I remember the old mall as a kid,the new mall is nicer,but very bland in relation to the old one.

They are developing the area(commerce Way) into retail from industry which it used to be,so that brings people to the mall,which from what it used to be is a huge welcome.

I think the outlet stores really pull people in.

If memory serves, it opened in 1976. K-Mart and Papa Gino’s were the first (and only) stores to open and for the first few months, there was a huge wall just inside that closed off the rest of the mall while construction was ongoing (you could look at the constuction through a small window in the window).
(At the other end of the mall was Market Basket that might have opened the same time as K-Mart and Papa Gino’s. It never opened directly into the mall, which I had thought was odd.)

After the mall opened there were other stores that came and went all the time, but some of the early ones were Jewelry Bazaar, Fredericks of Hollywood, Cookies Cookin’, Marianne, DEB, Radio Shack, Thackeray’s Table & Tap (a fairly popular restaurant), Paperback Booksmith (later, Musicsmith was added to the name), Thom McAn, GNC, CVS, and some others. McDonald’s opening a year or two later (which had a kiddie-friendly room with a mini carousel and relief-style McDonaldland characters on the wall).

Other stores I remember seeing (but don’t remember much about) were Ritz Camera, Locks n’ Keys, Heritage Hobby, and a Levi’s specialty shop.

K-Mart must have gone out around ‘81 or ‘82 and Lechmere took over its spot.

In the early 80’s, there was a computer store called Microcon Software Centers (which later closed and a Chinese restaurant opened in the same space).

I moved away from the area in the mid-80’s, so I don’t remember much more than that, but when I visited again in the 90’s, there was a bulk candy place called “Pinches and Pounds”.

I visited the mall again in June ‘09 and saw that Papa Gino’s no longer had an outside door. The new interior was also very strange to me. It wasn’t the same Woburn Mall that had the cool-looking fountains and greenery in the center court…

I have no idea what stores are going in now.

As for closing the fountains, Joe, although I haven’t been associated with the mall for many years and can’t speak with certainty, my understanding is that the fountains were pulled out because they were constantly leaking and costing exhorbitant sums of money for maintenance.

George

Each of these malls was anchored by an 84,180 sf K-Mart, a supermarket and a drug store.

The meandering layout of the interior malls was designed by Michigan architect, Wa Yee, to lure shoppers down the mall by requiring that they keep moving forward to see what was around the next corner, rather than standing at one end and seeing all of the storefronts in one glance.

These malls also has similar tenant mixes that included a host of national and regional chains including: Papa Ginos, Radio Shack, Baskin Robbins, CVS, Marianne, Kay Jewelers, General Nutrition Centers, McDonald’s, Frederick’s of Hollywood, Morton Shoes, Endicott Johnson Shoes, Deb, JoAnn Fabrics, Fanny Farmer Candy, Casual Male.

I was present at the ground breaking and grand opening of each of these malls. And as the leasing agent for the development team, I am intimately familiar with many aspects of those developments if anyone has questions.