Friday, January 9, 2015

Metcalf South Center- (Overland Park, KS)


The Metcalf South Shopping Center was an enclosed shopping mall built in 1967 in the city of Overland Park, KS, outside of Kansas City. The center was built the same time as a strip mall next door anchored by a supermarket called French Market and a fabric store.

The mall features two-floors and nearly 100 stores and originally anchored by Sears and The Jones Company Store. Currently, although the mall itself is closed, Sears and the Glenwoods Arts movie theater are still open. Macy's closed after an announcement in January 2014.

The mall was very popular in the beginning, but began to go south with more than a decade of decline, the dead mall was purchased in February 2014. The mall closed in September 2014.

Here are some pictures of the mall from July 2014, late at night and 5 minutes after they closed, the guard was locking the doors and I could not get in, probably never will.


Peek inside


Former The Jones Company Store/ Macy's





French Market Kmart Plaza:

Here are a variety of pictures of the plaza across from the mall that shows when it opened, it was a French Market supermarket, then became a Kmart before closing in 2013.

Source: Google

Source: Google

Source: Google

Source: Flickr

Source: Flickr

Former French Market/ Kmart




Another mall bites the dust in Kansas City, and likely won't be the last. If anyone has any comments or questions, feel free to post below.

Thank you for reading.

3 comments:

  1. Its cool to see the sequence of old pictures of the French Market to Kmart to nothing.

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  2. The French Market was very large. Did Kmart use the entire building? Obviously they bricked shut the windows in the front.

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  3. Yes, Kmart did use the entire building at one time starting in 1970 after French Market closed. Then in the mid 70's Milgram moved into the part that Hancock Fabrics moved into in 1984. My mother worked at Metcalf South and remembers the building being transformed into different things over the years.
    Also a good history lesson of the French Market, check out a blog on Pleasant Family Shopping: My Trip to The French Market.

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