Downtown Suffers for Three Decades

No single event was more catastrophic than the flight of the major department stores from downtowns to the newly created suburban mall of the 1970s. Downtown Sanford was no exception to the rule when the Williams-Belk department stores and others like it moved to the suburbs. Complimentary small businesses, such as soda shops, hardware stores, and theaters, which were so dependent upon the mass of people generated by the major stores, were left to flounder on their own. Pedestrian traffic grinded to a halt, businesses closed, vacancy rates soared, owners deferred maintenance on the buildings due to low rental income, buildings began to deteriorate and were boarded up, and crime and vandalism abounded. Downtown was no longer the place to be and the neighborhoods that surrounded downtown followed, as single-family homes were turned into rental housing for absentee landlords. It would take three decades for downtown to recover.