Worcester Common Outlets; Worcester, Massachusetts
Worcester Common is New England’s largest and most notorious dead mall. It has died twice, in separate decades. At various points, it has stood as a crown jewel of achievement or as a mark of embarassment. It was once saved by television star Judith Light. The mall itself was built in an attempt at saving a large, dying city whose economy was built on a long-lost manufacturing industry. It is a classic example of an urban renewal project gone wrong, built on an inhuman scale and unkind to its surroundings. Current plans call for developer Berkley Investments to attempt to make it right.
The Worcester Common Fashion Outlets originally opened as the Worcester Center Galleria on July 29, 1971. Intended as a way to export the fashions of Boston to the suburbs while revitalizing the ailing downtown of Worcester, Massachusetts’ second largest city, the mall was to be state of the art for its time. Built by demolishing a large swath of the eastern edge of Worcester’s downtown in what was then de rigeur urban renewal, the mall boasted 1,000,000 square feet of floor space snuggled between a pair of skyscrapers, with big city fashion stores like Filene’s, Jordan Marsh, and Kennedy’s. The Worcester Galleria’s centerpiece was its long, two story glass atrium, modeled after the ancient Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II in Milan, Italy, which allowed copious natural light to filter into the mall. Unusual for its time, the mall drew residents of not only Worcester but of many nearby suburbs looking for the finest in big city fashions all under one roof. To help bring them in, the mall was ringed by a 4,300-car parking structure, at its time the largest parking garage in the world.
Unfortunately, as early as 1973 the mall faced concerns that it was not viable, and it floundered for much of its life, in part due to its location. Many suburbanites were afraid of shopping there, as the mall attracted a certain city element that scared them off (this being the era of suburbanization, after all). Similarly, many residents of Worcester immediately resented the way the mall replaced so much of the city’s historic downtown and created an impenetrable wall between downtown and the east side. This excellent Worcester Magazine photo essay and oral history of the mall–which includes many vintage photos–details what it was like at the original Worcester Center Galleria from 1971 to 1993.
By the mid-1990s, the Worcester Center Galleria had lost most of its customer base due to stronger suburban malls (most of which will be detailed in subsequent posts in the coming weeks). Steven Karp’s Malls of New England Development, the company responsible for building many of the newer successful malls throughout the region (all of which were sold to Simon in 1999), purchased the mall and dramatically repositioned it as the Worcester Common Fashion Outlets. Much of the interior of the mall was renovated, with carpeting added throughout the interiors and an unusual roster of tenants (leaning on outlet stores, and approximately mirroring the typical Mills mall) brought in to help. With the original anchors gone, the mall now boasted Sports Authority, Bed Bath and Beyond (both sharing the former Jordan Marsh space), Saks Off Fifth Avenue Outlet, VF Factory Outlets, Media Play, and Filene’s Basement as anchors.
But that wouldn’t be enough. The mall needed Judith Light.
Judith Light became Worcester Common Fashion Outlets’ spokeswoman in 1994, appearing in a large and widespread publicity campaign, complete with advertisements in nearly all forms of media. Light was available to sign autographs and meet shoppers at the mall for a somewhat extended period of time when the mall first opened (a week or so, I believe?) and the thrust of the campaign was that Light shopped there, so you should too. This campaign made absolutely no mention of the old Worcester Center Galleria. It worked, bringing shoppers back to Worcester Common in droves. The mall was a success. Two years later, in 1996, its name was shortened simply to Worcester Common Outlets.
Sadly, this resurgence would be even more short lived.
In 1997, the massive Wrentham Village Premium Outlets opened in the southwestern portion of interstate 495, in a location that was both convenient and suburban, lending at least the impression of greater safety. Similarly, Wrentham Village was one of the first of the modern outlet centers built in New England–instead of London Fog and Van Heusen, the center leaned heavily on fashion favorites like The Gap or gizmo shacks like the Sony Store. It was also bigger, with over 200 tenants. Suddenly there was little reason to return to the Worcester Common Outlets.
Beginning that year, Worcester Common died an agonizingly slow death, losing customers and stores slowly with each passing year. Like many downtown malls, it retained its busy food court, but stores progressively emptied out, leaving large swaths of the still-immaculate mall empty. In 1999, the mall suffered a minor bout of bad publicity after the famous Worcester warehouse fire, wherein six firefighters lost their lives trying to save two homeless people living inside of an abandoned cold storage building. Said homeless residents, who had been inadvertently responsible for setting the fire, fled the building and were listening to music at the mall’s Media Play store while firefighters thought they were attempting to save them from the burning building.
The long side-wing to access Sports Authority and Bed Bath and Beyond emptied first, as both anchors threw in the towel, and was converted for a time to the Quinsigamond Community College. The rest of the mall slowly followed until the 2004 announcement that Berkley Investments of Boston planned to purchase the ailing mall and demolish it. Their plan was to re-knit the street pattern of downtown Worcester with a project dubbed CitySquare, recreating much of the neighborhood that was lost in the original urban renewal project and eliminating the inward-facing mall, which had at this point died twice. Tenants leases were not renewed, and the mall was closed in phases, with the last of the mall shutting for good in April 2006.
My own final visit to the interior of the mall was in May of 2004, and the Worcester Common Outlets were clean and sparkling as always… but almost completely devoid of customers or activity. Most stores had left, and the only ones that had arrived in recent times were service businesses or a wig shop. Like in most downtown malls, the food court continued to hum but little else did. The Media Play had the distinctive stink of a dying beast, with a rather spare collection of merchandise spread bizarrely through their large store to make it look more “full.” Nothing was merchandised on the slatwall on all sides of the store, and at least one of the CD displays had fully collapsed but no one seemed to care.
As of today, nothing has been done with the property beyond the relocation of a CVS Pharmacy from inside the mall to an exterior-facing space in the former Media Play, though here are two diagrams from the developer showing the current and future configurations of the property:
In retrospect, the Worcester Center Galleria and Worcester Common Fashion Outlets bridged what was perhaps the most troubled era in Worcester’s history. After having lost its job base and facing the outmigration of the post-war era, Worcester suffered and the mall was an attempt at creating a band-aid to stop the bleeding. Unfortunately, a large swath of downtown was sacrificed in the process. Now, with urbanization a strong, established trend and Worcester’s increasing popularity with people priced out of Boston who crave an urban lifestyle, the CitySquare development is poised to at least help and recreate the Worcester that was. Not many tears will be shed for the mall, but it was an important part of the city’s history nonetheless.
There is an excellent thread on the topic, complete with many photos, at UrbanPlanet for those who are interested in reading further.
The photos on this page arrive from a variety of sources. The diagrams of the new development are taken from Berkeley Investments CitySquare Website, and the aerial photo at top is from a fifteen-year-old Metro Worcester atlas produced by the now-defunct Arrow map company. The 2001 shots, including all of the interiors of the mall, were taken by Prangeway. The 2006 shots, of the exteriors today, were all taken by me.
2001:
2006:
on September 14th, 2006 at 4:41 am
I was here ages ago, maybe late 90’s. I remembered it as always as being a very liquidated, lackluster and tired “outlet” style mall even then. Interesting to see the existing label scars and the giant “mall entrance” sign. The city of Worcester is a hip, up-to-date area in Mass… I’m surprised the mall wasn’t converted into something earlier. Something about urban projects which always take time I suppose.
P.S. Grandly apprechiated for adding me to your affiliates list. Your site definitely inspires.
XISMZERO
Nick DiMaio
on September 14th, 2006 at 11:27 pm
That’s an incredible story. Can’t believe something that beautiful died. Well, I guess I *CAN* believe it, but it’s too bad. Our own version of the Galleria is the Crocker Galleria in San Francisco. It looks exactly the same, but it’s in a really urban area. It seems be to doing well, but it’s never been the ultimate shopping mecca. Nevertheless, thanks for sharing the excellent photos!
Scott
on September 15th, 2006 at 1:07 am
Historically referenced design, massive failure, Judith Light: this mall has everything!
I can tell which anchor was the Jordan Marsh. The brick gives it away.
on September 15th, 2006 at 2:04 am
Actually, if you click on the aerial photo at the top of the post, you can make out the large “JORDAN MARSH” lettering on the roof of the old anchor. Like many of their stores built in that era, it was very large.
I should also note that, despite butting up against the mall, the actual entrance of the Jordan Marsh was down a long side hallway. Looking at the aerial, the hallway to access Jordan Marsh was on the LEFT side of the anchor. That went up to the main wing, where it took a hard right turn to go down the main atrium which eventually exits out to the street. There is a second long wing leading towards the top of the mall; this wing was where the food court was on level 2 and Media Play was on level 1.
To this day, I’m not sure which space housed the Filene’s, and judging by the design of the mall it had one or two more anchors initially but I don’t know what they were.
on September 15th, 2006 at 6:15 pm
How could one forget Judith Light? It’s exaclty like a Lifetime special: a story of courage and perseverance.
Scott
on September 17th, 2006 at 6:22 pm
What else is Judith Light know n for anyway?
on September 26th, 2006 at 5:43 pm
I’m a current college student in Worcester and watched this mall’s final few years. Actually, being from Boston, I had visted the place quite a few times before starting college…always while waiting for an event at the adjacent DCU Center/Worcester Centrum (the white and red octagon in that top photo). That’s all the mall ever seemed to be really good for. I remember going there to hang out with my dad between the autograph session and the gates opening at the Monster Truck shows every year. Since the mall has closed, everyone’s either been let in right away or just held up at the doors until the appropriate time.
The mall was still fairly functional when I came here in late 2003, most of the anchors were still there and most of the mall was still open. The Media Play is what I liked the most, and it was the one anchor that stayed the longest. The place never felt unsafe to me, and I actually enjoyed going there.
The unfortunate thing is that the mall is pretty representative of the downtown Worcester area in general. There’s several colleges nearby (WPI, where I’m at, is walking distance), but no one ever goes downtown unless there’s something at the DCU Center, and that applies beyond students to just about everyone in the area. Other local attractions are suffering too - the Art Museum, where I do work study, has seen a steady decline in attendance over the past couple of years. Worcester is quickly becoming a city of two main industries - education, and whatever is in the arena at the time.
I never got to go there while it was still up, but I wonder if the Hartford Civic Center Mall suffered a similar fate - death via becoming arena support.
on November 3rd, 2006 at 3:21 am
Hi, I grew up and Worcester and have many fond childhood memories of this mall. The Filene’s space was what ultimately was converted to the Common Outlet’s food court on the upper floor and Media Play on the lower level. It’s also where CVS is today. If you look closely at the pictures above you can tell that it was a slightly different looking space. The large glass façade that graced the food court in the old Filene’s space was one of the most notable additions to the Worcester Common Fashion Outlets.
on November 6th, 2006 at 1:59 pm
[…] In addition to the Worcester Common Outlets, the city of Worcester is home to another, smaller enclosed shopping mall: the Greendale Mall, on the city’s north side, near the junction of Gold Star Blvd (MA-12) and I-190, not far north of the junction of I-290. […]
on January 5th, 2007 at 8:48 pm
Having remember the old Greyhound bus station, the Blue Goose, Henry’s Hobbie, The Fun House and many others on the site of the Gallaria, I guess you could call me a old timer of Worcester. I can recall the day when the first shovelful of dirt was dug up by city officials for the official dedication of the site. I guess I was part of that first generation of mall rats. I left Wormtown in ‘77 for Ca, but I will alway’s remember my times in Worcester .Hope that the new project helps Worcester.
on March 25th, 2007 at 3:50 am
Growing up in Worcester normally prepares you for a life of cynicism, but things like this mall confirm it. The local paper’s reporting that the developers are having zero luck attracting tenants to the new CitySquare project. I can’t say I blame prospective tenants. 30+ years of failure’s a tough sell for anyone. Other good projects are going on downtown - the new performing arts center, the renovation of the decrepit Burwick building, Union Station, Washington Square, and the Blackstone “canal district” slowly coming to fruition - but this one’s unsurprisingly stuck in the mud.
on March 28th, 2007 at 3:21 am
I fear that a similar urban mall (Providence Place) could potentially face the same fate as the Worcester Galleria / Worcester Common Outlets. Although it currently is marketed for a more upscale clientele, its immediate trade area does not, on average, have an income sufficient enough to support the mall, if suburbanites eventually abandon it. Also, it has been a deep, dark secret that the mall is plagued with gangs and rats. The gangs often rule the mall after it closes, since the theaters on the fourth level are open later than the mall. I work at Hallmark at the Swansea Mall, which has seen better days, and my manager says that she was shocked by the state of the mall after hours when she was helping the Hallmark store in the mall close. They literally had to lock the gate every time they left the store to bring out shelving units, etc. I guess we’ll just have to wait and see what becomes of the Providence Place.
on June 27th, 2007 at 9:01 pm
Am I the only one that thinks Judith Light is disturbing looking in that pic? Or in general?
on December 17th, 2007 at 1:32 am
Sadly, it was probably better as a mall. It at least had a decent food court and dollar store.
The whole CitySquare thing has floundered. Parts of the old mall are being used, but the piece where the Galleria sign had been doesn’t even look like it’s been touched.
on January 25th, 2008 at 2:37 am
Part of the problem was the “Spag’s Mentality” of Worcester’s working class culture. Spag’s was the original warehouse-shopping experience, and it set in working class Worcester before– and during– deindustrialization. Wo-Rats went for bargains and discounts; not high priced yuppie allure. People hated the Galleria because they had to pay for parking, and why pay Jordan Marsh prices when they could go to “The Fair” on Route 20 or the Auburn Mall? Racism and white flight were also a big problem.
on March 25th, 2008 at 2:04 am
Oh…bah humbaugh! That is how I feel about the Galleria closing. I grew up in this mall!!! From the 70’s to late 80’s. I remember store like… Jordan Marsh, Filene’s Basement, Weathervane, Ups and Downs, Windsor Button, Dream Machine, Orange Julius, Limited(when it was sweats only clothes). Oh my…if anyone else can remember any other store names that would be great. Oh yes..and then they finally built a cheesy night club on the bottom floor of the mall but can’t remember the name….
on April 29th, 2008 at 8:55 am
I’m not sure how to submit new pictures here, but I’ve got a few I took way back in 04 right before the mall shuttered for good. You can catch them on my website for now!
http://amesfanclub.com/archive/main.php/v/other/wco/
Chris
on May 27th, 2008 at 3:43 pm
I managed the parking garages through the busy times ‘95-’00. I found that though the mall was well managed and always spotless. It was also much safer than most thought. The problem lies in the people living in the city and the “Spags Mentality”, we often had locals complain about our .99 cent rate for 2.5 hours of parking, many would wait for the change from a dollar (which BTW went to the local food bank). The population could have supported this Mall, even with Wrentham. You can change the landscape, but you can’t change the people. Best of luck CitySquare!!!
on September 7th, 2008 at 12:10 am
I grew up with the old Worcester Center especially living on Hacker st. With only a short walk I would be there. This was the only shopping Mall with two Papa Ginos and entertainment from open until beyond close with the Dream Machine arcade, Theatre, and Dance Club. My Father had even taken oil painting here. Shopping at the old Chess King and Kay B Toys and Hobby, Spencer Gifts, and the list goes on. I believe the charge for parking had alot to do with it’s problems. I had visited (now I am Florida) in about 2006 and was kind of surprised to see a modern day ghost shopping center. I believe this is also partially due to the new mall opening as well. It is very unfortunate seeing this beautiful building that once housed so many businesses and memories especially for us that grew up going here on an almost daily basis.I would get dropped off at the old Ionic av Boys club and skip off to the Center. Worcester was definately an industrial city. My family members had worked for Rexnord chain belt(wich is now closed), Crompton and Knowles(wich is now closed as well), Polar soda, and so on. For me there is so much history here but as with anything change is inevitable. If anyone has any old pictures of the inside and or outside please feel free to e-mail me at mandmgarageproductions@yahoo.com. If you have taken the time to read this thanks! Joe
on October 3rd, 2008 at 3:58 pm
Lived in Springfield and went to school in Boston. I worked in Worcester and Littleton for a while. I had stopped at the Galleria a few times and it was quite a nice 80’s mall to be a rat at!
I did not like the “Common Outlets” as much, but I did get a few things there in the 90’s, but the outlets did not have the same feel the Galleria did.
I also used to go to the GreenDale mall a bit when I worked in Litt;eton - is that still around?
on October 13th, 2008 at 1:41 pm
The Greendale mall lives!