July, 2006 - Labelscar: The Retail History Blog

Pekin Mall (East Court Village); Pekin, Illinois

This is one that started it all for us. During 1998 and 1999, Caldor and I took road trips on many weekends throughout the upper midwest. It started out by exploring various cities, often driving around aimlessly. Eventually we wanted to get out and stretch our legs, so we’d look for public places we could walk around, people watch, get food, and hang out. We weren’t terribly familiar with these cities and we were both teenagers at the time, so we didn’t really know where to go to get our feet wet. So, we turned to the places teenagers are known to flock and went to local malls in the cities we visited.

At first we didn’t really know what we were doing, but eventually it became systematic. We’d look at a map and go from mall to mall, driving around, looking at anything that looked interesting. Neither of us had more than very limited experience in the areas we explored: mostly the suburban and urban milleu of middle America. The experiences were simultaneously riveting, if not a little frightening. We encountered many different characters at the malls, saw malls in different physical as well as economic conditions, and got a taste of local flavor in every place we went. Without really categorizing them as such, we discovered what would later be categorized as a “dead” mall. We became amazed at the disparities we saw between large, successful, packed malls and old, dated, or for whatever reason emptier malls. We began to realize that many don’t even realize the differences or, if they do, they don’t really consider them. We found them fascinating, and started to contemplate the bigger picture. This blog is essentially the culmination of our explorations, our discoveries, our ruminations, and efforts in putting together a semblance of understanding in the retail puzzle of America.

Pekin Mall is the first remarkably dead mall we visited, in January of 1999. Located at the end of the commercial strip headed out of town on East Court/IL Route 9, Pekin Mall was an enclosed mall of about 500,000 square feet. It obviously opened sometime in the 1960s or early 1970s, but I’m not exactly sure. It was anchored by Bergner’s, JCPenney, Hobby Lobby, and Big Lots, and shaped like a carat. When we approached the mall from sad downtown Pekin on Court Street, it looked spectacularly dated on the outside, but nothing, I repeat, nothing could have prepared us for the inside.

We entered through Bergner’s on the east end of the mall and walked into the main mall and suddenly timewarped into someone’s psychadelic, drug-induced trip from 1972. The floor tiles were this shiny mix of off-white, deep blue, purple, and what can only be described as puke green. Horrifically, the tiles alternated colors so a striped pattern repeated the mismatched color scheme throughout the entire mall. I’ve never seen anything like it, and haven’t since (thankfully, I was born in the 80s). Strangely, the mall also seemed rather dimly lit, despite the manmade lighting and the very cool mod-70s windows carved into the ceiling for natural light.

However, I’m afraid that’s only the beginning. These 3 foot long, vertical rows of christmas lights (?!) hung down from the ceiling every so often, glistening against the visually assaulting, unholy kaleidoscope of colors on the floor. Every store, open or not, was horribly dated. Several stores had untreated wooden storefronts, which seemed to be popular in the 1960s or 1970s. The Fashion Bug’s font was very strange and old, and purple. The Deb shop’s sign was this neon green color, but you can be sure the store had the very deep purple carpeting and all the various trapeze-looking apparati which hung down from the ceiling to display all the latest fashions. The Waldenbooks, or should I say Walden Books, was one of their original mall store designs, built vaguely to look like an old bookstore on some urban street. It had the horrible dark green carpeting and the chandeliers common for Waldenbooks during this time. As an aside, I think these stores are more aesthetically pleasing (sans the carpeting and maybe the chandeliers) than their current bland design. In addition, one former vacant store was full of 2-3″ mod 70s green shag carpeting and another store was being used as a gymnastics studio. Imagine the disassociation therapy the kids will have to go through in order to enjoy gymnastics again!

I won’t ever forget the smell from that day either. During our visit was this bizarre fair in the mall, which consisted largely of card tables with various knick-knacks, Native American wares, and people. They were smoking pipes, cigars, incense burning. All mixed together with the musty old mall, it was a very strange, offensive smell.

As for the stores, I’d say well over half were vacant during our visit in 1999. The handful there weren’t dazzling or upscale by any means, as far as for actual shopping and utilitarian mall use. I’ve already mentioned most of them, actually. Add Payless, Radio Shack, GNC, and that about rounds out the major players that were in Pekin Mall in 1999-2000.

As for the mall’s entire history, I’m a little unclear. Like I said, the mall probably opened sometime about 1970. It had not received any sort of renovations, ever. As for its recent history, I know that a Sears once stood where Big Lots and Hobby Lobby are, but it closed in 1993. The Hobby Lobby didn’t have access to the mall either; it was walled off. The pictures featured with this entry were taken in the Summer of 2000 (They’re vintage!) but the mall is in mostly the same condition as it was when Caldor and I visited in 1999.

During 2001, the mall was sold and the development company announced huge plans to redo the mall as (what else?) an open air power center, read: strip mall. However, due mostly to lack of interest, an honest effort by the company to come through on their promised plans to redevelop the horrid mall failed. So the mall sat, and all the while the mall emptied out completely. During my last visit to the mall in January, 2002, the Hobby Lobby wing of the mall was entirely shuttered.

It was not until late Spring 2002 that the mall finally came down, in pieces. The original Bergner’s anchor remains, and the new development is called East Court Village. Surprisingly, few items exist on the internet to document the mall’s recent history and transition. East Court Village doesn’t even appear to have its own website. JCPenney announced it would be leaving the development and closed their doors in 2002. However, Goody’s Family Clothing appeared to take their place in 2004. Big Lots and Hobby Lobby still anchor the west end of the redeveloped strip mall. I’ve actually not been back in some time. How is it doing? Leave some comments or E-Mail me and let me know.

NEW: Check out a recreation of the Pekin Mall directory and site plan, put together by Kurt Schachner. (PDF)

Added 8/20/2006:

Eastern Hills Mall; Williamsville, New York

In most major metropolitan areas, the Eastern Hills Mall would be a success. But not in Buffalo!

Poor Buffalo, really. It’s bitterly cold out there, they’re responsible for the Goo Goo Dolls (as opposed to, say, The Replacements), and like most Great Lakes cities, the major industries have shifted elsewhere laying the groundwork for the region that’s sadly and derisively referred to as the “rust belt.” I’ve long felt a bit of affection toward poor old cities like Buff-town, probably because I grew up in Rhode Island, and Providence was mired in a similar state of malaise at that time. Nowadays Providence is beautiful, and Buffalo has a lot of its own wonderful natural attributes–Niagara Falls, that gorgeous yet faded downtown retail district–that may work in its favor someday. If there’s any justice anyway.

The good news is that–although I haven’t been back in awhile–the Eastern Hills Mall seems to have rejuvenated itself a bit. Built in 1971 as the fourth and largest mall in the greater Buffalo area (until the massive Walden Galleria opened, anyway), this mall, tucked deep in the northeastern suburbs of the Buffalo area, was suffering something fierce in the early ’00s. Anchored by JCPenney, Kaufmann’s, Sears, and The Bon Ton, the mall nonetheless hosted some large vacancies, notably a dead Jenns store (which had, for some time, been a Burlington Coat Factory), a former Waccamaw, and a former Old Navy.

As of when these photos were taken in February 2005, the Jenns and Old Navy spaces were vacant, and the Waccamaw space was occupied by an RV Dealership.

Mercifully, Eastern Hills Mall had one major factor in its favor: it’s rather hefty size. Despite being just under a million square feet–which is large, but not huge–it feels like a goliath, especially with its six anchor slots. Because trends have shifted in favor of large malls, they’re somewhat insulated from the challenges facing many malls, and Eastern Hills had a better shot of survival than some other enclosed centers in a similar situation. Thanks to an early 2005 renovation, which was underway when these pictures were taken, the mall seems to have entered something of a mini renaissance. The addition of destination tenants like Dave & Buster’s and Orvis have probably helped re-establish Eastern Hills as one of Buffalo’s most important malls, after Walden Galleria and Boulevard Mall.

Also, although I haven’t visited since the renovation was complete, it’s easy to notice that the waffle-style ceilings in the center corridor appear to remain intact, even after the spiffication. The rather grand center corridor was the mall’s architectural highlight; distinctly a relic from the 1970s, it’s appropriately dramatic the way the center of a good shopping mall should be.

Beltway Plaza; Greenbelt, Maryland

The Beltway Plaza is a very strange, mid-sized mall located in the northeastern suburbs of Washington, DC, near (as its name so slyly suggests) the beltway. It has about 1,000,000 square feet of floor space and hosts around 110 stores, and was one of the more interesting malls that I discovered in Mid-Atlantic Adventure™ last week.

The Beltway Plaza appears to be very old, though I’m not sure of the exact vintage. It was originally constructed as an outdoor shopping plaza in 1960, and I would guess it was enclosed sometime in the mid-1970s to early 1980s as a result of the decor and the extraordinarily high ceilings, which were done away with in malls later on because of their high heating/cooling and maintenance costs. The mall’s fabulously retro-modern cloverleaf logo could also be an indication of its age. The Beltway Plaza is particularly odd because the center’s eastern end features a clump of anchor stores: Target, Marshalls, Burlington Coat Factory, and Value City, and the latter two are the only ones with mall access. These anchors are all jumbled up into a big, three-level pile loaded at one end of the mall, despite that the mall itself is only one level. That creates an odd situation where Value City is actually located in a kind of “loft” above the mall, which you can see in the pictures below. I thought that was pretty neat.

The other end of the long mall has a large “Y,” and features a Giant Supermarket with mall access, another true rarity. The Beltway Plaza also featured a Gold’s Gym in the center of the mall, with a large basketball court surrounded by glass walls protruding into the center of the mall corridor itself. Aspiring NBA stars looking for some attention could do much worse.

Unfortunately, despite some of the truly unique attributes of the Beltway Plaza, it seems that it may be on the endangered list. Located in a somewhat prosperous part of Prince Georges County just outside of College Park, the center is in a prime location for top-tier retail, and there is a proposal to blast a roadway straight through the center of the mall from the mall’s main entrance opposite Cunningham Dr. straight through to Breezewood Drive, creating a “Main Street-type shopping environment.” This sounds like a shame, especially considering this discount-oriented yet relatively mid-tier mall seems to be doing quite well as it is.

There does seem to be hope. The above appears to be only one proposal of many to improve the area around the Beltway Plaza Mall, and this document (which is a PDF!) details another, which would add some substantial aesthetic improvements to the area without de-malling, and in fact would expand onto the rear of the Beltway Plaza with a Main Street-style promenade instead.

I wasn’t able to find much about the mall’s history (such as its original anchor tenants, as the above were clearly not original to the center), so if you have any familiarity with the Beltway Plaza’s history or its future, please leave a comment.

Bergen Mall; Paramus, New Jersey

Paramus, New Jersey boasts one of the largest concentrations of retail space in the United States, with over 6 million square feet of retail clustered around the junctions of routes 4 and 17. At one time or another, there have been no less than six enclosed shopping malls within a few miles of this junction, all in Paramus or nearby Hackensack.

The true behemoths of this area are the Garden State Shopping Center and Paramus Park. The former is a 2 million square foot superregional mall, the latter is half its size but no less successful, offering top-tier tenants without the hassles associated with the GS Shopping Center. There’s also another, more upscale mall that offers top-tier tenants like Neiman Marcus and Bloomingdale’s.

Where does that leave Bergen Mall, the true black sheep of this flock? Close to death. See for yourself.

The Bergen Mall opened in 1957 as an outdoor shopping center, and one of the first malls in the region. Anchored by Stern’s and Orbach’s, the mall opened to much fanfare and included many community-oriented spaces, such as a live theatre, an ice skating rink, and a bowling alley. Located at the junction of Route 4 and Forest Ave., the mall actually included a separate strip area on the east side of Forest Ave. that was (and still is) connected to the remainder of the property with an outdoor pedestrian bridge.

The mall was enclosed in 1973, and despite many changes through the years, looks mostly as it always has. Orbach’s gave way to Steinbach, who later gave way to Value City. Stern’s was acquired by Macy’s, and their store here became a (very redundant, frankly) short-lived Macy’s store before shutting. During the 1990s, the mall also positioned itself as a value-oriented center compared to its swankier brothers and sisters, and courted tenants like Saks Off Fifth Avenue, Marshalls, Gap Outlet, and the aforementioned Value City.

Simon sold the Bergen Mall to Vornado in 2003, and plans are underway to drastically convert the property. I haven’t been able to find a firm plan, but the mall was plastered with renderings of its transition that appear to suggest the mall will be converted to an open-air format, with large-profile stores (such as the Century 21 Department Store that’s already under construction, and a Target store) and architecture that recalls mid-town Manhattan. This is an interesting twist, and one that’s cognizant of the mall’s geographic location, on the new lifestyle center format so it’ll be interesting to see. Unfortunately, the Bergen Mall’s interior is such an amazingly-well preserved example of 1970s shopping mall architecture that it’s pretty hard to see it go. Let’s take a tour starting with the exterior:

That last photo is of the strip center, on the far side of Forest Street. It clearly once housed a supermarket (one of the A&P banners perhaps? It reminds me of the old Kohl’s Supermarkets in Wisconsin). Now that we’re inside, let’s take a look at the floorplan to orient ourselves:

Pay close attention to the “lower level” there. It’s one of the things that makes this mall so unique.

The following photos were taken strolling around the main part of the mall. The former Value City space is at the mall’s westernmost end, the former Macy’s (which is in the process of being converted to the Century 21 Department Store) is at the center court, and the eastern end of the mall houses Marshalls, Saks Off Fifth, and the bridge to the strip center.

In that last photo, we were strolling down one of the two side hallways branching off of the mall’s center court. At the end of that hallway, we saw this:

The escalators lead to the basement. There’s one long corridor in the basement, that provides access to a local museum, the performing arts center, and the 34-year-old Carmelite Chapel of St. Therese, which due to Bergen County’s blue laws, is–like the rest of the mall–ironically closed on Sundays.

Most interesting, however, is the “Village Mall,” a drab collection of very small stores tucked into a space near the bottom of the stairs. Made to look like a wild west village–but clearly untouched since the 1970s–this eerily quiet space hosts only a few active tenants (including a psychic, a hobby shop, and a few other businesses) but otherwise feels as though it has been abandoned for decades. There are several “streets” in this area, forming a pattern not unlike an “8,” and room for maybe 20 or 30 different stores, though each individual store space is probably only about 500 square feet. Note the dreadful carpeting:

Now that is a treat. It may not be very successful, but I’d like to see a lifestyle center try something this unique. Also, if you want just a little bit more, check out this short documentary on the Bergen Mall by filmmaker Robin Groves. It was clearly filmed a few years ago now (Stern’s was still present), and it gives a good impression of what made (and makes, for now) the Bergen Mall so strange.

ADDED 9/29/06: Someone even set up a MySpace page on the Bergen Mall! Check it out; there are some photos from when Stern’s and Value City were at the mall, amongst a ton of other great stuff. People seriously love this mall. Why can’t we clean it up and save it?

Aurora Mall; Aurora, Colorado

What better activity is there on a cold January day than going to the mall? That’s just what I did on a free day I had back in January, 2005, in the Denver area. My first stop was east suburban Aurora Mall, one of Aurora, Colorado’s two enclosed centers. It’s located at the interchange between I-225 and Alameda Avenue.

Aurora itself is both typical and atypical of American suburbs today. It’s similar to most American suburbs in that it lacks a strong, historical central business district like many cities, and it’s also very large and sprawly. It’s not typical because of its sheer size: Aurora has nearly 300,000 residents, over half of the city of Denver itself. It’s actually projected that in the next 25 years that Aurora will eventually surpass the city of Denver in population, making it a massive super-suburb like Anaheim, California or Scottsdale, Arizona. Notable people from Aurora include Home Improvement child actor Zachery Ty Bryan and former presidential hopeful John Kerry (yes, he was born here). There’s an Air Force Base, but other than that, Aurora’s your standard middle-of-the-road American suburb.

Aurora Mall, now called the Town Center at Aurora, was beginning a series of renovations which updated the dated center’s appearance in 2005, giving it new life for the new millenium, or something like that. In the past few years, Aurora Mall/Town Center at Aurora has been under some scrutiny for its management policies. An investigation by a local Denver TV station has stated the Aurora Mall’s leasing agents have official policies of discrimination and that they are attempting to oust minority shoppers in favor of getting more caucasian shoppers into the mall. Purposely. A leasing agent is actually quoted on tape as saying he wants to gear the mall more toward whites. This alarming controversy certanly paints a different picture of the kinds of unscrupulous, ruthless individuals and terrible policies and a framework of careless responsibility.

Aurora Mall as of my visit in January, 2005 was still mostly outdated. The two-level, straight shot center was anchored by Foley’s (two locations), Sears, and JCPenney. The decor of Aurora Mall was decidedly 80s: a pastel pink, purple and green combination dominated, with blond wooden railings throughout the center. The floor was being replaced with the typical drab, uber-modern white tiles that are on every mall everywhere today, so you can be sure it’s different now. I’m actually curious as to what became of all the renovations. Is Aurora Mall back on its feet? Pictures taken Jan. 2005.

Summit Place Mall; Waterford, Michigan

Dear readers, I’m back from my extended weekend in the Detroit area. Why Detroit, you ask? Well, the area has always fascinated me beyond belief. The way the entire city is this fallow wasteland, seeming as though it is sleeping, like some sort of urban garden that hasn’t been watered in a while. Juxtapose that with the booming, successful suburbs, which is where most of the commerce in the metro Detroit area takes place, and it makes for an interesting exploration. Not to mention all the abandoned neighborhoods that have been converted to this eerie urban prairie of overgrown grasses, trees, and weeds. And the malls. Nearly all of the malls in the metro Detroit area have some interesting design features about them, whether they’re extremely dated, nearly dead, or remarkably amazing and successful. Not surprisingly, Summit Place Mall in northwest suburban Waterford is no exception.

Summit Place Mall opened in 1962 along Telegraph Road in the midst of Oakland County’s suburban boom. While the mall is technically located in Waterford Township, across Telegraph is the city of Pontiac. Oakland county’s most urban city, Pontiac is definitely separate from the suburban millieu that sprawls across much of Oakland County; it is its own city, and grew up not only because of Detroit but in tandem with it as well. It should also be mentioned here that Oakland County is the richest county in the state of Michigan, and aside from the Grosse Pointe areas along the shores of Lake St. Clair, it houses the cities with the highest per-capita income. Essentially, when everything (and everyone) left the city of Detroit, it came to places like Oakland County, leaving behind massive swaths of wasteland in Detroit, but concurrently building up a sprawling infrastructure of suburbia: Interstate highways, subdivisions, commercial and industrial parks, and shopping malls.

When Summit Place Mall opened, it was much smaller than it is today. It had two anchor stores: Hudson’s and Montgomery Ward, and a row of stores along an enclosed hallway between them. In 1973, a Sears was attached to the north end of the mall; however, the mall portion was not extended to Sears. Instead, Sears was essentially a standalone store tacked onto the north side of the mall. Eventually, developers realized the potential with this burgeoning, successful property and opened a JCPenney store behind Wards on the west side of the mall in 1988. Also during 1988, the mall was extended to JCPenney from Ward’s and again extended to the north to Sears, making it mall accessible for the first time after 15 years. By 1990, the mall added a Mainstreet (later and currently Kohl’s) store between Wards and Sears and a new food court was built to accomodate trends and the massive shopping crowds. A Service Merchandise was also added to the Hudson’s (Marshall Field’s) end of the mall. During the 1990s, this mall was the place to be. Several large strip malls were built on the outlots or just across from the mall, including a Sam’s Club, Target, HQ, Builders Square, Circuit City, major grocery, Sports Authority, and Best Buy, with space for even more.

The pinnacle of success was breached in about 1995, with the closure of HQ in the plaza on the north outlot of the mall. Shockingly, and as a testament to the mall’s dramatically fast failure, the HQ stands vacant and preserved today. However, the mall continued to prosper into the late 1990s until a deafening blow came with the opening of Great Lakes Crossing, a major, outlet/hybrid (think the Mills malls) enclosed mall in Auburn Hills, just a few miles away. The grocery store (Farmer Jack) and Sports Authority closed up shop, leaving more vacancies in the outlots. In 2001, the mall saw more changes and another blow as Montgomery Ward closed up shop. Also in 2001, Hudson’s was rebranded Marshall Fields, though the store essentially remained the same aside from the name change. Many national brand retailers left the mall for greener pastures (Great Lakes Crossing) and also stores in the outlots left as well. From the late 90s to the early 2000s, the mall’s vacancy rate jumped from 20% to 50%. The mall was sold.

Today, there are talks about what can be done with this giant center to make it profitable again. In her Oakland Press article, Lara Mossa wrote that in November of 2005 there were plans to demolish approximately half of the center and replace it with housing, making the mall a mixed-use development. She also reported that the new owner Namco also wanted to put a water park in the mall, but was unable to find the financing to do so. The article also reports the dramatically fast downturn of the mall. As recently as 1998, the mall employed 1800 people; today it employs 400. Other reports from more unofficial sources have heard rumors that the entire mall will be torn down for a condo development.

The decor of Summit Place is also interesting. Since many stores abruptly left since the late 1990s, many storefronts which are vacant are quite dated. Some vacant storefronts have ads for other stores in the mall, notably for Marshall Field’s. A large child’s play area sits on the concourse with the most stores, the original concourse between Marshall Field’s and dead Montgomery Ward. Between Montgomery Ward and Sears the stores are sparse, and all the way down by the Kohl’s wing there is almost no activity whatsoever. The food court has one lone pretzel vendor. Between Montgomery Ward and Sears there is also a very strange display of plastic trees and stuffed animals that is almost disturbing.

What will become of Summit Place Mall? Only time will tell, but one thing is certain: the 1.5 million square foot center is far too large for its current demand. However sad the mall is, though, people still continue to shop there. The Marshall Field’s is slated to become a Macy’s in mid-2006 and will not close, at least right away. The Sears and Kohl’s at the mall do fine for themselves, it’s just the two dozen or so remaining tenants in the mall that are problematic. If anyone has any more info, contributions are always welcome. Pictures taken by me, July 2006.

2009 UPDATE: After protracted suffering, Summit Place Mall officially closed in September 2009.

Rolling Acres Mall; Akron, Ohio

Rolling Acres Mall is a sad, forgotten behemoth of a mall located in the southwest corner of Akron, Ohio. Due largely to renovations at other Akron-area malls, the nationwide trend away from enclosed dinosaur malls, and possibly the region’s downfall as a whole, Rolling Acres Mall has fallen on some very hard times recently.

Rolling Acres Mall opened with huge fanfare in August of 1975. During the grand opening, Sears opened with 21 other stores in its court on the north end of the mall. Before long, JCPenney and Montgomery Ward followed suit and opened their anchor stores onto the mall. Around this time, the mall featured typical mod 70s decor, a funky yellow “bubble elevator”, and a large aquarium in front of Wards. Sunken seating areas on the upper level would later be removed to give a more open feel to the center. It sounded like a great place to be, and it was. It quickly became the dominant center in Akron, which also boasted two previously-existing malls: Summit Mall and Chapel Hill Mall.

In 1978, a major expansion of the mall took place, adding a food court, in-line mall space on a new lower level at the south end of the mall, and O’Neil’s department store.

The mid 1980s saw continued success of Rolling Acres Mall through more popular national chains, and space in the mall was premium. Montgomery Ward closed, but it was replaced by Higbee’s which eventually became Dillards (and remains today). Also during this time the mall’s decor was updated, replacing some of the mod 70s colors with the pink and teal colors popular during the mid-1980s. The food court was renamed Picnic Place and remodeled with a vague Victorian-era look, which looks odd amid the rest of the mall’s design. It remains today.

During the late 80s and 1990s, a changing national retail landscape combined with extensive renovations and repositioning at other centers around Akron sealed the mall’s fate into the sad state it is today. Stores that once flanked Rolling Acres like Merry Go Round, County Seat, Petrie’s, and Chess King all folded at the national level, leaving holes at Rolling Acres. In 1997, Summit Mall in the now-booming retail area around northwest Akron got an extensive remodel and repositioned itself to receive the popular stores that would replace the ones that closed at Rolling Acres. It was around this time that the area around Rolling Acres experienced decline as well. Across the street are several dead plazas including one that was a Child World location. It was also around this time that JCPenney became JCPenney outlet, and Rolling Acres received its final addition: a Target store connected to a new, small wing off the food court in 1995.

Today, the mall’s condition is pretty bleak. Although the mall isn’t completely dead, I’d say it’s running with less than half a tank. In 2006, Target left the mall and opened in a new strip center 7 miles to the west in Wadsworth. The rest of the anchors remain; however, time will tell if Macy’s will keep the store during the conversion from Kaufmann’s, or for very long thereafter. As with many dead malls, a fan base has developed around the mall and its current condition. In fact, someone even created and maintains a myspace page as well as a fan site for the mall. This is, of course, not to be confused with the mall’s official website. All the pictures posted below are mine and were taken during the summer of 2005. As always, please leave comments about updates and/or corrections; they’re much appreciated.

UPDATE 1/28/07: The sale of the former Dillard’s and Target locations are underway. An auction will be held to sell the former 125,000 square-foot Dillard’s store on February 7, and the 98,000 square-foot former Target store will be purchased by Akron Commercial Development LLC by the end of this week. The Akron Beacon Journal reports that although speculation has emerged concerning the conversion of Rolling Acres Mall to a mixed-use hybridized retail/office center, these former anchors will be retail.

UPDATE 6/25/08: I just went to Rolling Acres on Sunday and it’s in really sad shape. All the info Mary has provided (in the comments) is accurate. None of the escalators are operating, so you have to take stairs between the lower and upper levels. Both JCPenney Outlet and Sears are open and have access into the mall during business hours (though JCPenney only opens to the upper level). The fountains are off, and the mall directories are at least a couple years out of date, though they indicate Macy’s as an anchor. Macy’s came to the mall in September 2006 when they ate Kaufmann’s, and then closed in February 2008. There are numerous issues with the degradation of the flooring, as many of the tiles have chipped off and have just been left as is. The ceiling has numerous leaks, as well as many spots on the floor beneath them. I thought this place was in bad shape when I first came here 3 years ago, but man, it’s incredible that the mall is even still open in this condition. Keep us posted on the deathwatch!

UPDATE 3/31/12: The Rolling Acres Mall is now closed permanently. The mall itself died with a whimper in October 2008 when the power company cut off electricity due to non-payment. Sears and the JCPenney Outlet Store continued to operate while the interior of the mall was sealed and left to rot. Three years later, in 2011, Sears and JCPenney Outlet both left the mall entirely, leaving the center 100% abandoned.

Iverson Mall; Hillcrest Heights, Maryland

I’m back from my long weekend spent in the Mid-Atlantic, and did I ever find some doozies! You, dear Labelscar reader, are in for some treats.

I thought I might start with one of the most interesting malls that I found: The Iverson Mall in Hillcrest Heights, Maryland. Located along Maryland Route 5 about a mile or so outside of the District of Columbia, just over the border from D.C.’s notorious Anacostia neighborhood, this 526,731 square foot center is one of the oldest–if not THE oldest–enclosed mall in Prince Georges County, Maryland. The two-level Iverson Mall opened on September 21, 1967 with Montgomery Ward and Woodward & Lothrop as anchor stores, though as you might imagine neither still exists today. It also bucks the trend of most urban malls: according to this flyer (PDF warning, though it includes a directory and a photo, making it well worth clicking), it’s even the highest-grossing shopping mall in PG County, with a vacancy rate of only 2%. Unlike most older malls, the Iverson Mall website even–refreshingly–includes some information about its heritage, including a historic newspaper advertisement for the mall, a vintage photo of an old pylon, and an aerial shot that shows the mall’s weirdest architectural feature: a tunnel.

That’s right. Part of the reason why the Iverson Mall was such an incredible find was that–not only was it incredibly old and not only did it still boast some great ’60s vintage decor–but the two level mall and its rear parking garage are cantilevered right over Iverson Street, a four-lane divided parkway. The northern wing of the mall, which is the old Woodward & Lothrop store that is today home to a Value City, is the larger end of the mall and is two levels. It stretches all the way to Iverson Street, where the second level continues straight over the roadway while the first level exits straight out to the street itself. The mall continues south of Iverson Street, with a smaller section that once lead to Montgomery Ward and is today home to a furniture store and several other tenants that are supposed to be coming soon. It again has a lower level, which exits out onto Iverson Street. Essentially, to continue walking straight along the ground floor of the mall, it’s necessary to exit the mall, cross four lanes of traffic, and then re-enter the mall across the street. It’s only possible to stay inside of the mall by walking across on the second level. Take a look at the satellite photo (or the aerial photo above) if I’ve confused you. You won’t be sorry; it’s pretty neat!

From some of the exterior architecture (which I haven’t represented well here, unfortunately), it seems that large sections of the mall were built out of existing buildings that were sort of cobbled together, especially in the spaces closest to Iverson Street. Oh, and there are some more Iverson Mall photos here; in particular there’s a shot that better represents the groovy spiral staircase in the mall’s center, which I neglected to shoot.