A History of Tarrytown Mall: Back in 1957, Bob Gorham decided to form a "Committee of 100" to help unite Nash and Edgecombe counties. Six people came to the organizational meeting. So Gorham decided to build Rocky Mount a community center like no other. "People have to stand up and go get what they want," he said. "They have to reach for a dream."

Folks said Rocky Mount wasn’t ready for a mall. They said Rocky Mount wasn’t sophisticated enough to support it. They believed it would take business away from downtown.

"I was like the bumblebee," said Gorham. "I didn’t know I couldn’t fly, so I went out and flew." He planned Tarrytown Mall from 1958 to 1962 and started building in 1963. With money he had saved since high school and a $94,000 loan financed by Home Savings & Loan, he purchased 24 acres of swampy land and filled it with 237,000 cubic feet of dirt at a cost of 30 cents per yard.

When North Hills in Raleigh was still a strip mall, Tarrytown became the 26th enclosed mall in the United States. It was ahead of its time, in little old Rocky Mount, and that made it extra special. But Tarrytown was more than a mall; it was a community watering hole. It put Rocky Mount in a mode to build a platform to move ahead of the game. And the people came.

They came for boat shows, political campaigns, a Rocky Mount All-American City celebration in 1970, the Sigma Gamma Rho Ball, and the Celebration of Community Concern Festival. They came for craft fairs, antique shows, talent shows, awards ceremonies, job fairs, civic events, and community fund raisers. They came for health fairs, safety fairs, book sales, bloodmobiles, and jail-a thons.

They came to hear Barbara Lewis sing "Baby, I’m Yours" and Charles Kuralt perform "North Carolina Is My Home." They came for the Junior Senior prom in April and the Magic Christmas Tree in December. The Goliath tree stood in the middle of the mall, where bands and choirs performed nightly throughout the Christmas season. Center stage was a showcase for the youth of area schools and churches. The charmed tree gathered gifts for children who might not otherwise have had any. Across the mall, the big wooden consoles in Montgomery Ward’s home electronics section blasted seasonal tunes by the Tijuana Brass.

In the 1960’s, the mall was blessed by the presence of Marketplace Ministry, a teen center that focused on helping young people who were involved in crime, drug and alcohol abuse, and other antisocial activities.

The shoppers came to Tarrytown. They came for the department stores (Montgomery Ward, Rose’s, Baldwin’s, Mason’s), shoe stores (Roscoe Griffin, Bob Howard), boutiques (Coffman-Wallace, Serotta’s, Rosenbloom’s, La Boutique, Hertzberg Furs), restaurants (Char Steak House, K&W Cafeteria, Zolly’s), and specialty shops (Hickory Farms, Singer, Flowers of Henry II, Record Bar, Pickwick’s). J. C. Penney came on board in the late ‘70s. Belk and Sears opted to stay downtown until Golden East Crossing lured them away. Some stores operated dual businesses at Tarrytown and downtown.

As the years passed, Tarrytown began to show the effects of vacancies, corporate closings (original anchor Montgomery Ward was eventually forced to close all of its retail stores), and the wear and tear of more than three decades of use and abuse. In 1997 Rocky Mount Charter School took over the former J. C. Penney location. Two years later, during the city’s worst nightmare, the Tar River surpassed 500-year flood levels and 30% of Rocky Mount, including Tarrytown Mall, was under water.

The heart of the mall that was going to kill downtown Rocky Mount abruptly ceased to beat, while downtown hobbled along on life support. For the next six years the flooded remains of the rotting, neglected mall stood in the weeds—toxic, dangerous, and ugly—a demoralizing symbol of the city’s economic catastrophe. On January 18, 2007, a Sam’s Club opened on the site.