Your childhood mall

[Flint1979]

Oakland Mall, Troy, Michigan
Fashion Square Mall, Saginaw, Michigan
Fort Saginaw Mall, Saginaw, Michigan
Genesee Valley Mall, Flint, Michigan
Meridian Mall, Okemos, Michigan
Midland Mall, Midland, Michigan
Bay City Mall, Bay City, Michigan

[ozarkman417]

Springfield only has one genuine mall, the Battlefield Mall in the southeast corner of the city, where national brands are also located in nearby strip-malls. I am surprised that Sears is still at the mall, but it isn't nearly as vibrant as it was years ago. There used to be another mall in Springfield, the "North Side Mall". This mall failed and was later demolished to make way for a Walmart Supercenter.

[KEVIN_224]

I had 3 childhood malls.  2 still exist.

Meriden Square:  Now Westfield Meriden, but will always be The Square to me.  Has undergone a couple of additions since my childhood.  The anchors are now different (JC Penney is now Boscov's and G Fox is Macy's).  The Sears is currently empty, but otherwise, the mall is surviving.

Westfield Shoppingtown, a.k.a. Meriden Square Mall! That place used to be quite small. I used to frequent it, as the New Britain Transit #501 route (formerly "AR" for Arch Street) went right past my house every hour outbound to it. I often wonder if the second floor food court is the side which was with the expansion. I-691 passes by it directly on the Best Buy (southern) side.

Westfarms Mall: Still thriving.  I do miss Sage Allen (now the Macy's mens and home store) and going to Top of the Mall for chicken croquets.  The mall was expanded about 15-20 years ago and the fountains in the middle are long gone.  Also remember seeing Return of the Jedi at the old movie theater that is where Au Bon Pain is now, and an Arthur Treachers right across from it. 

WestFarms Mall used to be my place. My grandparents used to head up there nearly every Thursday. Ah the memories of York Steak House on the lower level! The one thing it still doesn't have is a food court. I don't enjoy it anymore, as it's too hoity-toity for me. They bend over backwards to the rich people in the Farmington (River) Valley. They also go waaayyyyy overboard with the holiday decorations inside. I just barely remember the movie theater you mentioned! I'm fairly certain the mall opened in 1974. No worries, as a Red Robin, a Wendy's, an Olive Garden and Corbin's Corner are all a short walk from it.

It helped hasten the decline of downtown New Britain, about 4 miles to the south. The Buckland Hills Mall of Manchester did similar to Hartford after it opened in 1990.

[SteveG1988]

Burlington Center Mall, 1982-2018. Mall was a decent mall, albeit slightly dated going into the 00s. It had a Sears and a Strawbridge's when it opened, 1996 brought a JC Penney...and a mild update to the interior. Then the mall got passed to another owner in the early 00s, who did their best to keep it going. Then in the late 00s early 10s they went bankrupt, Mall was picked up by Moonbeam, and over time they started to cut corners even more. Eventually one entire wing was walled off, the Strawbridges, now a macy's, closed, the JC penney closed, and later in late 2017/early 2018 all they had left were like 3 stores, an arcade, and the sears. Then a water main broke, taking out the interior stores in Late 2017. Late 2018 the sears, the last store intact, closed. the mall is now completely abandoned. Sold to another redeveloper who plans to make it a mixed commercial-retail space, with the original building being leveled.

[Flint1979]

I had 3 childhood malls.  2 still exist.

Meriden Square:  Now Westfield Meriden, but will always be The Square to me.  Has undergone a couple of additions since my childhood.  The anchors are now different (JC Penney is now Boscov's and G Fox is Macy's).  The Sears is currently empty, but otherwise, the mall is surviving.

Westfield Shoppingtown, a.k.a. Meriden Square Mall! That place used to be quite small. I used to frequent it, as the New Britain Transit #501 route (formerly "AR" for Arch Street) went right past my house every hour outbound to it. I often wonder if the second floor food court is the side which was with the expansion. I-691 passes by it directly on the Best Buy (southern) side.

Westfarms Mall: Still thriving.  I do miss Sage Allen (now the Macy's mens and home store) and going to Top of the Mall for chicken croquets.  The mall was expanded about 15-20 years ago and the fountains in the middle are long gone.  Also remember seeing Return of the Jedi at the old movie theater that is where Au Bon Pain is now, and an Arthur Treachers right across from it. 

WestFarms Mall used to be my place. My grandparents used to head up there nearly every Thursday. Ah the memories of York Steak House on the lower level! The one thing it still doesn't have is a food court. I don't enjoy it anymore, as it's too hoity-toity for me. They bend over backwards to the rich people in the Farmington (River) Valley. They also go waaayyyyy overboard with the holiday decorations inside. I just barely remember the movie theater you mentioned! I'm fairly certain the mall opened in 1974. No worries, as a Red Robin, a Wendy's, an Olive Garden and Corbin's Corner are all a short walk from it.

It helped hasten the decline of downtown New Britain, about 4 miles to the south. The Buckland Hills Mall of Manchester did similar to Hartford after it opened in 1990.

I remember the York Steakhouse in Saginaw. I loved that place.

[Great Lakes Roads]

Growing up, I went to three malls, of which two of them still survives to this day.

1. Marquette Mall (Michigan City, Indiana)
Opened in 1965 with Sears, JCPenney, and Carson's. Has an office building attached to the mall. JCPenney left in 2015, then the mall closed in 2017, Carson's left in August 2018, and Sears was the final blow to this mall, left in 2019. However, the stores that are outside of this mall still stands.

2. Southlake Mall (Merrillville/Hobart, Indiana)
Opened in 1974 with only two anchors, JCPenney (still there) and Sears (closed in October 2019), with two other anchors added on later, Carson's (closed in August 2018) and Macy's (still there). Also includes Dick's Sporting Goods (added in 2006) and Kohl's (opened in 1993). Was actually called Westfield Southlake before it was bought out by Starwood Capitol.

3. University Park Mall (Mishawaka, Indiana)
Opened in 1979 with four anchors, L.S. Ayres (renamed as Macy's in 2006), Marshall Field's (closed in 2006, demolished in 2007 and replaced with Barnes and Noble), Sears (closed in October 2019), and JCPenney (still there).

4. Scottsdale Mall (South Bend, Indiana)
Since been demolished. The only thing that I remembered from that mall was the cool glass elevator.

[SectorZ]

North Shore Shopping Center - both before and after it was converted into an enclosed mall.
Liberty Tree Mall

Haven't been to either in years.

They have diverged down very different paths. I was at both over the past weekend.

North Shore is insanely busy, maybe the busiest shopping mall in New England at this point, and as busy if not busier than the retail peak from around 20 years ago.

Liberty Tree is still alive, but not in very good shape. Lots of vacancies, but the Target that has no entrance into the mall is doing pretty well.

[kevinb1994]

Burlington Center Mall, 1982-2018. Mall was a decent mall, albeit slightly dated going into the 00s. It had a Sears and a Strawbridge's when it opened, 1996 brought a JC Penney...and a mild update to the interior. Then the mall got passed to another owner in the early 00s, who did their best to keep it going. Then in the late 00s early 10s they went bankrupt, Mall was picked up by Moonbeam, and over time they started to cut corners even more. Eventually one entire wing was walled off, the Strawbridges, now a macy's, closed, the JC penney closed, and later in late 2017/early 2018 all they had left were like 3 stores, an arcade, and the sears. Then a water main broke, taking out the interior stores in Late 2017. Late 2018 the sears, the last store intact, closed. the mall is now completely abandoned. Sold to another redeveloper who plans to make it a mixed commercial-retail space, with the original building being leveled.

Haha, I remember that one already in decline while going to school outside of Philadelphia in Burlington-Camden. All of a sudden there was a gang-related incident or two in or around early 2007. That was also when the Great Recession started creeping in, so that also had an effect!

[ET21]

Chicago Ridge and Orland Square malls

[DaBigE]

-Paradise Mall, West Bend, WI - closest mall without a doubt. Not many stores I cared for, but most of the time I didn't have a choice in the matter. It transitioned into an outdoor strip mall in the late 1990s. Still around, but not by the same name or format.

-The [real Original] Outlet Mall, West Bend, WI (local lore says it predates the one in Kenosha, but data says they both opened in 1982). Technically more boring (store-wise) than the Paradise Mall; however, it hosted an annual model train show, and it had an enclosed bridge that crossed the Milwaukee River. It couldn't compete with the likes of newer, more highway accessible outlet malls in Oshkosh, Johnson Creek, or Pleasant Prairie, so it closed when it was bought out by and was turned into a furniture store in the early/mid 1990s. It has since been demolished.

-Northridge Mall, Milwaukee/Brown Deer, WI - biggest mall that was closest to us. As a kid, it was one of the coolest, as it had multiple levels, "futuristic" skylights, fountains, at least one toy store (there were two others on the mall's outlots), and an elevator that you could see all the inner workings of. Mall has been long abandoned and is the subject of a few youtube mall spelunking specials.

-Fox River Mall, Appleton/Grand Chute, WI - stopped there every time we were in the area visiting family. Fairly unremarkable for a kid...one toy store (yes, all malls were measured by the number/quality of toy stores  ), and a big sporting goods store (Scheels). Also recall complaining about that mall, since it was all on one level, and everything was sprawled out. Still alive and kicking, but thanks to Sears and Younkers, not as spectacular as it once was.

-Forest Mall, Fond du Lac, WI - was also fairly close, but also fairly unremarkable as a kid. Still open, but hanging on by a thread.

Runners-up:
Brookfield Square Mall, Brookfield, WI
Southridge Mall, Greendale, WI
Mayfair Mall, Wauwatosa, WI
Memorial Mall, Sheboygan, WI
Gurnee Mills, Gurnee, IL
The Crossroads, Portage, MI
Mall of America

[GCrites]

A more recent dud is Newport on the Levee, which they don't really call a mall, even though it's an enclosed area with stores. They're mostly stores that nobody would even think to visit.

Dud?  I just looked on Google Maps, and there's a lot of stuff there, Barnes & Noble, a huge AMC movie theater, Gameworks, a lot of restaurants.  It's probably very busy on a weekend.

Barnes & Noble is gone.

Nobody goes to that mall.

OK, maybe you don't, but the entertainment options say otherwise.

I think the disconnect here is that few people go to NOTL to "mall", rather than go there to eat, drink, play games or catch a show. The number of straight-up retail stores in there has dropped severely since it opened -- replaced by offices and dining. Sometimes merely browsing a tenant list can make a mall appear more healthy than it really is. It makes people say, "Oh it still has a _____" then you find out its outside-entry-only or is in an outlot 100 yards from the actual enclosed mallway.

[hbelkins]

Florence Mall struggling? Not from what I hear.

First mall in Lexington was Turfland Mall, on Harrodsburg Road. It's long gone.

Lexington Mall on Richmond Road and Fayette Mall on Nicholasville Road came next. Lexington Mall is also long gone, but Fayette Mall has expanded over the years and seems to be thriving. I haven't been there in about 15 years, and my last trip was just into and out of J.C. Penney, which has an exterior entrance.

We also frequently went to what was known simply as The Mall on Shelbyville Road in Louisville, now known as Mall St. Matthews. It's also expanded and is thriving, and my last venture there was with co-workers who wanted to run into Penney's one evening after a work conference.

Oxmoor, on the other side of the Watterson Expressway from The Mall, was nearby but we rarely went there.

[jeffandnicole]

Deptford Mall in Deptford, NJ
Echelon Mall in Voorhees, NJ
Cherry Hill Mall in Cherry Hill, NJ

The Echelon Mall always had problems, mostly being located on 2 lane roadways, and only exists today due to extensive rebranding and redoing as a town center with residential properties now.

The Deptford and Cherry Hill Malls are going strong.