The Plaza (mall)
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| Location | 9500-9730 S. Western Ave., Evergreen Park, Illinois, United States |
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| Opening date | August 24, 1952 |
| Closing date | May 31, 2013 |
| Developer | Arthur Rubloff, Charles R. Walgreen, Jr. |
| No. of stores and services | 120+ |
| No. of anchor tenants | 3 |
| Total retail floor area | 1.2 million ft.² |
| No. of floors | 2 |
Coordinates: 41°43′06″N 87°41′00″W / 41.7184°N 87.6833°W The Plaza, formerly known as Evergreen Plaza, is noted historically as the first modern America mall and set the standard for American mall development until the 1980s. The Evergreen Plaza located in Evergreen Park, Illinois, (a close suburb of Chicago), was planned in the 1920s. It was legally organized by Arthur Rubloff, who is also credited with coining the phrase "Magnificent Mile" describing the upscale section of Michigan Avenue north of the Chicago River to Oak Street. Rubloff secured the funding for the Evergreen Plaza from the Walgreen family who lived nearby in Beverly, Chicago. The Evergreen Plaza operated from 1952 to 2013. It featured over 120 stores, as well as a food court.
In 1936, developer Arthur Rubloff conceived a shopping mall in the Evergreen Park area located between the corners of W 95th Street and Western Ave, 98th Street and Western Ave., 98th Street slightly west of Campbell Ave., 96th Street and Campbell Ave., and 95th and Campbell Ave. Opened to the public in August 1952, the mall was originally an 500,000-square-foot (46,000 m2) open-air shopping center anchored by The Fair Store, Carson Pirie Scott, Lytton's and Walgreens. The center also contained a Jewel supermarket, which featured a conveyor belt that carried groceries from the store to a parking lot kiosk. The mall's Walgreens was the second self-service Walgreen pharmacy in the chain; it was also the chain's first location in a shopping center.
Chas. A. Stevens added a store in 1962. A new Carson Pirie Scott was added and the mall was later enclosed in 1966. Also, The Fair Store was converted to Montgomery Ward in April, 1964. Circuit City came in the early 1990s, replacing a Silo electronics store that was formerly in this space.
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