Willamette Town Center, formerly Lancaster Mall, is an exterior entrance

shopping center A shopping center (American English) or shopping centre (Commonwealth English), also called a shopping complex, shopping arcade, shopping plaza or galleria, is a group of shops built together, sometimes under one roof. The first known collec ...

located in

Salem, Oregon Salem ( ) is the capital of the U.S. state of Oregon, and the county seat of Marion County, Oregon, Marion County. It is located in the center of the Willamette Valley alongside the Willamette River, which runs north through the city. The river ...

, United States. Opened in 1971, the main part of the center has of space. The regional mall is located on Lancaster Drive and is bordered on the West by

Interstate 5 Interstate 5 (I-5) is the main north–south Interstate Highway on the West Coast of the United States, running largely parallel to the Pacific coast of the contiguous U.S. from Mexico to Canada. It travels through the states of Califor ...

, making Willamette Town Center a retail hub for the city of Salem.

History

Lancaster Mall began in 1968 when

Thrifty PayLess Thrifty PayLess Holdings, Inc. was a pharmacy holding company that owned the Thrifty Drugs and PayLess Drug Stores chains in the western United States. The combined company was formed in April 1994 when Los Angeles-based TCH Corporation, the pa ...

built a small enclosed mall in

, featuring a PayLess drug store and

Albertsons Albertsons Companies, Inc. is an American grocery company founded and headquartered in Boise, Idaho. With 2,253 stores as of the third quarter of fiscal year 2020 and 270,000 employees as of fiscal year 2019, the company is the second-large ...

supermarket. Two years later, the rest of the mall was built.

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 ...

then moved from downtown Salem to the newly renovated mall. In 1972, the mall was to be one of the first locations in Oregon for an

automated teller machine An automated teller machine (ATM) or cash machine (in British English) is an electronic telecommunications device that enables customers of financial institutions to perform financial transactions, such as cash withdrawals, deposits, fun ...

not located at a bank branch, which created controversy at the time. About 1976, the

Taco Time Taco Time (stylized as TacoTime) is an American fast-food restaurant chain specializing in Mexican-American food. The chain has over 226 locations in the United States and 74 locations in Western Canada. It was founded in Eugene, Oregon, in 19 ...

chain experimented with selling alcoholic beverages at their Lancaster location. A 17-year-old woman was kidnapped from Lancaster Mall in 1977, as was a 19-year-old woman in 1982. In May 1982, an ex-Salem police officer shot and killed two people at the mall before killing himself in the parking lot. The mall banned the

Salvation Army Salvation (from Latin: ''salvatio'', from ''salva'', 'safe, saved') is the state of being saved or protected from harm or a dire situation. In religion and theology, ''salvation'' generally refers to the deliverance of the soul from sin and its c ...

from soliciting there in 1988 in an effort to uniformly ban all solicitations at the mall. In 2008 Lancaster Mall achieved EarthWISE Certification through Marion County Public Works-Environmental Services. Lancaster Mall has committed to recycling, reducing waste, saving energy, conserving water and practice environmentally preferable purchasing in their operations. The mall was renamed Willamette Town Center in 2017. As part of the renaming,

HomeGoods HomeGoods is a chain of home furnishing stores headquartered in Framingham, Massachusetts. It was founded as a small chain in 1992, and grew to include hundreds of locations throughout the United States. HomeGoods sells furniture, linens, cooking ...

Sierra Trading Post Sierra Trading Post, Inc., doing business as Sierra, is an online and brick-and-mortar retailer of off-price merchandise operated by the TJX Companies. The Framingham, Massachusetts–based company offers products in categories such as outdoor r ...

, and

Hobby Lobby Hobby Lobby Stores, Inc., formerly Hobby Lobby Creative Centers, is an American retail company. It owns a chain of arts and crafts stores with a volume of over $5 billion in 2018. The chain has 969 stores in 47 US states. Hobby Lobby is owned by ...

were added. A portion of the indoor mall corridor leading to the closed Macy's store was also closed as the new stores took over the space as inline tenants and feature outside entrances only. On October 15, 2018, it was announced that Sears would be closing as part of a plan to close 142 stores nationwide.

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 ...

, which operates a store by the former Sears, announced in May 2020 that they were closing all locations and going out of business.

Anchors

* Jo-Ann Fabric & Crafts *

Best Buy Best Buy Co. Inc. is an American multinational consumer electronics retailer headquartered in Richfield, Minnesota. Originally founded by Richard M. Schulze and James Wheeler in 1966 as an audio specialty store called Sound of Music, it was rebra ...

Burlington Coat Factory Burlington, formerly known as Burlington Coat Factory, is an American national off-price department store retailer, and a division of Burlington Coat Factory Warehouse Corporation with more than 1,000 stores in 40 states and Puerto Rico, with it ...

Regal Cinemas Regal Cinemas (also Regal Entertainment Group) is an American movie theater chain headquartered in Knoxville, Tennessee. A division of Cineworld, Regal operates the second-largest theater circuit in the United States, with over 7,200 screens i ...

Petco Petco Health and Wellness Company, Inc. is an American pet retailer with corporate offices in San Diego and San Antonio. Petco sells pet food, products, and services, as well as certain types of live small animals. Founded in 1965 as a mail-ord ...

Ulta Beauty Ulta Beauty, Inc., formerly known as Ulta Salon, Cosmetics & Fragrance Inc. and before 2000 as Ulta3, is an American chain of beauty stores headquartered in Bolingbrook, Illinois. Ulta Beauty carries both high-end and low-end cosmetics, fragran ...

* DSW *

Nordstrom Rack Nordstrom Rack is an American off-price department store chain founded in 1973. It is a sister brand to the luxury department store chain Nordstrom. As of 2021, Nordstrom Rack operates 352 stores in 41 U.S. states and three Canadian provinces ...

Barnes and Noble Barnes & Noble Booksellers is an American bookseller. It is a Fortune 1000 company and the bookseller with the largest number of retail outlets in the United States. As of July 7, 2020, the company operates 614 retail stores across all 50 U. ...

Former anchors

– closed in 2001 *

The Bon Marché The Bon Marché, whose French name translates to "the good market" or "the good deal", was a department store chain launched in Seattle, Washington, United States, in 1890 by Edward Nordhoff. The name was influenced by Le Bon Marché, the note ...

- Became Macy's. * Emporium - Closed in 2003 when the chain went out of business. *

Sports Authority Sports Authority, Inc. (formerly The Sports Authority) was an American sports retailer. At its peak, Sports Authority operated 463 stores in 45 States and Puerto Rico. The company's website was on the GSI Commerce platform and supported the reta ...

- Opened in former Emporium space. Closed in 2016. *

Macy's Macy's (originally R. H. Macy & Co.) is an American chain of high-end department stores founded in 1858 by Rowland Hussey Macy. It became a division of the Cincinnati-based Federated Department Stores in 1994, through which it is affiliated wi ...

– planned closure announced in 2016 and final clearance sales under way in January 2017; store closed later in the same year. *

Sears Sears, Roebuck and Co. ( ), commonly known as Sears, is an American chain of department stores founded in 1892 by Richard Warren Sears and Alvah Curtis Roebuck and reincorporated in 1906 by Richard Sears and Julius Rosenwald, with what began a ...

- Closed in 2019

References

{{Shopping malls in Oregon Shopping malls in Oregon Buildings and structures in Salem, Oregon Tourist attractions in Salem, Oregon Shopping malls established in 1968 1968 establishments in Oregon

History

Anchors

Former anchors

See also

References