WASHINGTON SQUARE MALL
South Green River Road and Washington Avenue
Evansville, Indiana

The first shopping mall in "Eville" was also the Hoosier State's first enclosed shopping center. WASHINGTON SQUARE MALL, developed by Erie Investments, was built on 32.5 acres, located 4.2 miles southeast of Evansville's center city.

Comprised of a single retail level, the 285,000 square foot mall opened for business during 1963 and '64. It was anchored by a 2-level (174,800 square foot) Sears and an A and P supermarket.

Charter tenants included Levinson's Men's Wear, Woolsey's Toys, Kinney Shoes, Schlutz's, Schmitt Photo and Lib's Candies.

Its first expansion, which came inline in 1969, saw the A & P structure sectioned into smaller store spaces. A 23,000 square foot store block was added to the mall's southeast corner and a 2-level (134,900 square foot), Louisville-based Stewart Dry Goods was built on the south end of the complex.

WASHINGTON SQUARE now encompassed 443,500 leasable square feet. A cinematic venue, the Washington Square II twin, opened inside the mall in 1975.

The Stewart's store, a division of New York City-based Associated Dry Goods, was merged with (and rebranded by) Indianapolis-based L.S. Ayres in 1980.

Commercial competition, shopping mall-wise, came along in 1982. EASTLAND MALL, developed by Des Moines-based General Growth Properties, was located 1.3 miles northwest of WASHINGTON SQUARE. The newer center siphoned-off a great deal of trade from its older counterpart.

As a countermeasure, WASHINGTON SQUARE was given a 30 million dollar renovation in 1986 and '87. Sears was enlarged into a 195,000 square foot operation and a third anchor store (encompassing 50,000 square feet) was built onto the mall's east side.

Moreover, the existing complex was given an interior and exterior facelift...which included the installation of a Teflon tent-covered food court. The mall now housed 513,700 leasable square feet. Its renewal was successful for a time, but eventually EASTLAND MALL prevailed.

WASHINGTON SQUARE went through a succession of owners during the 1980's and '90s. In the spring of 1991, mall management shot themselves in the foot, so to say, by instituting a 10 dollar "mall walkers registration fee". After receiving national media attention -all negative- the fee was dropped in August.

This was followed by the shuttering of L.S. Ayres, on January 19, 1992. Dayton-based Elder-Beerman was recruited to lease the vacant store space; opening for business October 16, 1993.

Elder-Beerman pulled out of the mall in December 2000. Filling the vacancy proved challenging. Evansville's Eugene Hahn and Paul Kite acquired the shopping center in March 2002.

They took it upon themselves to retenant the empty anchor spot and opened a Values Unlimited discount outlet, in a portion of the store, in October 2004. The endeavor was unsuccessful and the space was vacated again in March 2007.

There was talk of the local Bethel Temple Church leasing the empty anchor in April 2009. So far, this hasn't taken place.

Since the turn of the century, tenants in the shopping venue have come and gone. A shift toward medical-oriented leasings, in 2004, filled some of the mall's vacancies. Moreover, the local Civic Theatre's Underground at the Annex live performance venue is bringing business into the shopping complex.

Sources:

"Washington Square" article on Wikipedia
http://movie-theatre.org
www.civic.evansville.net
Vandergurgh County, Indiana property tax assessor website