Jefferson Square Mall

Jefferson Square Mall was built in 1975. It was located in Joliet, Illinois and had 65 stores, Walgreen's, Woolworth's, Wieboldt's, and Montgomery Ward. The mall was built such that the central court had four branches off it. The east branch led to Wieboldt's and Woolworth's. Woolworth's was off to the side, next to Wieboldt's on the east wing. The west branch led to Montgomery Ward, with Walgreen's off to the side here as well (both Walgreen's and Woolworth's were in the mainline of shops). Walgreen's even had its own exterior entrance to the parking lot. The north and south wings were just as long as the east and west wings, but lacked anchors at the ends. Instead, these were the only two entrances directly into the mall from outside. The south wing contained Cinema I II III (General Cinemas) at the end. The central court was oriented such that the north and east wings branched off at the northeast end, and the south and west wings branched off at the southwest end. At the northeast end of the court was a bandshell with a water feature around it, and at the southwest end was a kiosk with four shops. Between was open space.
From when the mall was first built until Wieboldt's closed in 1987, the mall was busy. Jefferson Square was good competition for the slightly newer (and larger) mall a few miles away (Louis Joliet Mall). Many shops kept locations in both malls: Waldenbooks, Musicland, Printer's Ink, Circus World Toys, Foot Locker, etc. However, when Wieboldt's closed, some of these stores simply closed their Jefferson Square location. In 1991, to try to stem the slowly increasing vacancies, Menard's (a Midwestern home improvement chain) was brought in as an anchor to replace Wieboldt's. However, a few years later, Menard's closed their entrance to the mall, causing the death of the entire east wing.
By 1996, only about two dozen stores remained in the mall (a gangland shooting in the mall around 1990 didn't help matters). The mall was sold to a new owner who decided that it should have a woodland decor. The bandshell and kiosk were removed, the sunken seating areas were filled in, and some shops (Fannie May) were forcibly removed from the mall. The floor was retiled, and the mall repainted. A large fake tree was then placed in the central court (large enough to walk through!). However, it was in vain. The largest tenants attracted was the Secretary of State Driver's License Office in the south wing. The cinema became a second-run movie house, then closed, and the east wing was closed to customers once Woolworth's closed. After Montgomery Ward closed (one of the last to close), the mall was sold to Menard Properties (a part of Menard's).
Menard Properties decided to remove the tenants from the mall and move them to outlots around the mall. Then, they started tearing down the mall starting with Montgomery Ward. Wal-Mart Supercenter and Menards opened in its spot in 2007.
Category:Malls in the United States
Category:Malls in Illinois
Category:Shopping Malls
Category:Defunct malls