Yorktown Center - 1980s

1980s

A mid-1980s remodeling replaced the dark tile and flat white facades of the mall areas with pastels and neon lighting. As part of this project, freestanding elevators were added to each wing, replacing the "floating" staircases. Later that same decade, a pair of escalators was added near the JCPenney and Montgomery Ward anchors, with additional retail space built under each pair of escalators. (Previous to these remodelings, there were no elevators in the mall proper, and only one pair of criss-crossed escalators at the center of the courtyard.)

Unlike nearby Oakbrook Center - which would add to its anchor collection three times in twenty years - the middle-market Yorktown Center would lose multiple anchors over the same span. Wieboldt's was the first to close, shuttered at the bankruptcy of the chain in 1987; the anchor lay vacant for seven years, until Von Maur remodeled the anchor and opened it as their first Chicago-area store in 1994. Madigan's would close in 1992; this space, too, remained unoccupied until it was rebuilt as a food court and retail space.