Wonderland of the Americas, formerly known as Crossroads Mall, is a 565,718-square-foot regional shopping mall located in

Balcones Heights, Texas Balcones Heights is a city in Bexar County, Texas, United States. The population was 2,746 at the 2020 census, and it was incorporated in 1948. Balcones Heights is an enclave of San Antonio, surrounded entirely by the city, thus some residents and ...

, a suburb of

San Antonio ("Cradle of Freedom") , image_map = , mapsize = 220px , map_caption = Interactive map of San Antonio , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name = United States , subdivision_type1= U.S. state, State , subdivision_name1 = Texas , s ...

. The mall is currently anchored by

Super Target Target Corporation (doing business as Target and stylized in all lowercase since 2018) is an American big box department store chain headquartered in Minneapolis, Minnesota. It is the seventh largest retailer in the United States, and a compon ...

, Burlington Coat Factory, Hobby Lobby, and

Ross Ross or ROSS may refer to: People * Clan Ross, a Highland Scottish clan * Ross (name), including a list of people with the surname or given name Ross, as well as the meaning * Earl of Ross, a peerage of Scotland Places * RoSS, the Republic of Sou ...

. Excluding the four anchors, there are 45 tenants in the mall, including shops, restaurants, and offices.

History

The mall, originally known as Wonderland Shopping City, was constructed on a 61-acre plot in

, an enclave city surrounded by San Antonio. At the time of its opening in 1961, the mall boasted 650,000 square feet of air-conditioned shopping area, 62 stores, and two anchors, a 2-level

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 ...

in a 149,000 square foot store and a 66,000 square foot Handy Andy supermarket. The Handy Andy was constructed prior to the rest of the mall, opening in May 1959, with

John Wayne Marion Robert Morrison (May 26, 1907 – June 11, 1979), known professionally as John Wayne and nicknamed The Duke or Duke Wayne, was an American actor who became a popular icon through his starring roles in films made during Hollywood's Gol ...

participating in a ribbon-cutting ceremony for the new store. Besides the two anchors, the mall also included a

Woolworth's Woolworth, Woolworth's, or Woolworths may refer to: Businesses * F. W. Woolworth Company, the original US-based chain of "five and dime" (5¢ and 10¢) stores * Woolworths Group (United Kingdom), former operator of the Woolworths chain of shops ...

five-and-dime store, a

Kinney Shoes The G.R. Kinney Company was an American manufacturer and retailer of shoes from until . Its listing on the New York Stock Exchange, symbol KNN, began in March 1923. The shoe concern was started by George Romanta Kinney whose father ran a general ...

outlet, a

Zales Jewelers The Zale Corporation is an American jewelry retailer, incorporated in Delaware in 1993. The principal executive offices are located in Coppell, Texas. History The company began in 1924 in Wichita Falls, Texas, when the two Russian-Jewish imm ...

store, a

Sinclair Sinclair may refer to: Places * Lake Sinclair, near Milledgeville, Georgia * Sinclair, Iowa * Sinclair, West Virginia * Sinclair, Wyoming * Sinclair Mills, British Columbia * Sinclair Township, Minnesota * Sinclair, Manitoba People * Sin ...

service station, and 5,000 parking spots. At the time of its opening, the mall employed segregated facilities, with "Whites Only" and " Coloreds Only" restrooms and water fountains. Soon after the opening, the mall began to expand. In 1963, construction began on a 155,800 square foot

Rhodes Brothers Rhodes Brothers was a department store located in Tacoma, Washington, originally established in 1892 as a coffee shop in downtown Tacoma by Albert, William, Henry and Charles Rhodes. In 1903, the brothers would shift into the department store bu ...

department store, which opened the next year. This was soon followed by the construction of the Wonder Theater, which showed its first film in November 1966. Several years after purchasing Rhodes, in August 1977, Liberty House took over the Rhodes department store location. Liberty House didn't succeed in the location, however, and closed in 1980. Their anchor location was, in turn, rebranded as a Frost Brothers in the same year. Small scale renovations also commenced in 1980, providing the mall with a facelift on the exterior and interior. Following a large-scale renovation between Spring 1986 and November 1987, the mall was renamed Crossroads Mall of San Antonio. With the renovations came the addition of a new retail wing and anchor, Stein Mart. The renovations also added new tile flooring, lighting, graphics and skylights to the mall, along with the construction of a parking garage. The renovations, however, would not boost the fortunes of the mall. Frost Brothers filed for bankruptcy in 1988, closing its anchor store the next year. By 1990, the mall was almost half vacant. With its decline in fortunes, the mall rebranded itself from a luxury shopping center to one serving value-oriented consumers. The former Frost Brothers anchor location was replaced by a Burlington Coat Factory in 1991. Hobby Lobby took over the former Handy Andy location in 1994. In 2002, much of the former Montgomery Ward's location was demolished. The site was replaced by the Norris Convention Center, opening in November 2004 and a

, opening in March 2003. The 6-screen theater at the mall also underwent renovations in 2003, becoming a dine-in theater operated by

Santikos Theatres Santikos Entertainment (formerly Santikos Theatres) is an American movie theater and entertainment center chain based in San Antonio, Texas. The company was founded in 1911 by Greek entrepreneur Louis Santikos and was owned and operated by his son ...

. The mall underwent a change of ownership in 2009, with a consortium of San Antonio investors purchasing the property. This group initiated a 10 million dollar renovation project in 2010, commencing with the renaming of the shopping center to Wonderland of the Americas.

Paranormal activity

When the mall was being built in the early 1960s, an elevator contractor working for Hunter-Hayes Elevator Company was installing a freight elevator behind the

department store. While he was about to test the elevator, he got stuck in between the elevator doors and the elevator took off

decapitating Decapitation or beheading is the total separation of the head from the body. Such an injury is invariably fatal to humans and most other animals, since it deprives the brain of oxygenated blood, while all other organs are deprived of the i ...

the contractor's body. Employees of the mall have said to see his ghost around the mall presumably the service corridors. Another freight elevator in the newer part of the mall sometimes moves up and down randomly as well as opening and closing the doors when no one was around. The freight elevator that killed the contractor still exists in its original form although it has had new safety devices added since the incident.

References

External links

{{DEFAULTSORT:Wonderland of the Americas Mall Shopping malls in San Antonio Shopping malls established in 1961 1961 establishments in Texas