WOODFIELD HISTORY

It's hard to imagine that 37 years ago Woodfield Mall opened with just 28 specialty shops and three department stores. Now, it houses nearly 300 stores and restaurants and five anchors and is the core of the entire northwest suburbs.

Woodfield is named for former Sears board chairman General Robert E. Wood and Marshall Field and Company founder Marshall Field I. It debuted on September 9, 1971, on 191 acres of prairie land, previously farms, cows, and a village tavern. Singer Carol Lawrence, actor Vincent Price, and two marching bands entertained at the debut.

By the end of September 1971, another 28 stores and restaurants had opened and that first business year finished with 138 specialty retailers. Many of those retailers -- Johnston & Murphy, The Limited, Stride Rite, and Fredericks of Hollywood -- are still at Woodfield today.

Originally 1.9-million square feet of retail space, Woodfield today is 2.7 million feet of retail space, making it the nation's fifth largest shopping center and Illinois' top tourist attraction with 27 million visitors each year. In 1973, Lord & Taylor opened and brought along 50 additional new retailers and a whole new wing. In celebration of its 20th anniversary in 1991, Woodfield added 23 more stores and then in 1996, Woodfield grew again with a $110-million wing. This new wing included a three-level Nordstrom, an expanded Lord & Taylor, and 50 new specialty stores. Of these new stores, nearly 40 debuted flagship concepts and designs, with about 27 of them the largest in their chains.

While all of this expansion continued at Woodfield, the surrounding Village of Schaumburg grew as well. In 1970, the population was 19,000; in 1980, it mushroomed to 55,000; and, according to the U.S. Census Bureau, Schaumburg had over 75,000 people in 2000. Schaumburg Mayor Al Larson observed that, "Woodfield established a focal point for development throughout all of the northwest suburbs. Without Woodfield, we wouldn't have office towers in Itasca or corporate development in Hoffman Estates."

Throughout the area, hotels continue to open to accommodate visitors from across the United States and Canada and as far away as Japan and Germany. In order to continue this momentum, Woodfield has partnered with local hotels to create World Class Shopping Excursions. As Tom Rivera, former president of the Greater Woodfield Convention and Visitors Bureau, noted, Woodfield is "such a high quality product that people not only want to come for a first time, they want to come in frequently thereafter. It's such an integral part of the tourism industry that hotels in the area run buses to Woodfield as part of their packages."

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