Joliet, Illinois is a booming sprawlburg located about 40 miles southwest of downtown Chicago with a current estimated population of nearly 150,000 residents.  In its long history, Joliet has worn a lot of hats, from industrial-era superpower to beleagured rust-belt city and back to a different kind of economic success supporting the great machine of Chicagoland.  In fact, Joliet has doubled in population since 1990 and is considered the fastest growing city over 100,000 in the midwest.  Whereas just a few decades ago Joliet was considered distinctly separate from Chicago, today the suburban areas between the cities are completely filled in and Joliet functions as a bedroom community for the suburban mass-at-large, as well as behaving as an anchor city containing many support activities and jobs for a metropolitan area of almost ten million people. 

In the 1960s and 1970s, however, Joliet’s plight was a bit different, as it was then considered both farther and further from Chicago, physically as well as ideologically.  Also, the rust-belt problems which ensued across the entire midwest and northeast hit Joliet pretty hard, as many of the city’s enormous factories closed or scaled back operations dramatically as the nation moved from a manufacturing to service economy.  Even so, developers recognized the city’s need for adequate shopping, being a rather large distance from other large shopping malls in Chicagoland. 

As such, the first retail mall constructed in Joliet (actually neighboring Crest Hill) was Hillcrest Shopping Center along the Larkin Street (Route 7) retail corridor.  Opened in 1959, this outdoor mall was anchored by Chicago-based Goldblatt’s and Joliet-based Boston Store (no affiliation with the current Boston Store chain owned by Bon-Ton).  This popular outdoor center soldiered on until 1975 when a larger, more modern enclosed mall opened along West Jefferson (Route 52) just west of Larkin: Jefferson Square Mall. 

Anchored by Wieboldt’s and Montgomery Ward with both Woolworth’s and Walgreens as junior anchors, Jefferson Square quickly gained popularity as Hillcrest faded.  The Boston Store, which was going broke citing competition from all the larger regional retailers and discount boxes which were emerging, closed its downtown branch in 1972 and the Hillcrest Location by 1977.  Goldblatt’s, a Chicago institution and the other anchor at Hillcrest, was the next to go following an unsuccessful round of competition with other Chicago-area stores, and closed in 1982. 

Meanwhile, an even larger and even more modern behemoth, Louis Joliet Mall, opened on what was then the edge of Joliet and almost to Plainfield at the intersection of Route 30 and I-55 in 1978, expanding through 1979.  In all ways, Louis Joliet Mall was the category killer of its time.  Not only did it have interstate access, it was more easily accessible from the fast-growing communities of Romeoville, Plainfield and Bolingbrook to the north, as well as from all points along I-55 southward and I-80 westward.  Also, Louis Joliet had a more impressive roster of stores, with Bergner’s, Sears, JCPenney, and Marshall Fields, and was more in line with a demographic recipe for continued success.

Unfortunately, just as things were looking up for both Jefferson Square and Louis Joliet Malls, they were taking a turn for the worse at Hillcrest.  In the mid-1970s, a Service Merchandise replaced the old Boston Store location, and in 1984, Venture came to rescue the space vacated by Goldblatt’s.  In 1986, Service Merchandise closed and briefly became a Highland electronics store and a Discovery Zone; today the site has been subdivided into smaller stores.  Venture lasted until 1998 when it became Ames for less than a year from 2000 to 2001, and ironically briefly turned back into Goldblatt’s before closing again to be subdivided into smaller stores including a Food4Less grocery store.  It seems Hillcrest, despite its ups and downs, has withstood the test of time by constantly reinventing its purpose, from super-regional draw in 1959 to the everyday melange of stores which makes up a traditional suburban strip mall.

A few miles away at Jefferson Square, the mall soldiered on successful a bit longer; however, Louis Joliet’s dominance in location and stores continued to slowly eat away at Jefferson Square’s base.  Jefferson Square was only convenient to central Joliet, whereas Louis Joliet became closer to the expanding communities of Romeoville and Plainfield, and also the booming part of Joliet.  A large retail strip developed around Louis Joliet, whereas the established retail strip around Jefferson Square was not as complete with category killers and modern big box giants. 

The first major blow to Jefferson Square was the closure of Wieboldts in 1987.  Up until this point, Jefferson Square had many of the in-line stores Louis Joliet had, and effectively served the population of central Joliet better in this fashion.  However, once Wieboldt’s closed, Jefferson Square quickly began a downward spiral from which it could never emerge, despite several life-saving attempts.  In 1991, Menards, a midwest-based home improvement warehouse store, was brought in to replace the Wieboldt’s location.  Instead of revitalizing the core of the mall, Menards decided to close their mall entrance within a couple years, effectively rescinding any promise to revitalize the decaying interior of the mall.  Way to go, Menards. 

In 1996, the mall’s 60-plus stores had been pared down to only about two dozen, and management decided to unload the mall on a new owner, who embarked on radical new renovation plans.  The mall was given a woodland decor, and renamed Wilderness Mall.  With the renovation came several indoor changes, includng a ridiculously large fake tree placed in center court - a tree so large you could walk through it.  See the pictures for a better explanation of this.  Sadly, the bandshell and kiosk area which formerly occupied center court were replaced by this ‘tree’ and other faux-woodland things, like fake branches and fake pine trees.  I’m not ever sure how ‘up north’ corresponded to Joliet, but here it was, for better or worse.

Unfortunately, the ‘worse’ began to be what materialized following the woodsy renovation.  Only the Secretary of State (Read: DMV) decided to relocate into the cavernous dead mall, and things just got worse and worse.  The cinema began to run discount movies, and when Woolworths closed in 1997  the entire east wing was sealed off - for good.  Then, when Montgomery Ward closed in 2001, the mall began life support as only a few services and the Off-Track Betting parlor were located inside.  For some reason, one of the last “real” tenants of the mall was a Foot Locker near center court.  I remember a visit there in 2001 or 2002, and the Foot Locker was the lone tenant at center court.  The employees were nearly asleep sitting on the bench waiting for customers, and it seemed like the store was all but forgotten.  Other favorite stores included a western wear store and a store called “Scrunchie Heaven” - imagine what they could have sold!  There was also a travel agent, and most of the stores were located either around the north (main) entrance where the OTB was, or the south entrance where the cinema and Secretary of State was. 

Once Wards closed, the mall was actually sold to Menard Properties, and only a few more years passed before Menards unveiled plans to raze the mall, build a Menards Supercenter, and lease the other half of the site to Wal Mart so they could build their own Supercenter.  And so it was done.  What was left inside the mall (The OTB and the Secretary of State) were moved to outlots, and construction began on razing the mall in 2004. Today, both Wal-Mart Supercenter and Menards Superstore sit side-by-side on the site formerly occupied by the mall.  Hooray?

I wonder what became of the ‘tree’ and the rest of the ridiculous wilderness-themed tomfoolery?  Did it just go in the trash heap, or was it somehow recycled for more people to enjoy?

The pictures featured here were mostly taken in 2002, with the razing pictures taking place in 2004.  Enjoy them and leave your comments as usual.

And, before I forget, here are some neat pics during demolition taken by my friend Kurt in 2004:

Santa Monica Place is one of the latest enclosed malls to meet with the grim reaper: the place is scheduled to close up shop at the end of this month! Socal Labelscarrers: act fast if you want a chance to say goodbye!

Santa Monica Place is a three-level, 570,000 square foot shopping mall located in the heart of downtown Santa Monica, California, just a few blocks from the beach and the infamous Santa Monica Pier. The mall, which opened in 1980, sits at the southernmost end of Santa Monica’s bustling third street shopping district, which is a lively and vibrant downtown pedestrian mall (and one of the best pedestrian-friendly areas in all of Los Angeles, really). Somewhat surprisingly, the mall was designed by renown architect Frank Gehry with Victor Gruen Associates, giving it a more stunning architectural pedigree than most centers. Unfortunately, the vast majority of the interior architecture at the 120-store mall is considerably blander than the names of those starchitects might suggest. The mall has two anchors: a large Macy’s and a former Robinsons-May which closed in 2006 and was partially replaced by a new Steve & Barry’s store in 2007. Santa Monica Place is most famous for cameos in movies and television; most notably appearing in Beverly Hills: 90210, Terminator 2: Judgment Day, and also as the exterior of the “Ridgemont Mall” in Fast Times at Ridgemont High (the interiors were at the now-deceased Sherman Oaks Galleria).

The mall, which was less than 50% occupied by 2007, apparently never turned a profit. The Macerich Companies purchased the ailing center in 1999 and first floated a redevelopment plan in 2004 that would’ve replaced it with a large complex of offices, condominiums, and retail. The plan was met with opposition and scrapped. In 2007, Macerich proposed a more modest redevelopment plan that would tear the roof off the current center and convert it into an outdoor mall to anchor the southern end of the Third Street Mall. This plan is now moving forward and the mall was in the process of clearing out most of the tenants when these photos were taken in November 2007.

Santa Monica Place’s prime location is probably a big part of the reason this place is going to come down. Given the lively streetscape and near-perfect weather, it seems silly to force people inside to shop, when a superblock component to the existing downtown streetscape would probably be more successful. Plus, California has many fully outdoor “malls,” and it seems the plan is to turn good ol’ Santa Monica Place into one of them.

There’s another retail oddity just behind Santa Monica Place. This 1945 vintage Sears store is not part of the mall itself, but I thought it epitomized classic Art Deco California cool, and how Sears utilized some ancient logos (or simply just kept them up?) Either way, a neat find.

Located on the west shore of Lake Ontario, Hamilton is an anchor city for the Golden Horseshoe, one of North America’s largest urban agglomerations extending from Toronto and its suburbs all the way around to the Niagara Region of St. Catharines and Niagara Falls, including Hamilton, Barrie, Mississauga, and more. According to the 2006 Canadian census, Hamilton has a population of just over 500,000 residents. The city is the third largest in Ontario and the ninth largest in all of Canada. Historically, Hamilton grew from manufacturing roots, and the city is known from many who pass by it on the QEW Expressway for its prominent steel mills.

But Hamilton is more than heavy industry; it is, instead, a multicultural melting pot with a growing economy and a thriving culture of museums, castles, gardens, and much more. Also of note is the fact that the city is bisected by a “mountain” - really a large and very steep hill called the Niagara Escarpment, but it separates Hamilton into “upper” and “lower” areas. Upper Hamilton includes the mostly suburban and residential areas west of the downtown core and away from the lake, and lower Hamilton is comprised of mostly the urban core of downtown and the low-lying areas to the east along Lake Ontario’s shore, including the heavy manufacturing areas.

In the middle of lower Hamilton’s downtown are many skyscrapers which make Hamilton’s skyline impressive, and two large urban enclosed malls which are connected and functionally operate as one, and will be referred to for practical purposes in this article as one mall: Hamilton City Centre and Lloyd Jackson Square. Located right in the center of the city, the malls share several city blocks and are bounded by King Street, Bay Street, York Boulevard and James Street. Named after former Hamilton mayor Lloyd Jackson, his namesake mall opened in 1970. The 1970s were a booming period of construction around the mall which also put up several tall skyscrapers which attach to the mall’s interior walkways, including Stelco (steel) Tower, Landmark Place and the Bank of Montreal pavilion. The main anchor to the malls was Eaton’s department store, which had been present in downtown Hamilton for decades prior. In 1977, the second phase of the mall opened including a six story office tower and in the 1980s a Sheraton and 19,000-seat coliseum opened, all attached to the mall.

However, harder times came to Hamilton in the 1990s, affecting its economy as the manufacturing jobs dwindled in the area. In 1999, a hard blow came to the Hamilton City Centre (then Eaton Centre) portion of the mall block when Eaton’s went out of business nationwide. Sears, who bought Eatons, declined to reinvest in the troubled mall and instead sold its interest and today a portion of the space is Quebec-based Hart discount department store. At that point, that portion of the mall was officially renamed Hamilton City Centre from Eaton Centre.

Today, the malls exist mainly as a support structure for people working and staying downtown. Much of the designated retail space in both the Lloyd Jackson and especially the Hamilton City Centre portions of the mall have been converted to office or other uses, or simply remain vacant. However, there is still a significant retail portion in the cavernous, winding mall, mostly centered around the large food court and adjacent to the very popular indoor farmer’s market attached to the mall.

The design and decor of the malls is also remarkable. The Lloyd Jackson and Hamilton City Centre portions of the mall, while connected and functionally one mall, are styled differently. In terms of design, the City Centre portion can effectively be considered one dead-end leg of the Lloyd Jackson center, which is larger. However, the City Centre portion is three stories whereas the Lloyd Jackson portion is mostly one story and windy. See the pictures for a better explanation of the confusing layout; we got lost at least once in the mall, which we were kind of amused by. In terms of decor, the Hamilton City Centre portion is largely a more modern, 1990s design, whereas much of the Lloyd Jackson portion is dated to the 1980s or 1970s.

Take a look at the photos we captured of the mall and downtown Hamilton from 2006, and feel free to leave your comments and stories as usual.

Evergreen Park, Illinois is an inner-ring southwest suburb of Chicago with a population of about 20,000, located about 10 miles from the Loop.  Although established as a village in 1893, most of Evergreen Park’s growth occurred during the middle of the 20th century.  This, combined with the fact that Evergreen Park is sandwiched in on three sides by Chicago and by suburbs Oak Lawn and Hometown on the fourth side, caused Evergreen Park to be built out by 1960.  As such, growth in the Village has been relatively stagnant for several decades.  In this post we will examine the interactions of very separate, racially segregated neighborhoods in close proximity and how they have affected retail offerings to present an interesting case study marrying economics, geography, and socio-spatial interaction.

Considering that the relationship between the scope of retail and place is based on a broader geographical area than one suburb (such as Evergreen Park), we have to examine the entire vicinity in terms of retail offerings, and also demographics in general.  Evergreen Park itself is middle class, almost 90 percent white, and unchanged since the 1960s.  On three sides of the village is Chicago, whose neighborhoods immediately adjacent to the village range from suburban-style nearly 100 percent white enclaves such as Mount Greenwood to very racially and economically diverse sections such as Ashburn on the north, and Beverly to the east.  Further afield, and yet not at all distant from Evergreen Park are neighborhoods like Washington Heights which are nearly 100 percent black and poverty stricken.  This melange of neighborhoods exists within very close proximity to one another; however, segregation and racism has presented many obstacles for positive interaction between them.

In terms of retail offerings, Evergreen Park is mostly residential with two important commercial corridors: 95th Street, which runs through the city from east to west and Western Avenue, which forms the eastern border of Evergreen Park and is a retail corridor shared with the city of Chicago.  The 95th Street corridor is also heavily populated with retail offerings into the city of Chicago to the east and even moreso into Oak Park and beyond to the west.  Major shopping malls in the area include Chicago Ridge Mall several miles to the west along 95th Street, Ford City Mall a few miles north in the city of Chicago, and The Plaza in Evergreen Park located where the two major retail corridors in the village intersect, at 95th Street and Western Avenue.

Evergreen Plaza opened in 1952 as an open-air shopping center developed by Arthur Rubloff, one of if not the first of its magnitude in all of Chicagoland.  It was anchored by two grocery stores (one was Jewel) with a row of shops in the middle, which was a new idea at the time.  Other stores included The Fair, a small local department store, and Woolworth’s, Lytton’s and Walgreens.  Chas A. Stevens, an upscale small department store chain based in Chicago, opened in 1962, and Carson Pirie Scott followed not long after.  In the 1970s The Fair store became Montgomery Ward.  The mall was also enclosed in 1966, and has been expanded several times including the addition of a food court in the late 1980s or early 1990s based on its decor.  Also in the early 1990s, a Silo electronics location was replaced with Circuit City.

Changes since 2000 have led to high turnover at Evergreen Plaza.  Montgomery Ward closed its four-story anchor in 2001 as the whole chain went under, leaving a huge vacancy near the north end of the mall.  Circuit City and Walgreens both closed in 2005; Walgreens was replaced by Office Depot shortly thereafter.  Also in 2005, National Wholesale Liquidators, an east-coast based high volume discounter, took two floors of the former Wards space.  Upon their arrival, the NWL logo was emblazoned on the mall’s once-iconic watertower, which one sported the mall’s “e” logo with the background image of an evergreen tree.

In addition to these changes, the mall’s demographic base has shifted dramatically over the course of its existence.  When it opened in 1952, it was the premier shopping center in the Chicagoland area and was a destination mall for many years, courting shoppers from all over the area.  However, as other, bigger malls opened in the area, The Plaza’s niche started to fade.  In 1981, Chicago Ridge Mall opened just five miles west of the Plaza along the same 95th Street retail corridor.  While this was the most direct blow to The Plaza’s dominance, other south-suburban malls such as River Oaks Center remodeled and enclosed in 1994, and Orland Square also remodeled in the late 1990s and early 2000s, positioning itself as the dominant tier-A mall for all of south and southwest Chicagoland. 

Even indirectly, as the suburbs moved outward from the city so too did the wealth, leaving The Plaza a bit out of sorts.  As such, The Plaza acquired a new niche catering heavily to the black population living on the south side of Chicago and surrounding suburbs.  As The Plaza is literally across the street from Chicago, the convenience the center provides these customers is immeasurable, since Ford City Mall is the only mall situated in the City on the south side.  Interestingly, very few customers of The Plaza today appear to come from Evergreen Park or Oak Lawn, spreading a dichotomy of separateness which interestingly segregates most residents of Evergreen Park from their own mall.

Despite changing times and competition, Evergreen Plaza remains a very popular destination.  A lot has changed over the years, but in our opinion this only adds to our fascination with this mall.  The decor is decidedly dated on the inside; however, numerous attempts have been made to update the outside facade, especially facing Western Avenue.  The mall itself is also rather long and winding, extending from Office Depot in the north to Carson’s on the south end.  The center court is an impressively dark, cavernous Gruen-esque space, and also the point where the mall sprouts a basement level which continues on from center court to Carson’s; another smaller basement level with service-oriented shops is located in the original north corridor near Office Depot.  The neon-laced food court, which was added sometime in the 1980s or 1990s, also exists in the basement, and a sizeable side hallway extends past the food court culminating in an escalator up to another side hallway on the upper level - an interesting, quirky feature.  Also, the NWL (former Wards) anchor has a water tower, and the mall features a large office tower at the south end.  Until recently, a large parking deck existed between Carson’s and NWL and a popular, problem-infested movie theatre existed on the property; both were recently razed. 

We hope the mall wasn’t damaged in the recent holiday decorations fire, which also sadly closed the mall for two days during December 2007.

Take a look at the pictures featured here; they were taken in September 2007.  Feel free to add your own comments and stories, or send us some retro photos of this or any mall. 

UPDATE 1/13/08: Another one bites the dust.  Coincidentally, the very next day after we posted this mall, news surfaced about its potential demise and redevelopment.  According to this recent article in the Chicago Tribune, mall owners are currently looking to redevelop the mall as an open-air center, replacing the existing enclosed structure which hasn’t changed much in over 40 years.  The ostensible goal of the renovation is to reinvigorate the center to its former glory, with an emphasis on returning ‘upscale’ stores to the center as were present in its earlier days.  Also take a look at some vintage photos of the mall on the Tribune’s site.  In addition, the article glosses over the fact that NWL’s lease expires in April, though makes no mention of the lease being renewed or the store closing.  In our opinion, the former Wards four-level behemoth anchor, at 225,000 square feet, could never be fully leased as one store again.  It will either have to be parceled out somehow to box stores, or razed altogether for new purposes.  The lease expiry is probably an ominous hint of things to come. 

I’m a bit late to report this due to the holidays, but Labelscar received a very high-profile mention in the last issue of The Economist, which just leapt off of newsstands. Sorry about that one!

It’s a pretty great article about America’s shifting love affair with the enclosed shopping mall and touches quite a bit on mall godfather Victor Gruen, whose biography, Mall Maker, I just finished. (I might wager to say that the author of this piece even read the same biography…). Anyway, there’s a passing mention of both us and DeadMalls buried deep in the article, and we had no idea this was even going to appear, so it was a nice little late Christmas present. Check it out:

“So many malls have died or are dying that a new hobby has appeared: amateur shopping-mall history. Like many esoteric pursuits, this has been facilitated by the internet. Websites such as Deadmalls.com and Labelscar.com collect pictures of weedy car parks and empty food courts and try to explain how once-thriving shopping centres began to spiral downward. Some of the recollections are faintly ironic or gloating. Yet the strongest note is anguish. Implausibly, these online histories reveal the deep emotional connections that people can establish with malls.”