The center was originally built as an outdoor shopping center in 1960 and spanned 582,000 sq ft (54,070 m2), with anchors John A. Brown and Montgomery Ward.[3]
High-end Park Avenue junior department store Al Rosenthal's opened a branch at the new center. The two-store chain would be rebranded as Gus Mayer (which by then owned it) in 1969, and in 1974 converted to a branch of Kansas City-based Harzfeld's. It closed ten years later in 1984.[4]
After the opening of regional enclosed malls such as Quail Springs Mall and Crossroads Mall, the center was enclosed in 1982 and renovated in 1988 to include a second level and food court at a cost of $100 million. A multi-story parking structure was added and the mall was further expanded with a new JCPenney in 1995. It was renovated once again five years later in 2000.
Penn Square Mall was the site of Penn Square Bank, which failed on July 5, 1982, with devastating effects on the US banking industry.
John A. Brown was sold to Dillard's in 1984.[9] In 2001, Dillard's expanded its presence following the closure of the Montgomery Ward store by opening a second location in the space that Montgomery Ward vacated.[10]Foley's, part of the mall's 1988 expansion, converted to Macy's in 2006.[11]