One of the largest shopping malls in New England is located in Peabody, Massachusetts and is called the North Shore Mall.
The mall has a unique history which began when it opened in September 1958 as an open air mall.
At that time it was anchored by Jordan Marsh and an adjoining Filene’s, Kresge, J.J. Newberry, Sears (with no clothing departments), and Stop and Shop.
Perhaps one of the most unique aspects of the mall at that time was not the fact that it had so many differing and numerous anchor stores, but that the mall had plenty of recreational opportunities.
They ranged from a bowling alley, a cinema, and a small amusement park called Kiddietown.
The mall was also home to a church, the Society of Mount Carmel Chapel, which is still in the mall.
In 1972, New England Development opened the Liberty Tree Mall across the street prompting the North Shore Mall to slowly enclose itself.
Interestingly enough, today larger portions of the North Shore Mall are enclosed than Liberty Tree Mall.
This is because several large anchors left Liberty Tree Mall and smaller anchors took those spaces.
Sears, at that time, was expanded into a full-line anchor which made the store approximately 240,200 square feet.
New England Development was responsible in making a major renovation of the entire mall which expanded the mall to almost 1.7 million square feet in 1994.
The expansion allowed Filene’s to move into a new 200,000 square foot building on the northwest end of the mall where the amusement park used to be while a 120,000 square foot Lord and Taylor was also constructed in that general vicinity.
A new food court was built near the Filene’s site and the JC Penney nearby was completely renovated and was expanded making the store approximately 138,212 square feet.
Simon Property Group assumed management of the mall in 1999 when it bought the mall from New England Development.
In 1996, Jordan Marsh was renamed Macy’s, but the anchors and much of the mall remained the same from 1994 to 2005.
At this point, the mall would see major changes as May Department Stores, who was the parent of Lord and Taylor stores, was acquired by Federated Department Stores, the parent company of Macy’s.
In March 2006, the Filene’s store was briefly shut down until it was transformed into a new Macy’s shutting down the mall’s old Macy’s location.
Later that year, all Filene’s stores as well as other May Department Stores would see their store transform into having the “Macy’s” nameplate.
In June 2006, Lord and Taylor shut down after Federated Department Store made the decision to divest the chain.
Today, the enclosed mall is anchored only by Sears, JC Penney, and Macy’s.
The original 1958 former Jordan Marsh store will be gutted and partially demolished to make way for a new wing of retail space and the construction of a new Nordstrom Department Store.
The vacant Lord and Taylor space is planned to be the future home of Macy’s men’s and home furnishings departments in 2008.
The move of those departments will allow Macy’s to gain space in all store departments and I have seen other malls where a portion of the Macy’s is in one anchor store area and the other portion in another.
Macy’s (and former Filene’s) is the only chain I know that builds disjoined stores like this.
The main entrance of the mall will be renovated and expanded as a lifestyle center and will include The Cheesecake Factory.
In the end, the changes are expected to make the mall approximately 1.685 million square feet.
While that might seem to be a large mall, keep in mind the entire mall is not enclosed.
Outparcel anchor stores, accessible only by driving one’s vehicle from a mall anchor store parking lot to their parking lot; include Office Depot, Toys R Us, Shaw’s, and Barnes and Noble.
I believe the mall should have sidewalks out to these outparcels and perhaps a canopy over the sidewalk to encourage walking.
This might add “walking traffic” to those anchors on a nice warm day.
Interestingly enough, the mall’s future plans are not planned to fix the odd lower level of the mall.
While Sears, JC Penney, and the former Filene’s store have a lower level and upper level, mall access is through the upper level only.
This is because the mall has a smaller “usable” lower level than upper level.
Filene’s Basement, the only anchor with only lower level mall access, is currently undergoing construction and is planned to reopen in the near future.
This store is blocked off from the rest of the lower level through “drywalls”.
Another elevator down a side hallway provides access to the lower level chapel and gift shop as well as a dentist’s office.
Even with so little stores, there are three sets of elevators, two sets of escalators, three vending machine areas, two pay phone areas and two sets of restrooms.
Oddly enough the inability to go from one end of the lower level to the other is not clearly illustrated on the mall directory.
Sit-down restaurants in the mall include Bertucci’s, an outparcel Bugaboo Creek Steakhouse, Joe’s American Bar and Grill, Johny Rockets, and Legal Sea Foods.
Other food tenants include Au Bon Pain, Boston Chowda, Chick-fil-A, D’Angelo Sandwich Shop, Master Wok, McDonald’s, Sbarro, Starbuck’s Coffee, Taco Bell, and Umi of Japan.
The mall has comfy couch seating in the mall hallways and has the most about of televisions in the hallways than any mall I have been to.
Unfortunately, all the televisions are turned to the Simon television network with mostly commercials and little to no “local” information about the North Shore Mall.
The mall is located at the junction of Route 128 North and Route 114 East and is easily accessible from both Interstate 95 and Route 1.
It is open Monday through Saturday 10 a.m. to 10 p.m. and Sunday 11 a.m. to 6 p.m.
