Tuesday, December 23, 2014

Ford City Mall- (Chicago, IL)



Ford City Mall is an enclosed shopping mall on the far Southwest side of Chicago in the West Lawn neighborhood on Cicero Avenue.

Ford City opened in 1965, and is now the largest, enclosed mall in Chicago outside of downtown and is anchored by Carsons, JCPenney's, and Sears. 

Construction for the mall first started in 1942, when a massive army and defense plant was constructed during World War II. By the end of 1945, the plant was left vacant when the war ended, and later became a manufacturing plant for automotive assembly for Tucker Automobile Corporation and later Ford Motor Company, hence the name "Ford City". During the Korean War, the building was used once again to produce plains and later closed in 1959.

 The property was sold in 1961, with spirits to turn the land into a shopping center, part enclosed mall, part strip mall, and in 1965, Ford City opened to the public.

Wieboldt's first was an anchor of the mall until 1987, when Carsons moved in, Montgomery Ward, until closing, and has since been torn down, and JCPenney on the east side of the mall.

As of 2014, the mall plans on undergoing many renovations or the exterior and interior, stores and the design of the mall.

Here are pictures of the mall in January 2013 and November 2013:





Former Montgomery Ward

















































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

Thank you for reading.

2 comments:

  1. i went to high school near 79th and Linder and after school we used to walk to Ford City. this was back in 2004-2005 and the mall was struggling even at that point.

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    1. Thats great to hear, the mall is still open which is a good thing, remodeled recently, and struggling the same as any mall really. Ford City is troubled but isn't abandoned yet.

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