The Old Capitol Mall (now Old Capitol Town Center) is 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 ...

in the

downtown ''Downtown'' is a term primarily used in North America by English speakers to refer to a city's sometimes commercial, cultural and often the historical, political and geographic heart. It is often synonymous with its central business distric ...

area of

Iowa City Iowa City, offically the City of Iowa City is a city in Johnson County, Iowa, United States. It is the home of the University of Iowa and county seat of Johnson County, at the center of the Iowa City Metropolitan Statistical Area. At the time ...

Iowa Iowa () is a state in the Midwestern region of the United States, bordered by the Mississippi River to the east and the Missouri River and Big Sioux River to the west. It is bordered by six states: Wisconsin to the northeast, Illinois to the ...

. Located across the street from the south-east corner of the

Pentacrest The Pentacrest is the Old Capitol and a collection of four buildings on the campus of the University of Iowa that surround the Old Capitol — Jessup Hall, Macbride Hall, MacLean Hall, and Schaeffer Hall — on a four-block-sized parcel ...

(a four-block-sized parcel of land with a collection of five buildings with the old

Iowa Territory The Territory of Iowa was an organized incorporated territory of the United States that existed from July 4, 1838, until December 28, 1846, when the southeastern portion of the territory was admitted to the Union as the state of Iowa. The remaind ...

capitol in the middle), the Old Capitol Mall was a convenient shopping center for University of Iowa students, faculty, and staff. It was originally anchored by

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 ...

and

Younkers Younkers Inc. is an American online retailer and former department store chain founded as a family-run dry goods business in 1856 in Keokuk, Iowa. The retailer had evolved over more than 150 years to include a presence in locations throughout Iowa ...

, and over 70 stores. In July 1998, JCPenney and other stores moved to larger

Coral Ridge Mall Coral Ridge Mall is an enclosed super-regional shopping mall located just south of Interstate 80 in Coralville, Iowa. The mall's primary trade area includes Iowa City, Cedar Rapids, and other parts of eastern Iowa. It is owned and managed by Br ...

and divided into smaller stores. In 2004, Younkers closed. The Mall saw decreasing traffic after the opening of the

in the adjacent town of

Coralville Coralville is a city in Johnson County, Iowa, United States. It is a suburb of Iowa City and part of the Iowa City Metropolitan Statistical Area. The population was 22,318 at the 2020 census. History Coralville is the location of the Edgewater ...

, Iowa. Many major retailers opted to focus on their Coral Ridge locations and close their low-performing Old Capitol locations. While some stores and restaurants still exist in the Old Capitol Mall, other spaces have been used by newspaper offices, the University of Iowa, or various political parties. The University of Iowa has largely taken over this building.

References

External links

Old Capitol Mall entry at Deadmalls.com
{{Shopping malls in Iowa Shopping malls in Iowa Buildings and structures in Iowa City, Iowa Shopping malls established in 1981 1981 establishments in Iowa