Sandburg Mall- (Galesburg, IL)...The Lost Mall.

To learn what happened before us, we have to retrace our steps, look back on what was done in order to understand the future, in the case of malls, they are historical retail icons that date back to the 1940's, when downtown shopping turned into suburban retreats, when World War II ended, and neighborhoods boomed up all over the country. This mall on the other hand, like most malls, was built because the town of Galesburg and surrounding area's needed a retreat, a place to shop, socialize, and spend time. Usually history is easy to figure out, in the case of this mall, nothing is documented on the history of the mall, previous stores, or significance or retail shopping.

The only known fact is the mall opened in 1974, to pay tribute and honor to Carl Sandburg, an  American writer and editor best known for poetry. He won three Pulitzer Prizes, two for his poetry and one for his biography of Abraham Lincoln. H. L. Mencken called Sandburg "indubitably an American in every pulse-beat".

Sandburg Mall is located 3 hours away from Chicago along US RT.34 AND US RT. 150 (Henderson Street) in Galesburg, IL.

The Mall is currently anchored by:

Here are the pictures I took on a trip to Galesburg, IL in October 2012, there are not a lot because the over compensating security guard, or janitor, a guy in a blue shirt and keys continued to follow me around and said no picture taking on the premises. 

I still got these:

Sears has closed sometime between the October 2012 and early 2014.

Kmart's as mall anchors are always to interesting and refreshing to see than traditional store formats or usual anchor stores.

I'm sure there is more history to this mall out there, right now it doesn't sound to good for the mall, here are links to store closing reports on the mall:

http://www.galesburg.com/article/20140612/News/140619874

http://www.galesburg.com/article/20141125/OPINION/141129869/10219/OPINION

Website:

http://www.sandburgmall.com/

If anyone has pictures of the mall or stories, feel free to post below and comment.

Thanks for reading.