Village Square Mall, Effingham, Illinois.

The Village Square Mall was built in 1971 by local developer Gene Mayhood on 30 acres of farmland.

The mall's original anchor, G.C. Murphy, opened in 1971. Spurgeon's would open the following year. Additionally, the mall was shadow-anchored by an Eisner's Supermarket that was attached to the mall but lacked mall access. Murphy's became Rural King, Spurgeon's became Stage, and Eisner's became Jubilee Foods. 

Artwork from the Lincoln Land Amusement Park brochure, handed to me personally by Jim Mayhood, one of owner Gene Mayhood's children.

An adjacent building was built in 1976, and the indoor Lincoln Land Amusement Park opened in 1977. The Amusement Park closed in 1988. 

The amusement park building was repurposed with more retailers, service businesses, and office spaces.

JCPenney was added in 1977 alongside an expansion of the main mall that doubled the size of the property. This was when Zales and GNC opened, with the Village Cinemas also opening in 1977, later becoming RMC Stadium Cinemas.

The mall soldered on for years as a community destination seeing tenants like Glik's, Maurice's, Hallmark, DEB, GNC, Dollar General, and Christopher & Banks come and go. Several stores like Glik's and Dollar General leaving for greener pastures elsewhere in the city. The city has been fighting with the mall since Mike Kohan acquired it in 2008 after previous owners, J. Herzog & Sons Inc. defaulted on the mall's loan, but Mike Kohan dumped it in 2020.

JCPenney closed in 2017 after the store's physical condition deteriorated, so it could no longer operate safely. The store's entrance awning and part of the roof have since suffered partial structure failures, and the city has taken the mall to task about not heating the vacant anchors and not offering restrooms, had forced the demolition of part of the former Rural King store.

The mall has not received a significant update in its 52 years.

Compiled by Dr. Neil Gale, Ph.D.