A few days ago, Lost Muncie member Tom Stark sent me a tip about a growing mound of concrete debris and detritus near the former Sears Auto Center at Muncie Mall. Construction fencing has surrounded both Sears and JCPenney since last October, but after the three-screen cinema was recently demolished, that fresh activity suggests Sears could be next.
What started as Sears & Roebuck was part of everyday life in Muncie for ninety years. Its story here began with a downtown store at 225 North High Street before it relocated to a larger spot at 115 South Walnut in 19421. Twenty-five years later, on July 9, 1967, Sears revealed its biggest move yet: a sprawling new showcase at the future Muncie Mall. The massive complex would anchor the mall’s north side and include a full-line department store, a collosal warehouse, and a ten-bay automotive center2. The superstore would cement Sears as one of Muncie’s main attractions.
Sears at Muncie Mall was intended to be more than three times the size of the old store at South Walnut3. The 129,000-square-foot emporium devoted more than 50,000 square feet to selling merchandise4. Shoppers could browse fifty departments5, including new additions like a snack shop, garden and lawn areas, a home accessories spot, a candy store, and a vitamin and drug department6. A drive-in catalog pickup area made ordering and collecting merchandise more convenient than ever.
Muncie’s Sears was designed to be more modern than its recently opened Indiana locations in Bloomington, Richmond, and Michigan City7. The Muncie outpost even joined a wave of new Hoosier stores that also debuted in Kokomo, Logansport, and Terre Haute8! Outside, Sears’ scale was just as impressive: its parking lot accommodated an astonishing 2,500 cars- about three times the size of one at a contemporary Costco9.
Sears welcomed its first customers on August 5, 1970 before the rest of the mall was completed. Its grand opening was a major event, emceed by former Cincinnati Royals star and ABC sportscaster Jack Twyman! Joining him were Sears executives, 1970 Miss Indiana Debbie May, Muncie Mayor Paul Cooley, and Congressman David Dennis10.
Unlike the mall’s other original anchors, Sears proved to have remarkable staying power. Britts and W.T. Grant both disappeared by 1977, eventually giving way to L.S. Ayres and JCPenney. Sears, however, remained a fixture at Muncie Mall for decades, outlasting each of its fellow original anchors along with other prominent retailers like Standard Supermarket, Osco Drug, and Ball Stores.
Even after nearly three decades at Muncie Mall, Sears was still investing in its future. In 1995, the store received a $1.7 million makeover as part of a $4 billion nationwide modernization effort. The renovation reclaimed 20,000 square feet from the warehouse for additional sales space, introduced new employee break rooms and expanded women’s apparel departments, widened the aisles, and eliminated the furniture department in favor of a more contemporary layout11.
Unfortunately, that investment couldn’t stop Sears’ long decline. After its merger with Kmart, the once-dominant retailer steadily shuttered stores across the country. In 2018, Muncie’s location landed on the chopping block alongside more than sixty others, including the Sears stores in Lafayette and Castleton12. Liquidation sales began on June 14, and when the last shoppers left, the sprawling building fell silent. It has remained vacant ever since.
After Simon sold Muncie Mall, the shopping center passed through a succession of owners before ultimately landing with Hull Property Group of Augusta, Georgia, in 2024. About a year ago, Hull announced plans to demolish the former JCPenney building13. Then, last September, the company expanded the project to include the aging Sears store and the Muncie Mall 3 cinema14. The theater disappeared just last week.
Sears outlasted nearly everything else at Muncie Mall, but it has also remained standing much longer than Hull Property Group originally anticipated. As it turns out, the former department store houses the natural gas hub that serves the rest of the mall15! As I understand it, demolishing the building without first relocating that infrastructure would have shut off service to the remaining tenants. That’s a surprising complication for such a high-profile redevelopment project! Whether it was discovered late or simply proved more difficult to address than expected, Sears remains.
Not for long, though, as signs are becoming harder to ignore. The growing pile of concrete debris near the former Auto Center continues to expand, and the excavator that demolished Muncie Mall 3 has been repositioned alongside Sears. Whether demolition begins tomorrow or weeks from now remains to be seen, but after more than half a century as Muncie Mall’s longest-lasting original anchor, it finally appears that Sears’ final chapter is about to be written.
Sources Cited
1 …And Sears Way Back Then (1970, August 5). The Muncie Star. p. 24.
2 Shores, L. (1967, July 9). Sears to Build New Store at Mall on McGalliard Rd. The Muncie Star. p. 1.
3 (See footnote 1).
4 Sears’ Huge New Store in Mall to Open (1970, August 5). The Muncie Star. p. 24.
5 (see footnote 3).
6 (See footnote 2).
7 (See footnote 2).
8 (See footnote 2).
8 Costco Wholesale Site Criteria (n.d.). Gallelli Real Estate [Roseville]. Web. Retrieved July 8, 2026.
9 (See footnote 4).
10 (See footnote 4).
11 Cheesman, M. (1995, July 24). Furniture’s out, but Sars plans lots more inside new-look store. The Muncie Star. p. 6.
12 Roysdon, K. (2018, June 1). Muncie Sears to close by September. The Muncie Star Press. Pp. A1-A5.
13 Wiechmann, S. (2025, June 30). Muncie commission approves money to begin demolishing part of Muncie Mall. Indiana Public Radio. Web. Retrieved July 2, 2025.
14 Kramer, R. (2025, September 21). The Muncie Mall is about to change in a big way! Hull Property Group, a Georgia developer that owns 27 [Facebook]. Video.
15 Muncie Mall Slow Deconstruction Reason? Jeff Howe Sheds Light (2025, January 28). Woof Boom Radio [Muncie]. Web. Retrieved January 29, 2026.
