LaGrange Mall is celebrating more than the arrival of Santa Claus on Saturday - it will be throwing a 30th-anniversary bash as well.

The mall, originally known as West Georgia Commons, will host a party for its birthday alongside Santa’s arrival at 11 a.m. Cupcakes will be given out to the first 500 people and vendors will be around with children’s activities, all to celebrate the past, present and future of the retail center.

“The mall management company really has put money into it and wanted to see things happen,” said mall marketing manager Kelley Mitchell.

Hull Storey Gibson Companies, current owners of the mall, has added retailers since Mitchell joined the mall in 2006. Maurices, rue21 and the Sock Shoppe are recent additions.

“You’re talking a lot of the mall is new,” she said, “and in this economy, this day and time that’s pretty much unheard of.”

The newest shop is the Children’s Place, a national retailer specializing in clothes and styles for children. Construction has begun in the former location of Rex Appliances, and work is slated for completion in January.

Only a few stores have been part of the mall since its completion March 1979, including Radio Shack, Belk, J.C. Penney and Chick-fil-A. Both Belk and Penney had locations in downtown LaGrange, but the stores decided to move when the mall opened.

Besides shopping, the mall also has become a hub for local activities since its completion. From bridal shows to video game re-leases, the mall managers try to hold two major events each month, partnering with everyone from West Georgia Medical Center to local Mary Kay representatives.

“We partner with everybody, and the mall is open to everybody for different events and partnerships,” Mitchell said. “… We’re really, really extremely proud of what we’ve been able to bring in here in the past three years.”

— A change in shopping

The decision to build a mall worried some La-Grange merchants. Some feared that moving several miles out Lafayette Parkway would keep residents from shopping with them. Others were afraid that the mall would be the death knell of downtown.

Charles Solomon, owner of Solomon’s Department Store at 108 Bull St., was offered a spot in the mall while it was being built. His friend Al Tucci was the manager of Belk when the store relocated to West Georgia Commons.

However, Solomon and his family decided that remaining downtown would be best for them.

Solomon’s has been in its same location since 1932. Moving to the mall would require being open later hours and on Sundays, something the merchant didn’t want to do. Well-established in downtown LaGrange, leaving wasn’t an option for the store.

“When they started that mall out there, they wanted a good store, local flavor, and they came to see me,” Solomon said. “At first I told them I wasn’t interested in no kind of way.”

Downtown merchants and those at the mall don’t always attract the same type of customers. The mall’s proximity to Interstate 85 draws customers passing through Troup County or from neighboring areas.

“They might have brought some other people that go to malls to La-Grange,” said daughter Patty Solomon. “A lot of people that go to malls aren’t people who shop locally.”

Though they might not shop at downtown stores such as Solomon’s, they could still spend their money in LaGrange, thus benefiting the entire community.

Mall merchants and downtown stores now co-exist, offering different types of shopping experiences. Mall shoppers can travel into LaGrange, eat dinner and notice local businesses - helping to spread the word and offering an experience the mall might not be able to.

“We didn’t have any problems with the mall,” Patty Solomon said. “One of daddy’s best friends was the manager of Belk’s, and we wished them all well, but he decided that wasn’t where we needed to be - that wasn’t going to be where we were going to be.”

And while his store and those at the mall are not competing as much as they were, Charles Solomon is always welcome to a challenge.

“We’re old-time merchants. We know how to operate. We feel like we can compete with anybody,” he said.

— 30 years of changes

Martha Woodham, known as Mont by her fellow employees, has worked at Belk since 1965, when the store was on Main Street in downtown LaGrange.

She’s seen the consolidation of stores in West Point, Hogansville and downtown LaGrange into one, an anchor store inside the mall.

Now 79, she works part time in the store’s management office.

“It’s what I always said - if I was not ready for a change or to make a transition, I should go ahead and leave,” she said. “If I say ‘I don’t know how to do that,’ I might as well quit and go home.”

She hasn’t left.

Although the people are different, the managers are different and the building is different, Woodham’s work ethic has pushed her along the whole time.

Instilled by her father, she feels the work is good for her. Woodham enjoys what she does, and she’s dedicated to it.

“I appreciate Belk. … They’ve been good to me. Hopefully I’ve been good to them,” she said. “… I know you’re just as old as you are, and be thankful you’ve lived that long.”

Woodham has been a part of the store’s changes, as well as the mall’s. Woodham believes that building the mall was a good move for the area.

“The mall was a good thing because we didn’t have anything like that,” Woodham said, “and it was projected for all of the people that come in.

“We were looking for new businesses, and we needed something out this way.”

With I-85 bringing in visitors every day, the mall was seen as an attraction that outsiders could relate to. Although Woodham felt it wasn’t a good area to begin in, time has proved it the best choice.

“To me when the mall came out here, when it first started, it was kind of in the wrong place. … We were expecting more traffic, more businesses around,” she recalled. “Now … we’ve seen a lot of improvements as far as traffic. It’s been good, but you have to make a step toward the future, and that’s what we did.”

- - -

The past 30 years have seen dramatic changes in a previously undeveloped part of town. Some may recall the line from the movie “Field of Dreams” - “If you build it, they will come.” It could well apply to how LaGrange Mall changed the face of Lafayette Parkway.

“They finally decided on this (spot) because of the interstate, but there was really nothing else out here at that time,” Mitchell said. “There’s so much out here now.”

Trey Wood can be reached at twood @ lagrangenews. com or (706) 884-7311, Ext. 228.