Dead Malls - Labelscar: The Retail History Blog

Bristol Centre Mall; Bristol, Connecticut

Bristol Centre Mall is one of the stranger and more forgotten malls we’ve found in New England. Located in the downtown area of Bristol, Connecticut, an old, sprawling, blue-collar city about 20 minutes southwest of Hartford, it has almost no national chain stores and has very little internet presence–it’s even snubbed by the International Council of Shopping Centers, despite being plenty large enough!

DeadMalls is one of the only places to find historical information on this strangely charming mall. It was very visibly structured in the 1960s, and a visit to the site makes it very obvious that a large swath of the center of their downtown was demolished to make room for this beast. Located very, very far off of major highways and not even located on a state route at all (though it is close to three), this center is so poorly-located that I wouldn’t be surprised if residents of surrounding towns are even unaware it exists.

By and large, it’s a relatively straightforward, small dumbell mall that’s typical of its vintage–complete with blonde brickwork and lime green details on the exterior–but Bristol Centre Mall is interesting for a few reasons. First of all, there are several very, very old local storefronts (including a really groovy looking restaurant) that appear to have been fixtures for decades. Also, the anchor store at the northern end of the Bristol Centre–the former “The Grand,” later Sears Outlet space–has a rather irregular border with the mall, facing it at a jagged diagonal that gives great visibility into the old space.

Another favorite is the tall, glassy access hallway next to this large anchor seen in the picture at the top of this post. While it’s a bit worse for the wear, it symbolizes the kind of optimism and grandiosity that architects used to design into even smaller malls like this one. Newer malls just don’t have the same gravitas. Interestingly, on my first visit in 1999, I can recall that Styx‘ mid-seventies lite-rock abortion “Babe” was blaring through the corridors, and I still associate that relic with this relic. Music, retail, and roadtrips are all intertwined for me, though mercifully not usually in such a dreadful (albeit amusing) manner.

Today, the Grand/Sears Outlet space is vacant, and Bristol Centre’s other anchor–which was a Raphael’s when it was built but later became a Sage-Allen store–is occupied by Ocean State Job Lot, one of New England’s favorite retail cockroaches.

EDIT 6/29/2006: In the month since I initially made this post, a lot has gone on at the Bristol Centre Mall (more, frankly, than in the seven years separating my first visit and when I took all these photos). The mall was bought by the city in late 2005, and most of the tenants were forced out. This caused Ocean State Job Lot, who is the mall’s main tenant, to actually sue the city because they did not want to leave. They even registered the domain name at www.bristolcentremall.com, which is already showing up as a Network Solutions dummy page. Check out the Google cache if you want to see what was there. Perhaps most interesting of all is this set of photos, posted by one of our readers (see the comments to this post to see what he had to say). They were all taken on June 15, 2006.

According to this article in the Bristol Press, the mall’s final days are now near, and the Bristol Centre Mall redevelopment is imminent.

All pictures on this page were taken September 2, 2005.

Assembly Square Mall, Disassembled; Somerville, Massachusetts

The redevelopment of the Assembly Square Mall has been long and complicated, but the first chapter has been written after years of delay.

The Assembly Square Mall in Somerville, Massachusetts, opened in 1981 inside of a former Ford Motors Assembly Plant along the banks of the Mystic River. The site had more recently been a distribution center for First National Supermarkets (who were later Finast, later Edward’s, then bought by Stop & Shop). A Jordan Marsh store located in Malden Center relocated to the northern end of the mall, and a Kmart store anchored the southern end of the center. At 340,000 square feet, it was like many smaller “dumbell” style malls of its era, with an anchor at each end of the mall and a straight hallway between, with a food court in the center that was likely added at a later date. At the time it was lauded as a creative reuse of a former industrial property. Sometime later (probably the early 1990s), a big box center with Home Depot and Circuit City was added to the site, with frontage along I-93. You can see a satellite view of the mall property here, with the Home Depot and Circuit City building towards the bottom of the frame at New Road and Mystic Avenue.

By all accounts, Assembly Square did quite well until 1997. In 1996, Macy’s acquired the local Jordan Marsh chain and re-branded their stores as Macy’s. Macy’s and Kmart made for strange bedfellows in this little mall (as did Kmart and Jordan Marsh, frankly), but Macy’s must’ve felt it wasn’t worth keeping this undersized store open, and it closed. I first visited two years later, in 1999, and by that time the mall was hurting severely. It felt as though the mall died very, very quickly as it still had updated storefronts from many recognizable national chains (Gap, CVS, etc.) but they had gone dark. The food court was almost completely empty. Mall management had blocked off the entire half of the mall leading from center court to the former Macy’s, and a Building 19 junk store was preparing to open in the former Macy’s, without mall access. It was surprisingly empty, given that, aesthetically, it was a reasonably nice mall. It was bright, with high ceilings and skylights and planters, and felt thoroughly modern inside. Similarly, parts of the interior were still a reflection of the building’s heritage as a factory, with many exposed beams and architectural elements, especially inside of the Kmart store.

Within six months, the mall would be shuttered, and Kmart would renovate their store, removing these very architectural details. Building 19 occupied the former Macy’s/Jordan Marsh, where it was possible to walk around and see the old jewelry counters and even old carts from inside the mall being used as store displays. Until 2004, it was possible to walk through Building 19 to the mall entrance and look through the glass doors down the vast expanse of empty mall.

These pictures were taken with my camera phone (sorry!) in early (February?) 2005, when construction was just beginning on the Assembly Square Mall. Note the still-quite-clear “Jordan Marsh” labelscar in one of these shots, as well as the boarded up McDonalds, which had a greenhouse seating area adjacent to the food court entrance of the old mall.

May 2005, when the building was completely torn apart:

The redevelopment of Assembly Square has been complicated and politically-loaded, which is part of why it’s already dragged on for seven years. Unlike most dead malls, Assembly Square is located in an area with a shortage of buildable land and high property values, only a couple miles from downtown Boston and near a variety of transportation corridors. There’s been a major tug of war between one small residents group, the Mystic View Task Force, the city of Somerville, and the developers about what should be done with the site. At the root of it was a proposed IKEA store, along with whether *any* big box uses should’ve been permitted at the site. The Assembly Square Mall site is located on the banks of the Mystic River, adjacent to mass transit (though there is not currently a stop), and only a few miles from downtown Boston. It’s often been remarked that Fenway Park is closer to downtown than Assembly Square.

There have been a variety of plans to develop the property, and they’ve changed dramatically over the years. Most involve incorporating some big box with denser, pedestrian friendly development organized around a gridwork of streets and facing towards the river. I doubt this is the last time Labelscar will be posting about this mall, because it’s a major redevelopment story here in the Northeast, and the battle is far from over.

Map of proposed Assembly Square Mall development
As it stands today, the original mall building has been transformed into a relatively attractive big box center, complete with the very snazzy pylon (shown at the top of this post) facing route 28. The former Jordan Marsh/Macy’s has been converted to a Christmas Tree Shop and Staples, and the remainder of the mall has been carved into A.C. Moore, The Sports Authority, Bed Bath and Beyond, and TJMaxx ‘N More.

Note the former Jordan Marsh (Macy’s, Building 19, etc.) in early 2005, versus today:

Other photos of the center today, including the outbuildings:

Prangeway: Here are some photos I took of then-shuttered Assembly Square Mall on August 24, 2001. Notice the inside of Building 19. It’s apparent they never did anything to renovate or alter in any form the former Jordan Marsh/Macys space; they simply just put out their junk for sale and that was that. Also note the several pictures into the then-shuttered mall: one is looking from the Building 19 anchor into the mall, and the others are looking inside doors which were open that day due to construction work on the mall. We were very curious about the work and conjectured that possible activity such as demolition or even re-operning of the property was imminent. However, nothing happened – the mall remained closed and sat quietly until it was demolished in 2005.

Woodmar Mall; Hammond, Indiana

Nestled on the south shore of Lake Michigan, within a stone’s throw from Chicago, is the prominent industrial region of Northwest Indiana. Hammond, the second largest city in this region, lies directly between Gary and Chicago and had a 2000 population of 83,000. Hammond was also home to one of Northwest Indiana’s enclosed shopping centers, Woodmar Mall. As of press time the mall is about to be destroyed in favor of redevelopment. The following is a chronological synopsis of important events in Woodmar’s history, ultimately culminating in its demise. More information can be found at John Lowe’s Woodmar Mall page.

1954 – Woodmar Mall opens as a U-shaped open air center, anchored by Chicago department store chain Carson Pirie Scott. National supermarket, Walgreens, and J.J. Newberry variety store are among the major names in the mall’s roster of stores.
1966 – Following a national trend, Woodmar Mall is enclosed. The mall continues to thrive.
1975 – J.J. Newberry closes their Woodmar location, and the store’s space on the north end is converted to twelve mall stores with a square mallway. This newly created court is called the “Court of Lions”.
1978 – Following the closure of the National supermarket chain, that store’s space on the south end of the mall is converted to ten mall stores ending in a fountain with ceramic turtles, called the “Court of Turtles”; seriously, I couldn’t make this up if I tried. So-Fro fabrics was a major tenant at this end of the mall.
1978 – The same year the Court of Turtles appeared, plans were drawn up for a major expansion that would have tripled the size of the mall, and would have added two anchor stores. However, a recession and high interest rates killed this project.
1984 – In its last hurrah, Woodmar is given its last major renovation as Walgreen’s restaurant is converted to a food court. Schoop’s hamburgers and Pizza Pizzazz were two tenants in the food court.
1984-2000s – Things went steadily downhill for Woodmar Mall. Wal-Mart and a Food-4-Less store opened adjacent to the mall, providing not only competition to the mall but completely ignoring it (they could have opened in the mall?). At the same time, Hammond lost significant population and a lack of investment, while suburbs to the south like Dyer, Munster, Schererville, and Merrillville received significant economic boosts.
2003 – Woodmar was purchased in a bankruptcy sale by David Fesko, head of some investment group which promised to renovate the mall. Ideas flew around about converting the mall to a discount-themed mall, such as Dixie Outlet Mall in suburban Toronto. These ideas never materialized.
2003-04 – In a small glimmer of hope, a new mexican restaurant opened in the food court, which hadn’t seen a tenant in several years. It lasted less than six months before closing due to lack of business.
2004 – According to an article by Andrea Holecek on NWTimes.com, management was not taking care of the mall, as there were leaky roofs and sewage problems. Also, the dozen or so tenants left expressed concerns that they were left in the dark regarding even the immediate future of the mall.
Feb. 2005 – In his article, Hammond Times reporter Steve Zabroski outlined the city of Hammond’s plan to redevelop the mall as a unified shopping district for the city of Hammond. It was announced that Praedium Development Corp. would spearhead the redevelopment.
Feb. 2006 – It was announced in the Times Online that the mall would be demolished in stages, beginning with the south mall structure/Court of Turtles. In addition, it was announced that the redevelopment of the mall would center around Carson Pirie Scott. However, Carson’s would be relocated from its current space to a brand new store in the former south mall area. The existing 1954-era Carson’s would be demolished once the new store is ready.
May 12 2006 – In her NWTimes.com article, Andrea Holecek writes that the existing plan for redevelopment may be stalled, due to Carson Pirie Scott being purchased by Bon-Ton Stores, Inc. A Bon-Ton spokeswoman is quoted to say that they honestly don’t know what they’re going to do about the Woodmar location.
May 17 2006 – In his NWTimes.com article, Steve Zabroski reports that Bon-Ton has indeed stuck with the original decision to remain at Woodmar (as Carson Pirie Scott) through redevelopment. Their current 1954-era store will remain while the rest of the mall is demolished. Then, they will move to a new 100,000 square-foot store on the southwest edge of the property. The mall’s demolition will begin in June.

I first visited Woodmar in 1999, as part of my plan to see all the malls in the Chicagoland area. Coming from Wisconsin, Northwest Indiana was the least accessible and therefore the last part of this mission. When I finally saw Woodmar, I knew the meaning to the phrase “saved the best for last” – I truly did. This mall was by far the most remarkable that I saw in the Chicago area, with so many notable and fascinating design features. The first visible attribute upon entering the site-the mall’s anchor, Carson Pirie Scott, is an amazingly huge behemoth – a reliced dinosaur in terms of the size of anchors built onto malls today. Inside the mall, the throwbacks to the past continue. Immediately upon entering from one of two Carson’s entrances to Center Court, my sense of smell overtook me – people were smoking in the mall. Lots of people. I haven’t seen smoking allowed in a mall since I was a kid – probably 15 years ago now, and there were numerous Carson’s employees as well as customers sitting around smoking. Throughout the mall, there were numerous people loitering, just smoking on benches. What an odd sight. Also at center court, the mall’s name is inscribed in red cursive writing along the top of the ceiling, simply reading “woodmarwoodmarwoodmar” – over and over.

To the north of the mall’s center court, the Court of Lions beckoned visitors. To do what, I’m not exactly sure. Certainly not to shop. Not in the times I visited, which numbered about half a dozen since 1999. The Court of Lions was created from the former J.J. Newberry anchor store in 1975, and had not been touched since. Well, since the stores all closed at least. There wasn’t one open, aside from the ones on the mall’s main hallway that did not extend back into the square-shaped court. Along the main hallway in that court, Fannie May, as well as some urban wear stores operated until about 2001. In fact, during one of my visits in 2002, a young man caujght me snapping pictures in the mall and immediately became curious as to what I was doing. He asked me if I was from the ‘newspaper’ and I lied and said I was, for lack of a better excuse. Without hesitation, he told me to take a picture of his new store, some urban wear store. I did. When I came back a year or so later, the store was ghostly vacant, as if nothing ever operated there for years.

To the south of center court, the mall continued for quite a ways. However, there were only stores on one side, as when they enclosed the mall in 1966 they only put a roof over the mall’s main walkway. Yet, at the end of the mall’s southerly extent, the mall took an abrupt turn to the right and continued down a significant distance to the Court of Turtles (once again, I am not making this up). The mall originally ended at this turn; but, with the demise of original tenant National supermarket, the mall took over this space and created the Court of Turtles. Along the way to the Turtles was the food court, Cafe Woodmar, which was the last addition or renovation whatsoever to Woodmar Mall in 1984, carved from Walgreen’s restaurant. During my first visit in 1999, I had a cheeseburger and fries at the Schoop’s Hamburgers located here. I think there were one or two other Cafe Woodmar establishments at the time; none of them were there on subsequent visits. According to a friend, a mexican place opened up here in 2003 and even advertised, but it was closed by my next visit several months later. Too bad. Also interesting at Cafe Woodmar was the huge 1980s-era lighted sign indicating the tenants of the food court – most of which were long gone by the time I got there. I felt like a paleontologist unearthing the strata of time.

Just past the food court and at the Court of Turtles, the mall abruptly dead-ended, another unique feature to this schizophrenic mall. At the dead-end was a small fenced-in fountain which was presided over by three ceramic turtles. I only ever saw it on once, during my first visit in 1999. During subsequent visits, the lonely turtles were without their aquatic existence as the water was shut off. On one visit in 2005, an elderly latina janitor came by as I was snapping photos. “Sure is sad,” she said wistfully to me as she continued cleaning. And it was.

Woodmar Mall represents more than the end of a retail era, or even the sentimentality associated with it. Certainly such things are important, but the bigger picture eludes to problems on a broader scale. What can Woodmar Mall teach us about urban sprawl, using space efficiently, and even environmental sustainability? Land ecology and urban planning aside, what implications does this have on our throwaway society and the ‘American way’? Some may say that this indicates merely a natural economic cycle, and that it’s fine. They wash their hands at the notion that blight and urban sprawl are more than socioeconomic problems, but environmental ones as well. Others say that these are legitimate problems, that will eventually catch up with us and by washing our hands of these problems, we’ll never get them clean.

Update 12/18/06: Sadly, Woodmar is a memory. During Summer 2006, most of the structure of the mall came down; however, the massive Carson Pirie Scott anchor remains and will continue to serve customers as their new store is built where the south part of the mall used to be. Eventually, the entire development will be shiny and new and hopefully punch some energy into the economy.

Pictures taken February, 2005

White Woods Mall; Amherstburg, Ontario

Bridge to Canada

It’s no secret that things are a little different in Canada. Not surprisingly, so is their retail scene. There are no JCPenneys, Targets, or Kohls; however, they hold their own with chains like Zellers, Hudson’s Bay Company, and Winners. Also, there seem to be a lot more enclosed malls in Canada. What would, in the United States, be a strip mall with outside entrances manifests itself in Canada as an enclosed mall anchored by a discount retailer such as Zellers or Winners, and a grocery store like A&P. These little Canadian malls have always intrigued me because they thrive, whereas the trend for smaller enclosed shopping centers in the United States is bleak. We in the U.S. have been shuttering our enclosed neighborhood centers in favor of open-air strip malls for well over a decade now. Why is this happening? Do people want immediate access to their favorite store without having to walk through a mall? Regardless, it may just be a bit too cold in Canada for them to give up their traditions and open up the mall. Ontario Welcome Center, Windsor
One of these small Canadian malls is the White Woods Mall in Amherstburg, Ontario. Located just a few miles south of Windsor, Amherstburg has a population of 20,000. Windsor, with a metropolitan population of 300,000, is an important border crossing with Detroit, Michigan. Interestingly enough, it is the only place where people go north to cross from Canada into the U.S. Also, Windsor and its environs are closer to downtown Detroit than most of Detroit’s own suburbs. So Although the Windsor area is not officially enumerated as part of Metro Detroit by either the Canadian or American governments, for practical purposes it is. All of these considerations are important when determining where people shop. Clearly many Canadians cross into the Detroit area to take advantage of the dozens of malls and chain stores there and while they have to pay the bridge and tunnel toll, they are exempt from tax in doing so. Nevertheless, there are four enclosed shopping malls on the Canadian side and White Woods Mall is one of them.

Built as the Fort Malden Mall, they changed the name within recent years to White Woods Mall. We mall connoisseurs know that when a mall’s name changes, it often gets renovated. In this case, that did not happen. I visited the small White Woods Mall (aka sMall) in January, 2004, and it had many dated and closed storefronts. It was anchored by A&P Supermarket on the north end and Saan, a Canadian discount chain, on the south end. In the mall, which had a square racetrack layout, were as of 1/04: Royal Bank, PharmaPlus Drug Mart, Bank of Montreal, the Amherstburg Walk-In Clinic, Reitmans, Lee J Nails, Pet Valu, Radio Shack, H&R Block, A Buck Or Two!, For 1 Optical, and the Tender Tootsies Shoe Warehouse. Since I visited this struggling mall in 2004, changes have been afoot. It is rumored that Wal-Mart is looking to make an entrance into Amherstburg, and would like to tear down at least half the mall to build a store. A story published in the Amherstburg Echo in February, 2006 indicates redevelopment of the site is imminent.

River Roads Mall; Jennings, Missouri

I’m not really sure I knew of the “dead mall” phenomenon until 1998 or 1999, which seems to be when the first generation of these retail elephants started to drop. That was also around the time that I lived in the midwest, and my blogging pal Prangeway and I would troll around a seven-state area looking at all kinds of malls and shopping centers. At the time, we were technically more interested in finding the good malls–you know, the ones with 5 anchors and 200 stores and all the “cool” places to shop. We found something entirely different than what we’d expected, and those trips really opened our eyes to the phenomenon of dying malls, making us realize that many of these centers (and perhaps the enclosed mall in general) is in the twilight of its life. It was a far more dramatic revelation than any Abercrombie-kid packed malls could offer.

As a result of a ridiculously wrong turn, we found this gem, tucked away in the suburbs north of St. Louis. Somewhat hilariously, we parked outside of a wig store that had occupied one of the store shells at the time, hoping to cut through the wig store (seen here, in much worse shape than in 1999) into the then-long-dead River Roads Mall. I can’t believe we actually expected it to be open–it pretty much looked like this when we were there seven years ago.

1988 photo of Woolworth’s store inside of River Roads Mall:

I guess River Roads Mall bit it sometime in the mid-1990s, and has long been scheduled to be redeveloped into a mixed-use complex with a heavy residential component. If it ever gets off the ground, it’ll hopefully help the area a bit. It seemed like it had fallen into pretty severe decline (at least in 1999…). Apparently demolition began very recently, and this blog has some great River Roads Mall demolition photos up from just this past week.

I didn’t carry a camera back then, but I found these dramatic photos of River Roads Mall online. They’re really cool because it’s quite a rarity to find interior shots of a mall that’s been closed up for so long. They were taken in 2004 by Michael Allen for his website, Ecology of Absence, which chronicles all kinds of structural dead things (including tons of non-retail stuff) and is well worth checking out if you’re curious about urban decay, especially in the St. Louis area. Also check out Toby Weiss’ fantastic site, which includes a lot of great, black and white, artsy shots of forlorn retail establishments, and really captures the sadness in the buildings. There are also more pictures where these came from. And as usual, for more history from people who have some familiarity with the place, check out dead malls.

Despite the sadly advanced state of decay that’s evident in these shots, it seemed that one point in time this mall might’ve had some really snazzy mid-60s decor: check out that blue-tiled wall just barely visible at the left side of the photo above, or the groovy, greenish blue exterior of that one anchor store (the former Stix Bar & Fuller.)

Former Stix Bar & Fuller, in October 1988:

2004 Michael Allen photos:

Dixie Square Mall; Harvey, Illinois

When you look at a city, you’re viewing a kind of publication – a publication written on the landscape in the form of buildings, roadways, parks, and much more. Although these publications in the landscape are not like the ones you can experience in books or newspapers, they can still be read. In their reading, they disclose a product of the set of dreams, visions, aspirations, accidents, and mistakes of people who by various means left a legacy of “text” on the landscape. I’ve always been fascinated by reading this textual fabric and how people have used the built environment to publish their lives and legacies.

A large component of the built environment consists of retail and shopping centers. Since I was very little I was intrigued by retail chains, malls, and the like. Over the years it has become a dedicated interest, and I’ve toured retail landscapes from Portland, Oregon to Portland, Maine and everything in between. A common misconception is that this hobby is married with that of ’shopping’ – it is not. I have little to no interest in shopping or any sort of excess, but merely in seeing how these retail landscapes transform over time and publish a legacy, for better or worse, relating to the places where they are.

My first post will discuss the former Dixie Square Mall in Harvey, Illinois. Dixie Square Mall was located at the intersection of 151st St and Dixie Highway in south suburban Chicago. I feel it’s an appropriate place for me to start, because it not only represents the most extreme example of what can go wrong in retailing, but it is also one of the first exposures to this genre of downtrodden retail I had in 1999 (The first of which being River Roads Mall in Jennings, MO). Because Dixie Square Mall is possibly the most publicized ‘dead mall’ and there are more complete articles on wikipedia, and even a film documentary currently being made about the mall, I’ll instead focus on my own personal experiences with the mall and the implications the mall has on the urban millieu of Harvey and that part of Chicagoland

I first wrote about Dixie Square Mall almost exactly five years ago in 2001 on deadmalls, following earlier trips in 1999 and 2000. In fact, it was somewhat of an accident that I discovered Dixie Square Mall in the first place. Caldor and I were driving around Chicagoland in 1998-99, when he noticed Dixie Square Mall labelled on my map. I quickly discounted it as ‘nothing’ and we kept on going. I was so sure I had at least heard of most of the malls in the Chicago area that a mall called Dixie Square, being in Harvey of all places, was simply preposterous to me. Then, a few months later, I investigated further and shockingly discovered that not only was Dixie Square a mall, it was a huge mall. Whoops! Furthermore, the reason I hadn’t heard of it is because it was only successful for a few years in the 1960s. Throughout much of the 1970s the mall was a failure, and everything in it had closed permanently by 1979, several years before I was even born. Even more amazing, I learned the mall had been sitting abandoned ever since.

I’ve been back several times since I first published about it on dead malls dot com almost five years ago. I’ve also learned a lot about the Dixie Square Mall, most notably that the mall was used during the chase scene in the original Blues Brothers movie in 1979, and that a young woman was raped and murdered in the abandoned JCPenney store in 1993. Wow.

But back to what I wrote about at the very beginning of this article. How does Dixie Square Mall function as a text of the landscape of Harvey, or on a greater scale? More succinctly, why did this mall fail? Much of the resources online are dedicated to ‘what happened’ but few delve into ‘why’ – I think an understanding of the events that caused Dixie Square’s failure is as interesting as the downfall of the mall itself. Probably more important than anything else is urban sprawl, which both created and destroyed Dixie Square as well as Harvey as viable places to live and shop. In the post-World War II economic boom, suburbs sprouted up very fast around Chicago as well as many of the nation’s industrial centers. As a result, suburbs such as Harvey grew from zero population to tens of thousands in a matter of less than 20 years. The problems with Harvey, and with all urban sprawl, are twofold. First, there’s nothing dynamic or unique about these suburbs to distinguish them from any other suburb. They don’t contain functional centers where people work, because all the people are commuting into the city. In fact, most 1950s-1970s suburbs look much the same no matter where you go in the entire country. Second, urban sprawl doesn’t stop – it just keeps going (like the Energizer bunny!) Before Harvey was 20 years old, development began to move farther and farther out to places like Orland Park and the exurbs in the Land of Beyond. At the same time we have people both moving out to ‘better’ newer places, we have Harvey, with nothing unique to retain people’s interest. Sounds like trouble to me!

So what’s driving urban sprawl? It has to be more than just the economy. And it is. There are also other considerations, such as the notion of white flight. The issues of who is moving where also drives what happens with urban spaces. As urban sprawl pushed development farther and farther out, the land value in places like Harvey plummeted. As this happened, the (predominantly) African-Americans living in poor conditions (caused by urban sprawl) on the south side of Chicago moved into Harvey and surrounding areas. Because of this, the remaining whites in Harvey also left. Land values plummeted even more, crime rates rose, and more people left. People began to shop at newer, bigger malls in newer suburbs like Woodfield Mall in Schaumburg, or Orland Square in Orland Park. This feedback negative cycle makes places like Harvey worse and worse, while constantly investing in things that are shiny-and-new. No one wins except for greedy developers and the brand new suburb-du-jour, and places like Dixie Square become the retail equivalent of a fossil record, indicating poor decisions in urban planning.

As for the future of the mall, your guess is as good as mine. Since 2002, several companies have expressed interest in the site. According to one source, the mall began coming down in February 2006. However, I drove past more recent than that and it was still standing.

I took the following pictures in July, 2001.

Chapel Square Mall; New Haven, Connecticut

Another exterior shot of Chapel Square Mall in New Haven, Connecticut Street frontage of Chapel Square Mall in New Haven, Connecticut

New Haven has long had a bad reputation as a rough and dowdy city. Truth be told, this characterization has always reeked of sour grapes to me–it seemed like the only people talking about how “awful” New Haven is are those Yale students who are maybe just a bit bitter they didn’t get into Harvard. Sure, playing chess in Harvard Square while listening to a hippie blow on a didgeridoo may help get you in an academic mindset, but wouldn’t we all prefer to live in a “real” city where we’re part of the re-urbanization movement? No? Well, forget you then.

Truth be told, poor ‘lil New Haven’s feelings have been hurt numerous times over the years by those sneering Yaleys. During the 1960s and 1970s, which were a truly dreadful era for urban renewal ideas, the city threw its weight behind nearly every failed concept–a civic center! huge parking garages! a massive, concrete bunker-styled mall! a suburban-style office park!–all in the name of making itself just a bit more loveable. Today, these buildings–including the Coliseum, which is currently being demolished–help form a downtown graveyard of concrete tackiness. All those Yale kids didn’t realize that words hurt, man.

One of the most notable projects of that era was the Chapel Square Mall, built right on the edge of the city’s common near the intersection of Chapel and Church Streets. As usual, those scamps over at Deadmalls have a more complete history than I could offer, but this mall had a very strange configuration wherein the anchor stores (a large Macy’s and an Edw. Malley Co.) were each on the two southern blocks (on either side of George Street, along Church St.), and the mall was on the northern block closest to the common. Because the mall spanned three city blocks, it meant that each building had to be skywalked together, but since Macy’s was on the center block, both anchors were at the same end of the mall and it was necessary for Malley’s shoppers to walk through Macy’s to reach the mall.

When I first visited Chapel Square Mall in fall of 1999, it was already in a pretty severe state of decline, and Macy’s was already long gone. The mall itself still hosted a few national chains as well as a bevy of local stores (as detailed in this snarky Yale Herald piece) appealing mainly to an urban clientele, including a large (and seemingly very successful) independent record store focusing on R&B and Hip-Hop. The main mall area was a large, bright, wide two level corridor, with terracotta tiled floors and glass railings around the upper level. There was also a large fountain on the first floor near the common entrance. Still, it was showing severe signs of wear–I distinctly recall a lot of the metal portions of the railings to be rusting, and it was the last time I can remember witnessing a shell of a former Marianne’s/Petrie’s store.

Beginning around 2000, New Haven began to change. Yale University, apparently growing tired of cries from their student body that they didn’t have a convenient Starbucks or J. Crew, decided to take matters into their own hands. They bought many derelict buildings clustered around many of downtown’s boulevards, fixed them up, leased them, and resold them. While gentrification is definitely banging on the door now, New Haven is rapidly reclaiming its place as a destination city, with lots of nightlife and shopping and restaurants. Thusfar, it hasn’t gotten the same attention as other northeastern Renaissance cities like Providence, but it’s only a matter of time.

The renaissance of the Chapel Square Mall is part of this. The mall was shuttered in the early-auts and very slowly redeveloped as a mixed-use center that faces outward, instead of inward, and hosted foofier stores like Ann Taylor Loft and Cold Stone Creamery (and I bet those Yaleys love tormenting those creamery kids by making them sing!). We haven’t gotten to see the interior yet, but from what we understand the developers ripped the roof right off the original mall and turned it into an outdoor courtyard, with some retail, offices, and residential all facing a lush green corridor. For now, these construction pictures will have to suffice, but it’s likely due for a visit by the Labelscar crew.

I also swung by to take some fasincating pictures from the nearby IKEA store, which opened to much fanfare in 2004. Built on the site of a former Pirelli Tire office building, it replaces a failed proposal for the Long Wharf Galleria, which would’ve brought yet another large (and more upscale than Chapel Square) mall right downtown. Surprisingly, given that Chapel Square’s been dead for years, New Haven is one of the only cities in the northeast corridor that could be considered “undermalled.” The closest enclosed mall, the gargantuan Connecticut Post Mall in Milford, is over ten miles to the southwest and there are no others serving the city or suburbs. There was a much-ballyhooed controversy surrounding the construction of Long Wharf wherein some potential anchor tenants were strong-armed by mall magnate Westfield (the owner of most major malls in Connecticut) to abandon the project, and they did. Instead, the city got New England’s first IKEA, but because it was too costly to demolish the strange, floating Pirelli Tire structure, it remains today–completely vacant.

Like many older cities, New Haven is working towards reinventing itself and it’s nice to see it succeed.

Shoppers World in the Era Before Big Box; Framingham and Natick, Massachusetts

The golden triangle area of Framingham and Natick Massachusetts is one of the most active retail districts in the northeastern portion of the United States, and while today it’s dominated by only one enclosed shopping mall, it used to be home to 5 “malls” of various size and design. One of those was Shoppers World, which was demolished and reconfigured as a big box center in 1994. We just found a great page including some photos of the old Shoppers World in the days before it was demolished, and we’re quite impressed. I do remember seeing the domed Jordan Marsh landmark once, right before it was torn down, but I never got to see the insides of this outdoor mall. Also make sure to note the presence of another retail relic: Herman’s Sporting Goods.

Today, Shoppers World is a large big box center with stores like Best Buy, Bob’s Stores, Barnes & Noble, and Toys ‘R Us. Its smaller neighbor, the one-story Natick Mall, was expanded and renovated in 1994–the same time that the original Shoppers World met its fate–to be the dominant mall for that area, and it’s about to be renovated again to include a whole new wing that will house Nordstrom’s, Neiman Marcus, two condominium towers and almost 100 new stores, making it New England’s largest enclosed mall.

There were also 3 other enclosed malls huddled around these two behemoths: the smaller Framingham Mall, which was demolished in 2000, was home to Filene’s Basement, Lechmere (a Labelscar favorite), and about 30 other stores. The Cloverleaf Mall is smaller, and we were less certain of its history before reading the article at that link, but today it hosts a Guitar Center and Burlington Coat Factory, and had a Service Merchandise until 2001. There’s a fifth mall near the corner of Route 30 and Caldor Road (tee-hee) that is really strange. So far as we can tell, it is referred to only by the unglamorous name “Route 30 Mall,” and none of the stores in the center even open into the mall corridor anymore, yet it remains open. It’s really just a glorified strip mall, anchored by Filene’s Basement, with a long hallway running behind the stores so visitors can walk to the back, home of “Lotus Flower,” an excellent local Chinese place.

Billerica Mall; Billerica, Massachusetts

The long-ailing Billerica Mall in Billerica, Massachusetts seems destined to be facing the wrecking ball soon.

This classic dead mall has been in roughly the same condition since 1999, which is when we at Labelscar first visited it. Built sometime in the early 1970s as part of a quartet of malls constructed around the Boston area, it was–initially–nearly identical to the other three. Of those, only one–the appropriately-named Woburn Mall in Woburn, Massachusetts–is still operating, and it was renovated pretty extensively in 2004. Weymouth’s Harbourlight Mall was demolished in 2000 and Chelsea’s Mystic Mall was unexpectedly shuttered in 2002, and sits mostly unchanged today. None of these malls were terribly entertaining. Each was designed as a community-oriented center with about 250,000 square feet of selling space. In all cases, they had a Market Basket grocery store that had an exterior entrance only, and most (if not all) of the malls were originally built with Kmart as the opposing anchor. Billerica is the only one that’s hung on to Kmart, which is the chief reason anyone enters the mall itself anymore. Beyond a newsstand, a formalwear shop, a Papa Ginos restaurant, and a golf training school (which–OMG–so visibly occupies a former Deb Shops location), there’s nothing but shuttered storefronts. And boy, does the Billerica Mall ever have some great shuttered storefronts!–Just look at our pictures, which were all taken in April 2005. I particularly like the “gnashing teeth” facade on that one storefront. The entire parcel is shaped like an “L,” with the mall extending between Kmart and Burlington Coat Factory (which sealed its entrance in late 2005), and an outdoor plaza extending from Burlington Coat Factory to Market Basket.

Rumor has it that the enclosed portion of this long-dead mall will soon be demolished to make room for a Home Depot to sandwich itself between the two anchors. (You can see a site plan if you want, but I warn you that it’s a PDF!) While it’s always sad to see a mall go–especially a gem like this right in my own backyard–it’s hard to feel much sympathy for a property that’s been blighted for close to a decade, if not more. The Billerica Mall is located on route 3a, pretty far off of major highways, and is not located in a major retail area. It was clearly built just to serve residents of Billerica and nearby Burlington, Tewksbury, and Lowell. Labelscar would’ve loved to see it be successful as an enclosed mall again, but it would require some major cosmetic upgrades and repositioning as a leisurely convenience-oriented mall, with a lot of the kinds of stores that appeal to soccer moms (love ya, TJX!). That wide center court would’ve made a nice place for a Starbucks or a similar coffee shop, too, and it would’ve really made for a cool gathering place in this large and sprawling blue collar suburb. Unfortunately, the Billerica Mall seems destined to go the way that many other enclosed malls have gone in the past few years.