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I am curious if anyone knows what the original tenant of the Burlington Coat Factory located at 6875 SOUTHLAND DRIVE
MIDDLEBURG HEIGHTS, OH was. It's a 2-story building with a department store looking entrance, but I cuoldn't find any clues as to the original occupant. I was guessing Wards or possibly Service Merchandise, but I don't know if Service Merchandise operated 2 story locations. Sears is in it's orignal 60's location at the other end of the plaza, so I know it wasn't a Sears store.

Without doing a drive-by, my guess would be Halle's, or possibly Penney's. There also was a Federal's, but that was on Pearl Road.

All probably have had other occupants: Halle closed with the chain after Xmas '81, JC Penney moved to Parmatown some time later, I believe. Federal's opened in the early 60s and closed by the end of the decade. Halle's dated back to the early 50s; my recollection was that the Penney's was a 50s dry goods location that was built out to a more complete dept store some time in the 60s.

Burlington Coat Factory was a former Halle's. I think a couple of other retailers share that space as well.

JC Penney had two Southland stores at one time; the original dry-goods store, which is now a Marc's, and a clothing store that opened in the front plaza, probably in the late 1960's/early 1970's. That store was destroyed by a fire in the early 1980's, and after it was rebuilt, is now a Marshall's. I think Petco and Cici's Pizza is in that same building next to the Marshall's. JC Penney maintained a catalog order office at Southland several years after the main store moved to Parmatown.

Dick's Sporting Goods is in the same building as Burlington Coat Factory at Southland. I think the Federal's was across the street, in a building (which there was a major fire last night) that currently houses B & B Appliance, Value World (a thrift store), Murray's Auto Parts, and Party Place (a party goods store...also where the fire started.) I know there was some large store in that plaza.

The fire started in the back room of Party Place by some helium tanks. The other stores in that plaza were Murray's Discount Auto Parts, Value World, Sofa Express, and B&B Appliance.

I came across some photos on another forum that I am a part of. If I am permitted I will post a link to this particular message about the fire. Thanks.

Jaime

Thanks for clearing up the Halle's mystery. (How do you pronounce that, BTW?) Not being from ere I hadn't thought of them as a tenant. The second story is partially filled by BCF and partially filled by a sporting goods store. The way the store is built into a hillside, the sporting goods store has it's own entrance from the parking lot.

Actress Halle Berry is named for the department store, just pronounce it like her name.

I was shopping today, and took a picture of the entrance of the former Halle's store. This is the Burlington Coat entrance, sunken from the main parking lot.