Unveiling The History Of Dellwood Mall: A Glimpse Into Midland’s Past

If you're one for all things nostalgic, here is a piece of Midland history for you that you may or may not have known about. Did you know that the Kingsway Center located on Illinois in Midland, used to be THE mall in Midland? The Midland Park Mall had not even been thought of yet.

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The name of the former mall was Dellwood Mall which had several stores in it and had the indoor part of the mall open. Shops not only opened out onto the parking lot, but you could also access all the stores inside the mall.

WHICH STORES WERE LOCATED AT THE ORIGINAL MALL LOCATION?

That is no longer the case, where the health department is presently used to be another leg of the mall and more stores.

Some of the stores that used to be in the Dellwood Mall were Dunlap's, and you can still see the arched entrances for Dunlap's in the current building. That is the northeast corner of the shopping center. A grocery store called M System occupied the mall's west end, where Richard Milburn Academy and the bingo hall are now.

I have a friend who grew up on Thomas, which is the street on the west side of the shopping center, so as a kid, we used to walk over to the mall all the time and play on the coin-operated horses and go to the soda fountain area of Kresge's, which was what K-Mart was known as before changing its name in 1977.

There was also a Firestone in the part that is now where Family Dollar is, and Thornton's was on the backside where the health department and senior center are now. There was also a Baskin-Robbins where a barbershop is now.

It is quite strange to see that it is just a shell of what it used to be back in its heyday in the 50s and 60s.