Standing at the corner of U.S. 151 and the interstate on the northeast side of Madison, Wisconsin, sits an enclosed mall that opened in 1971 and is still open today.
East Towne Mall opened with Sears, J.C. Penney, H.C. Prange Co., and Gimbel's. Gimbel's became Boston Store in 1987. Prange's became Younkers in 1992, then a second Boston Store in 2003.
The Gimbel's building came down in 2003. Boston Store closed in August 2018, and Sears closed in September 2020 after nearly 49 years.
JCPenney is still in the building it opened in. The mall runs 801,300 square feet, with 87 percent of its in-line space leased, and the two old department-store boxes sit empty.
East Towne Mall opened with four department stores in 1971
Crews broke ground on September 18, 1970, on farmland at the northeast edge of Madison, Wisconsin, near the point where U.S. Highway 151 meets Interstate 90/94.
The developer was Jacobs, Visconsi, and Jacobs Co. of Cleveland, the same firm that opened West Towne Mall on the other side of the city later that year.
East Towne Mall opened on October 14, 1971 with a small ribbon-cutting ceremony.
Sears, J.C. Penney, H.C. Prange Co., and Gimbel's took the four anchor positions, and Prange Way, the discount division, filled a large block at the rear of the Prange complex.
The enclosed center held 940,000 square feet of rentable space on a site of about 84 acres. Nothing else in Madison came close.
Eight pools and a 3,000-pound yellow rhinoceros
The developers put money into art.
Joseph McDonnell made four sculptures for the building, one of them a yellow rhinoceros with red polka dots, cut from half-inch steel plate, weighing roughly 3,000 pounds.
Another was a suspended multicolored piece about 35 feet by 22 feet, hung above an entry.
Clarence Van Duzer took the central court, where the ceiling ran about 30 feet up.
Four columns framed a three-level pool with waterfalls, and a fountain about 15 feet high used lights synchronized to music.
Sculpted stone relief blocks flanked the main entrance.
Eight water pools, sunken lounges, carpeted seating, and tropical plantings filled the rest of the common area, which was built for sitting as much as for buying.
The lot outside ran to 2.1 million square feet and held 6,000 cars.
Stone and Robinson Associates arranged it so the longest car-to-store walks averaged roughly 350 feet.
The dance troupe that reached the Wisconsin Supreme Court
In 1984, an anti-nuclear dance group called Nu Parable asked to perform inside the mall and hand out literature.
Management refused, pointing to a standing rule against political and religious solicitation and leafleting.
On August 9, 1984, the group came in anyway, performed after security asked them to stop, and passed out literature.
Restraining orders and contempt proceedings followed.
A Dane County court permanently barred the troupe from performing on the owners' property, and the fight went up as Jacobs v. Major.
On June 23, 1987, the Wisconsin Supreme Court sided with the owners.
A Wisconsin mall is private property rather than a public forum, and it can exclude expressive activity it hasn't consented to.
The opinion also preserved a description of the building at full strength: 95 tenant stores besides the department stores, 83,000 square feet of corridor, and an estimated 175,000 visitors a week.
Two years later the pools and sunken seating came out, the main entrance was redesigned, and a food court went in.
When the mall had two Boston Stores at once
Gimbel's Midwest operations collapsed in the mid-1980s, and the East Towne store became Boston Store in 1987.
Younkers bought H.C. Prange Co. in 1992, and the Prange's turned into a Younkers.
In 2003 that same store was renamed Boston Store, which gave the mall two of them for a transition period.
The older one, in the original Gimbel's building, closed.
Ownership had changed by then.
CBL & Associates agreed in September 2000 to buy a package of Jacobs properties for $1.2 billion, East Towne and West Towne included, and closed the purchase on January 31, 2001.
CBL spent $2.2 million on a 2003 facelift: skylights, new flooring and finishes, seating, family restrooms.
A 26,000-square-foot Barnes & Noble went in near the food court.
Then the empty Gimbel's building came down. Gordmans opened in September 2004 and Dick's Sporting Goods that October.
The six-screen Budget Cinemas wing had already closed in 2003 for Steve & Barry's, which folded in December 2008, and Steinhafels moved furniture into the space.
Flix Brewhouse opened in July. Boston Store closed in August.
Madison issued the permit in August 2016 for an 18,200-square-foot Planet Fitness inside the mall, and H&M arrived in the same tenant cycle.
Steinhafels made plans to move out of the rear wing, which opened the way for a bigger project.
Flix Brewhouse opened there on July 5, 2018, the Texas chain's first Wisconsin location, with nine screening rooms, restaurant seating, and a working brewery.
The whole thing was designed around a visit longer than a shopping trip.
Seven weeks later, on August 29, 2018, Boston Store closed after Bon-Ton's liquidation.
The old Prange building, purpose-built for a department store, sat without a tenant.
Sears left after 49 years, and the owner filed Chapter 11
Stage Stores confirmed in February 2020 that Gordmans would close.
Sears shut that September, after nearly 49 years in the building it had opened with, and it was the last full-line Sears in Wisconsin.
On November 1, 2020, CBL and its property-level entities, including the two tied to the Madison malls, filed for Chapter 11.
The mall kept trading through the case. CBL emerged a year later to the day, with East Towne still in its portfolio.
The two big boxes stayed empty for a reason leasing couldn't solve. Sears owned its own building, and a third party owned the former Boston Store.
CBL had been able to take the Gimbel's building down when it redeveloped that site.
East Towne today: bowling lanes, and two anchors still empty
Madison spent the next few years rewriting the rules around the property.
The city adopted the Greater East Towne Area Plan on February 22, 2022, covering 786 acres.
By July 2023 the Common Council had rezoned the mall parcels to Regional Mixed-Use, and the official city map had reserved two 66-foot corridors for streets that could one day cut through the district.
The Northeast Area Plan replaced the older document in 2024 and kept the direction. Rapid Route A bus service started on September 22, 2024.
Thrill Factory opened on December 31, 2024 in 50,000 square feet of the old Gordmans box, with 12 bowling lanes, multi-level laser tag, escape rooms, an arcade, and miniature golf.
The mall runs 801,300 square feet, with 87 percent of its in-line space leased, and CBL estimates 4.8 million visits in 2025.
JCPenney still trades in the building it opened in 1971, next to Dick's Sporting Goods, Barnes & Noble, H&M, and Planet Fitness.
On Friday and Saturday evenings, anyone under 18 needs an adult with them, a rule the mall has enforced since 2017 and police helped enforce again in March 2026.
The former Sears and the former Boston Store are still empty, and nobody has announced a demolition.
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