Two Nashville Malls Kentuckians Loved Are Now Dead Malls

Maybe we're never 100% certain what will generate those nostalgia rushes (for lack of a better word). You know those waves that come over you when it hits? Yeah, those. I didn't realize learning about a dead mall two hours away would do that, but, sure enough, it did.

Dead Malls

Whether you're a shopper or an "I'm going in, getting what I need, and coming out" type, you'd have to admit that the mall experience back in the day was never always about shopping. They were, or are (in the cases of the many still-thriving malls), gathering spots.

But, as we know, several (I bet it's safe to say "hundreds") malls across the country have shuttered for good, their enormous facilities either razed or converted.

Nashville Dead Malls

In my college days, I visited Nashville on several occasions. Being a student at Western Kentucky University in Bowling Green, we were fortunate to have Music City less than an hour away. On most occasions, I'd visit Hickory Hollow Mall in southeast Nashville. It was a two-story mall and loaded with every store you could think of and many you probably couldn't. It was bangin', and it featured two big anchor stores that carried big and tall clothing. It wasn't difficult to kill off at least an hour while you were there.

But now, all the hours, along with the mall itself, are dead. After more than 40 years, Hickory Hollow Mall slipped into the dustbin of history in 2019.

Six years later, its brother in mallhood would follow suit.

Nashville's Rivergate Mall Closed for Good

Rivergate Mall in north Nashville wasn't as big as Hickory Hollow, but it was as big a one-story mall as you'll find in a large city. And when it opened in the fall of 1971, it became the largest mall in Tennessee with three huge anchor stores: Cain Sloan, which merged with Dillard's in 1987; Castner Knott, a chain that ended a 100-year run in 1998; and JC Penney, which stayed until very few stores were left open.

Rivergate Mall closed for good on December 31st, 2025 after 54 years. I haven't found the figures, but it had to have been one of the oldest malls of its type when it shut down.

It's not like the Nashville mall scene is dead, however. Cool Springs Galleria, in the Nashville suburb of Franklin, and Opry Mills are always packed. And maybe that answers this story's overarching question.

Maybe, as big as it is, Nashville just wasn't big enough for the four of 'em.