Walt Whitman Shops

Walt Whitman Shops (formerly known as Walt Whitman Mall) is a shopping mall in South Huntington, New York.[1] The mall's main anchors include Bloomingdale's, Macy's, and Saks Fifth Avenue with one vacant anchor last occupied by Lord & Taylor. The mall is owned and managed by Simon Property Group, one of the largest developers of shopping malls in the US.

Walt Whitman Shops
The Walt Whitman statue in front of Walt Whitman Shops
LocationHuntington Station, New York
Coordinates40.8223°N 73.4097°W / 40.8223; -73.4097
Opening dateNovember 23, 1962 (1962-11-23)
OwnerSimon Property Group
ArchitectWelton Becket
No. of stores and services105
No. of anchor tenants4 (3 open, 1 vacant)
Total retail floor area1,089,350 sq ft (101,204 m2)
No. of floors1 (2 in Saks Fifth Avenue and former Lord & Taylor, 3 in Bloomingdale's, 4 in Macy's)
Parking5,043 spaces
Public transit access Suffolk County Transit: S1, S23, S29, S54
Huntington Area Rapid Transit: H30, H40
Nassau Inter-County Express: n79
Websitesimon.com/mall/walt-whitman-shops

On Thursday, August 20th, 2020, it was announced that Lord & Taylor would be closing as part of a plan to close 24 store nationwide which exactly one week later on Thursday, August 27th, 2020 it would be all Lord & Taylor stores nationwide closing. The store closed on Tuesday, December 29th, 2020.[2]

The closing of Lord & Taylor marked the end of a 22 year period during which the mall had no vacant anchors.

The mall is named for the poet Walt Whitman due to the close proximity to his birthplace, a US National Historic Site, located near the mall.

Incidents
  • November 13, 1984: A fire destroyed seven stores and damaged 25 others in the 76-store mall.[3]
  • May 16, 1991: In 1993 a McCrory's worker pleaded guilty to tossing a lit cigarette into a display of silk flowers set on a block of styrofoam, causing significant damage to the store and killing two of his coworkers aged 20 and 27.[4]
  • February 22, 2014: A carbon monoxide leak in a restaurant complex consisting of Legal Sea Foods, The Cheesecake Factory, and Panera Bread attached to the mall killed one person and sickened 28 others. All three restaurants were evacuated.[5]

Anchors
  • Bloomingdale's (225,000 square feet, 2 Floors Above Ground, 1 Floor Below Ground) Opened in 1962 as Macy's. Was closed for renovation in 1998 and reopened as a Bloomingdale's. Macy's had opened in 1995 in the much larger Spot vacated by A&S that same year. This resulted in two Macy's stores at the same mall for over two years.[6]
  • Lord & Taylor (120,000 square feet, 2 Floors Above Ground) Opened in 1998 in mall expansion and closed December 29th, 2020.[2]
  • Macy's (315,000 square feet, 3 Floors Above Ground, 1 Floor Below Ground) Opened in 1962 as Abraham & Straus, which was then closed and converted to Macy's in 1995.[6]
  • Saks Fifth Avenue (100,000 square feet, 2 Floors Above Ground) Opened in 1999 in mall expansion replacing the former McCrory Store which had closed in 1991 after being destroyed in a fire.[7] With the closing of the Southampton store on October 9, 2010, this location is the only branch location left in the state of New York, save for the flagship store in Midtown Manhattan, New York City.[8]

Previous anchors

References
  1. "About Walt Whitman Shops". Simon Property Group. Archived from the original on 3 October 2018. Retrieved 3 October 2018.
  2. "LI to lose another Lord & Taylor store". Newsday. Retrieved 2021-01-09.
  3. "L.I. Mall Still Assessing Fire Losses". The New York Times. November 23, 1984. p. B2. Retrieved 2010-04-25.
  4. Wasserman, Elizabeth (February 3, 1993). "Guilty Plea in Deadly Mall Fire Ex-guard set blaze at McCrory's". Newsday. p. 25. Retrieved 2010-04-25.
  5. "1 Dead, 28 Others Exposed to Carbon Monoxide at NY Mall". NBC News. February 22, 2014. Retrieved 2014-02-23.
  6. Madore, James; Bruno, Lisa (May 29, 1998). "Bloomingdale's to Debut In Suffolk With New GM". Newsday. Newsday LLC.
  7. March 10, James T. Madore STAFF WRITER; Pm, 1999 7:00. "New Saks Marks A Rebirth at Mall / Walt Whitman stays on an". Newsday. Retrieved 2021-01-09.CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
  8. Ratner, Ian (2010-10-13). "60 Years Later, Saks Ends Iconic Relationship with Southampton". Curbed Hamptons. Retrieved 2021-01-09.
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