Golf Mill Center, Niles, Illinois.

Greater Chicago's eighth shopping mall was constructed on 88 acres, 22 miles northwest of downtown Chicago, in suburban Niles. The open-air facility was built by John F. Cuneo Sr. under the guidance of the Milwaukee-Golf Development Corporation. Ground was broken in November 1958.

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The name "Golf Mill" comes from the mall's located at the intersection of Golf Road and Milwaukee Avenue. The words "Town Center" substituted "Shopping Center" in the mall's name in the early 2000s to reflect and hopefully regain its role as a community gathering place.

The first nine Golf Mill Center stores opened for business on October 12, 1960, at Golf Road and Milwaukee Avenue in Niles, Illinois.

The Swanky Millionaires Club (Restaurant, Lounge), 239 Golf Mill Center, opened in 1960. The club closed in 1980 due to declining membership.

Included in this group was a 2-level (230,000 sq. ft.) Sears Roebuck & Co. divided the facility into North Mall and South Mall sections, forcing shoppers to traverse Sears to go between the North and South malls. 

Sears Roebuck & Co. operated out of three buildings; the main store structure, a Garden Center and 23-bay Auto Center. Sears Roebuck & Co. also had an optical department, Coffee House Cafe and the Lyric Beauty Salon. 

Golf Mill Center Map 1961 - The shiny new $40 million Golf Mill Center spanned 650,000 leasable square feet and contained sixty-five stores beneath its open canopies. Free parking was provided for 7,000 autos.

Inline stores in the North Mall included Lytton's, Walgreen Drug, Henry M. Goodman and a Hillman's supermarket. Some original South Mall tenants were Karroll's Men's Wear, Baker's Shoes, Richman Brothers Men's Wear, an F.W. Woolworth 5 & Dime and National Food Stores supermarket.

Mill Island was an outdoor seating area with a working water wheel and a Koi pond. It was outside the North Mall's east side in the Golf Mill Center.

A 1-level (50,000 sq. ft.), Evanston-based William Sinclair Lord's department store opened, at the south end of the complex, on October 18, 1961. With its completion, the shopping hub encompassed approximately 650,000 leasable square feet and housed sixty-eight stores and services.

The Golf Mill Theatre was dedicated on December 29, 1961. This single-screen venue was built as a southeastern out parcel of the mall. It morphed into the Golf Mill Theatres I & II on December 25, 1969, and Golf Mill Theatres 1-2-3 in 1973. The movie house was shuttered in the year 2000. 

The Mill Run Playhouse opened on July 12, 1965. It was scheduled to open in June 1965, but torrential rains delayed it. The theater was located on the north grounds of the Golf Mill Shopping Center. It was a 1,600-seat rotating theatre-in-the-round. The theater closed in August 1984 and was demolished shortly after. The site is now part of the south parking lot of the shopping center.

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The Mill Run Playhouse in Niles, Illinois, presented productions of off-Broadway shows, musicians, and comedians hosted a number of notable performers, including Sammy Davis, Jr., Lou Rawls, Ray Charles, Johnny Mathis, Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons, Dolly Parton, Miles Davis, The Supremes, Tom Jones, and George Carlin.

The musical Hair was performed from December 5, 1972 to December 24, 1972. Hair is a rock musical.It tells the story of a group of hippies living in New York City in the late 1960s. The play was a critical and commercial success when it premiered off-Broadway in 1967. The play had a fully nude finale. Hair was revived on Broadway in 2009 and won the Tony Award for Best Revival of a Musical.

 

I was 12 years old when I saw Hair at the Mill Run Playhouse. 

By 1965, the Lord's store had closed. JCPenney renovated the vacant space, expanding it into a 2-level (184,700 sq. ft.) structure. A freestanding JCPenney's Auto Center was also built. The new "JCPenney" store opened on October 20, 1966.

Golf Mill Center Map 1967 - Golf Mill Center has undergone several changes. The Mill Run Playhouse, a theatre-in-the-round, has been added to the South Mall. Also, Lord's store closed, renovated, and reopened in the South Mall as "JCPenney."

A 1967 aerial view. The JCPenney store is seen on the right. Sears (upper left) was the center's original anchor. It is situated at the center and separates the North Mall and South Mall sections.

Regional shopping venues in the vicinity of Golf Mill Center included Old Orchard Shopping Center (1956) 4 miles east, in Skokie, Randhurst Shopping Center (1962) 5 miles northwest, in Mount Prospect, Woodfield Mall (1971) 9 miles west, in Schaumburg and Northbrook Court (1976) 7 miles northeast, in Northbrook. 

The Golf Mill Center's $40 million renovation commenced in August 1984. The North Mall structure was substantially reconfigured, demolishing its vacant Mill Run Playhouse. A strip of stores was built across from the existing blocks, creating a mall concourse. This was anchored by a 2-level (70,000 sq. ft.) MainStreet Department Store, based in Bannockburn, Illinois, opened in November 1985.

As the remodeling progressed, the entirety of the shopping hub was enclosed and climate-controlled. A vacant Woolworth space in the South Mall was sectioned into inline stores, and an 18-bay Food Court was built on the east side of the complex. A formal mall re-dedication was held on November 19, 1986.

Golf Mill Center Map 1987 - The Mill Run Playhouse was shuttered and demolished on the south end of the complex. In the mid-1980s, the shopping hub was expanded and fully enclosed. In 1987, a MainStreet store anchored the North Mall. The South Mall has also been reconfigured, with an ample Food Court installed.

There were over 150 stores and services. The MainStreet store was rebranded as Kohl's in March 1989. The following Golf Mill modification added a 1-level (103,000 sq. ft.) Target with a grand opening on October 11, 1998.

A second mall movie house, the Kerasotes Showplace 12-multiplex, showed its first features on November 17, 2006. An 8 million dollar mall remodeling project, underway at this time, included an exterior facelift, installation of new lighting, flooring and seating areas and a refurbishment of the Center Court and Main Entrance.

Golf Mill Center Map 2007 - A multi-screen cinema is the major attraction in the South Wing of Golf Mill Center. The complex now spans approximately 1,057,000 leasable square feet and contains 120 stores and services under its roof. The mall parking area has space for nearly 5,500 cars.

Moreover, a 1-level (40,400 sq. ft.), Columbus, Ohio-based, Value City Furniture store replaced a northeast mall entrance and several adjacent store spaces. The renovation was completed in late 2007. Golf Mill Center now spans 1,067,000 leasable square feet.

More recent modifications at Golf Mill Center involve the rebranding of the Kerasotes ShowPlace Theatres as the AMC Niles 12-Megaplex (July 2010), the opening of a freestanding Gordon Food Service Marketplace (April 2011) and the completion of an in-mall (26,900 sq. ft.) Ross Dress for Less (October 2012).

The West Entrance into Golf Mill Center on Greenwood Avenue.

Ownership of the shopping hub changed in August 2014. The Cuneo Family, its original developers, sold the complex to Palm Beach, Florida, Sterling Organization. Sears Roebuck & Co., which anchored the mall's center for over 58 years, pulled up stakes in December 2018.

Golf Mill Center Map 2017 - The mall was sold to a Florida Firm in 2014. Within a few years, the shopping complex was in decline. The closing of Sears Roebuck & Co. in late 2018 sealed the mall's fate. It would be partially demolished and replaced by a mixed-use facility called Golf Mill Town Center.

The Golf Mill Center was in a downward spiral by this time. The Sterling Organization announced plans for a massive redevelopment in January 2022. As part of this 2-phase, $429 million project, the center would be returned to its original open-air format. 

The 9-story Professional Building was completed in 1963.

The abandoned Sears and the 9-story Professional Building would be demolished during Phase I. In all, 600,000 square feet would be razed.

Golf Mill Center was renamed Golf Mill Town Center in 2017.

Golf Mill Town Center Furure Site Plan - A Golf Mill Town Center site plan for 2025 indicates new construction in white, with structures from the original mall in gray. The revitalized retail complex will encompass approximately 600,200 leasable square feet and contain around twenty-eight stores and services.

Golf Mill Town Center would cover approximately 600,200 leasable square feet. Existing JCPenney, Target, Burlington, and Ross stores would be left standing. 194,000 square feet of new retail would be built. Completion of Phase I was plotted for some time in 2025. The Phase II project would then be started, adding various residential and hospitality structures.

The new and improved Golf Mill Town Center will incorporate shopping, residential, office and hospitality components. New construction would include a modern reproduction of the water wheel, a feature of the original mall.

Compiled by Dr. Neil Gale, Ph.D.

Hillside Center, Hillside, Illinois.

Hillside Center

Chicagoland's fourth shopping mall was built on a 63-acre site 15 miles west of downtown Chicago in suburban Hillside. The ground was broken for Hillside Center in April 1955. The 428,000-square-foot, open-air complex was designed by Chicago's Bruce A. Gordon & Company and Welton Becket & Associates of Los Angles, California. It was developed by Hubert E. Howard, Senior, Hubert E. Howard, Junior and Chicago-based Carson Pirie Scott & Co.

A 1-level (72,000 square foot) Chicago-based Goldblatt Brothers store opened for business on September 26, 1956.

Hillside Center Map 1956

The mall, and an initial thirty stores, were officially dedicated on October 3, 1956. Carson Pirie Scott's 3-level (125,000 square foot) unit was dedicated, along with six inline stores, on October 25. The store opened with a grand celebration. The Scots Kiltie Band played bagpipe music, accompanied by six folk dancers and Tartan-clad lassies. Hubert E. Howard, Senior and Junior, John T. Pirie, Junior and Michael Yundt (Hillside Village President) attended the grand opening festivities.

Hillside Center Map 1957

By late 1958, fifty-eight stores and services were in operation. These included Bond Clothes, Fabric Fair, Kinney Shoes, Thom McAn Shoes, Karroll's Mens Wear Shop, Burny Brothers Bakery, Hillside Center Barber Shop, a Slenderella Figure Salon and F.W. Woolworth 5 & Dime.

An out-parcel structure in the northwest parking area housed Kroger (21,000 sq. ft.) and Strickland (72,000 sq. ft.) supermarkets which opened in September 1956.

Illustration of the Hillside Center Kroger Supermarket.

The Brotman & Sherman Hillside Theatre was built on a pad across Harrison Street from the mall. The single-screen venue opened on July 13, 1962, with the first feature film being The Music Man. 

Architectural sketch of the exterior of the Hillside Theatre in 1962.

The theater was split into two, then three screens before being shuttered in late 2000.

Meanwhile, the mall had been sold to the Greenfield Real Estate Investment Trust in the mid-1960s. They initiated a $600,000 remodeling. Goldblatt's was expanded by 30,000 square feet, and the mall concourse and entryways were enclosed and climate-controlled.

By the mid-1960, Hillside Center's popularity began toppling because of the nearby Yorktown Center and Oakbrook Center malls. A $600,000 renovation was completed in August 1967, with all courts and concourses enclosed and climate-controlled.

A re-dedication ceremony was held on August 17, 1967.

Hillside Center Map 1967

The complex now incorporated approximately 471,000 leasable square feet. Among sixty stores and services were Fannie May Candies, Sun Drug, Parklane Hosiery, Lyon & Healy Music, Armand's restaurant, Candies From Around The World and the Household Finance Corporation.

Unfortunately for Hillside Center, newer, larger, and more expensive shopping malls proliferated in its trade area. Oakbrook Center, 3 miles southwest in Oak Brook, had opened in 1962. This was followed by Yorktown Center (1968), 6 miles southwest, in Lombard, North Riverside Park Mall (1976), 5 miles southeast, in North Riverside, and The Brickyard (1977), 7 miles northeast, in Chicago.

An interior facelift was given to Hillside Center in 1977, but this failed to stave off the mall's eventual decline. It was sold to Unicorp American Corporation of New York City in 1981. By this time, the center was in dire straits. A third remodeling, envisaged by the Chicago Design Group, was performed between May and November of 1983.

Hillside Center Map 1983

Center Court ceilings were replaced as part of this $3 million project. The Oasis Food Court was set up in vacant store space beneath a newly-installed arched skylight. Eateries in the food facility included Dog Patch hot dogs, Mazzone's, B.G. Burgers and 1 Potato 2 Potato. On the outside of the shopping venue, a grid of tubular framework topped a newly-built Main Entrance. The exterior was also covered in a light concrete finish. Lastly, the official name of the complex was changed to Hillside Mall.

Goldblatt's closed on January 1, 1982, and was replaced by Zayre in November 1982. This store was rebranded, as a Rocky Hill, Connecticut-based Ames, in October 1989. It closed for good in 1990.

The mall's downward spiral continued into the new decade. It was purchased by Northbrook-based New Castle Partners in January 1992. They decided to reposition the complex as a value-oriented shopping hub, changing its name to "West Point Center" in February. Chicago's Green Hiltscher & Shapiro firm was hired to redesign the facility.

A third Hillside Center remodeling was done in 1992, with the mall's official name being changed again to West Point Center. Menards Home Improvement also replaced the vacant Goldblatt's, former Zayre and Ames stores.

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West Point is a neighborhood in Hillside, Illinois, named  when it was platted in 1893. It was named after the United States Military Academy at West Point, New York (est. July 4, 1802). The name was changed to "West Point Center" in 1923. 

By 1996, the 40-year-old West Point Center was virtually vacant. It was razed in 1997, leaving Menards standing. Newly-recruited inline stores included The Book Market Inc. and Gifts For Success Outlet. 

The Village of Hillside demolished Carson's and the remainder of the mall proper. The old supermarket building and Menard's were left standing. 

Unfortunately, the remarketing of the mall was unsuccessful. After the shuttering of Carson's in mid-1997, the end was at hand. The Village of Hillside and Richmond, Virginia-based CarMax devised a de-malling plan.

Eventually, CarMax opened in 1999 on the 20-acre Carson's site, aided by a Tax Increment Financing arrangement with the Village of Hillside.

In 2010, West Point Center housed thirteen store spaces besides CarMax and Menards, Harlem Furniture, Allstate Insurance, Ideal Home Mortgage, Hillside Currency Exchange and an out-parcel CIB Bank.

In 2012, Menards closed and was demolished shortly after that, eliminating the last original building that was part of the Hillside 'Shopping' Center. This caused the property owners to place a 13-acre section, not including CarMax, on the open market.

Hillside Town Center

The Hillside Town Center, located at 30 South Mannheim Road in Hillside, Illinois, opened on May 17, 2010. It's a 36-acre retail development situated immediately southwest of Mannheim Road, Eisenhower Expressway (I-290) interchange.

Hillside Town Center 2018

The Hillside Town Center includes a Super Target, Michaels, Petco, HomeGoods, Ross Dress for Less, and Krispy Kreme.

Krispy Kreme, Hillside Town Center, 110 South Mannheim Road, Hillside, Illinois.

The center is also home to several smaller retailers, restaurants, and service businesses. The Hillside Town Center development includes 1,568 new parking spaces and new entrances off local and state routes for a new hotel and 21 new retail stores.

Holiday Inn Express & Suites, Hillside Town Center, 200 South Mannheim Road, Hillside, Illinois, opened in 2004.

It's a reminder of the changing retail landscape in the Chicago area. As shopping habits have changed, so too have the types of shopping centers built. The first Hillside Center was once a popular destination for shoppers but could not compete with the newer, giant malls.

Compiled by Dr. Neil Gale, Ph.D.