The Bon Marche

Cascade Mall - Burlington, WA

Cascade Mall opened around 1990. The mall property is bound on the west by I-5 and on the east by Burlington Blvd, former US 99. The mall is located north of Exit 229 and south of Exit 230. When it first opened, Cascade Mall had four department stores with space for a fifth. Sears was on the south side of the mall, The Bon Marche on the west side of the center, and the vacant space was on the north end. Emporium had a store on the east side of the mall between Sears and the mall center. JC Penney was on the east side between the center and the north end. The food court was across the mall from Penney's.

The vacant space on the north end has been filled in by a multiplex cinema instead of a department store. There is a Target store across the parking lot from the north end of the mall. After the (Troutman's) Emporium chain went out of business around 2003, The Bon Marche expanded into the former Emporium building. The Bon Marche stores at Cascade Mall were rebranded as Macy's in early 2005.

The Bon Marche store at Cascade Mall was the first to be located in Skagit County. The Sears and JC Penney stores were at least the third such stores in the Mount Vernon-Burlington area, however. The Cascade Mall stores replaced earlier stores at Mount Vernon Mall and Skagit Valley Mall, two moderate sized malls located across the street from each other on College Way/SR 538 east of I-5 and west of old US 99. Emporium had also had an earlier store at Mount Vernon Mall. Before these two malls were built in the 1970s, Sears and JC Penney had downtown Mount Vernon stores. JC Penney had also operated smaller stores, now closed, in Anacortes and Sedro-Woolley.

This photograph was taken in October 2004.