Origins of West County Center
On February 20, 1969, the West County Center opened in Des Peres, Missouri, developed by May Co.’s CenterMark Properties, featuring 563,600 square feet of enclosed retail space.
The site had been home to the Manchester Drive-In, remembered for its Easter sunrise services, until Famous-Barr and JCPenney took over as the mall’s anchors.
With Interstate 270 freshly built in the 1960s, the new center tied into the region’s shift toward highway-driven shopping, drawing suburban families into its halls…