23 February 2009 | Dead Malls, Wisconsin | Prange Way
Located in south central Wisconsin along the Illinois state line, Beloit is a hearty, working class city of almost 40,000 residents, with a historic past. Located approximately 15 miles south of Janesville, the county seat of Rock County, and 15 miles north of Rockford, Illinois, Beloit has long been known for its roots in manufacturing and [...]
20 Comments
29 September 2008 | Wisconsin | Prange Way
Janesville, Wisconsin is a small city of some 60,000 people located in the south-central region of the state, about 15 minutes north of the Illinois state line, and the county seat of Rock County. It’s also my hometown, for better or worse.
Founded in 1835 by a wandering pioneer who apparently enjoyed naming towns after himself, Janesville got its [...]
37 Comments
09 March 2008 | Dead Malls, Wisconsin | Prange Way
With a population of just over 100,000 residents, Green Bay is Wisconsin’s third largest city and the largest of the string of cities collectively called the Fox Cities in the northeastern part of the state. Interestingly, Green Bay is one of the oldest continuously settled places in the United States, having been established as a French trading [...]
27 Comments
10 October 2007 | Wisconsin | Prange Way
Located in the middle of downtown Milwaukee, the Grand Avenue Mall opened in August 1982. Part of a larger civic revitalization effort, the mall premiered downtown during a time when retail (and nearly everything else) had moved out to the ‘burbs and downtown Milwaukee was left to the 9-to-5ers and the bums. A nationwide problem not unique to Milwaukee, [...]
109 Comments
21 June 2007 | Wisconsin | Prange Way
With nearly 10,000 residents, Sturgeon Bay is the county seat and gateway to the popular Door County tourism region of northeastern Wisconsin. Since the advent of the automobile, tourists have flocked from Milwaukee, Chicago, and other midwestern cities to Door County for a beautiful, relaxing vacation. For those who don’t know, Door County is Wisconsin’s “thumb” - a long [...]
16 Comments
05 June 2007 | Dead Malls, Wisconsin | Prange Way
Southgate Shopping Center, later Southgate Mall, was the first significant post-World War II suburban-style shopping center in the Milwaukee area. In 1949, local brewery supplier (how very Milwaukee) Kurtis Froedtert laid the framework for Southgate and three other major suburban-style shopping centers in the area, during a period of this kind of retail development nationwide. [...]
54 Comments
13 February 2007 | Wisconsin | Prange Way
Manitowoc, Wisconsin is a small port city in east-central Wisconsin on the shores of Lake Michigan. With a population of 34,000 and micropolitan area (with Two Rivers and the rest of the county) of just over 50,000, Manitowoc is hardly a large place. Most of its roots are in manufacturing, shipping and agriculture, and thus [...]
97 Comments
03 January 2007 | Wisconsin | Prange Way
Located in the south-central part of the state, Madison is not only Wisconsin’s second largest city, but the state capital, home to the high-ranking University of Wisconsin at Madison, and historically is known as a progressive hotbed of political activity. With a population of over 200,000, metropolitan Madison has a population of over 500,000, including most of [...]
39 Comments
29 August 2006 | Wisconsin | Prange Way
Located on the bustling west side of beautiful Madison, Wisconsin, Westgate Mall is a small enclosed retail center totalling just over 250,000 square feet in size. It is located along Whitney Way between Odana Road and Tokay Blvd, near the West Beltline Highway. Westgate is flanked by anchor stores TJ Maxx, Hancock Fabrics, and Dunhams Sports. The mall also has a DMV Service [...]
23 Comments
17 August 2006 | Dead Malls, Wisconsin | Prange Way
When I was a freshman in college I used to talk to people about their hometowns and through them I learned some interesting things. One of them was the existence of an enclosed shopping mall in downtown Oshkosh, Wisconsin (population 63,000). I had always wondered why a city of Oshkosh’s size never seemed to have [...]
28 Comments