Gurnee Mills- (Gurnee, IL)

About 40 miles of driving from either Milwaukee or Chicago, Gurnee Mills Mall is minutes away from Illinois's, if not the nations greatest amusement park, Six Flags, and at over 1.8 million square feet, is also the fourth largest mall in Illinois.

The "Z"-configured malls current anchor stores are:

Gurnee Mills Mall was constructed by The Mills Company and opened August 8, 1991.

Heres a brief history of the malls anchors stores over the years:

Sears closed in 1993

JCPenney opened in the former Sears building in 1994 and closed in 2009

Waccamaw Pottery closed in 2001 with the rest of the chain and was demolished in 2003 for Sears Grand that opened in 2004

Spiegel Clothing Store closed in 2002 and was replaced by Kohl's.

In 2007, Simon Prperty Group purchased The Mills chain of malls and shopping centers.

Value City Department Store closed in 2008 as a result of chapter 7 bankruptcy and converted to a Value City Furniture Store

Circuit City closed in 2009 with the rest of the chain and was torn down in 2011 for Macy's to open in 2013

JCPenney closed in late 2009 and the store was bought in 2011 by Shoppers World

These are the pictures taken in August 2012, before Macy's or the renovations happened, plus the mall seemed more lively than a year later.

So, here they are:

Here are pictures from July 2013, note the changed in the wing with the the new Macy's and how a lot of the stores seem to b empty:

Archiver's has since closed with the rest of the chain

Really loved the old BB&B script on the storefront seen in the 2012 pictures.

If anyone has anything they want to say, or comment on, the post, or the mall itself, about yourself, or any experiences you had with mall, or mall stories, feel free to post comments below or email me

Thanks, remember, Mills Means More!