Comments on: Belvidere Mall; Waukegan, Illinois

By: Carmen Peters

Carmen Peters — Mon, 23 Nov 2009 17:49:14 +0000

Hi. I read a few of your other posts and wanted to know if you would be interested in exchanging blogroll links?

By: Shane Canup

Shane Canup — Wed, 17 Jun 2009 19:12:26 +0000

I used to live in Waukegan with my parents in the late 70’s and my parent’s owned Small Friends Pet store in Belvidere mall at that time. The pictures on this page truly bring back fond memories of a much simpler time. The used to have a cartoon machine at the end of the mall that looked like one of those old photo booths. It showed woody woodpecker classics that I would watch over and over. We would eat lunch at the Wags resturant inside the wallgreens and we would go to the theatre fro free movies. I saw Popeye, Flash Gordon, and the Black Hole all around that time…just great memories even for one so young….I was born in 72!

By: Coral

Coral — Thu, 01 Jan 2009 22:31:39 +0000

I am looking for someone -if anyone wants to help me make my dream come true – he’s possibly my father and he once was a security gaurd at the Belvedere mall in IL. he lived on gideon st. in some apartments. His name is Charles Hutchison goes by Carl and i’m not too sure if it’s hutchison or hutchinson or hutchitson. can someone give me any clues or something to go on here? email me -cowhoa@yahoo.com

By: Cory

Cory — Wed, 05 Nov 2008 22:39:02 +0000

The Belvidere Mall story is close to the truth. I had spent a lot of time there.
The Anchor store, located on the East side of the mall was Montgomery Wards. Wards was struggling to survive and had announced closing most of their stores. Moving from Belvidere Mall to the upper level of the old Weibolts Store at Lakehurst was done to cut cost and try to improve a dying image with a campaign called “ELECTRIC AVENUE”.. I believe Wards was gone in a couple of years after that move.

With Builders Square coming to the Belvedere Mall, The old Montgomery Ward building was torn down. Replacing it was a Box type store. It was so large, it was built to an angle from the original mall to fit the property for the size of the building and the fenced in areas. The side entrance to the mall was removed, no entrance to the mall. The new store was branded Builders Square but when this franchise left the state a few years later, Home Depot moved in and are still there.

The West end of Belvidere Mall had another store that may or may not be considered an anchor. It was a grocery store and had a private entrance from the Mall hallway as well as their own outside doors. This Grocery store was there for many years before closing.

Calling Waukegans leaders “CORRUPT” is such a mean word, why don’t we call them “politicians”. The two terms are synonomous, aren’t they? Besides, they were all voted back in so people must like spending all their tax money with no referendums.

Spending millions to rebuild downtown Waukegan, the Genesee Theater and the various out buidlings and garages with unmagineable amounts of money for inlaid brick sidewalks, as well as the cities plans to build very expensive condos in place of businesses. All this under the guise of restoring the retail base of old downtown Waukegan.

Come visit Waukegan so you can see the Condos(after they are built) and don’t forget to visit some our down town bars. Don’t forget your coins for the parking meters. Hmmm, free parking at the Mall.

Current downtown plans are posted on the interent, you should look at them and see for yourself what will be replacing any (now gone) manufacturing business.

As the South side of Waukegan downtown would be considered a declining urban area, I see the downtown area as an office/school/bar/city offices area with little for the family. Malls like Belvidere Mall and Gurnee Mills, and Vernon Hills will always offer more to the customer in a safe shopping atmosphere.

I see the Belvidere Mall Movie Theater sign is now gone so the theater must be long gone as well. And the Store space where the Grocery was is now a car part store. The private entrance to the mall has been closed off permanently.

The BM seems primarily servicing Hispanic customers, makes sense since the area residents is primarily Hispanic.

And yes, the Lakehurst Mall is now long gone. Original thoughts were the mall had to go to clear land for Waukegans Casino, no referendum.
About the time I heard Waukegan had lost the bid for a casino, I saw a sign go up for Fountain Square and LakeHurst Mall came down.

Food for thought, Fountain Square is the box stores and strip malls and a few motels where LakeHurst used to stand. There is a suspicious open land space left at the South West corner of the Fountain Square Property. With a substantial bid for a casino, can this space be waiting to build a casino at the old Lakehurst site? And WHO is gonna pay for it? Bet you can guess!

Stay tuned in boys and girls and keep your ears open to learn what happens next.

Hang in there, Belvidere Mall, I miss Lakehurst too.

By: Willy

Willy — Sun, 18 May 2008 12:41:23 +0000

What are the hours for the mall?

By: bruce

bruce — Thu, 06 Mar 2008 20:03:27 +0000

that walgreens is still there. 92? its on the corner of lewis and belvidere, just like in the first photo, top of page. where is a 92 in waukegan? and after aladdins castle there was fun harbor, but that got overrun by gangs.

By: isabella

isabella — Sun, 02 Mar 2008 06:14:14 +0000

Belvidere mall is cool ive been there before it is so cool well thats what I think!

By: Shawn

Shawn — Thu, 07 Feb 2008 00:36:42 +0000

I love the old belvidere mall. I have a picture of me and my sister as kids holding a leopard cub at the mall. That wierd upside down roof arch, I love it, I remember thinking that along with the old parking lights looked wierd as a kid. I worked for builders square at its origional location up the street where HOBO is now located. When Builders Square bought the old Montgomery Wards they tore down the building and built a new one, then we moved shop up the street and I worked there for the first year they were at the new location. I would say that Builders Square was built there about 1994. That Walgreens in the picture moved out of there and built a new store about 500 yards away around 92. Back in the eighties Alladin’s Castle arcade was where to go, they moved to Lakehurst as well. I hope the old mall hangs in there for years to come.

By: Charles

Charles — Wed, 28 Nov 2007 20:27:00 +0000

Maybe slapping a coat of blue and white paint on everything counts as “extensive renovations”.

By: Jonah Norason

Jonah Norason — Wed, 21 Nov 2007 15:12:38 +0000

“In 1985, Imperial Realty Company conducted an extensive renovation of the entire Mall, including both exterior and interior work. In 1998, Imperial Realty conducted a second, even more extensive renovation and expansion of the Belvidere Discount Mall.”

That little quote by Imperial’s page is rather strange…everything, from the 60s entranceway, to the horrible roof, to the odd tile, to the theater…it’s all original. What “extensive renovations”?