We’re back at Regency Square Mall in Jacksonville, Florida, designed by Joseph Amisano of Atlanta and opened in 1967. The shopping center is currently being demolished.
This postcard depicts the mall’s original center court, and if the photographer wanted it to look as dead and dreary as possible, they certainly succeeded.
No one in the picture appears younger than 60, and the frail woman plopped on the bench with her walker doesn’t exactly suggest a hip, happening place. More like a displaced hip.
Even the plants look despondent.
The postcard was published by Marsh Post Card Service of Jacksonville, and contained the following description on the back:
REGENCY SQUARE
The largest Air Conditioned shopping Mall in the southeast, featuring over 50 stores, located in Jacksonville, Florida. On State Rd. 10 at Alt. U.S. 1. Color by C.L. Marsh.
The card was postmarked in Jacksonville in February 1969 and addressed to Scott in Binghamton, New York, with this note:
“We go here a LoT
Hi: How are You? How are all the statues? Did Stacey get them? I want to see them when I get home. Mommy sent
your report card marks. How much do I owe you? I want-you to figure iT up for me + put note inMoneyMommy’s letter.80-55-5¢ 90-95-15¢.
85-90-10¢ 95-100 20¢figure for 20 weeks + test marks
Love Grandma + Grandpa
Literally everything about the note is capitalistic and gross: Shopping was apparently Grandma + Grandpa’s pastime, their idea of love tied cash to Scott’s academic performance, and they accidentally called Mommy “Money.” Ick.
I bet Scott grew up to be a corporate wage slave, and I’m sure Stacey’s statues were awful.
The postcard pictured here depicts the interior of the Regency Square Mall in Jacksonville, Florida, designed by Joseph Amisano of Toombs, Amisano & Wells of Atlanta.1 2
Regency Square opened in March 1967 as “the Southeast’s largest enclosed mall-type shopping center,”3 surpassing Atlanta’s Greenbriar Mall,4 which opened in 1965.5
I generally admire Amisano’s work, but judging from this photograph, the mall’s interior was hideous, even for the 1960s: dull brick, drab tile flooring, and a color scheme evocative of urine.
If you look closely, you can see the mall’s centerpiece: an “inverted fountain” that was touted as “novel” when the center opened.6 I’ll take their word for it.
I’m more interested in the well-tailored bitch glaring icily at the photographer. If looks could kill, darlin’.
This undated postcard was published by the Duval News Company of Jacksonville, and included the following description on the back:
THE AIR-CONDITIONED MALL
REGENCY SQUARE SHOPPING CENTER
JACKSONVILLE, FLORIDA
Amisano was undoubtedly hired to design Regency Square because of his work on Lenox Square in Atlanta, which was touted as the largest shopping center in the Southeast at its opening,7 a title it still claimed in 1966,8 although it wasn’t enclosed until 1973.9
Lenox still survives—and thrives—as an Atlanta retail institution, but Regency Square hasn’t fared so well in Jacksonville. After years of steady decline, demolition of the mall began in September 2026.10 11
Another mall bites the dust.
You delight in fear
And place your full trust in it.
You feed on fear daily,
Enchanted under its dark spell.
You’re thrilled with fear’s ease:
It dictates your choices for you.
Fear comforts and nurtures you—
It shrinks your world to a manageable size.
You love that fear quenches your light:
God knows, you’re too cowardly to shine.
You’ve yielded to fear’s constriction
And it has made you passive and weak.
Fear now consumes and smothers you:
It has rendered you stupid and boring.
You’ve abandoned your soul to fear;
Cloaked yourself in its claustrophobic snare.
It’s made you small and inconsequential.
What a fucking waste of life.
River oats (Chasmanthium latifolium) are one of my favorite plants that grow throughout the Piedmont region, and it’s a sure sign of autumn’s arrival when their seed heads begin turning brown.
The seeds typically drop by late November, and rain disperses them throughout the winter months, ensuring that bright, new clumps will appear in early spring.
River oats prefer at least some shade and are often found in low, moist areas, but they’re tough little bastards that thrive practically anywhere—even in harsh urban conditions.
On my first visit to Philadelphia, I was happy to see them growing in abundance along the sidewalks. This is where I’m supposed to be, I remember thinking. Nature shows the way.
The moment is delicious.
That thought came to me this morning,
Delivered, as are all messages from beyond,
With a tiny prick of light.
And that is what we each of us is,
At our core—
A small speck of luminance.
No need to overthink it.
Still, we insist on identifying with our bodies—
The heavy costumes loaned to us
For this brief, silly play.
We weigh our wardrobes down with
Stupid little stories
And gibberish beliefs:
A childish trick to bury our light.
Yet we are all pinpoints linked to each other
On a grid we cannot see,
Much less fathom.
Those who transmit their light
Are few and precious—
And very often despised for it.
But only they receive the message of the moment.
