Pekin Mall (East Court Village); Pekin, Illinois
This is one that started it all for us. During 1998 and 1999, Caldor and I took road trips on many weekends throughout the upper midwest. It started out by exploring various cities, often driving around aimlessly. Eventually we wanted to get out and stretch our legs, so we’d look for public places we could walk around, people watch, get food, and hang out. We weren’t terribly familiar with these cities and we were both teenagers at the time, so we didn’t really know where to go to get our feet wet. So, we turned to the places teenagers are known to flock and went to local malls in the cities we visited.
At first we didn’t really know what we were doing, but eventually it became systematic. We’d look at a map and go from mall to mall, driving around, looking at anything that looked interesting. Neither of us had more than very limited experience in the areas we explored: mostly the suburban and urban milleu of middle America. The experiences were simultaneously riveting, if not a little frightening. We encountered many different characters at the malls, saw malls in different physical as well as economic conditions, and got a taste of local flavor in every place we went. Without really categorizing them as such, we discovered what would later be categorized as a “dead” mall. We became amazed at the disparities we saw between large, successful, packed malls and old, dated, or for whatever reason emptier malls. We began to realize that many don’t even realize the differences or, if they do, they don’t really consider them. We found them fascinating, and started to contemplate the bigger picture. This blog is essentially the culmination of our explorations, our discoveries, our ruminations, and efforts in putting together a semblance of understanding in the retail puzzle of America.
Pekin Mall is the first remarkably dead mall we visited, in January of 1999. Located at the end of the commercial strip headed out of town on East Court/IL Route 9, Pekin Mall was an enclosed mall of about 500,000 square feet. It obviously opened sometime in the 1960s or early 1970s, but I’m not exactly sure. It was anchored by Bergner’s, JCPenney, Hobby Lobby, and Big Lots, and shaped like a carat. When we approached the mall from sad downtown Pekin on Court Street, it looked spectacularly dated on the outside, but nothing, I repeat, nothing could have prepared us for the inside.
We entered through Bergner’s on the east end of the mall and walked into the main mall and suddenly timewarped into someone’s psychadelic, drug-induced trip from 1972. The floor tiles were this shiny mix of off-white, deep blue, purple, and what can only be described as puke green. Horrifically, the tiles alternated colors so a striped pattern repeated the mismatched color scheme throughout the entire mall. I’ve never seen anything like it, and haven’t since (thankfully, I was born in the 80s). Strangely, the mall also seemed rather dimly lit, despite the manmade lighting and the very cool mod-70s windows carved into the ceiling for natural light.
However, I’m afraid that’s only the beginning. These 3 foot long, vertical rows of christmas lights (?!) hung down from the ceiling every so often, glistening against the visually assaulting, unholy kaleidoscope of colors on the floor. Every store, open or not, was horribly dated. Several stores had untreated wooden storefronts, which seemed to be popular in the 1960s or 1970s. The Fashion Bug’s font was very strange and old, and purple. The Deb shop’s sign was this neon green color, but you can be sure the store had the very deep purple carpeting and all the various trapeze-looking apparati which hung down from the ceiling to display all the latest fashions. The Waldenbooks, or should I say Walden Books, was one of their original mall store designs, built vaguely to look like an old bookstore on some urban street. It had the horrible dark green carpeting and the chandeliers common for Waldenbooks during this time. As an aside, I think these stores are more aesthetically pleasing (sans the carpeting and maybe the chandeliers) than their current bland design. In addition, one former vacant store was full of 2-3″ mod 70s green shag carpeting and another store was being used as a gymnastics studio. Imagine the disassociation therapy the kids will have to go through in order to enjoy gymnastics again!
I won’t ever forget the smell from that day either. During our visit was this bizarre fair in the mall, which consisted largely of card tables with various knick-knacks, Native American wares, and people. They were smoking pipes, cigars, incense burning. All mixed together with the musty old mall, it was a very strange, offensive smell.
As for the stores, I’d say well over half were vacant during our visit in 1999. The handful there weren’t dazzling or upscale by any means, as far as for actual shopping and utilitarian mall use. I’ve already mentioned most of them, actually. Add Payless, Radio Shack, GNC, and that about rounds out the major players that were in Pekin Mall in 1999-2000.
As for the mall’s entire history, I’m a little unclear. Like I said, the mall probably opened sometime about 1970. It had not received any sort of renovations, ever. As for its recent history, I know that a Sears once stood where Big Lots and Hobby Lobby are, but it closed in 1993. The Hobby Lobby didn’t have access to the mall either; it was walled off. The pictures featured with this entry were taken in the Summer of 2000 (They’re vintage!) but the mall is in mostly the same condition as it was when Caldor and I visited in 1999.
During 2001, the mall was sold and the development company announced huge plans to redo the mall as (what else?) an open air power center, read: strip mall. However, due mostly to lack of interest, an honest effort by the company to come through on their promised plans to redevelop the horrid mall failed. So the mall sat, and all the while the mall emptied out completely. During my last visit to the mall in January, 2002, the Hobby Lobby wing of the mall was entirely shuttered.
It was not until late Spring 2002 that the mall finally came down, in pieces. The original Bergner’s anchor remains, and the new development is called East Court Village. Surprisingly, few items exist on the internet to document the mall’s recent history and transition. East Court Village doesn’t even appear to have its own website. JCPenney announced it would be leaving the development and closed their doors in 2002. However, Goody’s Family Clothing appeared to take their place in 2004. Big Lots and Hobby Lobby still anchor the west end of the redeveloped strip mall. I’ve actually not been back in some time. How is it doing? Leave some comments or E-Mail me and let me know.
NEW: Check out a recreation of the Pekin Mall directory and site plan, put together by Kurt Schachner. (PDF)
Added 8/20/2006 by Caldor: I was scavening around on my hard drive this morning and found some pics that I’m surprised Prangeway didn’t already post. He took all of these and emailed them to me, but he must’ve lost them. Enjoy! There are some doozies in here:
on July 13th, 2006 at 12:54 am
This mall is so horrible, it’s cool. What a time warp!
Check the interior picture of the Waldenbooks again. I see chandeliers.
on July 13th, 2006 at 3:27 am
OMG, they had a LUMS! You have got to be kidding me. What I wouldn’t give to have seen the inside of that relic!!!
on July 13th, 2006 at 4:28 pm
Agree with Steven on this mall. So ugly, yet so cool. It’s the tiling…..that is the ugliest color scheme I’ve seen.
Lots of very outdated storefronts too. Not sure what LUMS was, but I recognized Claires, and that retro-looking Walden Bookstore is clearly from the mid-to-late 1970s, before K-mart took over the chain in the ’80s and shortened the name to “Waldenbooks” (Which too, will disappear as stores are rebranded ‘Borders Express’). There’s an even older storefront at a mall here in Wisconsin, I tried to get an image of, but it turned out severly blurred.
Again, great pics.
on July 14th, 2006 at 3:37 am
What was/is Lums comparable to? I discovered there are a few currently open, but little more about the chain itself. I know we had one here and it was just a family restaurant type deal, much like an older Perkins or Denny’s.
It is the ugliest color scheme I’ve seen to date. I don’t know what they were thinking.
Matt, is the old Walden Books storefront in Sheboygan’s Memorial Mall? I saw one there too; it might be the only other one I know of?
on July 16th, 2006 at 11:38 pm
Concord Mall in Elkhart, IN has a Waldenbooks that looks like that if I’m not mistaken.
on July 31st, 2006 at 6:18 am
[…] Both the outside and inside of the mall are currently a hybrid of both very dated and modern decor, which unfortunately seem to be fighting and that’s not good. Outside, the anchors and most of the mall facade look ancient, which I think is cool but I’m sure puts off a few shoppers here and there. You know the type, they don’t walk into a place unless it’s glassy, shiny and sterile looking as a hospital. It appears, though, that Sears did update their logo with their very new logo. Going inside, the floors were dominated by pink tiles with purple borders, carpeting with a kaleidoscope of colors (none of which really matched), and peach colored railings. The ceiling was this mesh-looking latticework design, and sodium lamps hung down from it to light the mall (aided, thankfully, with some natural lighting and lighting from the stores). All in all, the design scheme inside the mall seemed somewhat schizophrenic and didn’t work at all for me. Maybe it works for you. For another strange color scheme, see my earlier Pekin Mall entry. […]
on August 5th, 2006 at 2:12 pm
Original anchors at the Pekin Mall were Bergner’s, JCPenney, Sears (the Hobby Lobby), and Kroger (Big Lots). There was also a cinema and plenty of restaurants inside the mall including one of the last of the old Lums franchise.
JCPenney actually closed their store at Pekin Mall in the late 80’s and reopened the same year that Sears closed sometime in the early 90’s.
It’s amazing to see the old mall is still hanging in there. I used to there on occasion with my family as kid, when it was a “live’ mall, and it looks EXACTLY the same.
on August 10th, 2006 at 9:37 am
……I’m a native and current resident of PEKIN>>>>>>This is the correct history of the mall…opened fall of 1971. It was the first enclosed mall built in Illinois outside of the Chicago area………original anchors..bergners-penneys-murphy mart-and the A&P supermarket.>People came from a 100 mile radius it’s first 2 years. Then every city down state got a mall. sales dropped ,the mall was to large for a town of 40,000 sitting 10 miles from peoria…..It had a 20 year decline…………today it is a shell of its past. A few stores are attached to Bergners and the hobby-lobby end is mostly dollar cities…..penneys sits vacant with a lot of dirt mounds around it……it has a new look even a new starbucks………….. but retail has changed forever since wal-mart. Sears is back in town but freestanding……….everything is free standing any more. and the green color was called citrus green but we called it Pekin mall green.
.it’s gone so if you still want to make fun of it you’ll have to do it in your dreams………………………………………………………….
on August 20th, 2006 at 1:30 pm
I’m only leaving a reply to say that you should take a look at this post again–I found some *lost* Pekin Mall photos and added them onto the bottom!
on September 5th, 2006 at 8:49 pm
Man, this mall was definately a LOT more dated than many other old, unrenovated malls I’ve seen pics of! Too bad it’s gone now, since I currently go to Illinois State University(perfectly in the heart of Central Illinois, and close distance away from several midsize Illinois cities), and probably would’ve made a trip specially out here to see this mall for myself!! (albeit it being slightly out of the way of Peoria)
Ah well, I’ll just have to do more research now to find a somewhat close “dead mall” for myself to visit, as I’m planning to rent a car, and would love to run into one of these sorta malls along the course of my trip. *sigh*
on October 24th, 2006 at 3:52 am
I worked for Zales Jewelers in the late ’90’s and there was a store in Pekin Mall. (I believe it may have been Gordon’s Jewelers previously.) I’ve never been there, but I remember my district manager and the store manager at the time saying how horrible the mall was, and that they were tearing parts of it down. I can see from the pictures how right they were. =) I’m not positive, but I think the store was closed after Christmas 1999 or early 2000.
on November 4th, 2006 at 10:27 pm
It’s amazing the condition it was in before it was demolished.
Just by looking at those pictures of the interior it looked complete brand new.
weird.
on December 15th, 2006 at 10:24 pm
About the new pics you guys found….I have not seen a ‘Deb’ storefront like that since 1997…the store at Wausau Center Mall had that same appearance. They quit using that green colored sign and switched to white or fuscia around the time the location at my hometown (Forest Mall) mall opened. We got the latter color.
Thanks to Deb coming out of bankruptcy in the late 1990s, they finally had the cash to remodel all their remaining old stores, and open new ones. A lot of stores that looked like this, closed in the mid 1990s.
I recall those stores vividly because it was one of those that my mom shopped at a lot when I was young.
So now this mall is gone huh? All in the name of progress….and giving us another ‘big box’ or ‘lifestyle’ center. (boooo!)
I wonder, who designed the mall originally anyways? The ugly floor tile colors and geometric patterns scream ‘We were ‘A Simon mall’ ‘ to me.
(Not a knock on Simon Property Group, it’s just a common design theme I noticed among their older malls)
Oh, and yes, the Walden Bookstore I spoke of is indeed at Memorial Mall in Sheboygan, another dying enclosed mall that a renovation hasn’t seemed to help bring out of its hole. That was another mall that was never updated until different owners took it over in 2003, but I’m afraid it’s too late.
on December 18th, 2006 at 6:23 pm
In the Bergner’s pix, that is the 1960s-70s Bergner’s script and notice there is no red asterisk to the left of the name. I believe the asterisk was added in the 1980s and then added to Carson Pirie Scott around 1990 when Bergner’s bought that chain. After Saks conglomerated Younker’s, Herberger’s, and Bergner’s, the asterisk was added to those chains as well. I guess we’ll wait and see if Bon-Ton adds it to the rest of the Bon-Ton stores.
on December 19th, 2006 at 7:27 am
[…] Northwoods Mall, Peoria’s only enclosed mall, opened in 1973 along War Memorial Drive near Interstate 74. In many ways, Northwoods Mall also typifies mid-tier malls in middle America. It is a two-level straight shot between anchors Sears and JCPenney, with a Macy’s at center court which was a Famous-Barr location until September 2006. Many national mid-tier mall chains such as Spencer’s, Waldenbooks, American Eagle, Abercrombie, and Victoria’s Secret are represented. Northwoods has always been successful and asserted dominance over the other enclosed mall in the Peoria metro area, Pekin Mall, which closed after years of struggling in 2003. […]
on January 1st, 2007 at 5:04 pm
What a hoot. I grew up in Pekin (near the mall in the Sunset Hills subdivision) and I was 10 years old when that mall was built. We went there on the opening night and even though it was 35 years ago I remember it well. The only store we actually bought anything that night was in Tiffany’s Bakery. The place was jam-packed for the opening.
I moved away in the early 80’s after college and when my dad passed away several years ago, among my stuff still at his house were some scrapbooks that had newspaper clippings about the grand opening. It had pictures of a ribbon cutting ceremony (attended by the Illinois govenor, no less), plus a complete listing of the original stores. Lots of pictures too, pretty much a picture of every store. Alas though, I tossed those clippings out thinking that no one in their right mind would ever want to see that stuff.
If my memory serves me correctly, a few original stores that come to mind as I walk from one end to the other are: Bergners (where I saw my first VCR in Christmas 1975 and they also had a restaurant in the store), a music store (can’t quite recall the name, it started with a “B”, Coach House Gifts, KarmelKorn, Penney’s, a candy store of some sort, Tiffany’s bakery, Brown’s Sporting Goods, Aladdin’s arcade, Sam’s Pretzels, Lum’s and the A&Ps that was mentioned above. Also a drugstore at that end that had a lunch counter and restaurant. Radio Shack of course and a record store which I forget the name. Sears did come along later and a close friend’s dad managed that store. My friend had a job there in high school and we met after work lots of time at the Ivanhoe bar at that end of the mall.
Regarding Lums - there are a few still around if you Google it and they bought the Ollie Burger to sell in their restaurants. The Lums in this mall was one of the last establishments to go out of business.
Thanks for the time travel back to my childhood, it was fun. I spent countless hours in that mall and sat on those groovy benches many times.
on January 12th, 2007 at 7:42 pm
It’s caught it’s second wind! It’s now an open air type mall. With the Super Wal-Mart across the street it is now revitalized. Tractor Supply, and a couple of local Sporting goods stores. New buildings in the parking lot house a Verizon center,Starbucks, and a pizza parlor.
on January 28th, 2007 at 11:10 am
UPDATE…….Steve and Barrys have taken a portion of the Penney building…….And it was a SIMON mall until they drove it into the ground….Also Deb shop did open a new store next to the hobby lobby(murphy mart/sears)…..It nice to know Pekin Mall can be know for it’s retail cache’……………………………………….Block & Kuhl…….Now that was a grand department store……………
on January 28th, 2007 at 6:29 pm
I thought Goody’s took the old JCPenney?
Now, what was Block & Kuhl? Was that in the mall?
on January 28th, 2007 at 11:55 pm
Goody’s went accross the street in the east court village 2. (thats another story)………the Penny building has been split into 3 store……… Steve and Barrys -tractor supply and a 3rd store to open in 2007..To me the strange thing about this new center is they split it into 2 parts with a new 2 lane road running thru the middle where the center court use to be. and where does the road lead……well all roads lead to WAL-MART………………………… Block &Kuhl was a chain of store started in Pekin in 1865….their flag ship store was a 7 story beauty located in downtown Peoria…..Carson Pirie Scott of Chicago aquired the chain in the 1960’s…………..A interesting footnote…..Pekin Malls 3rd anchor was Murphys out of Indiana..Carson attempted to be the 3rd anchor in the mall but was block by the P.A. Bergner chain…Block’s and Bergner’s both had there flagship stores in downtown Peoria directly accross from each other…and were very competive…………….and thus no Carsons (Block & Kuhl) ) ever appeared at the Pekin Mall……………
on February 10th, 2007 at 10:02 am
So Pekin Mall WAS a Simon mall (known back in 1971 as Melvin Simon & Associates). Figured as much, and a good guess on my part. The tiling gave it away, along with the overall ‘dimness’ of the place. They used the same striped/geometirc patterns, just different color schemes. While Pekin used white, blue, violet and ‘puke green’ (don’t look at me….PrangeWay started it.
), they used the same patterns here in both Forest Mall in my hometown of Fond Du Lac, (I forgot the colors though), and Memorial Mall in Sheboygan also used White, but traded the ‘cooler’ colors for orange, beige and brown…another ugly yet retro color scheme.
on February 19th, 2007 at 10:49 pm
Quite an ugly mall. In a way the green and blue tile is interesting, they add color to an otherwise blane space, the thing that really makes it gross are the zigzags and blobs in the pattern that start to make you dizzy.
appriciate all the work put into this site. My career field is design, and I find inspiration many places.
on April 19th, 2007 at 6:34 am
An E-Mail comment from Kara:
I’m a native of Pekin, and let me tell you a thing or two about Pekin mall.
First of all, you got the decor head on. The whole thing got closed down to become a strip mall circa 2002–it was fantastic, Bergners had his whire mesh over where the entrance to the mall was, and you could look in on the slowly rotting mall.
Pekin Mall had a movie theatre, waaay back in the day (about 16 years ago). It also had a pretzel store where they put the pretzel on a stick and DIPPED it in cheddar cheese. I have never found another pretzel store where they did this.
It’s turned into a scary strip mall now, with a lot of pointless crap. The best part is that they ripped the mall apart only to build something the same fucking size that didn’t share A/C with the next store.
Pekin Mall is generally regarded as a joke in the town, although its death did cause some small local businesses to pop up, like a used bookstore. I think it’s rather interesting that a town of 30,000 has exactly ONE bookstore, a used one. Pekin mall had no current bookstore.
ALSO– being as you were there in the 1990s, you missed the best part of Pekin. The high school mascot was the Pekin Chinks for years. Yes, Chink, as in someone from China. We had he Chinkettes (cheerleaders) and the Chink Rink (iceskating) and this went on till about 1982, I believe. Stores in Pekin still sell Chink memorabilia.
That’s Pekin for ya.
on April 30th, 2007 at 3:19 pm
wow, what a old place,
used to go there when I was a kid, sure is a shame but that area is very depressing….
on May 3rd, 2007 at 7:56 pm
Stumbled x this site a couple weeks ago - now im having dreams/memories in the middle of the night. I was from Groveland - so this - in its day - was our only close shopping/event option in the 70’s (even prior to Peoria’s mall). My mom’s friend was a beauty counter lady at JCP’s - I remember us going there when it opened to see “the mall.” That middle section when it opened was a fountain/planter i believe. A lot of the mall was not finished. (early 70’s). Here’s what I remember: Bergners (even had real live reindeer outside during xmas in a cage and that nasty talking plastic Bergners xmas tree that scared us as kids - used to yell “sing along”) used to go in, turn rt to customer service to cash checks etc., anyway, JCP’s, Sears, really don’t remember the A& P, Fashion Bug, Deb Shop, Claire’s, Coach House gifts, Alladin’s arcade, Lums (oh i could wrt a book on that one), Lucas pizza, Sam’s Pretzels (my fav to this day), Baskin Robbins the orig. 31 flavor store, bakers shoes?, NOahs ark pet store, CEFCU (credit union for CAT), Tom McCanns, Murrays shoes, Baubles & Beads kiosk (way back in its early days), Walgreens, some record store, GNC, fannie Mae (center local) and became or was a gold/jewelry cheap storefront (again could be confusing with Peoria NorthWoods mall), Brown’s sporting goods, x from that was a hair salon-Regis or Great Expectations, Waldin bookstore (now we’re going back towards Bergners) 5-10-15-20 girls clothing, Christian Bros. western wear, STUARTS!!, Swiss colony, Zales jewelers (i was too young to buy jewelry so ??) Karmel Karn and Orange Bowl for sure, Pekin Mall Cinema, some Kiosk down at the Sears end that made those hot-press 70’s tshirts which you would file thru trays of what you wanted like old lps to print on thos 2-tone t-shirts, The Ivanhoe bar (no windows and really 70’s dark…(too young but went older years about 20+ yrs back) , a jean/levi shop i cannot recall. Here’s the one to remember tho - there was a Sambo’s restuarant in the parking lot by the highway. Thats going back some time. I know there’s more - but thats all i could come up with - with some help of a few friends .. they that thought i was nuts for even asking. Have more PM stories as well - maybe some other time. Even a murder story!!! good ole Pekin! oh just remembered a music/sheet store type place down by Bergners….
on May 5th, 2007 at 7:44 am
I reside in Pekin. The old mall is gone and the new place really looks good. The area has really changed and many, many more stores are coming on line in the area.
In its day, the Pekin Mall was a very nice and modern place. As time went on and the larger cities nearby opened their malls, our mall slipped and just was never taken care of or modernized.
Seeing the old pics really brought back some good memories.
on May 27th, 2007 at 12:40 am
Despite maybe 100 visits to the Peoria area, somehow I never managed to visit Pekin Mall until today.
The responses have been a little confusing, but here’s what I noted today: The Bergner’s building is still intact and occupied (by Bergner’s, obviously). It still has the ogiginal dark brick decor on the outside. The JC Penner wing as mentioned still stands, and is occupied by TSC/Steve & Barry’s. The third original anchor is occupied by Big Lots and Hobby Lobby. All (or nearly all) of the inline mall space has been knocked down and replaced with mundane looking strip mall stores, the majority of them on the Bergner’s wing. There’s a Claire’s, a Deb, a Hallmark store, and others. Big Lots and Hobby Lobby only have a couple new stores attached to them. Steve & Barry’s don’t have any new stores attached, but there’s room to add some. Its easy to drive all around the now-three separate sections of the former mall, and you can spot where the old parking lot ended and was added onto with new asphalt. Oh, I mentioned the old Bergner’s store still is unpainted dark bricks - well, nearly everything else is painted beige. The TSC store is painted white. Behind the old anchor areas are unpainted as well. The beige must have been thrown on there to try and “blend” in the new 2002+ architecture with the old 1970s stuff.
I mentioned the mall recently to a guy who I knew grew up in Pekin. He said most Pekin residents eventually grew to hate the old mall; since it was arranged with three dead-ends, shoppers had to turn around and go back when they reached the far ends of the mall. At least a two-story mall would have offered different stores on the walk back to the car, but he said this one was just awful if you happened to be parked back at the far end of the mall.
on June 26th, 2007 at 7:16 pm
I live near Pekin, IL. It’s been awhile since I’ve been to the mall but I know it’s been in decline for some time. It’s disheartening to see someplace that was once so crucial to that community shutter and close.
However, I thought it was going to be remodeled after the new mall in Peoria, IL…here’s the website: http://www.theshoppesatgrandprairie.com/ which is an “open air mall” but not in the strip mall sense like it was posted previously. This open air concept is a mall, you just have to leave the store (go outside) to go to the building next door. The Shoppes in Peoria is huge with lots of stores like Old Navy, The Dress Barn, Just Jill, etc. The company that built the Shoppes was supposed to do the same for Pekin….don’t know what happened.
I live in the East Peoria area and I think the decline of the Pekin Mall was due to Peoria mall and Blommington/Normal malls. I spent most of my teenage years at all of those malls, never considered Pekin an option, even though it was closer than Bloomington. I think the lack of development and store updates/turn over prevented it from becoming a “top of mind” mall for locals. Chances are if you didn’t live in Pekin, you probably didn’t make the trip to the mall.
I do remember people used to go there to get their kids pictures taken with Santa Claus around Xmas…it used to be a big deal, a tradition every year for some families. It’s sad that had to die.
I’m going to be in Pekin this weekend as a matter of fact. My youngest has a softball tournament. I was trying to do a google search to find out if the mall ever got rebuilt so I could take my oldest daughter there between games to hang out and look for clothes.
I might take some snap shots if I make it there and email them if someone posts me an email address so I can email an update.
Also, I remember when the mascot for Pekin HS was the Chinks. It’s now the Dragons (chinese dragon) and they have a heck of a softball program. Of course Pekin also has a public perception problem in our area (Central, IL) in that it has a recent history (15-20 years ago) of being racist…not just toward the Orientals but mostly the African-Americans. I know people from Pekin and not one of them is racist…but the perception that Pekin is a racist community still persists, somewhat. It’s gotten better, but it had a real problem a few years back.
Maybe that’s why the mall died.
on August 2nd, 2007 at 5:44 pm
Pekin Mall was the big thing in the 1970’s. I remember walking out to see it from the North side of Pekin. All the business owners from DownTown said it would ruin them, and it did. They couldn’t compete and wouldn’t move out to the higher rent district. Luca’s Pizza had great Calzones and sliced Pizza. The ivanhoe was a great hang out. I actually met my wife at Walgreens resturant across from Lum’s in 1976. She was having tea, and i was just getting out of the Ivanhoe, drinking that pure Pabst Blue ribbon they had on tap. The mall was ugly, stinky, and the biggest thing to hit Pekin since the Santa clause house on Court street.
You have to remember that Pekin was a sleepy farm town, the biggest thing to come out of Pekin Illinois since Abe Lincoln travelled through was Senator Everette Dirksen. For those not familiar… google him.
I worked at National Shirt shops, Noble Shoes, Kinney Shoes was next to Zales Jewelry. I can remember the first time Simon’s management hired police to control the amount of kids in the mall and started a curfew. That was in the mid 70’s. It was a cool place to be from…
on August 17th, 2007 at 3:04 am
Thanks for the pictures! I worked at Lums for a couple years in the early 90’s and it was nice to see the old mall again.
on September 15th, 2007 at 8:26 pm
I grew up in Pekin. I left in 84 going into my Junior year of HS. The mall was our hangout, and I can’t believe the pics. Yes, when I go back, and look at where the mall once was, all I can think about is how depressed that area is now compared to when I lived there. I loved the Luca’s pizza by the slice by the way, thanks for the memory.
–JMo
on September 17th, 2007 at 6:13 pm
memories…like the corners of my mind…
OK the denim shop was called the Denim Den. Very hip place to by your jeans in the early 80’s.
JoAnn Fabrics also had a store down by Lums.
and the Hallmark store was called “Stay and Touch”
OOOH and Swiss Colony, which always had free samples of cheese and sausage. that was the first store on the left as you came out of Bergner’s.
The music store was right across from that. What was the name of that store?
and then a women’s clothing store that sold “Chic” jeans. and a men’s clothing store across from that that had a fireplace in it.
i think it was a chain, there was one in Peoria. sold a lot of Bill Cosby type sweaters. OH it is on the tip of my toungue….i think it started with an “R”.
and what about the huge mural on the wall leading out to the parking lot the middle of the mall? huge pink and purple telly tubby looking monster thingys…anyone have a picture of the mural?
we used to buy our G.A.S.S. shoes at Kinney shoes. Great American Shoe Store. they we brown suede and all the rage at Broadmoor Intermediate School. as were their Adidas knock off tennis shoes. The granimals used to come to Bergner’s, i have a picture sitting on one of their laps.and I would LOVE to see that talking Christmas Tree again. where do talking christmas trees go when no one wants them anymore?
Bergner’s had a hair salon in the back near customer service.
i went to a movie with a boy for the first time at mall cinemas.
we saw GUS the football playing mule or something it was a disney movie.
Good Times, Good times.
it used to thrive. kinda sad to see it crumble.
so long Pekin Mall, you have been good to us.
on November 5th, 2007 at 10:42 am
i have lived in pekin all my life, which isn’t very long, and I remember when i was a kid and used to go to that mall…now that they have changed it, i couldn’t even remember what it used to look like…i can’t believe i liked going to the mall…it was hideous!
on November 8th, 2007 at 12:00 am
What a trip back in time. I too, remember the opening of the Pekin. I worked at Sears through high school in the late 70’s. I moved away in the early 80’s to attend college and have never been back to the Mall. I now live in a city in Northern Colorado. The Mall here is not a place that I take my family to very often. Gang violence is common. Seeing your pictures reminds me of a much safer and simple time when we could go to the mall as teens and safely hang out. The colors of the Pekin Mall don’t seem so bad through my eyes.
on November 8th, 2007 at 10:42 pm
Pekin Mall was not the first enclosed mall in Central IL. Eastland Mall in Bloomington opened in 1967 (/www.ishopeastlandmall.com/shop/eastland.nsf/index) It is still a top on the line mall. Lincoln Square in Urbana is probably older than that. We have been lucky in Central IL that many mall are still alive and well. Pekin, Lincoln Square and College Hills Mall in Normal are the exceptions. Hickory Point Mall in Forsyth (Decatur) may be on a downward slide however.
on November 9th, 2007 at 5:57 pm
Lincoln Square actually kept a few tenants and transformed into some sort of artsy-fartsy “urban village” as explained here.
on December 2nd, 2007 at 7:05 pm
Gary said,
ON December 2, 2007
I was considered a ” MALL RAT ‘ Living after school until close at the mall.
everyone that worked there seemed to know me. At age 16 I got my first job at the mall. K B TOYS. What a fun place to work on Friday nights. I worked there from 1988 to 1993. The Mall was booming on Friday nights with teenagers. Then the Mall started to chase the teens away and after that the mall started to decline.After CEFCU left I remember KB Toys selling a total of $10.61 from open to close. What a busy day! Today they have ruined our mall and the history of fine shopping in Pekin.
on December 2nd, 2007 at 7:05 pm
Gary said,
ON December 2, 2007
I was considered a ” MALL RAT ‘ Living after school until close at the mall.
everyone that worked there seemed to know me. At age 16 I got my first job at the mall. K B TOYS. What a fun place to work on Friday nights. I worked there from 1988 to 1993. The Mall was booming on Friday nights with teenagers. Then the Mall started to chase the teens away and after that the mall started to decline.After CEFCU left I remember KB Toys selling a total of $10.61 from open to close. What a busy day! Today they have ruined our mall and the history of fine shopping in Pekin.
on December 4th, 2007 at 10:38 am
I am a Pekin naitive. My first job was at Pekin mall in 1989. Endicott Johnson shoe store…I loved looking at the pics on the blog and reading some of the comments….really brings back alot of memories from my childhood too! Priceless……I loved the talking plastic Bergners xmas tree…and I do remember some colorful murals that were painted on the wall near Lucas pizza.
on December 6th, 2007 at 10:11 am
I am originally from Pekin. Those pictures are exactly how I remember the mall from 20 years ago. Seeing them brought back so many memories from my chidhood. I had forgotten about so many things like the talking Christmas tree, I too loved it. Oh and Lucas pizza was so good. I can’t remember the name of the music store that was across from Walgreens either. I do however remember my Grandfather taking me Christmas shopping there and letting me pick out whatever I wanted. I got the Tiffany album and a Def Leppard tape, I was so excited. He paid for it and as we were leaving the store, the alarm system went off. I was so scared. They had forgotten to remove the security tab from the album. My two Grandmothers loved Lums so we ate there whenever we visited the mall which was frequent back then. I saw E.T for the first time at the theater there. I was just back there for a visit at Thanksgiving and we went to Bergners. I didn’t see the talking tree though,
It was a little different looking but for the most part, things were the same. Thanks again for the memories!
on December 6th, 2007 at 12:05 pm
FWIW, Cross Country Mall in Mattoon and Village Mall in Danville are also other malls still alive in central IL, albeit struggling, if my memory of those 2 serves me correct. I’m surprised to hear that Hickory Ridge Mall in Forsyth(Decatur) is struggling, since I thought the opposite was occurring with that mall.
Bobby is also right too, about the Concord Mall Waldenbooks in Elkhart, IN looking similar to the one in Pekin Mall:
http://www.concordshoppingmall.com/photogallery/storefrontpopup.tpl?photo_idnum=1098129741326562&pic=a&photo_store_id=1028
on December 9th, 2007 at 10:43 pm
Oh please someone come up with a picture of the naked fat cartoon monster mural from the main entrance area!!?? Any pictures of when the mall was thriving would be so very neat to see! I spent so much time at the mall as a teen & young adult. All my friends worked there. It was just a great place to hang out.
on December 24th, 2007 at 1:34 am
The Bergner’s in Pekin still, for the most part, has the same decor it did when it opened. I think it’s pretty cool. It looks almost modern nowadys. I love the neon sign underneath the side entrance with the old Bergner’s logo and their original hours. How retro! The Also, the Bergner’s logo is the one Bergner’s used from 1960 to the early 70’s. Soon after the Peking Bergner’s was built, I’d say around 1975 or so, Bergner’s changed their sript in the logo slightly, and added the red symbol. Around 1986 bergner’s changed the script in the logo to what it is today. Many people aren’t aware of Bergner’s being from Peoria. It was established in 1889 as
P.A. Bergner & Co. by Peter Alan Bergner. It’s the only department store still around that started in Peoria.
on December 29th, 2007 at 1:32 am
To Bergner’s: Check out the old Bergners sign at Eastland Mall. The store was added in 1974, so the sign probably dates from then. It is very hard to see since Famous Barr was built in 1999, You have to go across Empire St to K-Mart or McDonalds and look in between Macy’s and the main entrance. Bergners is on the far side of the mall and only a small portion of the store can be seen at this angle. For vintage sign lovers, it is worth it.
on December 29th, 2007 at 3:13 am
Isn’t Bergner’s most-updated logo the one used across all Northern Group (Boston Store, Carsons, Herbergers, Younkers) nowadays?
Boston Store and Carson’s had look-alike fonts as well n the early 1970s - early 1990s when owned by Federated. Seen them both in old phone books and ads all the time.
The ’six hexagon’ symbol was a carry-over from Bergners then?
I tell you, the history of how the current ‘Northern Group’ department stores came together is one that confuses me.
on January 1st, 2008 at 8:57 pm
To Chip: Neat, I live in the Peoria metro area and usually don’t make it to Bloomington. I’ll have to make a special trip there to see it. It most likely would be the same logo as in Pekin, because Bergner’s still had the same logo in 1974. Recently, after eating at the riverstation downtown, I was pulling out of their parking lot, and I saw the old Bergner’s logo on the side of the FirstBank parking deck. Originally, the FirstBank deck was the deck for Bergner’s downtown store.
on January 1st, 2008 at 9:07 pm
To Matt: Yes, the logo used by all of the northern group stores use the Bergner’s current logo. Yes, the red symbol comes from Bergner’s and so does the current script. Also, the stores are not the “Northern Group Stores”, they are owned by Bon Ton Stores Inc. You see, Bergner’s bought Carson’s and Boston Store in the late 80’s. In turn Bergner’s went bankrupt and was purchased by Proffits Inc. in the mid 90’s. Proffits Inc. soon became Saks Inc. and Saks Inc. recently sold all of its stores, except Saks Fith Avenue, to Bon Ton Inc. I hope this clears things up for you.
on January 1st, 2008 at 9:27 pm
But somehow the Proffitt’s stores converted to Belk. Then there’s the defunct Southern chain Parisian which all became Belk, except for a few sold to the Bon-Ton, which owns everything else. All of the Carsons/Boston Store/Elder Beerman/Bergner’s have the red symbol except The Bon Ton. I’m really confused now.
on January 1st, 2008 at 10:48 pm
To Jonah: OK, here’s how it works, Proffits Inc. was the parent of Proffitts department store. Proffitts Inc. ended up buying Parisian. So at the time, Proffitt’s Inc. owned Proffits, McRaes, Parisian, Bergner’s, Younkers, Boston Store, Carson’s, and Herberger’s. A few years later, Proffits Inc. bought Saks, and renamed the comapany Saks Inc. Saks Inc. gave Bergner’s, Boston Store, Younkers, Herberger’s, and Carson’s the Bergner’s red logo and script. A few years later, Saks Inc. sold every store except Saks Fith Avenue. Proffits, McRaes, and Parisian were sold to Belk, and the rest were sold to Bon Ton. Prior to Bon Ton’s purchase of Bergner’s, Boston Store, Carson’s, Herberger’s, and Younkers., they had purchased Elder-Beerman. Bon Ton gave Elder Beerman the same logo as the rest of their stores, but for some reason didn’t change the Bon Ton’s own logo. I know this is a lot of info, but I hope it helps.
on January 2nd, 2008 at 1:36 am
I loved Bergner’s! Not that I don’t still like it, but it has changed from what it used to be. It’s really just Bon Ton with a Bergner’s sign. What ever happened to traditions like the talking Christmas tree, or their restaurants? Their old script logo? I love to go to the Pekin Mall or (East Court Village I guess nowadays) Bergner’s mostly for nastalgia. The store looks so much like it used to. It’s got to be the only Bergner’s left like it. I mean it’s like the 3rd store opened in the chain.
on January 2nd, 2008 at 1:39 am
Sally- I know! The Bergner’s in Pekin is so cool! I think my grandpa told me that it is the 3rd oldest in the chain too, so I think your right. It’s sychedelic.
on January 2nd, 2008 at 5:10 am
That all makes sense to me now how the same consistent logo among all the ‘northern department store group’ stores came to be. Thanks to Bergner’s for explaining the history of Proffitts/Saks too, as I see how the history of the numerous chains that later were absorbed into either Belk or Bon-Ton evolved over the years. I never knew either that the logo of Carson’s, Herberger’s, Younkers, etc. was modeled off of the Bergner’s logo, since I could not determine in the past whether the same ‘northern dept. store group’ logo throughout their chains was from Carson’s, or one of its several sister dept. stores.
on January 2nd, 2008 at 1:11 pm
I’m 99% sure that Firestone is a former Penney’s Auto Center. Am I right?
on January 2nd, 2008 at 6:19 pm
You’re right. That’s definitely an old JCPenney Auto Center. With a gas canopy, no less.
on January 2nd, 2008 at 10:12 pm
Thanks for the history of the chains (Boston Store, et al).
Also, if I’m not mistaken, most (if not all) Penney’s Auto Centers were given over to Firestone by the early 1980s when they dropped automotive and other ‘hardline’ merchandise.
on January 2nd, 2008 at 11:04 pm
Firestone took over a majority of the old JCPenney Auto Centers, but not all of them. In malls where a Firestone was already nearby, the Penney operation was usually closed. Also, Firestone did not take any of the locations that were physically attached to the main Penney store. In those cases, the Auto Center was converted to storage or sales space.
on January 8th, 2008 at 9:50 pm
I 19 years old and have lived in Pekin my whole life. Although I don’t remember the early stores, looking at the pictures of the mall with my boy friend brought back a lot of young memories! We actually were at the “East Court Mall” tonight, (if you can even call it a mall!) and it was really neat to look at the old pictures, and be reminded of our towns old crappy mall!
We wish they would turn whats out at east court into a mall again!
on January 9th, 2008 at 9:07 am
Luca’s calzones, The Denim Den, The Orange Bowl, Lums, Stewarts, Sambos, Murphy’s Mart with the lunch counter (my mom worked there before we moved away), the iron-on T-shirt shop… it all comes flowing back now. Not quite like fine wine but none the less, pleasing in some crazy way. I think my iron-on Tshirt log was Rocky Balboa….
on January 10th, 2008 at 11:36 pm
This comment was sent to us via e-mail from Erik Heuck.
Erik Heuck to raschendel
show details Jan 9 (1 day ago) Reply
I recently found your site for the old Pekin Mall. I am from Pekin and can tell you quite a bit about the mall. Currently development is stopped at the mall site, there are about 15 stores there now and still many empty spaces. The mall is completely outdoors now. The current anchor stores are still Bergner’s, Hobby Lobby, Big Lots and two new ones Steve and Barry’s and Tractor Supply. S&B and Tractor supply are located in the old JC Penny Building.
on January 13th, 2008 at 4:53 pm
I have many good memories of the Pekin Mall. I was one of the mall rats of the late 70’s and early 80’s. There was always something going on. Whether hanging out with friends, going to the movies, or checking out the attractions - I especially enjoyed the cars shows and boat shows - it was a great asset for the community. I cannot understand how we let it die.
The new mall configuration is not pedestrian friendly. If you want to go from one end to the other, you must drive. There are few sidewalks and no direct walkways to use. A road has been built through the original store entrance which splits the shopping center in two. It’s now considered an outdoor lifestyle center, but that’s a stretch.
I miss the Pekin Mall.
on January 14th, 2008 at 10:12 pm
Cullinan Properties screwed this place up. They did such a great job at the Shoppe of Grand Prairie. GP funtions as an actual outdoor mall, which pedestrian walkway in the center of the place, NOT UGLY PARKING LOT. ECV is an divided strip plaza. They did the same thing at College Hills in Normal. Torn down the mall, build a road through the center of the property dividing the anchors. Fill the space with a parking lot and make it impossible to go to all the building without getting runover by a crazy Central IL driver. College Hills in still half empty after it was re-developed.
on January 15th, 2008 at 7:18 pm
I miss LUMS!
on January 18th, 2008 at 2:35 pm
I remember the mall well. I worked there right out of high school in the 70’s. I know…dating myself and that mall. I worked in Walgreens Restaurant! Yes, Walgreens had a restaurant right across the mall from Lums. Back in the Malls hey day it had alot of good stores. I remember Sew Fro, Christian Brothers, Deb shop, Denim Den and it even had a Wicker store….brieflly. My husband actually worked there as part of Mall security/management back in the 70’s. I met him when I was a waitress at Walgreens. I miss the mall and wish that Pekin could some how have managed to hang on to it instead of the sad little things we have there now.
No matter what, I will never forget those shiny floors. No matter how bad that mall looked those floors were always shiny.
on January 24th, 2008 at 1:07 am
I went to Bergner’s Sheridan Village store in Peoria recently, and frankly, I’m rather upset. The store isn’t doing very well. There were hardly any people there! The store was old, and really needs updating. Now, if it was a Tuesday night or something, it would be understandible. But, it was Saturday! The Sheridan Village Bergner’s used to always be bursting at the seams with people on Saturdays! Now instead of bursting at the seams, it has fallen into deep disrepair, and no one was there! And to top it off, there are almost no stores left at Sheridan Village! I really don’t know how much longer the store will last.
on February 9th, 2008 at 12:14 pm
Thank you for a wonderful walk into my memory’s past.
After the mall opened, I loved going to the Pekin Mall with my mom, sister, and girlfriends. During the early to mid 70’s, the mall was the only place for teens to go to socialize outside of school. I think today’s kids are truly missing out on this part of growing up.
Walgreen’s had the cosmetics we could afford along with a super lunch counter.
Our family would go to Lum’s after church on special Sundays.
Lucas pizza was a must stop, after scool, for either a slice of pizza or a cheesy calzone.
I remember seeing “Jaws” at the Pekin Movie Theater with my high school flame. I buried my face into his arm when the huge toothy shark turned to us! There was, also, the movie “Mother, Jugs, & Speed” that my dad took the family to without first knowing how “adult” it was. hehe
Of course, I always did all of my Christmas shopping at the wonderful gift shops. Wish I could remember the name of the shop down the steps from the popcorn shop, because it was my favorite.
You could count on a delightful scent of fresh popped popcorn and caramel corn at the Karmel Korn shop. yum
Not sure how the tellers at the CEFCU credit union worked with the constant smell of delicious popcorn smells next door.
When I was a junior in high school, I applied at a clothing store no one has mentioned, the Paul Harris shop. I worked there until I went away to college. I loved this store with the mirrored tile facade and trendy clothes. They, also, had the hippest musack.
My sister worked several shops down the way at Chadband’s Jewelry. She was the first girl at Pekin High to wear a 12 carat gold fingernail! (She had to work to pay for that baby!)
During college, I came back at breaks and summer to work at JC Penny’s jewelry counter.
It was during this time in early 80’s, that I saw the beginnings of the downward slide of the mall. JC Penney’s had roof leaks that were not being repaired! Personally, I blame the mall management’s greed for the demise of this wonderful mall. As the roof continued to decay, more and more profitable shops moved out and into the new two story mall in Peoria.
After college, I left this area for almost 20 years. I was surprised to find smaller malls in Ohio were fairly similar to Pekin’s mall. In the late 90’s, I moved back to Pekin and re-visited the Pekin Mall. I walked the quiet hallways to visit Walden’s books, take my daughter to the gymnastic school, and look at my boarded up past. It was so unbelievable!
The one thing that did withstand the mall’s decline were the shiny striped floors. If only the original architect / contractor had put this durable flooring on the roof, who knows what could have happened!!
Lastly,as for the interior design and colors of the mall, it was modern to us. This mall did NOT warp our design perception. I am now a successful corporate facility interior designer with a large local company. All I have to say is: “Did you realize color and design are cyclical?” Again, “citrus colors” are “in”!
Thank you, again, for this stroll through time! I plan on sending this link to all my Pekin friends!
KmG, PCHS class of ‘77
P.S. The mall location has gone through a drastic transformation, and it is much better than it was a few years back…..but, it will NEVER match the 70’s Pekin Mall.
on February 9th, 2008 at 3:44 pm
Hi, I’m 12 andI used to go tumbling in that building.
It was so amazing when it was open.
But some of my tumbling lessons were on Sundays when it was closed.
It was kind of creepy but cool because all of the stores had those metal bar door going across them and all the halls were dark.
It was amazing.
I live in Pekin, yes, but now that the mall had broken up, the stores around the area aren’t getting as much business. I’m glad I was able to find this were I can see what it used to be.
Thanks.
on February 10th, 2008 at 12:15 pm
The name of the music store outside Bergner’s that no one else seems to remember was Byerley’s Music. They sold records…[remember those?], sheet music and musical instruments. Their big store was in downtown Peoria.
At one time I think Lum’s was a locally-owned chain. They had the restaurant in the Pekin mall, and one on Knoxville Avenue in Peoria.
The mall also had a Baskin-Robbins Ice Cream store. They used to wash the 3 gallon ice cream cartons and place them in front of the store for people to take home FREE! Two of those cartons held all our scarves and mittens in the coat closet.
on February 11th, 2008 at 12:08 am
I used to work at Camilles Cafe back in 2004 (After the whole Strip mall conversion) Camilles is located where id say Fashion Bug Plus used to be im not sure tho i know if was after the ramp right before Deb’s. But in order to take the garbage out you have to walk through the old mall up towards bergners and out that side door! the inside hasn’t been touched, the same ugly blue green tile scheme is there and everything! Bergners has now put a wall up between the old mall and its store but its still cool to see the old mall is still sitting in all its retro glory!
on February 12th, 2008 at 5:19 pm
I live in Louisiana, but have been there a few times as a kid. I remember the Orange Bowl, they had good pizza and some orange icee drink.
on February 17th, 2008 at 7:42 pm
I lived in the Pekin area (Marquette Heights) from ‘72-’85. Back then, the mall was the only shopping in the Pekin area except for the K-mart which was nearby. I know the shopping in that area has really changed since ‘85 but had no idea the mall had been torn down.
One of my best memories of the mall: In ‘82 I won a Chevy Citation from a prize give-away that JC Penneys had. If you ordered from their catalog, you were automatically entered into a contest. To make a long story short, I won the car. It had to be ordered from a local Chevy dealer. When the car came in (months later) it had to sit in the mall in front of the Penney’s. It had a big sign on it saying I had won it in their sweepstakes. When it finally came time to take the car home, we had to go there as the mall was closing and wait until the mall was completly empty. Then they wanted my husband to drive the car up a ramp, down the hall to an exit large enough to drive a car through it. I said I wanted to drive it out. The mall people didn’t want me to because it was a stick and they were afraid I would drive it thourgh a store window. Well, I convinced them that I knew how do drive a stick and off I went driving through the mall. An experience I’ll never forget. (By the way, the car was a real lemon and I hated it.)
on February 17th, 2008 at 10:58 pm
My parents had a Citation from before when I was born until I was about 7. Most of my memories of it involve not being able to see over the dashboard, but it seemed to be kind of a lame, cheap car. I was actually kind of embarrassed of it because it was a weird swoopy shape and not sporty at all. I guess if it was free it wouldn’t matter, but it sounds like quite an adventure nonetheless.
on February 18th, 2008 at 2:18 pm
Thanks for the memories, I was born and raised in the outskirts of Pekin, and I remember shopping DownTown going from store to store at Christmas time, all of the decorated store fronts, and I even visited the Santa House on the court house lawn. Now those were the days! Then the Mall came to town and that became our place to shop. The thing I miss most is the old Down Town Pekin.
on February 19th, 2008 at 1:02 am
It was a shame to see the Mall go down the tubes, You could do almost ALL your shopping there at one time.. I myself do not like what they have done with it. But what can you do.
on February 22nd, 2008 at 11:10 pm
I kinda remember opening day. The Cardinals pitcher,”The mad Hungarian,Al Hrabosky was at the Sears dept.I had a polaroid picture with him and he autographed it. I still have it today. I remember buying 45’s at Bergners.Aladdin’s Castle was great.I remember when AMF bought out Harley Davison and Browns Sporting Goods sold them.31 flavors was the best ice cream,bubblegum was the best.Lucas pizza was good.I guess back then for a kid from a small farmer town it was an exciting place to go on the weekend. It’s to bad the property wasn’t up-dated and maintained.
on February 23rd, 2008 at 4:03 am
I worked at Murphy Mart for the last two years they were at the mall. It was a lot of fun to work the checkouts by the restaurant and the opening to the rest of the mall. When there weren’t customers you could watch what was going on down the mall. I used to love the candy bins at Swiss Colony. They had like 6 bins of candy named after alcoholic drinks. Anyone remember that? I also liked the year they had the huge merry-go-round outside of Penney’s. I had to ride it! The Music Shop was down by Lums. It may have been a different name before that. I loved the mall. It was so big and had so many stores with such a variety of things to shop for. I got my first pair of Calvin Klein jeans from the Denim Den for $45.00. It was so outrageous! I miss the mall.
on February 26th, 2008 at 3:27 am
you have no idea what these pictures have done for me. I grew up in Pekin and that being said, i grew up at the mall just like every other kid. I was completely shocked when i moved back to the area in 2006 after being gone for only 6 years to see how much it had changed!! What a relic though. I remember saying that once Alladin’s Castle (Arcade), Kay-B Toy Store, and the small 2 screen movie theater left the mall, it would crumble. Did it ever!! Now it is basically a Hobby Lobby, Big Lots, Bergner’s, a Dollar Store, and a Camille’s food stop. The pictures you put on here have brought back quite a few memories. The closed/glittery store you have on here was a 5, 10, 15 store….yes, that’s the name…basically cheap clothing….and those ramps were awesome to every kid on the planet….dated as it may be, it truely was a place where a lot of childhood memories were made for a lot of locals here in pekin.
on February 26th, 2008 at 3:36 am
while i’m thinkin about it, this is one more casualty of Wal-Mart…..what a shame……it’s just breaking my heart to know that my kids will never get to see this stuff and experience what it was like when it was at its best.
on March 17th, 2008 at 2:47 am
My family moved to Pekin when I was only 4 years old, right about the time that the mall opened. It was the very first enclosed shopping mall I ever remember, and it was quite the place as I remember it. My family would often go there on Friday nights - we’d eat at Lum’s or the Pizza Hut by K-Mart and then go stroll around the mall or see a movie, so it was a good place in my own memory. My family left Pekin when I was around 10 years old or so, back in 1977. Back then Pekin Mall was THE PLACE to be for all kinds of things - it was great to grow up there back then.
Some things I remember about Pekin Mall:
Cub Scouts would have their Pinewood Derby tournament there, in the atrium near JcPenney’s. Was involved with that for a few years. In that atrium I remember a Claire’s Boutique, a Zales, and a Hallmark store (something & Stay or Stay & something?). I forget the store that was on the other corner. Kinney Shoes was also near there.
The wonderful smells that always emanated from Tiffany’s Bakery - mmmm! Have never been able to find that smell again! Cinnabon is close but it’s not the same!
KARMELKORN, in that area near the turn to Bergner’s where they had the stone walls! I believe that was near Denim Den and a Magnavox TV store, where they always had the neat remote-control digital color TVs first.
I think the music/record store near Radio Shack and Lums was either Mr. Music or Musicland. Byerley’s was the music store near Bergners where they always seemed to have a guy playing one of the organs.
I remember a Tux place near GC Murphy Mart - was it 20th Century Formal? It was on the corner in front of Ivanhoe’s bar and across from Orange Bowl.
Alladin’s Castle arcade was next to Lums I think (was it between Orange Bowl and Lum’s?) Across the way I remember Walgreen’s store and Walgreen’s grill. The grill had chandeliers with the bouncing orange candle flicker lightbulbs. And the drugstore had those funny little gates with the “In” light on them that would sometimes flash. Brown’s sporting goods was over there too - one thing I remember about that place, besides the obvious sporting equipment and games, was their green carpet that had a weird tile pattern that made the store seem LOOOOONNNGG! Further toward JCPenney, I also remember a wig store up near the corners by the big ramp. Somewhere near that wig store I also remember a photography kiosk in the middle of the mall (was it called Children’s Photographer?) Then I remember a tiny little pretzel store - was it Hot Sam’s?
I liked the movie theater too - I remember seeing two movies there especially - American Graffiti and The Apple Dumpling Gang.
Now the anchor stores - Murphy’s always had Tijuana-style muzak playing, and they had a big toy department in the corner at Christmas time and they had signs and footprints leading to it all over the store! In the front of the store they had a deli/lunch counter kind of like K-mart used to have, and they had these weird wall patterns near the ceiling (some combination of green paint and daisy flowers if I remember right).
JCPenney was a big store as I remember it, and they had a big sporting goods and electronics area (where they sold Jokari), a candy counter, and an area with records. I remember buying several 45 singles there as a kid…
Bergners also had a special toy department at Christmas time, near the back, and Santa always came with his real reindeer. And that talking Christmas tree… Gotta love that!
Another thing that sticks in my mind was ALL the SHAG CARPET that was in nearly every one of the stores (except for Brown’s!) When 9:00 rolled around you’d always hear every store whip out their vacuums and you knew it was time to head home soon!
I remember the place always being somewhat crowded most every Friday night. It was a fun place to go, and I’m sad to see that it died.
on March 18th, 2008 at 3:40 pm
With all these responses, I can’t believe noone has mentioned what game they used to play with that green and blue (to everyone I’ve ever talked to before it was blue…) striped floor.
Every kid I know who grew up in Pekin had some kind of game for hopping around on those stripes. To me, the green was alligators and the blue was water - and I could swim so I opted for the blue.
I’m glad to hear that behind the walls, the green and blue tile is still there. What a great site this is, with great memories!
on March 19th, 2008 at 4:14 am
A few other things I remembered since I posted - Did any of you who were 5-10 yrs old in the early to mid 70’s remember trick-or-treating at the Mall near Halloween? I remember when most every store would give out candy or toys to kids in costumes and my sisters and I would bring our friends along and spend a night going through all the stores and filling up our candy bags full a few days before we’d actually go out in the neighborhood on Halloween night. I remember the mall being PACKED during those times.
The other things I remember were the sidewalk sales where the stores would have racks and displays in the mall areas with all kinds of specials. The place was always VERY crowded then - I remember that because one of my sisters got lost once!
Now that I think, JCPenney also may have had a restaurant situated somewhere near the rear parking lot entrance. At least a hot-dog counter or something like that. For those who didn’t know what Jokari was, it was a precursor to racquetball that you played outdoors, where you used wooden racquetball paddles and took turns hitting a rubber racquetball that was connected to a weight by a bungee cord. My friend’s older brother had one.
The favorite thing that my Mom would pick up for us from Tiffany’s was this long caramel/pecan danish. My friends from Michigan call a similar thing an “alligator” but I don’t remember us calling it that back then. I also liked the big chocolate chip cookies, but not as much as that danish! The other things I remember about Tiffany’s were the white uniforms complete with white hair coverings that all the workers would wear, and of course, the tiffany-style lights that were just like those in ‘Cheers’…
Another thing I now remember about Murphy’s is that they also had a small pet department (gerbils, birds and fish), where we’d often replenish our fishtank and get new toys for them. I think somewhere in the mall was a pet store too, I just don’t remember its name or where it was.
I think shortly after my family moved away, Murphy’s became Sears. At the time we moved, the grocery store next to Murphy’s was still A&P, and that store was never directly connected to the mall. I do remember Sambo’s but we never ate there. We would eat at the Steak N Shake though that was midway between K Mart and the Mall.
I do also remember one other big shopping area in Pekin at the time we left - and it was pretty new too. They put in a new, huge Vogel’s grocery store and plaza by Parkway Drive, and that place actually had a mini-enclosed shopping mall with a We R Toys (before Toys R Us), Godfather’s Pizza, Thrifty Drug, and other stores. I just remember that the Vogel’s grocery store was one of the biggest I’d ever seen in my life, and they had these really unique cash registers with round conveyors. Anybody else remember that place?
on March 20th, 2008 at 8:48 pm
Thanks for the memories! ;D
Kathy & Jeff Overpack
(LCHS Class of ‘82 & PCHS Class of ‘79)
on March 21st, 2008 at 1:18 pm
I obtained microfilm prints of articles from the Pekin Daily Times, dated August 2nd and August 4th 1972. These were courtesy of the Pekin Public Library (thanks!). Both articles were about the opening of the Pekin Mall. It also included a site map showing all the original stores and their locations.
Unfortunately due to the microfilming process most of the articles are of very poor quality, and one is almost unreadable. Posting scans of the copies I got would be useless so I am going to transcribe what I can read and post it here. This of course eliminates the pictures, but really those aren’t of much help.
Anyway, as a teaser here is the store list (sans the diagram for now). I could read this list pretty well so it’s as complete as it gets. The blank entries were blank on the sheet (they probably weren’t rented out at the time the mall opened).
*******************
ROOM MERCHANT
1 Bergner’s
2 Byerly Music
3 Murray’s Shoes
4 Coach House Gifts
5 Walden Book
6 Gantry’s Men’s
7 Thies Magnavox
8 Singer
9 Johnson’s Men’s Shop
10 Karmel Korn
11 National Shirt
12 Kinney Shoes
13 Zale’s Jewlery
14 Fashion Optical
15 Regal Shoes
16 For get me not
17 Stuart’s
18 Butler Shoes
19 Hot Sam Pretzels
20 General Nutrition
21 ABC Kiddie
22 Breaker’s Way Children’s
23 Walgreen’s Drugs
24 Christensen’s Lounge
25
26 G.C. Murphy
27 A & P Grocery
28 General Cinema
29 Orange Bowl Refreshments
30 Aladin’s Castle Amusements
31 Proposed Restaurant
32 Proposed Restaurant
33 Proposed Restaurant
34 Music Box
35 So Fro Fabrics
36 Brown Sporting Goods
37 Nobil Shoes
38 33 Flavors Ice Cream
39 Motherhood Maternity
40 Wig Shop
41 Tiffany Bakery
42 Dutch Mill Candies
43 J.C. Penney
44 Claire’s Boutique
45 Garrott Jewlery
46 Lisbon’s
47 “Mall Offices, Merchant Association Offices, Restrooms”
48 Mangel’s
49 Chaband Gifts
50 A.J. August
51 Allen’s Vogue
52