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Tuesday, June 28, 2005
Goodbye, Forum 303
Forum 303 Mall/Festival Marketplace is closing for good. It's been a long slow slide to the bottom. Faulty A/C was the final nail in the coffin. It was too expensive to fix so the owners just closed the place up and called it a day.
Though the Forum was never as swanky as Six Flags Mall (a few miles to the north), it was still a great place to shop, eat, and see movies. It had a small amphitheater for fashion shows and the like. I had my first piano recital there (actually a Bluebirds talent show.) My mom was a Bluebird troop leader and I had just started piano lessons. I learned Bach's Minuet in G and my mom thought it would be a good idea if I recited a small paragraph about Bach's life and work. I have no idea why my mom wanted me to be so informative, but I wasn't too excited about having to speak in front of a crowd. So at the rehearsal, I got up on stage, said my speech, played my song and sat down, knowing with dread that I'd have to go through it all one more time the next night. But on show night a miracle occured. Right before my turn, the microphone mal-functioned, so I got to skip my little speech and go directly to piano playing. I don't remember really any more about that night except that sweet relief I felt in not having to tell the world about Bach.
The Forum also had my favorite bookstore, Century Books, and the arcade where I spent way too much money one summer and the movie theater where I stood in the longest lines ever to watch "The Empire Strikes Back" and "Return of the Jedi."
The Forum was under a curse from the beginning. The main highway passing it was under construction for years and when they finally finished it, the town had developed toward to west rather than east around the mall. In fact the area around the Forum has never really been developed. The ultimate decline began when they built the Parks Mall in the early 90s and all business was sucked westward. The owners tried turning the Forum into a indoor flea market then. But that business model didn't really work either. Too many tenants owed too much back rent.
The old Montgomery Wards space was rented out as a haunted house last October. I took this picture a couple of weeks ago and they still hadn't cleared away the Halloween stuff. A little self-fulfilling prophecy here, perhaps.
Who knows what will become of it. It's too expensive to fix and too expensive to tear down. I hope some big-moneyed developer will take up the slack and revitalize it. It's got decades of life left in it. I suggest turning it into a movie studio or a skateboard park.
If they turn it into condos I call dibs on the old Century Bookstore space!
Posted by denise at 11:59 PM | Comments (8) | Photoblog , Texas
Say it.
Sad to see this mall go. It was my hangout as a kid...had the best arcade in Arlington and the movie theater had the "coolest" ticket booth I've seen!
Other reasons for Forum's demise include its location in a working-class neighborhood. Once Wal-Mart/Sams opened about a mile to the east--and for a short period, K-Mart to the west--the discount merchants gobbled what remained after The Parks took its share of business.
Converting the mall to an indoor bazaar didn't take off either. After all, Traders Village, a nationally-renowned flea market is located only a couple miles to the south of Festival Marketplace.
I think the mall should be converted into an institution of higher learning. With public colleges TCC and UTA nearby, perhaps a private school, such as SMU or TCU can convert it into a branch campus?
Posted by: Eric at July 3, 2005 02:00 AM
You make some good points about Walmart, Kmart and Trader's Village. I'd forgotten about them. The Walmart and Kmart are gone now as well. Trader's Village is probably still chugging along same as ever. I actually haven't been there in years.
And the Forum 6 Theaters did have the coolest ticket booth, didn't it. :)
Posted by: denise at July 3, 2005 10:39 PM
The place has a lot of memories for me too. Remember "Toys by Roy"? I remember seeing "Blue Thunder" back in 1983, the theater actually had the helicopter on which Blue Thunder was based on on display. Too bad the place went so way down.
Posted by: doug at October 8, 2005 10:26 PM
I think I missed the Blue Thunder helicopter, but I remember Toys by Roy. I think that's the place that had the doll's house I wanted so badly that was a little too expensive. I begged and pleaded with my parents and I did get a doll's house for Christmas only not that one.
Posted by: denise at October 13, 2005 09:07 PM
wow...i have really fond memories too of this place as a kid. that arcade really WAS the coolest. i remember playing bezerk and defender there all the time. i remember the weird amphitheater part where they once had a kung fu demonstration. i remember seeing return of the jedi in that theater after being in line for like a day. (i remember commando and ice pirates are two other movies i watched there). i remember that chick fil-a right next to dillards. my favorite store there was Collector's Corner where you could get DnD books and all kinds of cool crap.
Posted by: Calvin at October 25, 2005 02:16 AM
What ever happened to Toys by Roy? In addition to the 303 mall store, there was one in Dallas and another in Ft. Worth (Ridgemar Mall).
Posted by: doug at October 26, 2005 08:27 PM
I only remember the Toys by Roy in the Forum Mall. But it seems like it faded away as soon as Toys R Us showed up in town. Too much competition maybe.
Posted by: denise at October 27, 2005 08:34 PM
I worked at the Service Merchandise for several years at the Forum 303. I liked the buffet pizza place near the theater (great food, watching sports on the big screen) and the arcade had a bunch of games in it. Chick-Fil-A was really good too. I'm sad to see the mall close down...I'll never forget all the friends I made working at that store.
Posted by: former Service Merch. employee at March 28, 2006 11:14 AM