River Roads Mall

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Facts and statistics
River Roads Mall


Location	Jennings, Missouri, United States
Opening date	1963
Closing date	ca. 1995, demolished 2006
Developer	Stix, Baer & Fuller
Total retail floor area	600,000 square feet (55,741.8 m²)
No. of floors	2

River Roads Mall was an enclosed shopping mall located in the city of Jennings, a suburb of St. Louis, Missouri, United States. Opened in the 1950s as one of the nation's first shopping malls,^[1] the mall declined in the 1990s, becoming a dead mall and eventually being shuttered. Demolition of the long-vacant mall began in 2006.

[edit] History

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Opened in the early 1960s, the mall originally featured St. Louis-based Stix, Baer & Fuller as its main anchor store, as well as a Kroger supermarket and an Woolworth dime store. A 1970s expansion brought JCPenney as a second anchor store.^[2]

Dillard's bought the Stix, Baer & Fuller chain in 1984, converting all Stix, Baer & Fuller stores to the Dillard's name; however, the River Roads Mall store was closed not long afterward in 1986 at the end of the lease. JCPenney also converted its store to a JCPenney outlet in the mid 1980s, and the mall's Kroger was eventually converted to an independent supermarket called Food 4 Less.^[2]

By the mid 1990s, most of the other stores in the mall had closed as well, leaving the Food 4 Less as the only store open. Benderson Development, which had acquired the mall shortly before its closure, sold the mall property in 1997.^[3]

Demolition of the vacant structure began in 2006.^[1]