San Jacinto Mall by Jennifer Perez

San Jacinto Mall was officially opened on March 4, 1981. The total floor area of this mall was 1,156,000 square feet. It had four large wings shaped like two overlapping “L’s”. The ceilings are tall with skylights, dark old tiles, wood frames and have only been painted once or remodeled since its opening. They wanted to give this mall a nature tone by having fountains, trees and even bird cages throughout the mall. This mall became very successful at the beginning but as the new stores spread throughout Garth Road and the competition of other malls in Houston, some stores began to close. The first stores that closed in 2001 were Montgomery Ward, Service Merchandise and Bealls. Then in 2006, Mervyns decided to close and Foley’s was renamed as Macy’s. In November 2006, Triyar Cannon Group, owned by the Yari family, put the mall and other malls in the Houston area for sale. Currently the Triyar Cannon Group owns the mall. Not that long ago the fountains were turned off due to the smell of the mold and chlorine. Today, the cinema located inside the mall and the food court are still functioning at 90 percent. The several wings left are almost completely dead. It was heard that a “lifestyle” wing will be built but not many details are out yet and it is not certain.

 San Jacinto was the place where I conceived many great memories. Today it seems quiet and empty. It’s very depressing to see many shops out of bussiness. All the stores that opened up in Garth Road and the poor management brought this mall down.This mall had shops such as Mervyn’s, Foley’s, Beall’s, Casa Ole, Montgomery Ward, a large food court and a play area with a carousel in the second floor. Unfortunately today all that is left is JCPenny, Macys’s, Palais Royal and Marshall’s. This mall was built to operate 175 stores and today all we have is a couple of stores. People will rather spend gas and time going through traffic to Katy Mills, Baybrook or Galleria just to have a better variety and experience of a mall. Updating the stores and bringing more stores in will save our time, money and mall. It’s hard to believe that no one has done something to remodel this place. I have hope that one day this mall will function like it once did.

Today as I walk through San Jacinto mall I see many shops abandoned that were once a valuable part of our mall. I ask myself; what went wrong, what could have been done to save this mall. This mall use to be functional at some point and today all we have are shops that come in and then go out of business and leave. Thinking back, I remember spending many joyful moments with my family at this mall, being eager every weekend to go to San Jacinto Mall. When it was time to shop for back to school, it was the first place to go. As I got older I became attached to popular name brands that were not in San Jacinto Mall. I wanted more shops to open up, for our mall to expand and get popular but as time passed, this mall began to go downhill. This mall use to put a smile on my face but today, it is just a disappointment to even bring out my own family from out of town to visit the mall.  It was a great mall at some point that brought many people to Baytown to shop. Baytown is expanding with new shops, new houses and more people are coming to live here. It would be a great investment to remodel this mall and bring it back to life.

Works Cited

Prange, Way. "San Jacinto Mall; Baytown, Texas." Labelscar: The Retail History. N.p., n.d. Web. 10 Nov. 2013.