Main entrance of the mall
Destruction is evident to the right and to the left of the entrance. You can actually see an excavator dozer working away on the interior of the mall through the main entrance opening. Notice the blue letters that say Avondale Mall. Soon these will be part of the rubble, as will everything pictured.
This photograph was taken at the red light near Sears. From here you can see Davison's is gone. The main entrance of the mall is still standing, but the stores located to the right and to the left of the main entrance have been downed. You can see the collapsed roof on the stores to the left of the main entrance. Sears is still standing at this point and is located to the left just out of range of my camera's viewfinder.
Closer view of the Sea of Destruction taken from the same angle as the photo above.
The debris and rubbish were hauled off in a constant stream of trucks such as this one.
March 15, 2007
Photo taken from the red light next to Sears again. Only Sears is left standing, and everything to the right of Sears has been toppled. Notice deep black holes have replaced the plate glass windows of Sears.
Look closely and you can see the blue Avondale Mall sign laying in the middle of the rubble where the main entrance used to be. You can see part of Avondale High School and Avondale Stadium in the background.
The clean-up continues as Sears sits patiently waiting its turn to come down. This photograph shows the side of Sears that connected to the mall. The passenger vehicles shown are workmen's cars and trucks parked within the fenced-in area surrounding the mall. The HUGE 18-wheeler big-rig was not the norm as far as trucks helping with the clean-up.
March 21, 2007
The last two walls of Sears are the last walls standing for Columbia Mall. The mature decorative trees in front of the mall were snatched out of the ground and snapped into pieces like twigs by excavating dozers.
Another angle of the last walls standing. Huge sheets of dark colored plastic have been draped over the interior walls of Sears about to be destroyed. You can see hints of the plastic covering on the interior walls in several of these photographs. I assume this protocol is used to help control dust and flying debris upon destruction.
The demolition excavator dozers strategically line up on this wall, while another excavator is busily working the back wall. The truck in the far left of this photo is a water truck that constantly rode around the parking lot spraying water to keep the amount of dust particles down. Once again, sheets of plastic covering the interior walls about to come down are evident.
The far right excavator takes a chunk out of the edge of the wall while the other excavators use their buckets to put pressure against the wall to keep it from falling outward.
With a synchronized push by the dozers, the wall comes crashing down. It's looks like a feeding freenzy of sharks as the excavators are attacking the wall. Notice how the remaining wall is leaning out now. Also notice the drainage ditch in the foreground of the photograph. In addition to this ditch, there is now a drainage ditch behind the graveyard and another one in the rear parking lot of the mall, making a total of three unsightly drainage ditches on the mall property.
Chomp, chomp, chomp!
Chomp, chomp, chomp!
And the excavators start lining up again.
Once again, the dozer to the far right bites a chunk out of the edge of the wall while the other dozers apply pressure to the rest of the wall. In the background, you can see a fifth excavator dozer that worked on the back wall, while the other four dozers worked on the side wall.
And the wall begins to topple.
And the feeding frenzy attack on the wall begins again.
Chomp, chomp, chomp.
Another angle of the ending of an era. In the distant far right you can see the graveyard that stands in the parking lot of what once was Davison's.
Columbia Mall is gone.
Photo taken from Old Hickory House's parking lot.
Thank you to Deron L. Edwards (Towers Class of 1987) for informing the THS email groups about the end of Sears/Avondale/Columbia Mall demolition video footage on YouTube. These ending-of-an-era videos were captured via cell phone by SCOTT ESSIX, a local Decatur realtor AND ALSO A THS TITAN from the Class of 1987. Thank you, Scott, for recording and sharing this action footage for everyone to experience! Scott's videos are housed at YouTube.
