Mall St. Matthews, formerly known as The Mall, is a

shopping mall A shopping mall (or simply mall) is a large indoor shopping center, usually Anchor tenant, anchored by department stores. The term ''mall'' originally meant pedestrian zone, a pedestrian promenade with shops along it, but in the late 1960s, i ...

located near

Louisville, Kentucky Louisville is the List of cities in Kentucky, most populous city in the Commonwealth of Kentucky, sixth-most populous city in the Southeastern United States, Southeast, and the list of United States cities by population, 27th-most-populous city ...

at 5000 Shelbyville Road (

US 60 U.S. Route 60 is a major east–west United States highway, traveling from southwestern Arizona to the Atlantic Ocean coast in Virginia. The highway's eastern terminus is in Virginia Beach, Virginia, where it is known as General Booth Bouleva ...

) in the eastern suburb of St. Matthews.

History

Originally named simply "The Mall", the facility was the first enclosed suburban shopping mall in the state of

Kentucky Kentucky (, ), officially the Commonwealth of Kentucky, is a landlocked U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern region of the United States. It borders Illinois, Indiana, and Ohio to the north, West Virginia to the ...

. It was developed by the Rouse Company and opened on March 21, 1962. Located next to the Watterson Expressway, the mall had

A & P The Great Atlantic & Pacific Tea Company, better known as A&P, was an American chain of grocery stores that operated from 1859 to 2015. From 1915 through 1975, A&P was the largest grocery retailer in the United States (and, until 1965, the la ...

Kaufman-Straus Kaufman-Straus was a local department store that operated in Louisville, Kentucky, from 1879 to 1969. In 1879, local retail clerk Henry Kaufman opened the first store on Jefferson between 7th and 8th. Four years later, Benjamin Straus entered int ...

, and Rose's as its

anchor store In North American, Australian and New Zealand retail, an "anchor tenant", sometimes called an "anchor store", "draw tenant", or "key tenant", is a considerably larger tenant in a shopping mall, often a department store or retail chain. They are ...

s. The

JCPenney Penney OpCo LLC , Trade name, doing business as JCPenney (colloquially Penney's and abbreviated JCP) is an American department store chain store, chain with 649 stores across 49 U.S. states and Puerto Rico. It is managed as part of the Catalys ...

anchor store was added in a later mall expansion in the 1960s. The mall's features included a children's play area (including some turtle characters to climb on) near Rose's (which is now a food court), an oversize chess set near Kaufman-Straus, and numerous fountains. The name of the mall was changed to The Mall in St. Matthews as other malls were built, but the mall gradually declined with stores moving to newer malls. In the late 1980s, the mall name was simplified to Mall St. Matthews and remodeled to include a food court in the early 1990s,

The Limited The Limited is an American clothing brand sold exclusively through Belk. The Limited began with operating retail stores between the early 1960s and the late 2010s. In 2017, it became a brand owned by the private equity firm Sycamore Partners. Hi ...

Express Express, The Expresss or EXPRESS may refer to: Arts, entertainment and media Film * ''Express: Aisle to Glory'', a 1998 comedy short film featuring Kal Penn * ''The Express: The Ernie Davis Story'', a 2008 film starring Dennis Quaid * The Expre ...

, a wing dedicated to

Limited Brands Bath & Body Works, Inc. (formerly known as L Brands, Inc., Limited Brands, Inc. and The Limited, Inc.) is an American specialty retail company based in Columbus, Ohio. It owns Bath & Body Works, posted $7.4 billion in revenue in 2023, and was ...

was added, and expanded the former Kaufman-Straus store (which had become both a

Stewart Dry Goods The Stewart Dry Goods Company—alternately known as Stewart Dry Goods, or Stewart's—was a regional department store chain based in Louisville, Kentucky. At its height, the chain consisted of seven store locations in Kentucky and Indiana. The ...

and

L. S. Ayres L. S. Ayres and Company was a department store based in Indianapolis, Indiana, Indianapolis, Indiana, and founded in 1872 by Lyman S. Ayres. Over the years its Indianapolis flagship store, which opened in 1905 and was later enlarged, became kn ...

before closing) to accommodate a Bacon's department store which relocated from its freestanding location at 3937 Shelbyville Road. As more retail stores wanted to move to the mall after these changes, a new wing was built which resulted in the re-routing of Sherburn Lane to the west of the new wing. The mall formerly had a Chuck E. Cheese's Pizza Time Theatre which operated from 1984 until December 1991. The Pizza Time Theatre at the mall was incredibly popular, and caused decreased business for the other Pizza Time Theatre in Louisville on Preston Highway. The mall expanded again in 1995 with a new wing and the addition of Dillard's, and in 1997

Lord & Taylor Lord & Taylor was an American department store chain founded in 1826 by Samuel Lord. It had 86 full-line stores in the Northeastern United States at its peak in the 2000s, and 38 locations at the time of its liquidation in 2021. The Lord & Tay ...

followed suit. In 1998 the Bacon's chain was merged into Dillard's, and the former Bacon's location became the Dillard's Men's, Children's & Home store. In 2000 Nordstrom tentatively agreed to build a store, but withdrew in 2001 before a final contract was signed with Rouse. Lord & Taylor closed their store in early 2004, a portion being occupied by regional junior department store

Dawahares Dawahares (pronounced DAW-hairs) was an American retail clothing department store chain. It was founded by Sarur Frank (S. F.) Dawahare, who immigrated from Syria in 1907 in Neon, Kentucky, and remained within the family for four generations. In ...

until early 2007. The mall took out 2 fountains in 2007, one in the food court area and the other in front of

Kay Jewelers Sterling Jewelers, Inc. is an American specialty jewelry company headquartered in Akron, Ohio through the Fairlawn suburb. The company was founded in 1910 by Henry Shaw (the father of Jerry Shaw, the chairman emeritus of Sterling today), from L ...

and

Starbucks Starbucks Corporation is an American multinational List of coffeehouse chains, chain of coffeehouses and Starbucks Reserve, roastery reserves headquartered in Seattle, Washington. It was founded in 1971 by Jerry Baldwin, Zev Siegl, and Gor ...

. Floor tiles replaced the fountains along with new tables and seating. The mall currently has over and includes the anchor stores of JCPenney and separate

Dillard's Dillard's, Inc. is an American department store chain with approximately 267 stores in 29 states and headquartered in Little Rock, Arkansas. Currently, the largest number of stores are located in Texas with 57 and Florida with 42. The company a ...

locations for Women (in the 1995 Dillard's building) and Men's, Children's & Home (in the former Lord & Taylor building). The Dillard's Men's & Home store relocated to the former Lord & Taylor building in late 2007, and Dillard's then turned over the former Bacon's store to the mall owner, potentially for redevelopment. On February 21, 2012,

Forever 21 F21 OpCo LLC, trade name, doing business as Forever 21, was a multinational fast-fashion retailer. It was originally founded as Fashion 21 in Highland Park, Los Angeles, Highland Park, Los Angeles in 1984.Forever 21History & Facts, n.d. Retrieved ...

moved into the vacated Dillard's/Bacon's store. The mall is currently owned by

Brookfield Properties Brookfield Properties is a North American subsidiary of Commercial property, commercial real estate firm Brookfield Property Partners, which itself is a subsidiary of Alternative investment, alternative asset management company Brookfield Corpor ...

, which also owns

Oxmoor Center Oxmoor Center is a shopping mall in Louisville, Kentucky. Opening in 1971, its anchor stores are Macy's, Von Maur, H&M, the Apple Store and Dick's Sporting Goods, along with a Topgolf location. The mall is owned by Brookfield Properties and fea ...

on the other side of the Watterson Expressway. Its major stores include a

store divided into two sub-stores and

. A 10-screen

Cinemark Cinemark Holdings, Inc. (stylized as CineMark from 1998 until 2022 and in all caps since 2022) is an American movie theater chain that started operations in 1977 and since then it has operated theaters with hundreds of locations throughout the A ...

multiplex that opened on May 16, 2013, is physically attached to the mall, but is separately owned and has no pedestrian access to the rest of the mall. On December 26, 2015, a disturbance occurred at the mall involving as many as 2,000 people – mostly teenagers – some of whom were fighting each other and shoving or pushing mall customers, and the mall was closed early in response to the incident. Following the incident, the mall had a temporary policy requiring visitors between ages 10 and 17 to be accompanied by someone at least 21 years old after 4 pm on Fridays and Saturdays. On August 10, 2017, it was announced that the mall's food court will be getting a major renovation which will include new floor tiles and furniture, removal of the railing and elevated platform seating, new furnishings, upgrades to a nearby restroom, downsizing Forever 21, to 30,000 square feet only on part of the first floor which was announced on June 6, a

Dave & Buster's Dave & Buster's Entertainment, Inc. (stylized in all caps) is an American restaurant and entertainment business headquartered in Dallas. Each Dave & Buster's location has a full-service restaurant, full bar, and a video arcade; the latter of w ...

on the second floor of the Forever 21 building also announced on June 6 which opened in 2018, and an

Ulta Beauty Ulta Beauty, Inc., formerly known as Ulta Salon, Cosmetics & Fragrance Inc. and before 2000 as Ulta3, is an American chain of cosmetic stores headquartered in Bolingbrook, Illinois. Ulta Beauty carries both high- and low-end cosmetics, fragra ...

on the remainder of the first floor of the Forever 21 building. On April 23, 2021, a shoe and clothing store named Zappos Unboxed opened that was the first of its kind and is owned by the online retail company

Zappos Zappos.com is an American online shoe and clothing retailer based in Las Vegas, Nevada, United States. The company was founded in 1999 by Nick Swinmurn and launched under the domain name Shoesite.com. In July 2009, Amazon acquired Zappos in an ...

References

External links

Mall St. Matthews Official web site
{{General Growth Properties Shopping malls in Kentucky Brookfield Properties Buildings and structures in Jefferson County, Kentucky Tourist attractions in Jefferson County, Kentucky Shopping malls established in 1962 St. Matthews, Kentucky