WINDSOR PARK MALL: SAN ANTONIO, TX
Cody Shawver's Commentary
Posted December 3, 2005 (user submitted)
Windsor Park Mall in Northeast San Antonio was San Antonio's Sixth Mall and
it's third largest. The project was announced Thursday January 10, 1974 by
Melvin Simon & associates. It opened 2 years later with Grand Opening
celebrations on July 29, 1976. It opened with 90 out of 116 shops occupied
with the rest coming online with in three months.
Some of the stores included were: The Limited, Dillard's, JCPenney, Montgomery Wards, Joske's, Lerner
Shops, Miller's outpost, The Athlete's foot, Zales, Wyatt's Cafeteria, Casual
Corner, Jeans West, The Wild Pair, Waldenbooks, B. Dalton, Spencer Gifts, and
Fredrick's of Hollywood. It was a nice mall for all price points, from the
Christian Dior and furs available at Joske's to novelty items at Spencer's.
1985 brought the addiiton of a Mervyn's department store.
In 1987 Joske's was bought out by Dillard's and Simon took the opprotunity to turn the Joske's into
a food court on the upper level and Dillard's remodeled the lower level into a
home store and moved their furniture and housewares there from the main store.
The food court was centrally located, and included a Dairy Queen, Chick-fil-a,
corn dog place, pizza place, Subway, and a gameroom.
In 1989 Simon opened Rolling Oaks Mall about 7 miles away. Coinciding with the opening of Rolling
Oaks was the remodeling of Windsor Park. This firmly took Windsor Park into
the 1990's. The remodeling included new skylights, marble floors, new
fountains and removal of some 1976 era sculptures. It was a worthwhile
improvment unfortunately it included no exterior remodeling leaving it Windsor
stuck in the mid 1970's. In 1992 on a city bus park and ride two gangs
exchanged fire one bullet struck a 62 year old woman killing her. This
signaled a decline into crime. Later in 1994, a shooting in the actual mall
involving juveniles disrupted the holiday shopping season. Simon acted too
little and too late to respond to the violence. Stores left the mall in droves
as did shoppers.
In the late 1990s, Windsor Park still had all it's
anchors though. Wards did extensive remodeling and became one of the most
profitable in the chain with 110% increases in sales. Suddenly things were
looking up, stores started to move back in, then wards declared bankruptcy and
closed its store for the last time. Fast forward to 2001 Mervyn's remodels and
a new 16 screen Regal theater is annoucned. December 2001 is once of the worst
Christmases in recent retail history. Dillard's announces that it will close
it's main store, the home store has already been closed and relocated to the
main store. It closed at the end of Jan 2002. Windsor is a shell of what is
once was. In Fall of 2002 Simon sells the mall to Whichard out of North Carolina.
In late 2003, JCPenney announces a new store at Rolling Oaks, and says that the Windsor Park
store will stay open. In June 2004, JCPenney announces that Windsor Park store will
close in the fall when Rolling Oaks store opens. Only Mervyn's was
left, but it closes with no warning or closing sales on August 31 2005.
Links
modsnap.com/deadmalls - Windsor Park Mall San Antonio, Tx by "Cornflakes" - produced specifically for deadmalls.com