Emerald Square Mall

[Crawford]

Built between 1988-89. 3 levels. Original anchors were G Fox (now Filenes and soon to be Macy's), Sears, J C Penney and Lechmere. Original scheme was the Emerald City from the Wizard of Oz and on opening day, people dressed as the characters paraded around the mall bent on creating Kodak moments with the shoppers. Stores have come and gone with the years and others have moved around inside but rarely does one see the empty space vacant for long. Mall is extremely healthy and not plagued with the crime or parking problems of Providence Place 10 minutes away. Food Court has changed little save the Popeye's Chicken was replaced with a Taco Bell. This was the first mall I knew of not to have had an arcade or movie theater upon opening. Showcase cinema opened up a huge theater just up the road so it wasn't needed. There are other smaller plazas around the mall, all very much in the black. There is a rumour that the mall has been sinking into the marsh land it was built on at the rate of a centermeter a year.

[d_fife]

I heard this mall's lechmere closed in 1997 with all the others and became a larger lord and taylor that closed in 2003 that became Filene's home store. The mall is 150 stores. I LOVED THIS MALL. I went there last summer. it was 3 levels.

[gu4ever]

I finally went to the Emerald Square Mall, it was more compact like older malls from the 70's but of course instead of being 1-story it was 3 which made it awesome!! A sign of the times sadly there were a lot of empty location in this mall.

[gu4ever]

I parked at the JC Penny's, this building was massive with it towering 3 stories of tan and brown brick. I took a picture of the brown JC Penny sign.... Aren't they usually white lettering?

[gu4ever]

The massive Filene's building now home to Macy's womens and childrens department.
It's sad that yet another bright white Filene's building has turned into a dingy mess, Macy's seems to be letting this happen to most of the old former Filene location they are now utilizing.

[Cormak]

I was there at the holidays and after the holidays and it was very busy. Alot of stores are gone. Also many locations are empty because some stores had more than 1 location in the mall. I never understood that but I remember KB Toys having stores on the first and second floor and they had a discount store called "Circus Toys" on the third floor.

In today's world of online purchasing, sadly big malls like this are becoming less and less popular. It's a shame.

And I leaned in school, back when it opened that it is indeed sinking.