The Promenade of today is a shopping plaza but used to be an enclosed mall. It opened in 1973 as the Central Maine Mall but is also known as the Mid-Maine Mall. Original anchors were Shaw's and Bradlees. Bradlees officially opened November 14, 1973. Between 1988 and 1996 stores closed and slowly vacated the mall.

Shaw’s supermarket moved down the road to a free-standing store in 1988. In 1989, Fayva relocated to the Lewiston Mall and Key Bank closed their Promenade location. In 1990, Service Merchandise closed after a new store opened at the Auburn Plaza. In February 1994, NHD Hardware closed its doors. In September 1994, House of Fabrics also closed.

My last visit at the Promenade Mall was in 1995. Back then, Bradlees was still open. There was a Cinema that could be accessed using a stairway entrance near Bradlees. There was a small variety store but most of the mall was already vacant all the way to the other end where an empty anchor store was.  

Bradlees closed in May 1996 during a round of closures by the chain. At one point, the Mall was transformed into a Plaza with all stores having an exterior entrance. The old mall walkway has been partially reused as an access corridor for the backstore of tenants. Bookland opened in the revamped center in 1996. Tim Hortons opened one of it’s first Maine location in the Promenade parking lot in 1998.

In 1999, Flagship Cinemas opened in the former Bradlees.  Early in 2000, Bookland closed their Promenade Mall store. It was shortly replaced by Mr.Paperback. Flagship Cinema closed its doors in March 2015. In 2016, the shopping center was sold to a developer also working on a retail project near Exit 80 in Lewiston. Family Dollar closed and was replaced by Dollar General. An office tenant moved in to the left of Staples and the mall was renamed Gendron Place in 2018.