Scottsdale Mall (Erskine Village); South Bend, Indiana
Located in north central Indiana about 90 miles east of Chicago, South Bend, Indiana is home to the legendary Notre Dame University and for almost a hundred years was also the home of the Studebaker auto empire. In addition, South Bend is the anchor of the entire Michiana region, a 7-county area of north central Indiana and southwest Michigan containing over 800,000 people. Today, South Bend’s population exceeds 100,000, and an intermodal transportation network featuring two cross country interstates (80 and 90) combined with interurban rail links to Chicago make South Bend an enviable location.
South Bend, along with its twin city to the east Mishawaka, share two main retail areas. The largest and most dominant of these retail zones is located on the north and east sides of South Bend, extending into Mishawaka. It features numerous strip malls, big box, restaurants, and the area’s only enclosed super-regional center, University Park Mall. A secondary retail area is located on the south side of South Bend, located mostly along Ireland Road and S. Michigan Street, and it was centered around South Bend’s first regional enclosed mall, Scottsdale Mall.
Scottsdale Mall opened in 1971, anchored by Montgomery Ward, L.S. Ayres, and Ayr-Way, L.S. Ayres’s discount box. Scottsdale Mall appealed to the entire Michiana region and as it was their first mall, it became extremely popular. The two-level mall continued to be successful throughout the 1970s, as it had little to no competition in the area.
Then, in 1979, University Park Mall opened across town in Mishawaka, which not only established strong competition for Scottsdale Mall, but also shifted the entire region’s retail focus from south to northeast. However, throughout the 1980s, Scottsdale Mall held its own against University Park, even as more retail and big box was opening near University Park and not on the south side of South Bend near Scottsdale Mall. Also, in 1980, the Ayr-Way chain closed upon its sale to the Dayton-Hudson (Target) Corporation, and the Scottsdale Mall location reopened in 1981 as Target.
In order to compete with the newer University Park Mall, and attract more retail to its side of town, Scottsdale Mall embarked on a multi-million dollar top to bottom renovation, which was complete in 1993. The new development brought an early-90s, very colorful, pastel, rainbow-brite-threw-up-here vibe to the mall; but before this, Scottsdale was already tanking, and the LS Ayres store abruptly closed in January 1992 citing poor sales. It would later reopen, but the 1992 closure cast a pall on the store, and on the mall itself, from which both would never recover. By the late 1990s, the mall was once again tanking; vacancy rates were growing, and national chains began closing, being replaced by either local stores or nothing at all. Meanwhile, fortunes on the other side of town were growing ever greater, as throughout the 90s more national chains and box strip opened in and around the vicinity of University Park Mall.
The final throws to the Scottsdale Mall dunk tank came in 2000, when L.S. Ayres announced they were closing (again), and Montgomery Ward announced they were going out of business at the end of the year. Losing these two anchors proved devastating to Scottsdale Mall, and it never recovered.
By 2003, only a handful or so of stores were left in the mall, along with Target and a popular movie theatre. Unfortunately this was not enough to keep the mall afloat, and it was sold, closed, and promptly torn down in 2004; only Target was to remain at the site. Interestingly, a lot of the mom-and-pop stores moved about 15 minutes east to Elkhart’s Concord Mall. Also, unil the very end, the management was too lazy to update the directories, which still featured L.S. Ayres and Wards.
A short time after Scottsdale Mall became a pile of scrap metal and dust, a new strip-mall like development called Erskine Village began construction on the same site and opened in 2005. The new development features TJMaxx, Kohls, Target, several restaurants, and a strip of outward facing smaller stores. Erskine Village, not surprisingly, has been slow to get off the ground, and it certainly lacks the community and place-inspired memories an enclosed mall evokes. However, I suppose if people wanted that they would have patronized Scottsdale. Oh well.
We visited Scottsdale a few times before it got the axe; however, the pictures featured here are from a contributor and were taken in December 2003, a few months before the mall closed permanently. For clarification, the ad for the TV series was up from Summer 1999 until the mall was torn down. Feel free to leave your comments and experiences.
Jonah Norason
January 28th, 2009 at 6:21 pm
Ouch! Too bad. It looks decent though, and an old Target isn’t the last to stay in most cases.
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Chris Reply:
August 15th, 2009 at 6:32 pm
i was i beleive 8 years old when they took it down and it was so fun to have, it was closed do to the lack of people, they needed better stores imo
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Jake
January 28th, 2009 at 7:51 pm
Actually, I am assuming that the old Target was profitable, because Target built a new store in the power center that replaced the mall. In Microsoft Live Search Maps, the overview image still shows the former mall but the birds eye view shows the new big box center anchored by a new Target. One of the factors that likely contributed to the mall’s demise is the fact that University Park Mall is located within a few miles drive of Notre Dame, while Scottsdale Mall was located on the other side of downtown. Therefore, once UP was built, it stole the student traffic from Scottsdale.
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Panda
January 28th, 2009 at 8:28 pm
That sucks, but the TV ad reminds me of this advertisement they have (or at least they still did a few months ago) in Meadow Glen Mall in Medford MA about conserving energy. One of the tips listed was to “make sure you turn off your VCR”.
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Chip
January 29th, 2009 at 4:20 pm
I’m curious about the Ayr-Way stores. How many locations were there? Were any outside of Indiana? How many were in the works when Target bought them out? I have a theory that the Target In Normal IL was suppose to be Ayr-Way since the location opened in 1982, a decade before Target began building stores in the Chicago area. Don’t have any proof but it doesn’t sound far-fetched.
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Bobby
January 30th, 2009 at 1:11 am
Chip, I found an Ayr-Way in Illinois, apparently the Target at Danville Village Mall in Danville (edge of Ill, close to Ind.) was once an Ayr-Way. After Target moved, it became Hobby Lobby (now closed) and a grocery store. I’ve also found evidence that the Target at Markland Mall in Kokomo was once an Ayr-Way. These are strange, as Ayr-Way usually were close to LS Ayres stores; Danville never had an LS Ayres and I don’t think Markland did either. Looks like South Bend was the farthest north the chain went.
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Rich
January 30th, 2009 at 7:25 pm
Target took over almost all of the Ayr-Ways. They were not necessarily near existing Ayres’ stores. For example the one on 38th & Shadeland in Indy was no where near an Ayre’s branch. Ayres had a store in Merrillville, but I don’t think there was an Ayr-Way there. The small markets would have made more sense for them to develop becuase they could avoid the media costs of a big market and they would have faced a lot of comeptition if they’d gone into Cincinnati or Chicago.
Ayres really did not do well under May management. They were more of a “Federated”-type store, closer to Lazarus than to May chains in terms of market segment, although Lazarus was not able to capitlize on this. OTOH, Ayres did a lousy job of stewardship over the former Pogue operation in Cincinnati.
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STEVE Reply:
August 17th, 2009 at 4:41 pm
@Rich, Ayr-Way did have a store near Cincinnati in Middletown, Ohio that became a Target. That store was replaced by a brand new one in a much better location around 1995. I have also read that Ayr-Way had stores in Louisville, Ky.
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Todd
January 30th, 2009 at 11:33 pm
Funny thing that this mall was mentioned. I have a good friend that lives right across Ireland Rd. from where the mall was located. We ate on a few occasions in this mall at a place called Chick Fil A or something like that and I remember the last time I was in there it was getting pretty empty and quiet.
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army.arch
February 2nd, 2009 at 2:56 pm
I believe Ayr-way was here in Champaign, IL as well. They were located on the westside of town near I-57. It was a Target when we moved to town in 1991, but it sure didn’t look like any Target I had ever been in before. Target eventually constructed a new store in big box ville on the norhthside of town and their old store became a Hobby Lobby (which also eventually moved north into the old Venture).
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Darrid
February 10th, 2009 at 3:18 am
I remember my Grandma taking me to this mall in the 70’s when it opened. It was a great place back then. There were elaborate Christmas scenes and my favorite, FOUNTAINS EVERYWHERE! There were several for those of you who remember. There was a huge ring fountain in the center of the mall and the water came down from the upper story to the bottom in a round tiled pit. There were 2 spiky ball fountains down by the Ayre-Way and across from the old Karmelkorn store. That side of the mall always smelled like a pool! LOL On the lower level at LS Ayres front entrance there was a huge fish mural fountain. Upstairs by the old Wilson’s Leather, there was a long strip fountain you could sit next to. It was made up of a shallow trough with these odd tubes sticking out of it.
Some of the first stores of Scottsdale Mall were Jo-Ann Fabrics, Singer Sewing Machines, So-Fro Fabrics, Rathskeller Restaurant, Richman Brothers, Milady Shop, Coney Island Restaurant, Lerner’s, Lane Bryant, Zondervan’s Bookstore, B.Dalton Bookstore, Waldenbooks, Stride Rite, Buttons & Bows, Farrell’s Restaurant, Chess King, Redwood & Ross, Bishop’s Buffet, Crafter’s Showcase, World Bazaar, Aladdin’s Castle, GNC, Reader’s World, 2 Hallmark Shops (one up and one down), KB Toys, Musicland, County Seat, Tinder Box, Spencer’s, Merle Norman, Radio Shack, Susie’s Casuals, Naturalizer Shoes, Marianne Shop, Gantos, Parklane Hosiery, Motherhood, J. Riggins, Fannie May and Things Remembered.
After the remodel in 1993 several were closed and more were added, some a few years before the remodel. As I remember there was a Gloria Jean’s Coffee, Gordon’s Jewelry, Zales Jewelry upstairs by Ayre’s, Michalski’s, Memorabilia Shop, DEB, Sam Goody, El-Bee Shoes, Foot Locker, Bath & Body Works, Chic-a-Filet, Subway, Hacienda, The Pink Iguana and Interior Concepts.
I know I have probably missed a few, but it was fun trying to remember them all!
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Tom Reply:
July 15th, 2009 at 8:45 pm
Darrid,
While attending college I worked part-time in Scottsdale Mall, at the ever-classy Redwood & Ross store. You may be interested to know that fountains in malls aren’t only there for looks and ambiance, their secondary (or perhaps even primary) purpose is to humidify the air during the heating season. Can’t have mall customers wearing wool pants and skirts getting nasty static electric shocks from touching metal stair railings and such!
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Vic
March 11th, 2009 at 11:40 am
I grew up two miles away from Scottsdale Mall. I worked there part-time in 1992-93 will in high school. At the time, the mall was only running at 42% occupancy. After the ‘93 renonvations, things picked up. When I returned to South Bend from college in late ‘97, the mall was plugging along at a higher occupancy than when I left town, but many of quality stores, such as men’s and women’s clothing, had been replaced by local independant vendors and such. Quality selection was surely lacking at the mall. One thing for certain is that ownership and management changed over several times during the mall’s last decade. Although it is convenient to blame crosstown competition for the mall’s demise, I strongly believe a lack effort, organization, and commitment from ownership/management played the most significant role in the fall of Scottsdale Mall. I can speak for many in saying that we loved this mall. I don’t believe the people of South Bend gave up on this mall. I believe the powers that be gave up on it.
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Tom Reply:
July 15th, 2009 at 8:56 pm
Vic,
I agree with you. I had a summer job in 1973 as a construction laborer at Scottsdale and it was a first-class mall. I always thought what really hurt the mall was when the Don M. Casto organization that developed the mall fought so hard to obstruct the construction of the US 20/31 by-pass, which after years of court battles took a portion of the ultimately underutilized rear parking lot by eminent domain. Had those silly developers embraced the by-pass from day 1, I believe it would’ve been built about 20 years sooner than it was and could’ve established an excellent roadway link from the mall to southern Elkhart county customers. With a broader established loyal customer base, the mall might’ve survived the competition by UP 10 years later. Also, I’d always thought the mall needed a third anchor such as a Carson, Pirie, Scott , which would’ve given it a middle-tier retailer UP didn’t have. In many ways this otherwise decent mall was mismanaged right from the start.
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Nancy
March 24th, 2009 at 5:48 pm
I loved this mall. This is where I would shop, even working at University Park.
Great memories. If the management would have gone after stores that were not at UP, Scottsdale could have stood up to UP. It is sad that it is gone now, I seldom go out to Erskine Plaza, same things on Grape Road.
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Brightlady
March 25th, 2009 at 12:39 am
I hate whomever idea it was to tear down Scottsdale Mall,there was no reason to tear down that mall,they could of put stores in that Mall,Mishawaka people and the Mayor had Jealously issues with South Bend,Indiana having such a nice mall the Mayor had no right tearing down the mall without having other peoples opinions about tearing it down! Mishawaka/Granger people act like South Bend isn’t a good enough city B.S. its a very nice city.If I get money someday I’m rebuilding a very nice Mall in South Bend,Indiana! The crappy plaza they put in,in place of Scottsdale Mall will never make it they gave us crappy stores that no one will be shopping at,and Target isn’t a new store when had it years ago,Its time to bring decent stores and decent department store to South Bend,Indiana!
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Karen
March 28th, 2009 at 2:28 pm
Me too, if I ever get rich, I would like to build a mall on the south side of south bend. I do not like the shopping center that is in the Scottsdale mall space now. Grape Road & UP Mall are a hassle. I miss the good ole Scottsdale mall. I worked at 7 different stores there. It was a nice place to shop, easy in, easy out. No traffic issues.
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Eric Ashley
May 5th, 2009 at 2:18 pm
This mall could have really been something. As South Bend’s only two-story mall, there was plenty of room for growth after its remodel. As a child, I remember going there for Farrell’s for birthday parties, and the multiple fountains. The remodel included a food court (which only managed to attract about four places to eat in nine years) and a spiffy glass elavator.
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Jeremy Hegg
June 2nd, 2009 at 12:48 pm
Thank you so much for posting this, it was sure nice to reminisce (sp?) . I remember Scottsdale Mall fondly. After the renovation, I used to ride that glass elevator all the time, sometimes so much that other people that rode it thought of me as the unofficial bell boy. I visited there nearly once a week even up til the end. It was quiet, but peaceful. I remember when it was booming, I used to walk through and draw my own sort of directory of all the stores and where they were located and with my vivid imagination would go home and remodel the mall. The last movie I saw in the old Scottsdale 6 theatre was Hellboy.
University Park Mall is such a hassle, especially after their latest renovation, you have to go round-about ways just to get in and out of the mall. I agree that the people didn’t give up on Scottsdale Mall, the management did. I do remember all the old fountains too, I LOVED those. I lived in the Scottsdale area until 1999, before my family moved closer to UP Mall, even though I was against the move at the time. I still went to Scottsdale more often. I still have a 5-CD changer stereo system I bought at Montgomery Ward in 1995 I think. Scottsdale was neat, it was a 2-story mall, but it was kind of built on a descending hill from west to east, so you could enter the mall’s first floor on the west side, but you could also enter the second floor on the east side. I also remember Jenny McCarthy did an autograph signing there one time, I always had the hots for her. Sadly, I didn’t get her autograph, the line was way too long, but from the other side of the escalators, I did see her bend over slightly and I did get a good glimpse that she wasn’t wearing anything underneath.
I just think they really gave up on Scottsdale too early. They claimed it was because of a lack of anchor stores. Well hello, look at the all the would be anchor stores at Erskine Villiage now: Kohl’s, T.J. Maxx, etc. Those could’ve easily been built in Montgomery Wards and L.S. Ayres former locations without the whole mall being demolished. I also remember reading one of the reasons they wanted to build Erskine Villiage was to have a ramp off of the US 20 bypass to come down directly into the shopping center, though that never did happen.
Funny, but also kind of sad story. The next to last time I went to the movie theatre (I think to see XXX), I had won a Magneto stuffed animal out of one the crane machines and I forgot about it in the food court when I went to the movie. When I walked past there after the movie, it was still sitting there. No one had been by there the whole time.
Oh well, nothing that can be done now. Thanks so much for the pictures taking me back in time. I will always have great memories of Scottsdale Mall.
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Angie Reply:
July 17th, 2009 at 3:26 am
Scottsdale Mall was the greatest mall ever,just because South Bend had a nice mall to go too,they had to ruin it, jealous issue of a 2 story mall in South Bend,something Mishawaka didn’t have,the mayor couldn’t wait to tear it down,couldn’t even got anyones opinions and talked about other options for the mall.I believe that if a mall,casino,waterpark ect. would be built in South Bend it would make South Bend a happy place all over again,South Bend People need new places to go to and new things to see in town,and it brings more jobs also!!!!! Does anyone know what the icecream place was called across from fannie may on left hand side it had few booths across the back and on side and bins of icecream flavors?
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L Reply:
October 25th, 2009 at 3:28 am
@Angie, Bressler’s. How ’bout that grape sherbet?
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Brad Cook
June 10th, 2009 at 3:28 pm
Scottsdale Mall was a beautiful mall when it first opened up until and through at least the mid-1980’s. It was white brick and at least two really nice fountains. One of the fountains was at the west end and is hard to describe but suffice it to say that there was a tube that came up out of the water and sprayed water in all directions around the tip of the tube so that it kind of formed a ball of water around the top. The other fountain was closer to the center of the mall. With this fountain there was a large round tube near the ceiling and water came out of hundreds of holes that lined the bottom of the tube and fell to the ground-floor pool. Originally the theatre at Scottsdale Mall was only a two or three screen theatre located on the ground floor near the south entrance on the west end of the mall (the pictures above show what the mall looked like after all of the renovation). Favorite memories of Scottsdale Mall are going there with my mom and grandparents, Farrell’s Ice Cream, the game room, and Junior Achievement trade fairs. It’s too bad that the owners couldn’t get a good manager to save that place becuase it really was unique. I miss it being there.
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joelle
June 22nd, 2009 at 9:02 am
there was a womens’ clothing store with ” village” in the the title. It was a small store and possibly privately owned. I’m pretty sure the same store existed at Concord Mall in Elkhart. Does anyone remember the name?
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john Reply:
July 4th, 2009 at 11:58 pm
@joelle,
Looked it up on my mall directory scans, Village Scene
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DougE.San
June 29th, 2009 at 12:02 pm
I used to work at Farrell’s at one time.
I remember they used to have annual events, like an antique show where I bought some magazines from WWII, and an annual farm show where they brought animals into the mall, including ostriches.
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achitect guy
July 9th, 2009 at 9:32 am
Fond good bye to 1993 -
In that year I worked at FRCH design and together with a great group of people designed the renovation of scottsdale mall.
the birdhouse light at the staircase – I loved the funny cuteness of them and the project was really a joy.
It won a national design award and was published on the cover of Architectural Record magazine for its lighting design work.
I’m glad to have read all the comments here and see the pics again . best regards-
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Jason Morgan
September 2nd, 2009 at 9:49 pm
Brown’s Sporting Goods used to be upstairs next to Waldenbooks in the 80s, when they were both on the West side of the mall, where the food court ended up.
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Kim Paffenroth
November 10th, 2009 at 12:36 pm
A sad day I didn’t even know about until now, as we moved from South bend in 1997. You inspired me to blog about it – http://gotld.blogspot.com/2009/11/scottsdale-mall.html
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Steve Zellers
December 1st, 2009 at 11:14 pm
I really miss Scottsdale….. Going to Farrells as kid was awesome…. Plus the mall had a really cool scent that no other mall has…… I worked at Chess King during the summer of 1990…. They could have done alot with that mall with just tearing down the anchor stores and rebuilding with new larger ones… Nordstrom, Macys and a JC Penney would have been perfect…. But Oh well…. Its gone and replaced with another strip mall in the Michiana area and will be vacant after the “newness” wears off……
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Michael
December 5th, 2009 at 1:16 am
I truly enjoyed going to the mall before, and after Jackson and RHS football and basketball games. Aladdin’s Castle, Farrel’s, Coney Island, and Rathskellers were the spot. It was easy access for everyone, in the city, to get to. Car or bus, and you’re there. I have great memories of the place.
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Katherine
December 5th, 2009 at 8:19 pm
I had just turned 13 when Scottsdale closed down. I still miss going every weekend with friends to watch $1 movies. Also I missed the cute guy, Sam, who was working at the pizza place. The memories…
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JP
January 10th, 2010 at 11:32 am
The UP Mall did to the Scottsdale Mall what the Scottsdale Mall did to downtown South Bend and adjacent nieghborhoods. When I was still living in the Southside, our family still did the majority of our shopping in downtown South Bend (Sears, JC Pennys, Robertsons, Gilberts, etc…). The State Theatre, Colfax and Avon Theatres were still open; almost every neighborhood had a Five and Dime and local restaurant, not to mention small nieghborhood grociers. South Michigan St alone boasted of an A&P, Southside Grociers, Cira’s Market, shoe stores, several banks, barbers, and barbers. All were within walking distance, or a 15 cent bus ride. The Scottsdale Mall destroyed this entire zone of nieborhood commerce -most were family owned enterprises.
Of course, not all the blame resides with the Mall. White Flight from the Southside, Near Northeastside, and Near Westside contributed, as well as the decision by South Bend to make the downtown area pedestrian. Parking became a hassle, and for out of towners. The demise of small tool & die and other job shops, as well as the clsoing of Bendix didn’t help. But as far as commerce went, the Scottsdale Mal was a death knell for urban commerce.
Sorry for not having too many fond memories of the Scottsdale Mall. The Grape Rd/Main St Correigdor did the Scottsdale Mall in. I never could understand why someone living in Lapaz or North Liberty preferred going to the UP Mall, which is much farther away than the Scottsdale Mall. However, the post-Scottsdale Mall Erskine Village area has been a boom for the Southside. I prefer going there than fight traffic in Mishawaka.
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