Chapel Square Mall

The Chapel Square Mall was a shopping mall in downtown New Haven, Connecticut. It was one of the first fully enclosed air-conditioned downtown malls in the United States; it has now been converted into apartments.

Originally proposed as part of the Church Street Redevelopment Project in 1957, after many plans and alterations, it opened in 1967. The mall was designed by New York architects Lathrop Douglas, with two levels and 165,000 square feet (15,300 m²). It was anchored by two adjacent department stores: the New Haven-based Edw. Malley Co., (1962–1982) (which was relocated here from where Chapel Square's office tower and Omni Hotel are now located), and a large branch of New York City-based, Macy's, (1964–1993). Both were built at earlier stages in the development.

Despite ongoing criticism of the ravages of urban renewal, in particular the effects it had on New Haven, the mall was successful in stemming some of downtown's earlier retail decline. In fact, from the mid-1960s through to the mid-1980s, when nearby Westfield Connecticut Post mall was greatly expanded, downtown New Haven remained the dominant regional retail draw. However, like similar projects of that era, it began to show signs of needing an update and a renovation, starting in the early 1980s. In 1984, Chapel Square Mall and the office tower were sold to successful mall developer The Rouse Company of Columbia, Maryland, who fully renovated Chapel Square by 1986, adding some new nationally-known shops, a branch of the upmarket Conran's home goods chain, and a large second-level food court that overlooked the New Haven Green. The improvements were short lived as a dramatic downturn in the economy, the failure to find a replacement tenant for the failed Edw. Malley Co. location, and the corporate bankruptcy and resulting closure of the Macy's store and demise of the Conran's chain took an immediate toll on the mall's viability. In 1995, management of the mall went to the New Haven Chamber of Commerce.

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