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Woodfield is named for former Sears board chairman General Robert
E. Wood and Marshall Field and Company founder Marshall Field. It
debuted on September 9, 1971, on 191 acres of prairie land,
previously occupied by farms, cows, and a village tavern. Singer
Carol Lawrence, actor Vincent Price, and two marching bands
entertained at the debut. At the time of its opening, it claimed to
be the world's largest shopping center. 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,
Fredericks of Hollywood, and Lerner New York (now known as New York
& Company or NY&C) are still at Woodfield today.
Waldenbooks, another store that opened alongside the mall itself,
closed in 2007 as the parent company, Borders Group, operates a
Borders Books & Music store nearby at Woodfield Village Green.
Originally 1,900,000 square feet of retail space, Woodfield today
is 2.7 million feet of retail space. 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,
a larger replacement 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." The GLA of the
mall today is 2,700,000 square feet making it the fifth largest
shopping mall in the U.S. and ninth largest in terms of shopping
area. The mall is a highly visited tourist destination in the
Chicago metropolitan area, with about 27 million annual visitors.
The center features nearly 300 stores and is anchored by J.C.
Penney, Lord & Taylor, Macy's (formerly Marshall Field's),
Nordstrom and the country's largest Sears store at 416,000 square
feet. Woodfield is often used as a test market for retailers; a
recent example was the 2004 opening (and nationwide debut) of RUEHL
925 by clothier Abercrombie & Fitch. In 2006, the Marshall
Field's store was rebranded Macy's.
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