Once upon a time, in Aurora, Ill., there were no shopping centers, strip malls, or whatever one wanted to call them. Aurorans shopped mostly downtown at local retail outlets. There were, of course, local branches of national business entities, such as, Woolworth, Kroger, and Rexall Drugs, to name a few popular outlets, and automobile dealerships galore scattered throughout the town. Shoppers had to drive far and wide to patronize them.
Then one day, the legendary businessman, entrepreneur, and developer, Harry Stoner, who manufactured pinball and slot machines before and after World War II and munitions during the War in a factory at the intersection of South View Street and Gale Avenue, had a bright idea: Why not gather up all these retail outlets and place them in a single location in order to save would-be shoppers the hassle of driving all over town?
See, Mr. Stoner owned a large chunk of land on North Lake Street that he wanted to exploit. At this time, only a grove of trees occupied the property. He cleared the trees out, paved the land with asphalt, and constructed long, multi-store buildings to order. He named the site the Northgate Shopping Center and opened it for business in 1960 with Sears, Roebuck, and Company store as the linchpin. Northgate became a wild success, and soon businesses clamored to get into the act.
Personal footnote: The Chas had a part in the clearing of this property. He had signed on with Manpower, Inc., during Summer 1959 to earn money for expenses at Aurora College, and this job was his only assignment the whole Summer. In retrospect, as a firm environmentalist, he regrets having had anything to do with that project.
Hard on the heels of Northgate, West Plaza on West Galena Boulevard in Aurora became operational in 1961. Until recently, Walmart was the linchpin. A lull followed as developers struggled to negotiate favorable deals with the City of Aurora government to purchase land. It seemed as though the idea was to construct shopping centers on every empty lot.
One developer finally did succeed and bought a huge chunk of former farm land at the southwest corner of Illinois Routes 59 and 65 (the latter no longer exists, however, is known as New York Street). At the time of development, the only structures in the area were a Texaco service station and Cholar’s Restaurant on the northeast corner. The developer had a grand plan for a giant shopping center; and the result was the Fox Valley Mall, or just plain “The Mall”. It opened in February 1975 with a second grand opening the following July. It was the first enclosed site in northern Illinois.
Once The Mall was in place, the floodgates were opened, so to speak, and the biggest rush to profits occurred on all sides in the Aurora area, beginning with the Yorkshire Plaza on the northwest corner and the Naperville West Shopping Center on the southeast corner and spreading in all directions as far as the eye could see. Today, we have a shopping megalopolis between Aurora and Naperville from Vaughn Road on the west to Ogden Avenue east and from Interstate 88 north to High Meadow Drive, south. If you can’t find what you’re looking for out there, dear reader, it doesn’t exist!
These days, one cannot travel anywhere in Aurora without passing at least one strip mall. My colleague at The Voice, Marissa Amoni, may disagree with me, but the historian in me believes that Downtown Aurora is just a shadow of its former self. She hopes that will change eventually, but I will hold my view in reservation.
Just a thought.