Photo Gallery

"Weise's," as it was commonly known, had an interesting history predating the mall era. The store was founded in 1907 and located for decades at 117 West State Street.

In 1937, Weise's commissioned well know architect, Jesse Barloga, to redesign and transform the exterior. Barloga drafted an exterior made of Vitrolux and Virolite. Each was a tempered glass product, resistant to shock and nearly unbreakable.

The Weise's store featured a series of innovations during its tenure on State Street. They installed Rockford's first escalator, used an arcade entrance instead of standard doors, utilized a central cash register system storewide and cooled their patrons with air conditioning.

The "modern" Chas. V. Weise anchor helped to make North Towne and Colonial Village malls immediate hits in the mid 50's.