INDIANAPOLIS -- Earlier this week, Sears announced it would be closing several Indiana locations, including the store at the Castleton Square Mall in Indianapolis.
Once the Castleton store closure is finalized, it will be the first time the City of Indianapolis will be without a Sears store in nearly 90 years.
The retailer was a common sight at area shopping malls throughout the city for decades. Many locations featured plain, taupe-colored boxy buildings that blended in with suburban retail landscapes.
However, not every store suffered from the big-box store blues.
One former Sears building in the Circle City continues to stand the test of time.
In fact, the Sears Roebuck and Company sign still hangs above the doorway at 333 N. Alabama St. in downtown Indianapolis.
Opened in 1929, the store operated downtown more than more than 50 years. The retailer began operations just before the Great Depression, which it survived.
It also underwent several renovations over the years, including the installation of giant blue panels across the exterior of the building.
Sears announced it would close the downtown Indianapolis location in June 1983. At the time, the company blamed changing shopping patterns, declining sales, and increasing costs.
Channel 6 reporter Derrik Thomas spoke with shoppers who weren't surprised about the announcement.
"I'm upset, but there ain't nothing I can do. I just knew it was coming, in a way, different things they've done over the last couple of years," one patron said.
It wasn't the only hit for the downtown area.
The Sears Auto Center adjacent to the Alabama Street Sears would close the following year.
The building remained vacant until June 1985 when developers announced plans to redevelop the area as the Lockerbie Marketplace.
Indianapolis Mayor Bill Hudnut lauded the redevelopment saying, "We're going to have another building downtown that represents our commitment to tradition and historic preservation as well as to progress."
A Joe O'Malia's grocery store opened on the first floor of the former Sears building in September 1986.
Several grocers have since occupied the Sears Roebuck and Company building including Needler's Fresh Market, which opened in September 2017.
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