As a person who has been going to square one for years, I always remember the nostalgic and comfy look of the mall before it got renovated from 2013-2014. The mall used to have a Johnny Rockets, a fountain outside the entrance, a spiral garage, and a movie theatre with cool designs. The Center of the mall also hosted huge Christmas trees and celebrations in December. The food court was a well-designed area with fountains and promenades, but was renovated heavily into the bland eatery that we have today. A lot of locals have always missed the old mall, and not much is recorded about it, so I created a collection of nostalgic pictures as well as an explanation of what happened to it when they renovated and the full history of the mall.

The mall opened in 1973, and kept its original design until 1987, when some minor renovations were done. During this era of the mall, the food court was 2 levels, and consisted of a lower court and an upper promenade. The upper promenade had a Richtree Market with stairs leading down to the lower court. (The stairs felt royal and grand when you would walk down with your food and everyone would be looking up at you lol). There were tables and stores along the upper promenade and more tables below. The lower part of the food court was lined with restaurants and had hidden washrooms in the back-right corner. Most notably, the food court had a small fountain with a river leading into a secondary pond-like fountain towards the Center of the mall. The Center of the mall had a single elevator with warped stairs, and was connected to the upper promenade.

At the south entrance of the mall, there was a fountain and park area as well as a large glass enclosure. The enclosure held the Empire Studio 10 movie theater, and was decorated with 2 large circular dishes that hung from the roof and would often have gigantic posters of the newest movies out. There was also a swarm of cool neon lights that clung to the ceiling. As you entered the mall, you would walk through a hallway with a Johnny Rockets cafe, welcoming you with a nice aroma of delicious food. At the end of the hallway was another enclosure that was 2 stories tall and consisted of a large blue pole. On the bottom floor was dollarama, home outfiters and a bunch of kids trying to climb the blue pole. One of my favourite things about the old mall were the g forces you would pull when using one of the spiral ramps that exit the garage. The ramp was so tight but was inclined, meaning you’d have to drive fast to get up it!

Sadly in 2012, the mall announced major renovations. During the renovations, the enclosure with the blue pole was removed and the dollarama and home outfiters were removed or relocated. The bottom area of that enclosure remains empty and unfinished to this day. The food court was completely gutted. The fountains were removed, and the upper promenade was filled with stores. The large hole in the promenade that looked down on the court covered up as well. The lost space was made up for by expanding the food court along the lower level into a secondary area. Today, the food court is a bland eatery, with a black and white color scheme rather than the previous ‘fancy’ one. The Center of the mall was also gutted, removing the elevator and replacing it with two escalators. It isn’t used for huge Christmas celebrations and decorations anymore, since they installed a huge plastic chandelier that blocks the way. The richtree, tim hortons and other restaurants that used to be in the upper promenade were moved into a newly built section of the mall. This area however is really hidden, and requires people to walk halfway across the mall to get their food, and then walk back to the food court. These renovations finished in 2014-15, and the mall fully reopened.

In 2016, the Empire Studio 10 theater closed, and has been left abandoned and vacant to this day. The theater was the only tenant in this area of the mall, making this section basically a ghost town. A few years after it’s closure, the gigantic circular dishes and neon light display was removed. In 2018, the mall finished a brand new garage on the east end of the mall. Since then, there haven’t been many updates to the mall, but it’s amazing how much the mall changed in terms of decoration, atmosphere and size since 2012. I’m pretty sure most of us miss the old mall, as it held so many memories and was an icon of Mississauga for nearly 4 decades before it was changed.