Muncie Mall is coming down. The three-screen cinema is already gone, reduced to a bare concrete pad. Outside the old Sears Auto Center, a mountain of broken concrete hints that the interior of the 129,000-square-foot department store1 has already been gutted. Now, all signs point to JCPenney as the next casualty.
Hull Property Group, which purchased Muncie Mall in 2024, first announced plans to demolish portions of the struggling shopping center to make the rest of the property economically viable in 20252. Those plans soon expanded to include the Sears, JCPenney, and movie theater buildings3. By this past February, ownership revealed an even more sweeping vision: nearly the entire enclosed mall would disappear, leaving only Buyers Market, which owns its former L.S. Ayres/Macy’s building4.
Ever since the fences went up in October 2025, I’ve been making regular trips to document the mall’s final days. Every visit seems to reveal another change. The cinema vanished first. Sears was hollowed out next. Then, the empty corridor leading toward JCPenney was barricaded from the inside, even as the lights still glowed inside the long-abandoned department store as if it were waiting for its turn.
Before JCPenney became one of Muncie Mall’s defining stores, another retailer occupied the space: when Muncie Mall opened in 1970, the south anchor belonged to W.T. Grant5. The chain’s collapse in 1975 left the mall searching for a replacement. Although Montgomery Ward reportedly considered the location6, it was JCPenney that ultimately opened there in 19777.
After forty-one years, Muncie’s JCPenney received a $250,000 remodel that added Sephora to the venerable retailer8. Unfortunately, that wasn’t enough to prevent the store from closing completely in 2020 as the company declared bankruptcy9. The store has sat dark ever since, frozen in place untouched by shoppers for more than six years. Before long, even that silence will disappear beneath the wrecking ball.
For more than forty years, JCPenney was where generations of Muncie-area families bought school clothes, Christmas gifts, towels, tools, and just about everything in between. Even after the store closed, its familiar facade remained one of the defining features of Muncie Mall. Wrapped in fencing and deteriorating, soon, that landmark will be gone as well.
Watching a mall disappear is a weird experience. Demolition happens one wall at a time, one storefront at a time, until a place you’ve known for decades simply isn’t there anymore. That’s why I’ve kept documenting Muncie Mall’s final days. Before long, there won’t be much left to photograph! Still, there will still be a story worth remembering.
Sources Cited
1 Sears’ Huge New Store in Mall to Open (1970, August 5). The Muncie Star. p. 24.
2 Wiechmann, S. (2025, June 30). Muncie commission approves money to begin demolishing part of Muncie Mall. Indiana Public Radio. Web. Retrieved July 2, 2025.
3 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.
4 Weichmann, S. (2026, February 26). IPR: Muncie Mall to be fully demolished. Indiana Public Radio [Muncie]. Web. Retrieved February 26, 2026.
5 Nearly 2 1/2 Miles Of Counter in the New Grants (1970, September 9). The Muncie Evening Press. p. 32.
6 Stack, M. (1975, December 16). Wards Reported Eyeing Former Grant Mall Site. The Muncie Star. p. 18.
7 New Penney’s Store Unveiled at Fashion Show (1977, January 16). The Muncie Star. p. 9.
8 Kirby, A. (2018, April 5). Makeup fans, you’ll love what Muncie Mall is getting. The Muncie Star Press. p. A2.
9 Stefanski, C. (2020, June 7). Muncie Mall JCPenney to reopen for liquidation sale. The Muncie Star Press. p. A1.
