Beginning
In December 1968, 200 acres (0.81 km2) of farmland close to the busy Tri-State Tollway was purchased from Thomas E. Wilson/Edellyn Farms for $2 million, and annexed into Waukegan, Illinois. Construction on the mall began about one year later, in September 1969. A five-year research project of Lake County had concluded that Lake County would be one of the fastest developing areas of the Midwest. The mixed-use (commercial/office/residential) development including Lakehurst Mall was built to service this new population.
The mall was designed by Sidney H. Morris and Associates of Chicago and Gruen Associates of Los Angeles; Gruen was a well-known name in mall construction, dating from their pioneering 1956 design of Southdale Center in Edina, Minnesota. Initially, Arthur Rubloff & Co. of Chicago was the management and leasing agent for Lakehurst.
The new 1.1 million square feet (102,000 m²) mall was substantially larger than other malls in the area. There were three major department stores and about 100 smaller stores. A convenience center, which included the Chicago-native grocery store Jewel-Osco, was added to the original plan, as were over 6,000 parking spaces.
Read more about this topic: Lakehurst Mall
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“But that beginning was wiped out in fear
The day I swung suspended with the grapes,
And was come after like Eurydice
And brought down safely from the upper regions;
And the life I live now’s an extra life
I can waste as I please on whom I please.”
—Robert Frost (1874–1963)
“Freedom of enterprise was from the beginning not altogether a blessing. As the liberty to work or to starve, it spelled toil, insecurity, and fear for the vast majority of the population. If the individual were no longer compelled to prove himself on the market, as a free economic subject, the disappearance of this freedom would be one of the greatest achievements of civilization.”
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—Hortense Odlum (1892–?)