A final glimpse inside Bellevue Center
A picture is worth a thousand words…
No offense to ‘Faith Church’, but there’s probably very few people that reflect back on the Bellevue Mall and remember ‘Faith Church’. Having a church at the mall was one of the many last ditch efforts to save the mall.
In August, our community bid farewell to the mall. Many people missed the point of the “Demolition Party”…expecting to see the mall torn down in one grand event.
There are many facets in taking down a mall…lining up contractors to take the iron and steel, hauling off the debris, recycling the brick and concrete. Many on social media were impatient…some even calling out the exercise as “Smoke and Mirrors”. Granted, it took a while to figure out what was going to happen to the mall. By the time the Demolition Party happened, the majority of Bellevue citizens knew that the time had finally arrived…the rest humorously voiced their conspiracy theories on Facebook.
We’ve often joked about using the mall as a fundraiser: “You want to do an event to raise money? Let people tour the mall for $15 a head”. That opportunity has now passed. About half the mall is left standing, and at any given time, you can drive your car into one of the open parking lots and find people snapping photos. We think one theme is common…we want to remember Bellevue Center for what it was…not what it became.
That sentiment became evident to us when we showed up with our zoom lens on Saturday…Faith Church? We’re scratching our heads trying to remember what it was originally.
We were reminded that even if we toured the mall one last time, it would not have been the same…we would have seen “Faith Church”, and not what was there in her prime. Most all of the major store signs had been replaced with a lesser known brand. As we get one last peek of the inside, we are reminded of the fond memories as well…Good bye Bellevue Center…we are happy for the progress…but we’re going to miss you ole girl….
We are at a loss for what this store front is..help us remember! All we can tell you for sure, it was on the upper floor to the right of the elevator….was it near the Gap or as far right as Walden Books…we can’t tell!
