White Oaks Mall opens on Wabash Avenue
By late August 1977, Springfield's newest retail project was ready to open its doors.
White Oaks Mall debuted with nearly one hundred stores, polished floors, and enclosed walkways built to hold steady crowds year-round.
Construction had started three years earlier on open farmland at the corner of Wabash Avenue and Veterans Parkway.
The original design carried the name Westroads Mall, but that was later replaced by one inspired by the local subdivisions.
Inside, a two-level plan connected every corridor, giving Springfield its first full-scale regional shopping mall.
Four department stores framed the building from the start.
Sears, Montgomery Ward, Famous-Barr, and Myers Brothers each staked out their own territory, with distinct façades and parking lots feeding into separate entrances.
Inside, the light from the skylights washed over a looping walkway that guided shoppers past every display and storefront in turn.
That opening weekend, the mall anchored the city's westward push, a concrete promise of permanence alive with its first crowds.
From Myers to Bergner's and a 1990s rebuild
The Myers Brothers store was still new when its name began to fade from the mall directory.
By the early 1980s, Bergner's had taken its place.
The red lettering over the entrance looked brighter than what had been there before, but the walls and display lights were the same.
Inside, departments were rearranged, the escalators still hummed, and Springfield had quietly joined a retail network that stretched far beyond its own market.
Scaffolding appeared along the corridors ten years later.
White Oaks began a $14 million facelift in 1993 that changed nearly all of what visitors saw.
Workers replaced flooring, added new railings of glass, and carved out a space for dining.
Bright work lights kept the nights alive as ceilings came apart and skylights were cleared.
The place took on a renewed pace, broader and lighter than before.
When the dust settled, the mall added a carousel.
It went up in 1997 near the food court, two tiers of painted horses turning in a slow loop.
Music drifted across the upper level, folding into the sound of footsteps and soft conversation, the new pulse of White Oaks Mall at the end of the century.
Closures and replacements reshape the south side, 2001 to 2006
In 2001, Montgomery Ward shut its gates after the chain's national liquidation.
The closure left one corner of White Oaks empty for the first time since the opening year.
For months, its display windows stayed covered as crews cleared out fixtures and escalators stood still behind glass.
By 2004, construction brought new activity.
Dick's Sporting Goods opened in the upper level of the former Ward box, while Linens' n Things and Cost Plus World Market divided the lower level.
Together, they filled the space with steady traffic and split what had once been one department store into three mid-sized anchors.
The shift marked a new model of reuse that other properties later followed.
Two years later, a national rebranding reached Springfield.
Famous-Barr converted to Macy's in 2006, carrying the same layout but new signage and inventory.
The change added another national logo to the mall's façade, giving White Oaks a refreshed image that aligned with the national retail network.
Each alteration kept the footprint alive while the market moved.
A new look and operating footprint, 2011 to 2012
By 2011, the interior finishes at White Oaks Mall were due for renewal.
Work began that year on a full modernization project that included the food court, restrooms, and all main entrances.
Construction walls went up while stores stayed open, signaling a careful remodel meant to update the property without interrupting trade.
Architects stripped away the drop ceilings in the central court, exposing the skylight system that had long been hidden.
Daylight traveled farther down, opening the space between the two stories.
The floors gained a simpler pattern, benches were renewed, and glass-and-metal rails replaced the old ones above.
The project carried into 2012, finishing as a complete interior update.
The mall kept its original footprint but gained brighter surfaces, wider walkways, and a more open visual line from one anchor to the next.
Nothing about the renovation added square footage, yet it refreshed the experience for tenants and visitors alike.
By the time the last section reopened, the complex had quietly reset its rhythm for another decade of retail traffic.
Twin anchor exits and a pivot away from department stores, 2018
The year 2018 pulled two longtime anchors out of White Oaks Mall within weeks of each other.
Bergner's closed first, on August 29, after its parent company's liquidation.
The familiar red script disappeared from the mall's west wing, leaving an empty box that had once held a full-line department store.
By September, Sears closed its doors, bringing forty years of business to an end and leaving behind a wide area tied to the upper concourse.
The changes came quietly yet reshaped entry to the site, erasing two of its most familiar façades.
By year's end, only Macy's remained from the original group of traditional anchors.
The other big corners of the mall sat empty as the owners searched for a plan.
With fewer local shoppers and more online orders, the building began to shift in meaning.
What used to be all department stores was becoming something else, a blend of entertainment and reuse that replaced the old lines of retail.
Government offices and indoor attractions arrive, 2020 to 2024
When the State of Illinois purchased the empty Sears building in 2020, the mall entered a new stage of reuse.
The deal included plans to convert the former retail anchor into offices for the Illinois Environmental Protection Agency, along with the Department of Innovation and Technology and the Pollution Control Board.
The 186,000-square-foot space, once filled with appliances and displays, was stripped to its concrete frame.
The transformation took several years and cost around $80 million.
Construction teams built open offices, laboratories, and meeting rooms within the old shell, replacing escalators with stairwells and service corridors.
The outer walls stayed intact, but everything behind them was rebuilt for a government workplace.
By December 2024, the EPA began its move into the finished building, bringing desks, filing cabinets, and hundreds of employees into the mall's footprint.
A separate project was nearing completion nearby.
In 2023, the former Bergner's reopened as Malibu Jack's, a family entertainment center with go-karts, bowling, and mini-golf.
Its bright lights reflected off the polished floors of what had once been a department store.
By late 2024, White Oaks Mall held two contrasting tenants under one roof - state offices and amusement rides.
2025 brings a final department store exit and full move-in
Macy's announced its closure at White Oaks Mall in January 2025, part of a national round of store reductions.
The location wound down operations through winter, marking the end of the mall's last full-line department store.
When its doors finally locked, the era that began in 1977 with four anchors had quietly concluded.
At the same time, the state offices in the former Sears box reached full operation.
By early February, every IEPA employee had settled into the new building, now officially listed as 2520 W. Iles Avenue.
In the following months, the Illinois Pollution Control Board began using that address in its updated filings, marking the relocation in the official record.
Elsewhere, the mall's core retail tenants continued alongside Malibu Jack's, Dick's Sporting Goods, Michaels, and Esporta Fitness.
Where crowds of weekend shoppers once packed the lots, office staff and visitors now come and go.
The property's purpose had stretched far beyond retail, shaped by closures, conversions, and the steady reuse of spaces that once defined Springfield's busiest mall.