Methuen Mall
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The Methuen Mall was built in 1973 on a 60-acre site and included Jordan Marsh, Sears and seventy other stores. It was in Methuen, Massachusetts and was off exits 3 and 4 on Route 213 on Pleasant Valley Street. The single-story mall stood in close proximity to three major highways. Route 213, now also known as the Loop Connector, ran directly behind the mall and connected the major interstates of Route 93 and Route 495, both a short distance from the mall site . When the mall was built, the area was mostly a farming community. Directly across Pleasant Valley Street was Mann's Orchards, which still stands today. The mall's decline started in 1991 when the Mall at Rockingham Park opened across the border in Salem, New Hampshire with the advantages of being a much larger mall and the lack of sales tax in New Hampshire. The Methuen Mall closed in 1997 and was demolished in early 1999.
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[edit] History
[edit] Early years
The Methuen mall opened slowly a few stores at a times with Sears being the first, opening on Tuesday, September 4,1973. The opening of the Methuen Mall began to turn the Pleasant Valley section of Methuen into a much more commercialized area. In the years after the opening, the area also became home to a McDonald's, Burger King, Andover Bank (now a TD Banknorth), and an adjacent shopping plaza,which first started with Caldor and A&P. Today that plaza has Wal-Mart, Market Basket, and a mattress store which was originally an Osco Drug. The late 70s featured a flea market at the mall on Sundays as blue laws prohibited stores from opening on Sunday.
[edit] Stores and Culture
The Methuen Mall was once an epicenter of late-seventies/early eighties suburban "headbanger" culture. The mall differed greatly from today's "McMalls" in that creative touches maintained an element of raw adventure: aardvark and anthill-themed play areas were placed at either end of the mall, annual petting zoos were held inside(near Sears), and life-sized Christmas dioramas, complete with spun-fiberglass snow and plastic reindeer added a warm touch to any holiday season.
Perhaps most interesting was the mall's public telephone system. It was possible to call from one side of the mall from another, quite often from within viewing distance of the recipient caller. This allowed for deep satisfaction in any phone-based harassment endeavors.
A Partial List of Stores (to be expanded):
Lords and Ladies Hair Salon, Garden of Eden Hair Salon, Scribbles, The Limited, Express, DJ's, Wilson Suede and Leather, The Earring Tree, Hickory Farms, Papa Gino's, Silver Cloud, Sheds, Etc., Help Ur Self, GNC, Howland's, Orange Julius, Dream Machine, York Steak House, Fit as a Fiddle, China Gifts, The Jade Tree, Deb, Cummings, Tello's, Cherry & Webb, Deering Ice Cream, Friendly's Ice Cream, Pattavina's, The Sunglass Hut, The Calabasa Mexican Restaurant, Tandy Brass, The Athlete's Foot, Casual Corner, The Weathervane, Petite Sophisticate, Waldenbooks, The Gap, Lauriat's Books, Record Town, Tape World, Mi Casa, I Natural cosmetics, Units, Daher's shoes, Sears, Jordan Marsh, Ann and Hope, CVS, KayBee Toys, DoctorX Pets, Sweats, Etc., QuickTest Market Research, Applebee's, Zales Jewelers, The Wall, Chess King, Things Remembered, Olympia Sports, Hallmark, Filene's Basement, Software Etc., Endicott Johnson, Spencer Gifts, Lechter's, Fanny Farmer, Merry Go Round, Radio Shack, Arlington Trust
[edit] First signs of competition
Methuen, being a border city of New Hampshire, has always been at a disadvantage due to New Hampshire's lack of a sales tax, compared to Massachusetts's 5.0% sales tax. However, for many years, the Methuen Mall competed very well with its cross-border counterpart, the Rockingham Mall, which was much smaller and did not contain the high profile anchors that the Methuen Mall did. However, that changed in 1991 when the Mall at Rockingham Park opened across the street from the Rockingham Mall. The new mall was, and still is, the largest mall in New Hampshire. Although the prices were higher than those of the Methuen Mall, the allure of the big, two-storied mall with no sales tax attracted many previous customers of the Methuen Mall, especially during the Christmas shopping season, when the differences in crowds were very apparent. Sears would open a store in the new mall, but kept the Methuen store opened for the rest of its lease term. Other stores like Jordan Marsh and Filene's Basement would actually move to the new mall.
[edit] Attempt to survive
Around 1993, Ann & Hope moved into the space formerly occupied by Sears and became the mall's newest anchor store. These last years of the mall's existence brought in a lot of unique stores, who perhaps would not have had a chance to thrive in the mall's earlier, more successful days. Stores such as "Sheds Unlimited", heralded the mall's demise through their bizarre presence in a once thriving center for fashionable retail stores. Soon after that, they left the mall, leaving a huge empty space, both in the mall, and in the hopes of survival. In 1997, the mall decided to turn the empty space into a civic and convention center named the Valley Expo Center. The center's first event was an all-night rave. This gave the mall its nickname "Crystal Methuen Mall". Apparently, most adult Methuenites were unaware of what a rave actually was and when the news reports surfaced after the event, the community was outraged. The center held a couple other events, mostly trade shows, and soon fizzled out. The only business left at the mall at this time was an Applebee's with an exterior entrance. The owners at this time were looking to completely demolish the building and build something new. Applebee's, however, did not want to leave. Their lease wasn't up, and being the only sit-down restaurant in the area, they were actually making money. Without any other options, the mall owners demolished the rest of the mall, leaving just the space occupied by Applebee's. After a long court battle[1], Applebee's finally did leave. Applebees initially declined to open in one of the new freestanding restaurants on the site, but eventually built a new freestanding restaurant about a block away in 2005.
[edit] Demolition
When the Methuen Mall finally closed, the city of Methuen took a huge financial hit, seeing property tax revenue fall from USD$60 million annually to USD$18 million annually for the site alone.[1]In 1990, the land was redeveloped by The Wilder Companies into the first of their branded shopping centers named The Loop after the loop made by the highways that surround it. The new shopping center has no real anchor stores, but is highlighted by a Stop & Shop, Home Depot, Borders, AMC Theatres, and Marshall's, not to mention about two dozen smaller businesses, including the Gap and K•B Toys two stores that were in the Methuen mall.
