Sawmill Square Mall opened on July 1, 1981, and is located in the heart of downtown Laurel. The mall is situated on the 32-acre site of what used to be a sawmill and lumber mill owned by Eastman, Gardiner and Company back in the early 1930s when timber was “king.” Sawmill Square Mall is 90 miles south of Jackson, Mississippi, the state capital, and 90 miles north of Gulfport and Biloxi, Mississippi, ports off the Gulf of Mexico. Sawmill Square mall is a 350,000-square-foot, enclosed shopping center with 45 national and local merchants. The anchor tenants are J.C. Penney and Belk department stores with Regal Entertainment Cinema 5 and Cowboy Maloney's Electric City as junior anchor tenants.
Sawmill Square Mall is very active in community affairs and hosts popular events including the annual Independence Day Fireworks Display, averaging 15,000 onlookers, and the annual Sertoma Christmas Parade, the largest Christmas parade in Mississippi. A nine-county pep rally, featuring cheerleaders from pee-wee to high-school level, the Goldwing Riders Club Display, and the Cub Scout Pine-Wood Derby are just a few of the popular local events for which Sawmill Square Mall offers a venue to promote the shopping center and our community.