A physical layout of General Management's first mall-type center.
DUCK CREEK PLAZA started out -in 1960- as an open-air complex.
This segment is shown in black. The basic structure was expanded
-with an enclosed wing- in the 1970s...indicated here in dark gray. By
the time of this depiction -the early '80s- the 1960 section had been
roofed in.
2 comments:
Hi
I appreciate the work you've done on this site. It's amazing. But I was just looking at your post for Duck Creek Plaza and noticed some significant errors. I lived in the area from birth (1965) until I left for college (1984). And I still go back frequently as my family lives nearby.
While you have the shape of the mall approximately correct, I'm afraid you don't have the stores laid out correctly.
The Mall started as an open air plaza with a walkway down the center where the mall corridor would later go. The stores faced inward toward covered sidewalks while parking was on the outside of the mall where you show it.
Sometime in the 70's the first enclosed portion of the mall was developed. What you show as "Peterson Harned Von Maur" was actually a separate addition to the open air portion of the mall. The Northernmost part of "Petersons" (The square jutting out) was actually the Duck Creek Mall Twin Cinemas. Other stores in the enclosed section of the mall included Aladdin's Castle, a bookstore, a fabric store and an appliance store. Also attached to the mall was a 6 story Bettendorf Bank and Trust building. It would be located in the left side of "Petersens" toward East Kimberly road. The lobby of the bank occupied part of the mall. If you look on Google Earth at the rectangle formed by Middle Road, Kimberly Road and I-64 you can still see the bank building and immediately to it's right the theater. Both are to the left of the new Home Depot building and are the only remaining parts of the 70’s addition. The addition never seemed to be successful, and even after the rest of the mall was enclosed that wing never seemed to be full. Part of it was later taken over by a technical college.
In the main mall, on the south side of the main corridor, was a Bishop’s Buffet (To the far left) with an external entrance. Next to it was a Walgreens, then some inline stores. The Petersens store was actually created by combining a number of smaller stores which led to the interior of the store requiring slopes or steps as the mall was built at a slight incline. It took up about 1/3 of the South side of the mall starting at the end closest to Younkers.
On the left and to the North of the main corridor, where the mall jutted out, was an Eagles Grocery store, which was part of a mid sized local chain that went out of business in the mid-90’s. The Duck Creek Plaza store left in the early 80’s and was replaced by a Marshall’s.
The main part of the mall was not enclosed until the early 1980’s (around 1983) with a poor remodeling that had low ceilings covered by a strange green lattice. If you’ve seen the interior of the downtown mall in Niagara Falls, it was the same look.
After the remodeling the mall always seemed dark and while it gained a few new chains for awhile, it never seemed very successful. Because the Quad Cities are so small it’s easy to get to either of the larger malls, so despite being in one of the more affluent areas there was no reason to visit an enclosed Duck Creek Plaza after both Northpark and Southpark expanded.
Blaine,
I cannot thank you enough for posting this concise history of DUCK CREEK PLAZA! As you could tell (by the original article) I was not able to find much information about this mall.
To the typical "mall-o-phile", the 1960-2003 DUCK CREEK PLAZA probably seems like a very insignificant deal, as mid-century shopping centers go....and this might (partially) explain why there are so little details on the internet about it (well, until now, anyway).
Being as how this tiny retail center, smack-dab in the middle of America's Heartland, was the first mall ever built by the nation's second-largest Mallmaker, the center (actually) was quite important....and well-deserving of a spot here.
I hope that you did not think that you were being condescending (or anything) by correcting the many mistakes in the original article.
As the disclaimer states (at the beginning of the blog) I welcome ANY information about any center featured here. The info you have been kind enough to provide has made an article put together (virtually) out of thin air...with practically no details....now appear quite detailed.
It goes without saying that I couldn't have done this article without your vivid mall memories.
Btw, if I have anything -in the revision- incorrect....please do let me know.
Thanks again,
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