Editor’s Note: Today we begin Houston Historic Retail’s Month of Malls! Our 3 Wednesday posts will feature all new Mall content! Lets start off Part One with Northwestern Houston Resident Expert Anonymous in Houston! -Mike
Those who have visited the Willowbrook Mall area in Northwest Houston know that several words can be used to describe the territory, but ‘sleepy’ is probably not one of them in current times. However, prior to the official opening of Willowbrook Mall on September23, 1981 (though the original three anchors of Sears, Foley’s, and Montgomery Ward had all opened for business by September 2, 1981),‘sleepy’ was probably the perfect word to describe what is now known as the Willowbrook area. In fact, ‘sleepy’ could have been used to describe all of the Northwest Houston suburbs prior to the opening of the mall!
Prior to the 1990s, Sears tried to give all their full-line mall stores somewhat of a different exterior look. The Willowbrook store didn’t have the fanciest design with the arched design, but it wasn’t bad either. On the left corner of the store, you can see the Sears garden center that once briefly housed a Wolfe Nursery store-within-a-store location in the late 1980s. Houston Chronicle, September 1, 1981
The Willowbrook Wards was a very nice looking building, IMO, that looked fancier inside and out than the neighboring Sears. The Wards mall entrance had a grand entryway with a mirrored egg-crate type design and the 2nd floor overlooked the mall entrance area. Wards changed their logo design from the iconic ‘blue box’ design to the also iconic ‘underline’ design shortly after this location opened, but the mall always kept the original signage. The store was renovated on the inside shortly before Montgomery Ward went out of business. Houston Chronicle, August 30, 1981
The Willowbrook Foley’s did have a pretty remarkable design inside and out. Although this Foley’s was not as big as the Greenspoint and Northwest Mall Foley’s, it still had a wide variety of departments in the early days. One of my memories of the Willowbrook Foley’s in the 1980s-early 1990s was seeing the elevator get stuck multiple times and seeing the fire department try to rescue people trapped in the elevator! Houston Chronicle, September 1, 1981
Here is the side of the ex-Sears building facing the East. The entrance to the left went into the Men’s Department. The garage door for the attached auto center is on the far right. The Sears signage is still up even a year and a half after the store closed. (Photo courtesy of Mike/HHR)
Aside from the white paint that covers the red brick design that Montgomery Ward used, the Macy’s Men’s Store looks more or less like what the Montgomery Ward looked like. The indentation in the wall by the azaleas was one of the garage doors for the attached Wards Auto Center. (Photo courtesy of Mike/HHR)
This distinctive Macy’s Women’s Store building was originally a Foley’s. (Photo courtesy of Mike/HHR)
When the Homart Development Company division of Sears decided to place a mall at the southeast corner of the intersection of FM 149 & FM 1960 in the late 1970s as their second Houston-area mall after Baybrook Mall, even they probably could not imagine how much of an overnight success the mall would be and how much the area would grow and prosper in the subsequent 40 years. The development of neighborhoods in wooded Northwest Houston/Harris County in the 1970s, which led to the opening of the small North Oaks Mall at the corner of FM 1960 W & Veterans Memorial Dr./Stuebner Airline Rd. in 1976 (you can read about North Oaks Mall here, here, and here), probably gave Sears hope that a larger mall in Northwest Houston could be successful. Still, their expectations were surely exceeded almost immediately when the fortunes of the area boomed shortly after the mall opened due in part to technology industry activity that isolated the area from the economic malaise related to the oil bust that plagued the rest of the Houston area in the 1980s.
A quick glance at the Willowbrook area on a modern map shows that it sits at the corner of a freeway, SH 249, and a major road, FM 1960 West. Not far from the mall is the Beltway 8 freeway loop. When Willowbrook Mall opened, however, the Beltway 8 freeway did not yet exist, SH 249 was a fairly quiet non-freeway road named FM 149, and FM 1960 W was hardly the major artery that it is now. The fact that FM 149 even became a freeway as quickly as it did was surely boosted by the presence of the mall and related developments. FM 1960 W surely would not be the wide mega-road that it is with the underpass under SH 249 without the traffic caused by the mall and surrounding retail centers. Anyone who shopped at Willowbrook Mall in the 1980s or 1990s, as I did, surely remembers how horrifically bad traffic was near the mall before the modern roads were upgraded around the mall!
As mentioned earlier, the Northwest Houston suburbs, the Willowbrook area in particular, were isolated from the economic malaise that plagued the Houston area in the 1980s. The main reason for this is probably the explosive growth of the Compaq computer company that was formed in 1982. Compaq placed their sprawling global headquarters in a quiet part of FM 149 at Louetta Road in 1986. Compaq quickly ascended to become the leading manufacturer of PCs by the mid-1990s from their wooded offices just up FM 149 a few miles from Willowbrook Mall. With this, several educated and well-paid Compaq employees built homes in Northwest Houston/the Willowbrook area and this all helped boost sales for the retailers at Willowbrook Mall. The success of Compaq and Willowbrook Mall hastened the infrastructure improvements that led to rural FM 149 becoming SH 249, a major Houston freeway. Although Compaq’s 2002 merger with Hewlett-Packard did somewhat diminish the technology sector impact on the Willowbrook area, the area was had already become a huge growth area that continues even to this day with modern shopping and housing developments such as Vintage Park.
This ad for the mall is nothing special, but it does show the Willowbrook logo that can still be found on parts of the mall even today. Houston Chronicle, September 23, 1981
Here we see what I reckon is an early version of the Willowbrook Mall logo that Sears/Homart must have used during the development stage of the mall. It’s similar to the original Baybrook Mall logo. Fortunately, by the time the mall opened, Homart started using the more familiar Willowbrook logo that is, IMO, a better fit for the mall. Houston Chronicle, September 1, 1981
For many years, Luby’s was one of the three non-food court eateries at Willowbrook along with Ruby Tuesday and Casa Olé. The Willowbrook Luby’s opened during the short time in between the opening of the anchors and the opening of the mall itself. Oddly enough, Luby’s map of the mall includes the outline for the Macy’s that would not open until 1984! Houston Chronicle, September 9, 1981
One of the roadway signs for Willowbrook Mall at night. (Photo courtesy of Je/L&T Retail Blog)
Here’s a great sign that was near the Men’s Department at the Sears until the store closed. This sign must have been original to the store as it features the Sears logo Sears was using in 1981. (Photo courtesy of Je/L&T Retail Blog)
Here’s a mall entrance in between the Sears anchor and the old Montgomery Ward. The Forever 21 is where the old Luby’s Cafeteria once was. In fact, the greenhouse you can faintly see off to the right by the tree was once part of the dining room. (Photo courtesy of Mike/HHR)
Willowbrook Mall was such a success that there were even rumors of the mall adding a second story in the 1990s, but that never materialized. Nonetheless, the mall continued to add anchors beyond the original group of major anchors that opened along with the mall in 1981. Being a Sears/Homart developed mall, Sears naturally had the prime anchor spot at the mall. On the other end of the barbell-shaped mall was Foley’s who used a store design that was later reused at West Oaks Mall a few years later. The anchors that operated off the main mall corridor were Montgomery Ward and Joske’s. Joske’s did not open their location at Willowbrook Mall until July 1983, nearly two years after the mall initially opened. The mall also had a movie theater near the center food court.
In 1984, Macy’s opened a three-story department store at Willowbrook Mall and that easily became the most upscale anchor at the mall. In 1992, the mall added JCPenney as an anchor after years of rumors about Penney’s opening at the mall and the mall was also renovated in 1992 to have the interior design that the mall is still using to this day. Prior to the 1992 renovation, the mall had an indoor forest/park design that relied heavily on earthtones like most malls of the 1970s and early 1980s. The 1992 renovation replaced the earthtones with a more bright white-colored design that was starting to become popular at that time and which still maintains popularity to this day. Even with the interior of the mall being around 30 years old at this point, I believe the mall’s décor still looks up-to-date.
Here is a sketch from the planning stages of how Willowbrook Mall was to look. Ultimately, this sketch was very accurate, but only the Sears and Foley’s anchors have accurate designs. This sketch comes from a great Texas Monthly article from early 1981 linked below discussing Homart’s efforts to find tenants for the mall. It’s worth a read! Texas Monthly, April 1981
The Joske’s building at Willowbrook was a fairly plain looking building not unlike the Greenspoint and Pasadena Town Square Joske’s, but the Willowbrook store did have a rounded corner design that made it look a bit more fancy. Houston Chronicle, July 20, 1983
The Willowbrook Macy’s (in the building that is now Dillard’s) opened a few months after the very similar Deerbrook Mall Macy’s. Both originally had interesting electronics and computer departments on the 3rd floor. Macy’s could use that type of variety in their stores today to bring in a broader range of shoppers. Houston Chronicle, October 21, 1984
Here’s a look at the eye-catching ceiling in the food court. When the mall opened, the whole area had that woodgrain finish before it was all painted white with the 1992 renovation. In recent years, the beams have nicely been restored to have a woodgrain finish. (Photo courtesy of Je/L&T Retail Blog)
Here’s the exterior of the Nordstrom Rack anchor. The old Joske’s/Dillard’s/Lord & Taylor two-story building sat on this site, but it was torn down. (Photo courtesy of Mike/HHR)
Here’s the exterior of the Dillard’s/ex-Macy’s building. This is a very large, imposing building. There’s a little box on the top of the store with a Dillard’s sign (which used to say Macy’s) to tell people on the other side of the mall that there is a Dillard’s at this mall. (Photo courtesy of Mike/HHR)
In the mid-1990s, Macy’s closed their Willowbrook Mall location. Dillard’s, who had taken over Joske’s in 1987, was rumored to be interested in taking over the Macy’s building while also maintaining their existing location at the mall with a split men’s/women’s store arrangement like what took place for at least a short period at Baybrook Mall, but ultimately Dillard’s took over the Macy’s building and closed their existing location at the mall. Lord & Taylor eventually picked up the old Joske’s/Dillard’s location, but that was short-lived. When Lord & Taylor closed, that anchor building was demolished and left as an empty grassy anchor pad for several years until Nordstrom Rack opened their location at the mall in 2014.
After Montgomery Ward went out of business in 2001, Foley’s took over the Wards building and implemented the men’s/women’s store split that Dillard’s was considering some years prior with the men’s and furniture departments moving to the old Montgomery Ward. The two Foley’s stores then became Macy’s in 2006.
In recent developments, Dick’s Sporting Goods became the latest anchor at Willowbrook Mall, which is now operated by Brookfield Properties, in 2016 when their location was added to the side of the food court. The new food court restroom complex partially uses the area which used to be the long-defunct mall movie theater. In early 2020, Sears closed their Willowbrook Mall location. Thus, the most visible anchor building at the mall is now empty. If you’re interested in seeing what the Sears looked like inside while it was still open, I recommend reading this recent blog post at the Louisiana & Texas Retail Blog which contains photos taken inside the Willowbrook Sears in 2017-18. I can only guess that the old Sears building will be demolished at some point and turned into some kind of outdoor lifestyle center development at some point, but that has not happened yet. Even if a new anchor tenant is added to where the Sears is now, it’s hard to imagine it being a traditional retail department store.
You could once get a nice view of the food court and old movie theater area from this angle, but now this part of the mall is dominated by the Dick’s Sporting Goods. (Photo courtesy of Mike/HHR)
The Willowbrook Dick’s Sporting Goods has the look of a mall anchor. (Photo courtesy of Mike/HHR)
This is the center area of the mall. From here, one can go into the Sears wing, the Macy’s wing, the food court, or the little, quiet corridor straight ahead in the photo that has a handful of stores. Babbage’s Software and Fox Photo used to be in that little hall many years ago. (Photo courtesy of Je/L&T Retail Blog)
Here’s a wider angle of the food court. Old meets new with the design here since certain parts of what you see here date from the 1981 mall opening, some date to the 1992 major renovation, and some date to the food court renovation that happened around the time that Dick’s Sporting Goods opened. (Photo courtesy of Mike/HHR)
Here’s a look at the closed Sears mall entrance and the mall playground. The corner of the Shoe Palace next to Sears was once a Radio Shack. Stores that used to be where Old Navy is now include Suncoast Motion Picture Company, Sam Goody (who once had two concurrently operating locations at the mall), and Woolworth Express. (Photo courtesy of Mike/HHR)
Here’s one of the outdoor mall entrances. The logo seen here is more or less the same logo the mall has used since it opened. (Photo courtesy of Je/L&T Retail Blog)
I have read a lot of opinions about the current and future state of Willowbrook Mall. Depending on which websites you read, you might hear the mall defined as a thriving mall or a dying mall. I think the truth lies somewhere in between those claims, but it’s probably closer to being a thriving mall than a dying mall. Well, at least it’s a thriving mall as much as any suburban US indoor mall can be called here in the 2020s that does not have a significant outdoor lifestyle center component and/or exterior entrances for inline tenants. Willowbrook Mall still draws in a lot of shoppers and the mall is full of grade-A retail tenants. New tenants, like the In-N-Out Burger that is an outparcel at the mall, still bring a lot of excitement to the mall. The surrounding powercenters, such as The Commons which is across FM 1960 W from the mall, all still appear to be doing pretty well.
In my opinion, the loss of Montgomery Ward twenty years ago, the elimination of electronics from Dillard’s and Foley’s/Macy’s years ago, and the decline and closure of Sears has done a lot to turn Willowbrook Mall from a place that was very interesting to me into a place that really does not offer me very much. Sure, if I need work or formal attire, stores like Dillard’s and JCPenney are great options, but that type of shopping does not excite me very much. As sad as it is to say, I think the most interesting ‘retailer’ at Willowbrook Mall these days might be the Comcast/Xfinity store. Yikes! While it might not be realistic for stores like what Radio Shack used to be to start returning to Willowbrook Mall and other malls across the US, I do hope that retailers of some interest to me will open up at Willowbrook and other malls in the future. As such, there is not much reason for me to visit Willowbrook Mall regularly here in modern times.
With that said, Willowbrook Mall is still a major shopping destination in Northwest Houston. In fact, Willowbrook-area retail is probably still the shopping destination in Northwest Houston. As for the mall itself, the future of the mall, like so many other malls, is quite dependent on the health of the major anchor stores at the mall. If retailers like Macy’s and JCPenney can rebound and find relevance in the next decade, the future of Willowbrook Mall will probably be very bright. If those retailers fail in the next decade, which is certainly possible, Willowbrook Mall’s golden jubilee anniversary might not be so golden unless the mall can re-invent itself in a way that will likely not be centered on department stores and other traditional retailers.
Additional resources about the history of Willowbrook Mall:
Earlier in this post, I mentioned how quiet the FM 149 & FM 1960 W area was before the mall was built. To get a visual image of how quiet things were, I recommend viewing the image on page 252 of Erik Slotboom’s excellent 2003 book Houston Freeways. The image in question is an overhead construction photo of the Willowbrook Mall construction site that was taken in October 1980. Erik kindly provides his book as a free downloadable PDF on the Houston Freeways website. This book is a highly recommend read for topics even beyond Willowbrook Mall.
Finally, given how well Willowbrook Mall did early on and how much suburban Northwest Houston was growing, it is perhaps not a surprise that other mall developers hoped to build malls in Northwest Houston to compete with Willowbrook Mall. Je of the Louisiana & Texas Retail Blog wrote a blog post in 2014 about two of these proposed developments. One proposal had plans to build a mall called the Bluebonnet Mall along with a race track called Bluebonnet Downs at the corner of US 290 & FM 1960 W. Another proposal, which was pushed by the developers of the Mall of the Mainland, was to build a mall in Copperfield at the corner of FM 529 & Highway 6. The Copperfield Mall proposal was probably a serious one given that the same developers did actually build the Mall of the Mainland during the same general time period, but obviously neither it or the Bluebonnet Mall were ever built. Je’s blog post also mentions a couple of Houston malls Homart hoped to build in the 1980s or 1990s, but they did not get built. Homart was involved in the development of the Deerbrook Mall, which opened in 1984, and The Woodlands Mall that opened in 1994.
A Note About The Photos Used In This Post: Many thanks go to Mike of HHR and Je of the Louisiana & Texas Retail Blog for opening up their personal collection of photos of Willowbrook Mall. I am thankful for their collegiality and dedication to covering Houston retail. Mike’s photos were taken in mid-2021 and Je’s photos were taken in early 2020.
Foley’s and Coca-Cola might seem like an odd mix, but I do remember the snack bar that was on the second floor of the Willowbrook Foley’s. Houston Chronicle, September 1, 1981
I actually don’t remember the Willowbrook Wards having a restaurant, but obviously it did have one. It must have been short-lived. The Willowbrook Wards was the last new Wards to open in the Houston area. Houston Chronicle, July 26, 1981
Oshman’s maintained a location in Willowbrook Mall until they opened their SuperSports USA store on FM 1960 W in the 1990s. When they were are the mall, they had a location near Sears with the familiar stone façade. Houston Chronicle, September 24, 1981
Like a lot of Houston’s earlier malls, Willowbrook Mall contained a Walgreens location. It wasn’t around for very long though. Houston Chronicle, September 23, 1981
The Willowbrook Mall Playhouse Toys shared a grand opening with the Westchase Mall location. Westchase Mall was a very small mall similar to North Oaks Mall. Houston Chronicle, September 22, 1981
Willowbrook Mall opened during the middle of the Rubik’s Cube craze. Houston Chronicle, September 20, 1981
What would a 1980s mall be without designer jeans? Interestingly enough, County Seat was owned by the SuperValu supermarket chain during the time this ad was produced. Houston Chronicle, September 23, 1981
Royal Optical had a location at Willowbrook Mall in the small, usually quiet corridor with an exterior entrance by Sears. Optical stores like Royal were mostly replaced by 1-hour mall optical stores like LensCrafters and EyeMasters in the 1990s. Houston Chronicle, September 25, 1981
Mr. Music is one of several music stores that Willowbrook had at one time. Houston Chronicle, September 2, 1981
You might be wondering why I’ve included an ad from Baybrook Mall, but this ad shows the various names Hastings operated under at the time. Hastings was one of several record stores that Willowbrook had in the early days of the mall. Houston Chronicle, September 30, 1981
Here’s the mall directory as of August 2021. (Photo courtesy of Mike/HHR)
If you look closely, you can clearly make out the labelscar of the old Foley’s logo. I dare to say many Willowbrook shoppers wish Foley’s was never replaced by Macy’s. (Photo courtesy of Mike/HHR)
Here’s a good look at the arched design of the Sears building. On the right side of the arch here by the Men’s Department was a Sears repair center. Also notice how the Sears sign glows white when lit. It’s blue when it’s unlit. (Photo courtesy of Je/L&T Retail Blog)
This is the quiet little nook on the North side of the old Montgomery Ward/Macy’s Men’s Store. When Wards was open, this was the package pick-up and optical entrance. We often parked here when visiting the Wards or the mall in general. Just off to the left a bit is where the Luby’s Cafeteria used to exist. (Photo courtesy of Je/L&T Retail Blog)
The exterior of the JCPenney has been in rough condition for many years now. The outside of the store badly needs a cleaning and a new coat of paint. Even though this building is more than a decade newer than the ex-Sears building, the ex-Sears building looks to be in better condition. (Photo courtesy of Mike/HHR)
The JCPenney mall entrance looks similar to how many 1990s JCPenney mall entrances look. Prior to the construction of the JCPenney in the early 1990s, this wing existed, but the anchor pad was sealed off with a wall that had many small Willowbrook Mall logos on it. (Photo courtesy of Mike/HHR)
Here’s a look at the Macy’s (Women’s Store) mall entrance. This was originally a Foley’s. The Lids Locker Room off to the left was once a Lechters Housewares store in the 1990s. Visible Changes off to the left has been a fixture at that spot for decades. (Photo courtesy of Mike/HHR)
The center court of the Macy’s Women’s Store is one of the most visibly impressive parts of the store, but it was under renovation when Mike took this photo in August 2021. This store looked similar to how the West Oaks Mall Foley’s looked at one time, but the Willowbrook store has received many more renovations than the West Oaks store received before it closed. (Photo courtesy of Mike/HHR)
Here’s the Macy’s Backstage at the Macy’s Women’s Store. Mike reports that the store was having electrical problems when he visited it and that caused many of the lights not to work. He reported that the photo actually makes the store look brighter than how it actually looked on that day. (Photo courtesy of Mike/HHR)
Here’s one of the few intersections at the mall where the main corridor meets a smaller corridor connecting mall anchors. (Photo courtesy of Mike/HHR)
Here’s the mall entrance for the old Montgomery Ward/current Macy’s Men’s Store. When this was a Wards, the entrance had a mirrored finished which opened up to a mirrored egg-crate design inside the store entrance. It’s hard to see this area and not get the smell of Gloria Jean’s Coffee in my mind as they operated near here in the mall for many years. (Photo courtesy of Je/L&T Retail Blog)
While the outside of the Macy’s Men’s Store looks a lot like how the Montgomery Ward looked, the interior is completely different from how the Wards looked. This was designed by Foley’s shortly before they became Macy’s. (Photo courtesy of Mike/HHR)
Montgomery Ward also had a large furniture department at this building, but their furniture department was on the second floor. The second floor is no longer open to the public since this building became a Foley’s/Macy’s. (Photo courtesy of Mike/HHR)
The mall entrance for the Dick’s Sporting Goods is awkwardly placed in the corner of the food court. At one time, the dining area off to the right was once a mall Chick-Fil-A. (Photo courtesy of Mike/HHR)
Here’s the mall entrance for the Dillard’s. This used to be the entrance for the original Macy’s. Note the round HVAC vents off to the right. Those are all over the mall and have been a distinctive feature of the mall since it opened. (Photo courtesy of Mike/HHR)
If you want to see something vintage at Willowbrook Mall, the 3rd floor of the Dillard’s is perhaps the best place to spot it. These fixtures almost certainly date to when this store opened as a Macy’s in 1984. (Photo courtesy of Mike/HHR)
The 3rd floor of the Dillard’s is not just rather vintage looking, it’s also quite impressive looking. Macy’s certainly designed this building to be upscale. (Photo courtesy of Mike/HHR)
While the 3rd floor of the Dillard’s is perhaps the visually most impressive part of the mall, it’s probably also one of the least visited parts of the mall. (Photo courtesy of Mike/HHR)
Here’s an ad for Randalls in the mall. The nearby Flagship Randalls supermarket on FM 1960 in Champions Village opened in the old Handy Andy location a couple years prior to the mall opening. Now, it’s the only Randalls left in all of North Houston. (Photo courtesy of Mike/HHR)
Here’s the mall entrance for the Nordstrom Rack. This area used to have Joske’s, Dillard’s, and Lord & Taylor. (Photo courtesy of Mike/HHR)
The mall entrance for the former Sears. Prior to the mid-1990s, this mall entrance had a dark brick finish with the Sears logo off to the side. It was renovated in the 1990s with the white tile design that Sears used at many of their mall entrances. Note the Spirit Halloween poster in the right-side window. (Photo courtesy of Mike/HHR)
Here’s a roadway sign for the mall during the day. Brookfield Properties installed these new signs in the last few years. Prior to this, the signs had the same shape, but they had the traditional Willowbrook Mall logo on them. (Photo courtesy of Mike/HHR)
I was there opening night when various stores were giving away free stuff.. I lived in the arcade as a kid, loved Corndog7, and the theater. Total nostalgic blast from the past article, thank you for sharing!
Jeremy, I’m glad you liked the post! I certainly do remember the arcade in the food court over by the theater and the Marble Slab. I certainly do remember the Corn Dog 7 as well.
There has been some exciting news out of Willowbrook Mall here in the last couple of weeks. Sears has returned to the mall! Well, kind of. Sears has opened a Sears Hometown store, which sells appliances and tools, out of the old Sears location. I’m sure there will be more coverage of this on HHR in the near future so keep an eye out for that.
I enjoyed going here I the late 90s it would be my movie theater and Morrison’s cafeteria was delicious. Boy do I ever miss those cafeterias. I also ate at the chick FIL a that’s still there if I’m not mistaken. I used to work across the street at the old academy location. I’m done ranting just putting my 2 cents in.
Hi Michael, while the Luby’s Cafeteria at Willowbrook Mall is long gone, at least a couple of Luby’s not too far from the mall are on the list of Luby’s locations that will be purchased and will continue to operate. One is near FM 1960 W & 290 and the other is on FM 1960 W near I-45. Fortunately, it’s not too late to eat at a cafeteria on this side of town!
Willowbrook Mall was quite a place in the late 1990s. If nothing else, Sears was still a happening place and Montgomery Ward was still around. Although the mall still does well as far as indoor malls go, the late 1990s was pretty close to the end of the period where the mall had a real buzz about it. It’s not that the mall got worse, but retail trends started to shift away from malls not long after that.
You really did a great job with this post anonymous. I really enjoyed the trip to the past from these old ads for the mall. One thing I recently remembered is a laser light show back in the early 90’s. It was on the side of the mall near Sears/Dillard’s. Thanks for placing the links to my posts, it is greatly appreciated. I haven’t had much of a chance to visit my social media sites these past few weeks so I am glad you let me know about this post.
I think the future of this mall is still bright. The mall has gained some very good tenants recently with Zara and Nordstrom Rack joining the mall. One thing I was thinking about is for TJ Maxx and Homegoods to move to the mall to take up the old Sears space. TJ Maxx would be a great addition and they keep mall entrances open. They have been moving into malls lately even into some old Sears spaces. At least Sears should reopen again this year as a Spirit Halloween. Dicks Sporting Goods would have been a more popular addition to the mall if they had their Field and Stream and Golf Galaxy concept in the store. The massive Baybrook Dicks SG location with all three of the concepts in one building is so much better and busier. Replacing the Bar Louie space next to Nordstrom Rack is going to be a little challenging, these oddly placed restaurants attached to malls usually don’t fare well by themselves. The good thing is that the interior spaces throughout the main walkway of the mall don’t sit vacant for long if a store closes.
I certainly agree that the design of this mall has held up well over the years. The food court renovation is how the rest of the mall should be designed, only a minor upgrade to bring back some of the natural wood look of the past. Deerbrook had a similar food court and mall signage update, but the food court update made the place look very bland. They did a much better job at Willowbrook. At least the neon elevator is still in place at Deerbrook.
Thanks, I’m glad you liked the post! Also, thanks for the photos that you were able to provide for the post, they are great! Your photos, along with the great ones Mike took, really made the post.
I do remember the light show since I was there! I don’t remember if they did it multiple times, but I was at least one of them. I think maybe they did fireworks as well, probably for July 4th, for at least one year? Malls used to host all kinds of community events, but sadly a lot of this has been eliminated in the last 10-15 years.
A TJMaxx and HomeGoods combo would draw a lot of traffic to the mall. For better or for worse, however, HomeGoods and fellow TJX store Marshalls are located across FM 1960 in The Commons shopping center. TJX moving their locations is hardly inconceivable though given how many major retailers have moved from one Willowbrook area shopping center to another nearby one in the last 15 years or so. AMC, Bed, Bath, & Beyond/Cost Plus World Market, Academy, Conn’s, and Toys R Us all come to mind.
In addition to the Dick’s Sporting Goods sister stores at Baybrook Mall that you mentioned, the Baybrook area also has a Dick’s SG Clearance Store in a neighboring shopping center to the main Dick’s SG. Baybrook certainly has everything a Dick’s Sporting Goods fan could possibly want. Baybrook probably has an advantage over Willowbrook in that the coastal location makes selling fishing and perhaps other outdoor gear more viable. Still, it would have been nice to have the extra options at the Willowbrook store.
I figured that Bar Louie was going to be doomed when I first heard about it opening. I suppose it lasted longer than I thought it would, but yeah, it’s going to be a bit of a challenge to replace that spot. If the old Sears spot is ever redeveloped, hopefully they are smarter about building spaces which have more long-term viability.
While it’s highly unlikely to happen, I’d love it if Nebraska Furniture Mart opened a location in the old Willowbrook Sears. Sure, it would be a fraction of the size of the Metroplex NFM, but I think that old Sears still gives them enough room for furniture, appliances, and electronics. Of course, a NFM without electronics wouldn’t be worth it.
It’s really hard to believe that it’s been 30 years (well, 29 technically) since Willowbrook Mall last received a major renovation, but the mall still looks pretty fresh. Restoring some of the natural wood look in the food court was a great idea. I wouldn’t mind them blending the 1992 look with the 1981 look through the rest of the mall as a way of an inexpensive update to the mall that wouldn’t require much alteration.
One thing I should mention is that Dillard’s did substantially re-do/expand the Macy’s building (the original Macy’s, not the Foley’s Macy’s) to make it look like their own prototype. Interestingly, they didn’t redo the Deerbrook Mall building, which retains its original exterior.
Yep, that is true that Dillard’s did renovate the exterior of the Willowbrook ex-Macy’s to look like their corporate standard when they didn’t do the same at the Deerbrook Mall ex-Macy’s. Dillard’s also renovated the first two floors at the Willowbrook location, but the third floor still has a lot of a Macy’s look to it like with that earthtone tile photo.
I love the collaboration and contributions from many different retail enthusiasts in this post! Great coverage of the mall.
On the topic of the two Sam Goody stores in the same mall, I wonder how common that was — not just for Sam Goody, but for any business. I can’t imagine it’s a profitable arrangement except in the most extreme cases, but even then, it’s got to be a very short-lived window of time… right? I visited a mall in Savannah, GA, which had three GameStop-owned stores: GameStop, ThinkGeek, and one of the last EB Games in the US (which had a separate GameStop sign in the window and was essentially a duplicate GameStop). Crazy.
Thanks, I’m glad you liked the post! Je and Mike’s photos that I was able to use for this part are really exceptional. I’m so glad I was able to use them. I suppose those of us in Houston who make posts like this are lucky to have a really great local retail enthusiast scene where we can rely on each other for information and resources. Without giving away too much information, I will say that there will be some more Houston mall posts here at HHR in September by other bloggers and they’re going to be great posts! You might even see some of my resources in one of the posts!
Wow, a mall with both a GameStop and an EB Games. That’s pretty crazy without even factoring in the ThinkGeek. Like with the two Willowbrook Mall Sam Goody locations, I wonder if those stores shared employees. Woolworth had a pretty major presence for a brief period of time at Willowbrook when they had a Woolworth Express store at the mall to go along with Foot Locker and Lady Foot Locker at the very least. Granted, those weren’t all similar stores.
If you think the Willowbrook Sam Goody situation was strange, you should have seen what was happening at The Galleria in Houston for a few years after Macy’s took over Foley’s. The Galleria had both an original Macy’s and a Foley’s when Macy’s was taking over Foley’s. Macy’s decided to keep both stores going for a few years and both were run as full-line stores at the same mall! No, this wasn’t a men’s store/women’s store situation, they were both full-line stores. Eventually, the store that started out as Macy’s did close, but it was a very odd situation for a few years!
Fun article! I worked for Sam Goody at Willowbrook in1994. One store was a Sam Goody/ Suncoast video combo store & one was just Sam Goody. I don’t recall that we shared employees.
Hi Anonymous, thanks, I’m glad you liked the post! That’s neat that you worked at one of the Willowbrook Sam Goody locations. You’re right that the Sam Goody near Sears was combined with a Suncoast Video. I can’t remember exactly where the other Sam Goody was, but I know that it was out towards the Montgomery Ward and Foley’s.
Another odd thing I remember about the Sears wing Sam Goody is that the outside shipping and receiving door out near the Sears men’s department/package pick-up entrance had a Sam Goody logo above it that was more ornate that one would expect for a store which had no exterior entrance. At least I think that sign was at the Sears wing Sam Goody, it could have been at the other location or maybe both of them. Anyway, it was one of those strange things I remember. I’m not sure if any other Willowbrook shoppers of that time remembers that as well, but perhaps you might remember that since you worked there.
I’m glad you liked the post! I don’t have strong memories of Mr. Music at Willowbrook, but I absolutely remember the Hastings at Willowbrook Mall in the 1980s. There was also the time Willowbrook had two separate Sam Goody locations in it at the same time in the 1990s! This seems like ancient history now, unfortunately.
I was there opening night when various stores were giving away free stuff.. I lived in the arcade as a kid, loved Corndog7, and the theater. Total nostalgic blast from the past article, thank you for sharing!
Jeremy, I’m glad you liked the post! I certainly do remember the arcade in the food court over by the theater and the Marble Slab. I certainly do remember the Corn Dog 7 as well.
There has been some exciting news out of Willowbrook Mall here in the last couple of weeks. Sears has returned to the mall! Well, kind of. Sears has opened a Sears Hometown store, which sells appliances and tools, out of the old Sears location. I’m sure there will be more coverage of this on HHR in the near future so keep an eye out for that.
I enjoyed going here I the late 90s it would be my movie theater and Morrison’s cafeteria was delicious. Boy do I ever miss those cafeterias. I also ate at the chick FIL a that’s still there if I’m not mistaken. I used to work across the street at the old academy location. I’m done ranting just putting my 2 cents in.
Hi Michael, while the Luby’s Cafeteria at Willowbrook Mall is long gone, at least a couple of Luby’s not too far from the mall are on the list of Luby’s locations that will be purchased and will continue to operate. One is near FM 1960 W & 290 and the other is on FM 1960 W near I-45. Fortunately, it’s not too late to eat at a cafeteria on this side of town!
Willowbrook Mall was quite a place in the late 1990s. If nothing else, Sears was still a happening place and Montgomery Ward was still around. Although the mall still does well as far as indoor malls go, the late 1990s was pretty close to the end of the period where the mall had a real buzz about it. It’s not that the mall got worse, but retail trends started to shift away from malls not long after that.
You really did a great job with this post anonymous. I really enjoyed the trip to the past from these old ads for the mall. One thing I recently remembered is a laser light show back in the early 90’s. It was on the side of the mall near Sears/Dillard’s. Thanks for placing the links to my posts, it is greatly appreciated. I haven’t had much of a chance to visit my social media sites these past few weeks so I am glad you let me know about this post.
I think the future of this mall is still bright. The mall has gained some very good tenants recently with Zara and Nordstrom Rack joining the mall. One thing I was thinking about is for TJ Maxx and Homegoods to move to the mall to take up the old Sears space. TJ Maxx would be a great addition and they keep mall entrances open. They have been moving into malls lately even into some old Sears spaces. At least Sears should reopen again this year as a Spirit Halloween. Dicks Sporting Goods would have been a more popular addition to the mall if they had their Field and Stream and Golf Galaxy concept in the store. The massive Baybrook Dicks SG location with all three of the concepts in one building is so much better and busier. Replacing the Bar Louie space next to Nordstrom Rack is going to be a little challenging, these oddly placed restaurants attached to malls usually don’t fare well by themselves. The good thing is that the interior spaces throughout the main walkway of the mall don’t sit vacant for long if a store closes.
I certainly agree that the design of this mall has held up well over the years. The food court renovation is how the rest of the mall should be designed, only a minor upgrade to bring back some of the natural wood look of the past. Deerbrook had a similar food court and mall signage update, but the food court update made the place look very bland. They did a much better job at Willowbrook. At least the neon elevator is still in place at Deerbrook.
Thanks, I’m glad you liked the post! Also, thanks for the photos that you were able to provide for the post, they are great! Your photos, along with the great ones Mike took, really made the post.
I do remember the light show since I was there! I don’t remember if they did it multiple times, but I was at least one of them. I think maybe they did fireworks as well, probably for July 4th, for at least one year? Malls used to host all kinds of community events, but sadly a lot of this has been eliminated in the last 10-15 years.
A TJMaxx and HomeGoods combo would draw a lot of traffic to the mall. For better or for worse, however, HomeGoods and fellow TJX store Marshalls are located across FM 1960 in The Commons shopping center. TJX moving their locations is hardly inconceivable though given how many major retailers have moved from one Willowbrook area shopping center to another nearby one in the last 15 years or so. AMC, Bed, Bath, & Beyond/Cost Plus World Market, Academy, Conn’s, and Toys R Us all come to mind.
In addition to the Dick’s Sporting Goods sister stores at Baybrook Mall that you mentioned, the Baybrook area also has a Dick’s SG Clearance Store in a neighboring shopping center to the main Dick’s SG. Baybrook certainly has everything a Dick’s Sporting Goods fan could possibly want. Baybrook probably has an advantage over Willowbrook in that the coastal location makes selling fishing and perhaps other outdoor gear more viable. Still, it would have been nice to have the extra options at the Willowbrook store.
I figured that Bar Louie was going to be doomed when I first heard about it opening. I suppose it lasted longer than I thought it would, but yeah, it’s going to be a bit of a challenge to replace that spot. If the old Sears spot is ever redeveloped, hopefully they are smarter about building spaces which have more long-term viability.
While it’s highly unlikely to happen, I’d love it if Nebraska Furniture Mart opened a location in the old Willowbrook Sears. Sure, it would be a fraction of the size of the Metroplex NFM, but I think that old Sears still gives them enough room for furniture, appliances, and electronics. Of course, a NFM without electronics wouldn’t be worth it.
It’s really hard to believe that it’s been 30 years (well, 29 technically) since Willowbrook Mall last received a major renovation, but the mall still looks pretty fresh. Restoring some of the natural wood look in the food court was a great idea. I wouldn’t mind them blending the 1992 look with the 1981 look through the rest of the mall as a way of an inexpensive update to the mall that wouldn’t require much alteration.
One thing I should mention is that Dillard’s did substantially re-do/expand the Macy’s building (the original Macy’s, not the Foley’s Macy’s) to make it look like their own prototype. Interestingly, they didn’t redo the Deerbrook Mall building, which retains its original exterior.
Yep, that is true that Dillard’s did renovate the exterior of the Willowbrook ex-Macy’s to look like their corporate standard when they didn’t do the same at the Deerbrook Mall ex-Macy’s. Dillard’s also renovated the first two floors at the Willowbrook location, but the third floor still has a lot of a Macy’s look to it like with that earthtone tile photo.
I love the collaboration and contributions from many different retail enthusiasts in this post! Great coverage of the mall.
On the topic of the two Sam Goody stores in the same mall, I wonder how common that was — not just for Sam Goody, but for any business. I can’t imagine it’s a profitable arrangement except in the most extreme cases, but even then, it’s got to be a very short-lived window of time… right? I visited a mall in Savannah, GA, which had three GameStop-owned stores: GameStop, ThinkGeek, and one of the last EB Games in the US (which had a separate GameStop sign in the window and was essentially a duplicate GameStop). Crazy.
Thanks, I’m glad you liked the post! Je and Mike’s photos that I was able to use for this part are really exceptional. I’m so glad I was able to use them. I suppose those of us in Houston who make posts like this are lucky to have a really great local retail enthusiast scene where we can rely on each other for information and resources. Without giving away too much information, I will say that there will be some more Houston mall posts here at HHR in September by other bloggers and they’re going to be great posts! You might even see some of my resources in one of the posts!
Wow, a mall with both a GameStop and an EB Games. That’s pretty crazy without even factoring in the ThinkGeek. Like with the two Willowbrook Mall Sam Goody locations, I wonder if those stores shared employees. Woolworth had a pretty major presence for a brief period of time at Willowbrook when they had a Woolworth Express store at the mall to go along with Foot Locker and Lady Foot Locker at the very least. Granted, those weren’t all similar stores.
If you think the Willowbrook Sam Goody situation was strange, you should have seen what was happening at The Galleria in Houston for a few years after Macy’s took over Foley’s. The Galleria had both an original Macy’s and a Foley’s when Macy’s was taking over Foley’s. Macy’s decided to keep both stores going for a few years and both were run as full-line stores at the same mall! No, this wasn’t a men’s store/women’s store situation, they were both full-line stores. Eventually, the store that started out as Macy’s did close, but it was a very odd situation for a few years!
Anyway, here’s a link to a Sam Goody ad from 1995 which shows both Willowbrook locations listed: https://infoweb.newsbank.com/apps/news/openurl?ctx_ver=z39.88-2004&rft_id=info%3Asid/infoweb.newsbank.com&svc_dat=AMNEWS&req_dat=0D1C2A34C3EF45E0&rft_val_format=info%3Aofi/fmt%3Akev%3Amtx%3Actx&rft_dat=document_id%3Aimage%252Fv2%253A14DB39C1C40322B4%2540EANX-171D963C0E892732%25402449773-171BC34CF28488E8%254051-171BC34CF28488E8%2540/hlterms%3A
Fun article! I worked for Sam Goody at Willowbrook in1994. One store was a Sam Goody/ Suncoast video combo store & one was just Sam Goody. I don’t recall that we shared employees.
Hi Anonymous, thanks, I’m glad you liked the post! That’s neat that you worked at one of the Willowbrook Sam Goody locations. You’re right that the Sam Goody near Sears was combined with a Suncoast Video. I can’t remember exactly where the other Sam Goody was, but I know that it was out towards the Montgomery Ward and Foley’s.
Another odd thing I remember about the Sears wing Sam Goody is that the outside shipping and receiving door out near the Sears men’s department/package pick-up entrance had a Sam Goody logo above it that was more ornate that one would expect for a store which had no exterior entrance. At least I think that sign was at the Sears wing Sam Goody, it could have been at the other location or maybe both of them. Anyway, it was one of those strange things I remember. I’m not sure if any other Willowbrook shoppers of that time remembers that as well, but perhaps you might remember that since you worked there.
Mr. Music has heavy metal! and also Journey…
Great tour of the mall!
I’m glad you liked the post! I don’t have strong memories of Mr. Music at Willowbrook, but I absolutely remember the Hastings at Willowbrook Mall in the 1980s. There was also the time Willowbrook had two separate Sam Goody locations in it at the same time in the 1990s! This seems like ancient history now, unfortunately.