Comments on: Northwoods Mall; Peoria, Illinois

By: Debbie Norton

Debbie Norton — Sun, 14 Mar 2010 05:37:28 +0000

@Gregory,

i am very interested. My Mom and I both worked at Konees and it seemed like we lived at the mall. We know all of the security guards an we were all like family. Please send information to my email.

Thank you,
Debbie Norton

By: Shawn Simmons

Shawn Simmons — Mon, 22 Feb 2010 04:30:20 +0000

My family and I were at the Northwoods mall and the wife and I were reminiscing about the Noah’s Ark Pet Store on the upper level. We both thought it was where the Bath & Body Works store is. It was there up until at least the mid to late 80’s. Anyone else remember it?

By: Tom Williamson

Tom Williamson — Fri, 08 Jan 2010 19:38:56 +0000

I have many great memories from the 80’s version of Northwoods. I remember shopping at Chess King, and Jeans West to buy the “Cool Kid” clothes. If I remember correctly, that little corner had a shoe store that sat in the pocket of the “L” shaped Chess King. Across from that was Jeans West, and down the hall, past Diamond Daves, was the Adidas store, where I got my track shoes.

I got my first guitar, a Kramer Aerostar, at Musicland.

Alladin’s was great. I vaguely remember Joker’s Wild. Wasn’t that a variety store, sort of like Spencers. I seem to remember them having really cool Haloween masks there.

Garcia’s was a great place to take a date, as there were lots of “out of sight” places to sit.

Brings back alot of childhood memories. Things like having to buy your concert tickets at Bergener’s, as that was the Ticketmaster outlet. Back then, you camped out for tickets.

By: samantha

samantha — Sun, 13 Dec 2009 02:43:50 +0000

OMG i was just a tnorthwoods toady and i LOVE going there. i love the holiday shopping and the decorations. I was offended by a manager at the Claire’s store but other then tha ti had a wonderful time and i usually do when i got to norhtwoods.

By: B&K

B&K — Sun, 19 Jul 2009 09:23:30 +0000

@Kris, THERE WAS A CHRISTIAN BROTHERS ON THE UPPER LEVEL . NO BROOKS BROTHERS… BUT IN THE EARLY DAYS THERE WAS A RICHMOND BROTHERS MENS STORE

By: Bede of the 8th Century

Bede of the 8th Century — Tue, 30 Jun 2009 05:45:52 +0000

The 80s was by far the best time to be at Northwoods. Byerly’s left Northwoods because Simon jacked up their lease. They found a home across the street on Brandywine Dr. for many years. By the early 90s, the thugs had sent every decent regular away from that place in droves. Can’t say if they still occupy the place since I don’t go there, but there was a stabbing incident on the upper level withing the last three or four years. I still have a Browns sporting goods commercial on an old VHS. I also remember back in the late 80s getting up early one Saturday morning with a couple friends and heading to Aladin’s Castle with these passes to play unlimited games before opening for the day.

By: Nessa

Nessa — Thu, 18 Jun 2009 05:20:01 +0000

I frequently visit this mall. I love shopping at the Hot Topic, Spencers, Game Stop and Pacific Sunwear. Or even just getting a coffee at Gloria Jean’s or a pretzel at Diddos. My mom doesn’t like visiting the mall much though. Something about too many weird people. But it is really lovely at Christmas, I absolutely love how they do the little lobby type thingy area. If only they would do that for Halloween. That would make me happy.

By: fellicity

fellicity — Sun, 24 May 2009 02:55:11 +0000

omg i miss the way the old mall was when i was a little girl

By: Gregory

Gregory — Thu, 30 Apr 2009 16:55:45 +0000

Greetings:

In documenting voluminous historic images of Randhurst Mall in Mount Prospect (constructed in 1962), I have found about fifty slides from what I believe is Northwoods Mall, circa 1974. If these are of interest to anyone, please look me up and I would be happy to share. They are of great quality and feature a lot of what I assume are original storefronts. Some of these stores include Aladdin’s Castle, Baker’s Store, Brown’s Sporting Goods, Just Jeans, Johnson’s Store, Konee’s Restaurant, as well as a number of other shots of the mall. Beacuse of the lack of people in these photos, I assume these were taken shortly before the mall’s opening. There are even shots of temporary murals that hid construction. In the interest of not posting my personal info, please google the Mount Prospect Historical Society, where I am the director, and contact me from there. Thanks!

By: Kurt

Kurt — Tue, 28 Apr 2009 16:32:11 +0000

Steve-

Do you have a list of the original stores? If not, that might be a place to start. I posted a list of the original Pekin Mall stores that I obtained from the Pekin Public Library. You might consider emailing the Peoria Library and see what they have (and then posting it here for us to see!)