Lakehurst Mall was a

shopping mall A shopping mall (or simply mall) is a North American term for a large indoor shopping center, usually anchored by department stores. The term "mall" originally meant a pedestrian promenade with shops along it (that is, the term was used to refe ...

Waukegan, Illinois ''(Fortress or Trading Post)'' , image_flag = , image_seal = , blank_emblem_size = 150 , blank_emblem_type = Logo , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_type1 = State , subdivisi ...

, a

suburb A suburb (more broadly suburban area) is an area within a metropolitan area, which may include commercial and mixed-use, that is primarily a residential area. A suburb can exist either as part of a larger city/urban area or as a separate ...

Chicago, Illinois (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name ...

, United States. The mall officially opened in 1971. The mall's

anchor store In retail, an "anchor tenant", sometimes called an "anchor store", "draw tenant", or "key tenant", is a considerably larger tenant in a shopping mall, often a department store or retail chain. They are typically located at the ends of malls. Wit ...

s were

JCPenney Penney OpCo LLC, doing business as JCPenney and often abbreviated JCP, is a midscale American department store chain operating 667 stores across 49 U.S. states and Puerto Rico. Departments inside JCPenney stores include Mens, Womens, Boys, Gir ...

Wieboldt's Wieboldt Stores, Inc., also known as Wieboldt's, did business as a Chicago general retailer between 1883 and 1987. It was founded in 1883 by storekeeper William A. Wieboldt. The flagship location was at One North State Street Store in Chicago. H ...

, and

Carson Pirie Scott Carson Pirie Scott & Co. (also known as Carson's) is an American department store that was founded in 1854, which grew to over 50 locations, primarily in the Midwestern United States. Sold to the holding company of Bon-Ton in 2006, but still op ...

. After Wieboldt's closed in 1986, its former location was divided between

Montgomery Ward Montgomery Ward is the name of two successive U.S. retail corporations. The original Montgomery Ward & Co. was a world-pioneering mail-order business and later also a leading department store chain that operated between 1872 and 2001. The curren ...

and

Dunham's Sports Dunham's Sports is an American sporting goods retail chain owned by Dunham's Athleisure Corporation, with stores located in the Midwestern to Southeastern United States. The chain specializes in athletic equipment, clothing, firearms, and other ...

. The mall declined in the 1990s, closed in 2001, and was demolished in 2004.

Beginning

In December 1968, of farmland close to the

Tri-State Tollway The Tri-State Tollway is a toll highway in the northeastern part of the U.S. state of Illinois. It follows: *Interstate 80 from I-94/I-294/IL 394 in South Holland to I-294 in Hazel Crest; * Interstate 294 from I-80/I-94/IL 394 in South Hol ...

was purchased from Thomas E. Wilson/Edellyn Farms for $2 million, and annexed into Waukegan, Illinois. Construction on the mall began about one year later, in September 1969. A five-year research project of Lake County had concluded that Lake County would be one of the fastest developing areas of the

Midwest The Midwestern United States, also referred to as the Midwest or the American Midwest, is one of four Census Bureau Region, census regions of the United States Census Bureau (also known as "Region 2"). It occupies the northern central part of ...

. The mall was designed by Sidney H. Morris and Associates of Chicago and Gruen Associates of Los Angeles; Initially,

Arthur Rubloff Arthur Rubloff (June 25, 1902 – May 24, 1986) was an American real estate developer who founded Arthur Rubloff & Co. and is credited with naming and developing North Michigan Avenue in Chicago, Illinois into the "Magnificent Mile". Biography ...

& Co. of Chicago was the management and leasing agent for Lakehurst. The new 1.1 million square feet (102,000 m²) mall officially opened on August 19, 1971. Over 5,000 people attended the opening day ceremonies, including the mayor of Waukegan. Original

s of the mall were

, and

. 85 percent of the center had been leased by 1970. Other major tenants included Henry C. Lytton & Co., Chas. A. Stevens, and Hein's department stores, the latter of which also had a location in downtown Waukegan. Lakehurstcps

Outparcels of the mall site were developed into the General Cinema Lakehurst 12 movie theatre (which opened in 1974) and restaurants such as

Red Lobster Red Lobster Hospitality LLC is an American casual dining restaurant chain headquartered in Orlando, Florida. The company has operations across most of the United States (including Puerto Rico, Guam) and Canada, as well as in China, Ecuador, Hong ...

. An apartment complex with over 200 rental units was completed by the mid-1970s.

1980s

Marriott Marriott may refer to: People *Marriott (surname) Corporations * Marriott Corporation, founded as Hot Shoppes, Inc. in 1927; split into Marriott International and Host Marriott Corporation in 1993 * Marriott International, international hote ...

hotel was added to the area, and

Pier 1 Imports Pier 1 Imports, Inc. is an online retailer and former Fort Worth, Texas-based retail chain specializing in imported home furnishings and decor, particularly furniture, table-top items, decorative accessories, and seasonal decor. It was publicl ...

and

Service Merchandise Service Merchandise was a retail chain of catalog showrooms carrying jewelry, toys, sporting goods, and electronics. The company, which first began in 1934 as a five-and-dime store, was in existence for 68 years before ceasing operations in 2002. ...

were built on outparcels. Jacobs, Visconsi, and Jacobs, of Cleveland, Ohio bought the general areas of the mall. In August 1986, the Wieboldt's anchor went out of business, prior to the eventual closure of the entire chain. The company sold their location to the Jacobs Group, who temporarily used the space for classrooms after two of the three

elementary school A primary school (in Ireland, the United Kingdom, Australia, Trinidad and Tobago, Jamaica, and South Africa), junior school (in Australia), elementary school or grade school (in North America and the Philippines) is a school for primary ed ...

s in

Gurnee, Illinois Gurnee ( ) is a village in Lake County, Illinois, United States. Its population was 30,706 as of the 2020 census. It borders the city of Waukegan, and is a popular tourist attraction within the Chicago metropolitan area. Best known for being th ...

were destroyed in floods. After this, the former location of Wieboldt's was subdivided between

on the lower level and

on the upper level. The Montgomery Ward store had previously been located in the

Belvidere Mall Belvidere Discount Mall is a small shopping mall located on Belvidere Street in Waukegan, Illinois, United States. It was one of the first shopping malls in the Chicago metropolitan area, and the first enclosed shopping mall in Lake County. Its ...

a few miles down Route 120.

1990s

On August 8, 1991,

Gurnee Mills Gurnee Mills is a shopping mall and outlet mall in Gurnee, Illinois, within the Chicago metropolitan area and it is one of the tourist destinations in Chicago, Illinois. Like the nearby Six Flags Great America and Great Wolf Lodge, the mall's pla ...

opened seven miles (11 km) away from Lakehurst. The newer, larger Gurnee Mills proved a much larger draw than expected, devastating Lakehurst's retail base. The mall had 100 tenants at the beginning of the 1990s, but by 1997, about fifty businesses remained. In early 1998, both Montgomery Ward and JCPenney pulled out of Lakehurst, leaving

as the sole anchor. The Jacobs Group sold Lakehurst in the summer of 1998; the price was $30 million, a little less than that of the sale price in 1982.

2000s

Fewer than five tenants remained by 2000. These included the Gift Tree and Barbary Coast stores in the mall, as well as the Carson Pirie Scott anchor. When the leases on the two mall stores ended on January 31, 2001, most of the mall was shuttered, and only Carson's was in operation. During the mall's final days, a portion of the film "

5-25-77 ''5-25-77'' is a coming-of-age film written and directed by Patrick Read Johnson and produced by Fred Roos and Gary Kurtz. It stars John Francis Daley as a teen-age director living in Wadsworth, Illinois, and his excitement for the premiere of '' ...

" was filmed inside the former KB Toys building.

Demolition

Ownership changed from the Jacobs Group to the Shaw Company of Oak Brook, Illinois. A phased demolition began near the JCPenney store in November 2003. Carson's stayed open for the

Christmas Christmas is an annual festival commemorating Nativity of Jesus, the birth of Jesus, Jesus Christ, observed primarily on December 25 as a religious and cultural celebration among billions of people Observance of Christmas by country, around t ...

season and closed on January 15, 2004. Demolition of the JCPenney section was completed February 2004, followed by the Wieboldt's/Montgomery Ward section, then the Carson's section, and ended with the gazebo of the Wieboldts anchor, which had outlasted the anchor. A

Walmart Walmart Inc. (; formerly Wal-Mart Stores, Inc.) is an American multinational retail corporation that operates a chain of hypermarkets (also called supercenters), discount department stores, and grocery stores from the United States, headquarter ...

supercenter was built on the northern part of the property, while the southern portion remains largely undeveloped. Part of the street encircling the property still retains the name "Lakehurst Road".

References

External links

DeadMalls.com on Lakehurst Mall
{{Shopping malls in Illinois 1971 establishments in Illinois 2004 disestablishments in Illinois Buildings and structures demolished in 2004 Demolished shopping malls in the United States Shopping malls established in 1971 Shopping malls in Lake County, Illinois Waukegan, Illinois Victor Gruen buildings