Washington Square Mall

[HoJofan206]

Washington Square Mall was the first inclosed mall in the state of Indiana.  I beleive the mall opened in 1963.  The mall thrived until the new mall on the other end of Green River Road opened in 1981 called Eastland Mall.  WSM had a rebirth in 1990 but it was short lived and by 1994 the mall was once again dead.  The mall is now home to Sears (of whom has been there since day 1) and a bunch of mom and pop's local stores.  The mall is now mostly known for being a "Mall Walking" place to go.  Here are some pics.....

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Here is the old Foot Locker Store.  It was in the mall until 2004 before it finally gave up.

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You can see the Foot Locker label scar if you look really close.

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Here is a picture of a former woman's clothing store.  I do not recall the name of it for it has been gone for over 15 years now.

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Here is a picture of the former Lens Crafters.  The antique store next door (former World Bazaar) always has a bunch of junk in the middle of the mall.

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Here is the water fountain that used to spray in the air.  Now days it is just a sad reminder of what once was.....

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The food court was that of a "Carnival" theme.  It was kinda neat with its big top tent and purple neon.  Now days it pretty much houses a Subway Shoppe and  a Nobal Romans Pizza...everything else is gone.....

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Here are some of the vacant places that were once walk up food shoppes in the mall.

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More empty restaurants.

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Here is the former Ice Cream Shoppe.  It made it until about 2001 or so.

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Looking through the old ice cream shoppe.

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Looking down the south end of the mall to where the L.S. Ayres store used to be.  Today it is a seasonal this and that store called "Values Unlimited"

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It looks like the mall is just closed for the day, but actually most of the stores are never open at any time of the day.

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Here is the former Paul Harris store.  I think all of those stores went out of business alltogether.

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Here is one of the two remaining eateries in the mall.

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This was an A & W Rootbeer store a long time ago.

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Here is a shot of the former Foot Locker, Daubles Florist, and Chest King respectively left to right.

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The "Game Room" was formerly known as "Tilt".  It still excists but is full of really old games.  The "room" is not taken care of at all.  It sits right in the middle of all of the facant restaurants.

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Front shot of "The Game Room"

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Inside "The Game Room".  It feels like you stepped right back into 1984.

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This (most recently a photography studio) originally was called Banheim's Shoes.  They were a local shoe shop that went out of business in the 1980's.  The most memorable thing about this store was that they had a live monkey in the front store window for the kids back in the 1970's.  The khaki and white stipes used to be bright pink and again, gave off the carnival theme.

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Here is an old Mall Directory.  It is sad to see all the former store names that are cheaply covered up.

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Here is an outside shot of the main entrance to the mall.

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Here is a shot of the mammouth street side sign advertising for the defunct mall.

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This sad sign is supposed to be used to let shopper's know of the exciting things coming to the mall soon.  The only thing mentioned in the bottom right hand corner is the fact that for mall walkers the distance around the entire mall is 1 mile.

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Mhardy's is a cheap local store that is housed in the former Clair's Boutique.

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Sears is the only reason shoppers still come to this mall.  The store still does a decent amount of business for being in the non retail part of the city.

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The Sears Auto Center has been here since 1963.

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One sad last immage of a roadside sign that is showing signs of neglect.

[store215]

Cool pics...kind of suprising that Sears invested in all that signage though. (I'm guessing they own the building and they dont lease it from the mall)