Walt Whitman Shops (formerly known as Walt Whitman Mall) is a luxury shopping mall located in Huntington Station, New York on Walt Whitman Road (Route 110) and New York Avenue. It has many stores including main anchors Bloomingdale's, Lord & Taylor, Macy's and Saks Fifth Avenue. The mall is owned and managed by Melvin Simon and Associates, one of the largest developers of shopping malls in the United States and owner of Long Island's largest mall, Roosevelt Field in Garden City. Suffolk County Transit, Nassau Inter-County Express and Huntington Area Rapid Transit all have bus routes that service the mall.
Walt Whitman Shops was the first enclosed mall located on Long Island.
The mall is named for the poet Walt Whitman due to the close proximity to his birthplace, a National Historic site located just down the road from the mall on Walt Whitman Road (Route 110).
Anchors
- Bloomingdale's (233,000 ft², 2 Floors Above Ground, 1 Floor Below Ground) Opened 1962 as Macy's, closed for renovation in 1998 and converted to Bloomingdale's. Macy's had opened in the much larger vacant A&S building in 1995, resulting in two Macy's in the same mall for over two years.
- Lord & Taylor (120,000 ft², 2 Floors Above Ground) Opened 1998 in mall expansion.
- Macy's (302,278 ft², 3 Floors Above Ground, 1 Floor Below Ground) Opened 1962 as Abraham & Straus, closed 1995, reopened as Macy's.
- Saks Fifth Avenue (100,000 ft², 2 Floors Above Ground) Opened 1999 in mall expansion off former McCrory Store. With the closing of the Southampton store, this location is the only branch store left in the state of New York, save for the flagship store in New York City.
Previous anchors
- Abraham & Straus, A&S was located in the store which is currently occupied by Macy's.
- McCrory Stores (demolished in 1991, now the site of the Saks Fifth Avenue wing), It was here that a fire was started on May 16, 1991 which burned through the middle section of the mall.
- Macy's was located in the store which is currently occupied by Bloomingdale's.
Food
Walt Whitman Shops does not feature a proper food court. However, restaurants such as Legal Sea Foods, California Pizza Kitchen, P.F. Chang's China Bistro, Brio Tuscan Grille, Zinburger, Panera Bread, 59th and Lex Café located in the basement of Bloomingdale's, Cirella's, located on the 1st floor of Saks Fifth Avenue, and The Cheesecake Factory can be found at Walt Whitman Shops. A T.G.I. Friday's can also be found less than a block north of the mall, and an IHOP and Subway are situated across the street from the mall. There is also a JANI Chinese & Japanese Cuisine, an Applebee's and a Five Guys one block south of the mall at an adjacent shopping center, as well as a Chipotle across the street from that center.
Incidents
- 1984: A fire destroyed seven stores and damaged 25 others in the 76-store mall.
- 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, killing two of his coworkers aged 20 and 27.
- 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 kills one person and sickens 28 others. All three restaurants are evacuated.
Renovation
Walt Whitman Shops completed a massive renovation in Fall 2013. The plans include a new outdoor corridor of stores added to the Walt Whitman Road (Route 110) side of the mall, mall restroom renovations, cosmetic changes to the existing mall including new seating, automatic doors, a statue of Walt Whitman, and new tenants inside the mall. The bus stops were also moved into new canopies on the south side of the mall.
References
- ^ Mintz, Phil (May 17, 1991). "2 Killed in Mall Fire". Newsday. p. 7. Retrieved 2010-04-25.Â
- ^ "L.I. Mall Still Assessing Fire Losses". The New York Times. November 23, 1984. p. B2. Retrieved 2010-04-25.Â
- ^ 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.Â
- ^ "1 Dead, 28 Others Exposed to Carbon Monoxide at NY Mall". NBC News. February 22, 2014. Retrieved 2014-02-23.Â
External links
- Walt Whitman Shops
- Labelscar Retail History Blog
