Slowly dying…2 anchors closed shop and tons of mom and pop shops. This mall use to attract good brands.

The trouble with Stratford Square mall was it was too far off the beaten path. No direct expressway access. No major corporate employers to speak of. Stratford Square mall was buried in the middle of a largely residential area. It lacked tourist attraction value. It was too close to a super-regional mall, namely Woodfield mall. Of course, it didn’t help that Carsons and Sears went of business. Ever wonder why Oakbrook Center & Yorktown center don’t cancel each out despite being very close to each other? Interstate 88 & they are not going after the same demographic. In fact, they tend to complement each other.

Ha! I made it in your video 3:12 - the kiosk on the bridge- aka Ida Lee Visuals is my small business 😅

Great Video! I hope you do more in the future.

Malls used to be so cool to hang out in. Too bad they priced theirselves out of business. Now the ones that are left are scary places.

I did my final walk through this past April. There were so many childhood memories, and it's a shame how things have changed.

Whatever happened to the 2 kids that torched the place?

It’s like ValleyView Mall in Dallas TX, because I went there with my family

the crazy thing is that this place caught fire.....twice, before it was finally demolished

I went there In 2001 and remember it like it was yesterday it’s sad to see such a historical landmark fall to bankruptcy

worked at the corvette show when it was held here in early 2000's after it left bloomington, IL crazy to see things go away swam in that pool and ran around bourbon st

No way it's in Dallas Texas. I LIVE IN HOUSTON TEXAS😮

Thank you amazon and millennials

Im goin later todayy

I enjoyed those old woodfield commercials very much. It made my day. The relaxing Charlie brown esque piano and saxophone music was fun to listen to as well.

My sister went to see Jim Carey there, after his show she played a game of pool wthj him. 1990.

Sure wonder how the fire started. 😂

You walk through the dead mall and all I see is that Gloria Jean that's been there since the 80s. I see Aunt Anns, Gamestop / Funkeland, The toy store with so many different names, All the stores I did IT work for. The back halls my brother used to skate around in. Lots of memories. I took this same walk with some friends in the spring and it kind of hurt. They live right behind the mall.

What a waste. I hope those teen arsonists got a stiff prison sentence.

yup this happens when everyone keeps buying from crapazon

Weird seeing a mall I used to visit to buy hats and manga has become such a phenomenon.

Hometown Mall Baby - 40+ years later Still Standing Strong !!!

Thanks for the video man. I was just blown away when I saw that there was a video about it and it gave me good memories seeing the pictures, but I just can’t believe that it’s gone. I believe the fire was intentionally you know that tower was haunted. I stayed there many times and it was haunted.

What an amazing place that was I remember as a kid going there and you know I lived out in Lombard in that area. I was born in the city lived there when I was young kid and then moved out to Lombard when I was in my preteen years and that’s when we went to the place, I can’t believe they didn’t save it as a historical landmark or something. It had such a big impact on that whole area. In fact if it wasn’t for pheasant run growing, and being popular the way it was I don’t think that area would’ve grown the way that it did, and this is what was done they destroyed the place. I just drove by there maybe two weeks ago and you wouldn’t even know there was anything there that was an amazing place. I really had a lot of good times there.

To rund down not updated for years is why we did not go back

That was a nice place, stayed there many times. Gonna miss it.

I honestly had no idea Woodfield is the largest mall in IL. I grew up close to it so that's the only mall I knew.

omg I forgot about the waterfall you could walk under! I used to love going under there as a kid.

The migrants use a translation AP on their phones…. That’s how the migrant children got through school last year also 🙄

I saw Alabama there in 1991 or 1992 I think. Then when we moved to South Elgin, we went there to the shops, especially the Coffee Drop Shop and enjoyed Sunday brunch near the indoor pool, walked around Bourbon Street. Kids loved to go there! Such a shame it was destroyed by fire. Good memories! Thanks for featuring this gem in the Fox Valley area.

This mall was dead for what seemed like a very long time. The last time I remember it still thriving was around 2003 or 2004 when I would visit the mall periodically while living out of state. It was great it had almost full food court (a Taco Bell and McDonald's at one point and a Great Steak) I remember when they had a Sam Goody, a sports memorabilia store and a movie memorabilia store and a Gamestop. It was probably a better mall for guys than girls honestly. I came back to the area around 2008 and it the interior was pretty dead except for the anchor stores and the movie theatre still remaining. There were still some stores remaining but by around 2011 or 2012 the inside of the mall was almost entirely empty. It seemed like forever until they finally closed the inside in late 2017. I was surprised to learn that Carson's lasted until 2018; I thought it closed before that.

When I was growing up in the 1960s, this was one of the shopping centers we went to. My brother and sister and I always had to stop to see the water wheel, and run back and forth across the bridges and watch the koi in the mill pond. Thank you for the memories.

Our school went there for chour class and sang christmas songs. Took my kids to meet santa when they were babies. Our parents would drop us off at the mall puck us up later. No worries about who was there or getting into trouble. It was a social media before social media.

Thanks for the video, both the historical one, and the live footage you've added. I haven't been to Woodfield in decades, but all my visits there were pleasurably memorable. I loved the food aromas, the relaxing "white noise" you could hear at times, and the pleasant smells of places like Marshal Fields. Yes, those were very pleasant days in the very early 1970s. I wish I could relive them.

The first convention I did as an artist vendor was here in 2012, it was such a neat place. Sad to hear what happened to it.

Unfortunately the Sears at Woodfield is a blight. It needs to be torn down ASAP.

Crazy to think that the kids in the child-care area are now nearing retirement. Where does the time go!

My friends and I used to go to the Houlihans in the Mall for the free taco bar during happy hour, those were the days. 🌮🍺👍

Woodfield was developed by Taubman Group. The same architect that designed Woodfield Mall designed the now defunct Northridge Mall in Milwaukee, WI and Southridge Mall in Greendale, WI.

I grew up in Darien, Illinois and as a kid and young adult Yorktown was the place to go. The stores were a bit more affordable for a young person compared to the Oakbrook Mall down the road. Plus this mall was also enclosed, which was great in winter! I had a friend I would visit often that worked at S&H green stamps redemption center which was on the top floor of the Wieboldt's store. I can still remember her counting pages and pages of stamps! I also enjoyed shopping at Madigans which had nice clothing at affordable prices. I am so glad to see this mall still busy and trying to keep up with the changing times!

I used to work at the Rainforest Cafe and i kinda miss working at a mall. There used to be so many cool stores back in the day like Sony Style, Diesel, Discovery Channel, Sharper image. Last time i went i was sad to see Fossil gone. I was going to take in one of my old watches i got in the early 2000's for a battery replacement.

Since 1961, the Cherry Hill Mall in New Jersey thrives to this day.

The biggest reason for the prosperity of the mall，Naperville and Aurora, is the fast increase Asian immigrants from China and India in the past two decades.

only thing i miss about living in chicagoland is the malls, the Lasalle-peru Mall is very small and not it chief.

Anyone remember Johns garage? Also the fish tanks you walked down a few stairs and it was like a cave, you looked thru a round enclosure. Just a few things I remember that aren't there anymore.

I grew up going to this mall. I forgot all about the walk-under waterfall. They had a good Pretzel and Gyro place in the mall. Good times. I always loved the sculptures throughout the mall.

The original anchor was not Carson Pirie Scott's but Bergner's. Also, the Macy's was a Marshall Field's.

Same thing happened to the Chateau Louise in West Dundee, also in the Fox Valley. And the Chateau Louise also had this kind of pool. It was also a resort buoy from a barn. It was wonderful.

What about the machine? Why is it there?

I was just at the mall to see HVasquez circus. I used to love the rainforest cafe when I was a kid. It is funny what has been upgraded and changed and what has not from the original design, and how the additions have different interior styles, and the 3 types of incandecent exit signs match the year of the additions: modcast, prescolite, and Lithonia.