Breaking Ground by the Highway (1979-1983)
The land was cleared in late 1979, east of Huntington, off exit 20. The developer was Cafaro Company.
The goal was scale, a mall big enough to serve three states and remote enough to bring people in from all directions.
Steel frames went up along a bend in the highway. At the time, Barboursville had few large retailers. There were bars and a single Exxon station nearby.
Construction moved quickly. When the doors opened on February 3, 1981, shoppers walked into a space unlike anything else in the area.
JCPenney and Sears sat on opposite ends. Stone & Thomas and Lazarus filled the corners.
In between were chain stores and kiosks. The floor was light-colored tile, and the ceilings followed the slope of the roof.
Foot Locker held a promotional event in the first spring.
Tennis player Bobby Riggs showed up for it. He played short matches with staff and gave out gear.
In those first few years, the focus was on drawing people in and keeping them moving through the space.
There was only one main level. The traffic loop outside connected every entrance.
Early weekends brought in steady crowds, especially from out of town.
Inside, the map was easy to follow, and every corridor led back to a department store.
Expansions and Early Additions (1984-1994)
By 1990, Huntington Mall had added a fifth anchor. Phar-Mor moved into a large box-style space with front access and its own signage.
The pharmacy chain specialized in low-cost bulk items. Its arrival marked a shift in the tenant mix.
Some shoppers entered through Phar-Mor and left without walking the full loop.
Dawahares joined the mix during this period.
Additional national clothing chains operated nearby, creating longer retail runs between department stores.
The corridor between JCPenney and Sears filled steadily, with both chain and local tenants occupying storefronts.
"Macy's in Huntington Mall Barboursville, West Virginia" by Nicholas Eckhart is licensed under CC BY-NC-SA 2.0
Department Store Shifts and Bookstore Growth (1995-2003)
In 1998, Stone & Thomas closed after being acquired. Elder‑Beerman moved into the same footprint.
The store kept both floors and installed updated signage.
The anchor count stayed the same.
A year later, Borders Books & Music opened near the center corridor.
It was the company's first West Virginia location. The store carried national inventory across books, magazines, and music.
It also operated a small café. Waldenbooks remained in the mall, but Borders took on the larger footprint.
By the early 2000s, Steve & Barry's opened. Old Navy had already been there for several years.
Both chains pulled value-focused shoppers and filled longer storefronts between anchor tenants.
Phar‑Mor closed in 2002. Its former space became the second Dick's Sporting Goods in West Virginia.
The exterior was remodeled with Dick's standard branding.
Inside, the store followed a warehouse format, with long aisles and open ceilings.
It held gear for team sports, hunting, and outdoor wear. Foot traffic stayed consistent near Dick's.
The corridor leading to its entrance saw new use patterns as national sports brands rotated through temporary displays and sale bins placed near the entrance.
New Screens, Lost Cafeterias (2004-2011)
The original Carmike six-screen theater closed in 2006.
Morrison's Cafeteria, located next to it, had already shut down. Both spaces sat unused for a stretch.
That end of the mall saw less foot traffic, but the interior layout remained unchanged.
By mid-2008, Cinemark announced a new build that would take over the entire section.
Demolition and construction replaced both former units. The new 12-screen Cinemark theater opened on June 24, 2009.
Its exterior had a distinct entrance with updated signage and box office windows.
Inside, the layout followed national standards, with tiered seating and larger screens.
The new theater drew evening visitors, and the corridor nearby stayed active after typical retail hours.
In 2011, Borders Books closed after the company filed for bankruptcy.
Books-A-Million moved into the space later that year. Its footprint remained largely the same.
The store offered a wide selection and added a checkout zone at the front.
No Tenant turnover stayed low, and structural changes were minimal. Storefronts shifted branding, and some aisles saw new product displays.
The overall path through Huntington Mall stayed consistent, with updated directories but no change to layout.
Anchor Realignments and New Mixes (2012-2019)
Elder‑Beerman closed on January 31, 2016. The space was not left vacant.
That anchor was divided into three stores: Forever 21, TJ Maxx, and HomeGoods.
TJ Maxx and HomeGoods occupied one half, and Forever 21 took the portion that faced into the main corridor.
On August 6, 2019, Sears announced its closing. The auto center shut down later that month. The full department store followed in late October.
Its front signage came down before the end of the year, and the entrance doors were locked.
The corridor nearby stayed open, with mall traffic rerouted around the anchor.
On October 2, 2019, Forever 21 filed for Chapter 11. The Huntington Mall location was among more than one hundred closures announced.
That store closed by year's end. By December, two former anchor spaces, Sears and Forever 21, were empty.
Entertainment and Education Redefine the Floorplan (2020-2024)
On November 3, 2023, Dave & Buster's announced it would open a location at Huntington Mall.
The new venue took over the former Forever 21 space, which had sat empty since late 2019.
It was the company's first in West Virginia. Renovation of the 25,000-square-foot anchor space followed a standard buildout.
Interior work included restaurant seating, arcade game zones, and a bar-and-screen area for live sports.
The new Dave & Buster's opened on August 19, 2024.
Promotional materials described over 100 games and a full-service menu. Customers accessed the location from inside the mall.
Its large footprint reactivated a section of the corridor that had been closed for four years.
Elsewhere, construction began on the Woody Williams Center for Advanced Learning and Careers.
The project used the entire former Sears anchor, both floors, and continued through 2024.
Exterior banners marked the work zone. Inside, the corridor near the original Sears entrance stayed open during construction.
The buildout was managed by the school district and was designed to serve high school and adult students in career programs.
Perfume Villa announced a March 2024 opening in a 1,050-square-foot unit near Macy's.
The store focused on fragrance and filled a long-vacant space in the Macy's corridor.
MINISO followed with a 3,000-square-foot lease between Journeys and Perfume Villa.
The store opened in summer 2024 and carried home goods, accessories, and licensed toys.
Pigtails & Crewcuts and Superhero Creamery were announced in May for spaces between Best Buy and Mattress Warehouse.
Both opened in summer 2024. The salon and dessert shop took standard interior units near existing service tenants.
In October, Smokin Mommas Burgers & BBQ announced a new build near Kohl's.
The stand-alone restaurant was sized at 10,000 square feet and opened by late November. It joined the mall as an external site.
A School Inside Huntington Mall (2025-Present)
Construction continued through early 2025 on the Woody Williams Center for Advanced Learning and Careers.
Crews gutted the interior of the former Sears and rebuilt both floors to accommodate classrooms and lab spaces.
Structural changes were visible behind temporary partitions. The original exterior footprint remained intact.
The area outside the old Sears stayed open, but the construction zone itself was closed off.
The school was designed for both high school and adult students, offering programs in health science, auto trades, and computer technology.
Work was still in progress by midsummer.
As of mid-2025, Huntington Mall remains open with a full interior loop and active anchor tenants.
JCPenney, Macy's, Dick's Sporting Goods, TJ Maxx, HomeGoods, Best Buy, Ollie's Bargain Outlet, Cinemark, and Kohl's are all in operation.
The former Sears building is under construction for the Woody Williams Center for Advanced Learning and Careers, with an opening planned for fall 2025.