Blue Hen Mall

The Blue Hen Mall is a defunct shopping mall on Bay Road in Dover, Delaware. The mall opened in August 1968, and was the main mall in the Dover area until the Dover Mall opened in 1982, leading to its decline. In the 1990s, the mall was converted into a corporate center.HistoryThe Blue Hen Mall opened in the late 1960s, at which time it was the only enclosed mall in Delaware. The opening of the retail hub shifted several businesses away from downtown Dover, including JCPenney, which became an anchor store at the mall. Woolco also anchored the shopping center. This store was shuttered in early 1983. It soon reopened as a Roses variety store. At its height, Blue Hen Mall housed over 50 shops.Sears was interested in relocating to the Blue Hen Mall from downtown Dover, but could not agree with management in where to place the store in the shopping center. As a result, Sears decided to relocate, along with other department stores, to the new Dover Mall which opened in 1982. Following the opening of the Dover Mall, many stores relocated from the Blue Hen Mall, turning it into a dead mall. It was also called by some of the local people as the "Blue Hen Chicken Mall." It was mainly used in the late 1980s when the mall was not popular anymore. At this time, the Blue Hen Mall was owned by Jardel Company, Inc. and Penn Mutual. JCPenney relocated to the Dover Mall in 1993 and Roses closed in 1991.