictured is a former Blockbuster Music which once upon a time was Record Bar. Next to it was GNC, and on the far end, Wooten Jewelers.

By the time of the late 2000's, the mall was emptying out. Due to the economic conditions of 2008 and the city of Statesville having a reportedly slow economy according to manager Burr Collier, the malls expansion and renovation plans would continue being delayed. During the 2010's, the mall would begin to garner status as a dead mall, as mall documenters and urban explorers came to the mall over the next decade to document its old and storied walls.

JCPenney wing and fountain. The owners of the mall erected a small stage for local performances in front of what used to be Peebles.

Mirrored JCPenney store facade. The mirrored elements had started falling down.

Skinny corridor next to the former JCPenney. The ceiling makes an arrow pointing you out of the mall.

JCPenney fountain. Pictured behind the fountain and tree is an old Lerner Shops complete with label scar.

To make matters worse, due to anchor store closures, this mall would only continue to get emptier. Sears left the mall in 2011 as the company started its slippery slope into ruins, followed by JCPenney in 2015. Bookland Closed in 2016, followed by RadioShack and Saslows Jewelers in 2017. IHOP, which operated since 1994, closed

in 2021. This just left two tenants on the inside of the mall: Wooten Jewelers and Starz Wireless. Starz Wireless would leave sometime in between my last visit and the end of December 2023, and Wooten Jewelers would silently close with the rest of the mall in early January 2024. Wooten Jewelers had occupied space inside the mall since 1975 under the name Scrogg's.

Picture of the closed IHOP, with banner missing. This is looking towards the main entrance of the mall.

The Belk building, which opened with the mall on August 1st, 1973.

The Peebles building, which once was Spainhour's. This location had a partial basement for offices and management.

The JCPenney building, with an exterior wise original to its 1980 construction.

I took these pictures, then left the mall feeling shaken and disturbed. My clothes reeked of mold, I could smell it in my nose, and I swore I'd never return. However, I got home and basically immediately started planning the next time I could come up here. I ended up returning to the Signal Hill Mall 5 more times after this, soaking up the experience that this mall delivers. This mall was such a stunning example of 1980's architecture, having not changed since then. A couple of months after the mall closed, demolition on the interior was silently performed. Today as I write this blog post in 2026, the mall still sits awaiting its new life, fully gutted and ready for its eventual transformation into something new. I will always relish my time with this mall and I miss it dearly, for what it did for me, and what it offered.