Edgewater Plaza Shopping City
Biloxi, Mississippi. 1959
Welcome to the Jet Age! I really like the bright, "modern", open-air feeling of this shot. The creamy earth tones, mixed with those wonderful colored hanging light fixtures and the complimenting birch trees (or whatever they are), really give this mall court an elegant look. Note the cool gold chalice-style fountain anchored there in the middle behind the trees, too. Nice.
Here's a closer look from another angle, of the garden and neat-o light fixtures. This photo via.
posted by Keith @ 6/26/2005
7 Comments:
Hi Cora! Thanks for the comments. If you ever come across those photos, please e-mail 'em over to me if you'd like to see them posted here. Great history.
And those head ornament thingies sound awesome. I love that.
Hey I used to live in Gulfport in the 70s and 80s and went shopping there with my mom a lot. Heck if I remember right she worked in the mall at one point also. I know the pic is from long before I was born or my parents even lived there, but it was neat to see a picture of it.
The Waldoff store at Edgewater was a Hattiesburg based store. It was owned and operated by Waldoff's, Inc. founded in Hattiesburg in 1924. At one time they operated 4 stores. Three in Hattiesburg and the one at Edgewater. One of the stores in Hattiesburg was named Milton's, Ltd. It was the first traditional in Mississippi, opened in 1963, the same year that Waldoff's was selected the Brand Name Retailer of the year by the Brand Names Foundation.
Although I did not live in Biloxi during the 60's I do visit this mall quite often. It sure was pretty then. Unfourtunetely I do not believe the remodeling that took place later did much good. Thank you for supplying these pictures. They look nice!
Waldoff's was one of the best operated stores in America. In the 1980's their store in Hattiesburg, MS was doing in excess of $700sf in 20,000sf. We loved the store. Not only was it beautiful and well stocked the customer service was awesome. When I would get to Hattiesburg I could not believe the people who I would see in the store, friends I knew in college, celebrities who were visiting the area or driving through. They did my wedding and really took care of everything. My in-laws were from Texas and compared every store they entered to Neiman Marcus, only Waldoff's was considered in the same league, and for my mother in law to say that was really somewhat shocking! However, we all agreed with her, even my husbands two sisters who live in Dallas. I was so disapointed when Mr. Waldoff elected to close the store. At one time they also had a store in Biloxi, MS. And, when I was a freshman at Ole Miss I went home with my room mate who was from Hattiesburg and discovered both Waldoff's and Milton's, Ltd. and fell in love with both stores.
I got my first suit at Godchaux's. Does anybody remember Newberry's and Jitney Jungle. A friend's father was the general manager of the mall in the 70's.
The mall was not sold to American National it was repossessed by American National. They held the mortgage on the hotel and the mall.
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