Thinking about two suburban shopping malls recently demolished in the western suburbs of Chicago (here and here), how might a suburb go about marking – if at all – where the shopping mall once stood?

Both malls operated for over four decades. People from the suburb in which they were located and nearby suburbs shopped and gathered there. The communities in which they were located gathered and used the tax revenue generated by the mall.

As redevelopment plans get underway, is it worth marking where the mall once stood? Imagine a roadside marker that says “Former site of the Stratford Square Mall.” Or within the new development some indication on the ground of the footprint of the mall. Or naming some part of the new development after the mall that was once there.

Perhaps marking the former mall site in some way is going too far. Plenty of suburban redevelopment happens without much concern with what was there before. Historic preservation groups and efforts can save or identify properties worth holding on to. But it takes money and local will to remember past land uses and buildings. Would there be enough interest in remembering these shopping malls?

One feature I like about Google Streetview is that with over a decade of streetscape images, you can go back and see what an address looked like years ago. This might be possible to do with other mediums, such as overlaying older photographs or drawings over current images, but it can be difficult to track down such images. The malls will live on in Streetview, even as the sites are transformed.