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Originally Posted by Sigaven
Interesting! This explains so much. I didn't realize there was an entrance to that inner corridor space from the parking lot. Still a very strange way to design a strip center - sort of a hybrid between a strip center and a shopping mall I guess.
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Southwood was actually Austin's first mall. It and Hancock center are two of the older Mall's in town but the Mall bit has (mostly) been stripped out of it. Westgate was also a mall (parts of the movie theater date back to the mall) as was Northcross, though those were torn out much more recently than Southwood which turned into a strip mall in the 90s.
My grandparents live (well, grandpa at this point) on Gillis right behind the old Southwood theater (now laser tag). When I was a kid the mall part was still much more prominent than it is now including an interior atrium with a waterfall. Loads of big box stores have come and gone since then, most of my childhood there was a bulk foods grocer in there that moved out (sunflower, seedsomething?) to Brodie Oaks and eventually turned into Sprouts.