Whenever I bring up my admittedly bizarre hobby as a shopping mall enthusiast around the uninitiated, I almost invariably bring up one point: I’ve been to every enclosed shopping mall in New England. Really. Well, okay, it’s quite possible there’s a few of these buggers hiding on me. Some of the stranger, undersized malls that the International Council of Shopping Centers ignores may still be fingering among the unconquered, but for the most part I’ve done a pretty decent job of systematically weeding these out over the years.
Modeled after Mitch Glaser‘s infamous All the Malls of Southern California project, “All the Malls of New England” seeks to do for my corner of the country what Glaser did for his and provide a comprehensive list and resource of everything that’s out there, or everything that was. Because I live in Boston and grew up in Rhode Island, I’m able to tackle New England with a depth of knowledge that I can’t normally provide to areas west of the Hudson River.
It’s important to note, however, that I didn’t regularly take pictures of these malls until relatively recently. That means that I am without good photos of many of the deceased malls on this list, and there are quite a few. I’m hoping that if I put this out onto the web, people will find it via web searches and offer to send in some pictures or information of their own for me to use. If you can help, initiate contact by either leaving a comment below or email me and I’ll give you credit or a link to your own website, if you have one. I just want to bring this material into one place for everyone to find it.
With that, here is the list of All the Malls of New England, past, present, and occasionally future, sorted by state. The links on this page will fill in as I post on each of these individual malls.
Connecticut
- Acme Mall, Hamden
- Ansonia Mall, Ansonia
- Brass Mill Center, Waterbury
- Bristol Centre Mall, Bristol
- Chapel Square Mall, New Haven
- Charter Oak Mall, East Hartford
- Civic Center Mall, Hartford
- Connecticut Post Mall, Milford
- Crystal Mall, Waterford
- Danbury Fair Mall, Danbury
- East Brook Mall, Mansfield (Willimantic)
- Enfield Mall, Enfield
- Enfield Square Mall, Enfield
- Farmington Valley Mall, Avon/Simsbury
- Hawley Lane Mall, Trumbull
- Lafayette Plaza, Bridgeport
- Meriden Mall (Meriden Hub), Meriden
- Meriden Square Mall, Meriden
- Naugatuck Valley Mall, Waterbury
- New London Mall, New London
- Norwichtown Mall, Norwich
- Riverview Plaza, Norwalk (off-site, we missed this one)
- The Shoppes at Buckland Hills, Manchester
- Stamford Town Center, Stamford
- Trumbull Shopping Park, Trumbull
- Westfarms Mall, West Hartford
Maine
- Airport Mall, Bangor
- Aroostook Centre Mall, Presque Isle
- Auburn Mall, Auburn
- Bangor Mall, Bangor
- Cooks Corner Mall, Brunswick
- JFK Mall, Waterville
- Lewiston Mall, Lewiston
- Maine Coast Mall, Ellsworth
- Maine Mall, South Portland
- Promenade Mall, Lewiston
- Turnpike Mall, Augusta
- University Mall, Orono
- Windham Mall, North Windham
Massachusetts*
- Arsenal Mall, Watertown
- Assembly Square Mall, Somerville
- Atrium Mall, Newton
- Auburn Mall, Auburn
- Bayside Mall, Boston
- Berkshire Mall, Lanesboro (Pittsfield)
- Billerica Mall, Billerica
- Burlington Mall, Burlington
- Cambridgeside Galleria, Cambridge
- Cape Cod Factory Outlets, Bourne (Sagamore)
- Cape Cod Mall, Barnstable (Hyannis)
- Chelmsford Mall, Chelmsford
- Cloverleaf Mall, Natick
- Copley Place, Boston
- Cordage Park Mall, Plymouth
- Dartmouth Mall, Dartmouth
- Dedham Mall, Dedham
- Eastfield Mall, Springfield
- Emerald Square Mall, North Attleboro
- Fairfield Mall, Chicopee
- Falmouth Mall, Falmouth
- Framingham Mall, Framingham
- Greendale Mall, Worcester
- Holyoke Mall at Ingleside, Holyoke
- Hampshire Mall, Hadley (Amherst/Northampton)
- Hanover Mall, Hanover
- Harborlight Mall, Weymouth
- Hill & Dale Mall, Northampton
- In-Town Mall, Lawrence
- Independence Mall, Kingston (Plymouth)
- Lafayette Place Mall, Boston
- Liberty Tree Mall, Danvers
- The Mall at Chestnut Hill, Newton
- The Mall at Whitney Field (Searstown Mall), Leominster
- Meadow Glen Mall, Medford
- Methuen Mall, Methuen
- Middlesex Mall, Burlington
- Mountain Farms Mall, Hadley (Amherst/Northampton)
- Mystic Mall, Chelsea
- Natick Collection (Natick Mall), Natick
- New Harbour Mall, Fall River
- Northshore Mall, Peabody
- Prudential Center Mall, Boston
- Route 30 Mall, Framingham
- Shoppers World, Framingham
- Silver City Galleria, Taunton
- Solomon Pond Mall, Marlborough
- South Shore Plaza, Braintree
- Square One Mall, Saugus
- Swansea Mall, Swansea
- Taunton Mall (Mill River Place), Taunton
- Tewksbury Mills, Tewksbury (Proposed)
- Tower Square Mall (Baystate West Mall), Springfield
- Village Mall, Canton
- Walpole Mall, Walpole
- Watertown Mall, Watertown
- Westgate Mall, Brockton
- Woburn Mall, Woburn
- Worcester Common Outlets, Worcester
New Hampshire
- Bedford Mall, Bedford
- Belknap Mall and Plaza, Belmont (Laconia)
- Colony Mill Marketplace, Keene
- Depot Mall, Lincoln
- Fox Run Mall, Newington (Portsmouth)
- Hampshire Square Mall, Manchester
- Lilac Mall, Rochester
- The Mall at Rockingham Park, Salem
- The Mall of New Hampshire, Manchester
- Mountain Valley Mall, North Conway
- Nashua Mall and Plaza, Nashua
- Newington Mall, Newington (Portsmouth)
- Pheasant Lane Mall, Nashua
- Powerhouse Mall, West Lebanon
- Rockingham Mall, Salem
- Steeplegate Mall, Concord
Rhode Island
- The Arcade, Providence
- Davol Square Marketplace, Providence
- Lincoln Mall, Lincoln
- Newport Mall, Newport
- Post Office Square (Garden City Center), Cranston
- Providence Place Mall, Providence
- Rhode Island Mall, Warwick
- Wakefield Mall, Wakefield
- Wampanoag Mall, East Providence
- Warwick Mall, Warwick
Vermont
*A note about Massachusetts: There are a large number of additional malls in Massachusetts that I don’t count, though I ultimately may change my mind about some of these. There are at least a handful of enclosed shopping malls in the center of Boston and Cambridge that are very small and serve primarily as food courts, such as the Corner Mall, CityPlace, The Garage Mall, and the Longwood Galleria.
In addition, many of the outlying cities around the Boston area constructed downtown malls at one point or another. Some of these should count and others should not, so the list may be revised periodically for this reason.
In addition, Fall River is home to a group of old mill complexes that were converted to enclosed outlet malls in the 1970s and 1980s. Many of these are languishing or closed, and at present I’m not going to include any of them because I simply don’t want to.