So many memories.
The scene of special dates, perfect gift purchases, prom dress shopping, first jobs and gossip sessions with friends.
Denise Richardson shouldn’t have been surprised to see so many people gathered at center court Friday to take one last look at the Spring Hill Mall in West Dundee/Carpentersville. After all, the mall general manager’s first job was at the Sears anchor store so she has lots of memories too.
It’s hard to fathom that something that caused so much excitement when it made its debut in October 1980 and for many years was the place so many visited for so many reasons would eventually have a date with a wrecking ball, but everything has its day and Spring Hill’s has come to an end.
Almost all of it has been purchased or is in the process of being bought by the village of West Dundee with plans for future redevelopment. Only the Kohl’s anchor store, which is corporately owned, and the Cinemark movie theater remains open.
As people wandered around the empty shopping center for one last time and former employees reminisced, it was time to say goodbye to an old friend.
“Thank you for the memories,” Richardson said.
A career launched
Siy Insisiengmay mingled with the crowd, posed for photos in front of the mall’s dancing fountain where many a coin was tossed and wish made, and laughed with lifelong friends.
“A big part of my life was here,” Insisiengmay said. “(Now) it’s gone.”
He remembers coming to the mall on a Pace bus when he was a kid to play videogames at Aladdin’s Castle. “I was addicted to video games,” he said, laughing.
Insisiengmay started working as a security guard right out of high school in 1994. He worked overnight with plans to become a police officer but when he was made head of security at age 22, a different career path was forged. “I kept moving up the ladder and never looked back,” he said.
Security was a challenge, especially in the late 1990s, when gangs became an issue. “There was a lot of crime here (then),” he said. “We did the best we could.”
Managing the large crowds that converged for special events could be a challenge, he said. He remembers the Avril Lavigne concert in particular, which drew about 10,000 people, he said.
When Insisiengmay left for a different security job in 2005, Spring Hill Mall was a still busy place, he said. He and his family would drop by when visiting relatives and watched as it slowly became a ghost town, the victim of a shift in people’s shopping habits, but for him it will always be a big part of his life, he said.
She said ‘yes’
Stacey Insisiengmay pulled out an old newspaper article. In the photo, she’s sitting on Santa’s lap as her then-boyfriend, Siy, went down on one knee with a ring in his hand.
“We looked like kids back then,” Stacey Insisiengmay said of the day she got engaged.
The couple has been married for 20 years and is among an untold number who met their spouse while at Spring Hill Mall.
She had just graduated from Judson University in Elgin and wanted to make some extra money for the holidays so she took a job working with the mall’s Santa. The line to see him could be so long in those days that the wait could take three hours, she said.
“They called him the real Santa Claus,” Stacey Insisiengmay said.
Pierre and Carole Uebe, who played Kris Kringle and his wife, were so popular that security had to escort them to the breakroom because children would trail after them as they walked through the mall. Stacey accompanied them and Siy was one of the security escorts.
“I took my shot,” Siy Insisiengmay said, “and it worked out.”
Stacey was getting her picture taken with Santa when Siy “whips out this ring and asks me to marry him. I didn’t know it was coming,” she said. “It was so sweet.
After they were married, the couple would come back to the mall and take photos with Santa. Later, they would bring their two children to visit Santa so they could have their photos taken with him too.
The family, who now lives in Iowa, developed a deep friendship with the Uebes that remains to this day, Stacey Insisiengmay said.
“It was a special place,” she said of the mall. “We had to make time for this (last day at the mall) because it was such an important part of our lives.”
A 43-year career
A month before Spring Hill Mall opened in 1980, Doug Winger was on the site cleaning up the construction debris. He ended up getting a job in the mall’s maintenance department and was there on opening day.
“It was packed. Just wonderful,” Winger said.
He’s been part of the mall ever since, but his role has evolved. He and his wife, Kelly, opened Winger Building Services with help from then-operations manager Mike Williams and the mall hired them to do maintenance.
The Wingers spent a lot of time at the mall. Their children were in Santa’s annual parade. The family helped with community events, like the Giving Tree.
“Everything was community-based,” Winger said. “It was a joy to work here. You felt like you were part of something. It was wonderful. I look back on it with treasured memories.”
Kelly Winger even played a very important role one year.
“I was the talking tree one year,” she said, laughing at the memory. She was a last-minute replacement as the voice of the tree that would interact with mall shoppers at Christmastime.
In addition to being a shopping hub and a place to hang out with friends, the mall also played host to a variety of community events — school concerts, business expos, live performances and contests. There would be so many people sometimes that Doug Winger would have to find an opening in the crowd to get around and do his job, he said.
The change started as the internet slowly started gained in popularity, he said. Once people were able to start buying things online that could be delivered to their homes, they came to the mall less, he said.
“You can’t blame the consumer. If they can get something on their doorstep for less money the next day, it’s convenient. But it did take away from the mall,” Winger said.
Its purpose as a gathering place also started to decline, he said. “People used to come here not just to shop but to speak face-to-face, grab something to eat or hang out at the center court. It was a place to gather. Now a lot of that is on Facebook,” Winger said. “While the internet is wonderful, it takes a toll on these places.”
One last walk
Charles Parker walked past what used to be Sbarro pizza and held his cell phone up, recording his last steps at Spring Hill Mall.
“This was my mall,” Parker said. “I grew up here. It was the first place I drove when I got my license.”
Parker grew up in Sleepy Hollow and now lives in DeKalb. He still visited Spring Hill Mall regularly, even after he moved. He watched the mall change through the years so news that it was closing wasn’t unexpected, he said.
“I wish more could’ve been done,” Parker said. “I still think more could’ve been done. I don’t consider it a dead mall. There were still enough stores that could’ve been redeveloped rather than booting out all the tenants.”
He hopes West Dundee officials might keep a wing open for retail and use the rest of the property for housing and offices. “But I’m not a lawmaker,” he said.
A final goodbye
James Cleary, dressed in a dark suit, walked around quickly as he prepared for the lineup of speeches for the mall’s “funeral.” He gathered his friends at center court where he gave a eulogy, musical pieces were performed and people shared memories of a place that was once central to their lives.
“I wanted to do this because Spring Hill Mall has been a part of all of our lives,” said Cleary, a student at Jacobs High School in Algonquin. “Ever since I was a kid, my parents would bring me here in a stroller. As I grew up, it became my social hangout spot. I thought it would be nice to have a final goodbye to the mall with my friends.”
One of them, Casey Johnson, wrote a few lines to share with those who gathered.
“We lay to rest the fond memories of times we had here,” she said. “Godspeed, Spring Hill Mall.”
Gloria Casas is a freelance reporter for The Courier-News.
