Brementowne Mall, Tinley Park, Illinois. (1973-1999)

Brementowne Mall, at 159th Street and Oak Park Avenue in Tinley Park, Illinois, was a two-anchor shopping mall. It opened on November 15, 1973. The mall was named after the Bremen Township, settled by German immigrants in the 1800s.

Arial View of the Brementowne Mall, Tinley Park, Illinois

Brementowne Mall's two anchors were Gately's Peoples Store and Essaness Bremen 1 & 2 Theaters, which opened on January 29, 1971, with 1,023 seats.

Gately's was a southside department store with its main store on Michigan Avenue in Chicago's Roseland neighborhood. The mall's east end was anchored by Dominick's Finer Foods, Walgreens, and the Essaness Bremen 1&2 Theaters, the first name of the movie theater. The Brementown Theaters expanded to three screens and showed first-run movies. The theaters were subdivided and became second-run theaters sometime in the eighties.

In addition to the two anchors, the mall had several specialty stores, including a bowling alley, a roller skating rink, and several restaurants. The mall also hosted several community events, including concerts, festivals, and holiday celebrations.

An outlot directly at the corner of 159th Street and Oak Park was a Golden Bear restaurant, later Brown's Chicken and Pasta. 

Gately's never remodeled, and its stock was severely dated. Gately's Peoples Store closed in 1987.

By the early nineties, the only stores that survived were those that had outside access. Stores began to close and were not replaced.

The entire mall was remodeled into Menard's around 1994. A long corridor ran from the north parking lot, next to the former Dominick's space, providing access to the theaters and arcade. The Gately's building was sold to the Star chain of suburban newspapers and became their main office. The former Golden Bear restaurant, which later became a banquet hall, was demolished.

The theaters, the only indoor theaters in Tinley Park, remained open until 2003 when they were sold to Menard's for an expansion of their store.

The final store closed in 1999, and the mall was demolished in 2001. Menards closed the mall in 2003 and demolished it in 2004. The mall site is now occupied by a Menards home improvement superstore.

Compiled by Neil Gale, Ph.D.