Beltway Plaza; Greenbelt, Maryland

Beltway Plaza Mall pylon in Greenbelt, MD

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.

Beltway Plaza Mall pylon in Greenbelt, MD

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.

From underneath the Beltway Plaza Mall parking deck in Greenbelt, MD Beltway Plaza Mall in Greenbelt, MD Beltway Plaza Mall directory in Greenbelt, MD

Beltway Plaza Mall in Greenbelt, MD Beltway Plaza Mall in Greenbelt, Maryland Beltway Plaza Mall in Greenbelt, Maryland Gold's Gym basketball court at Beltway Plaza Mall in Greenbelt, Maryland

Ceilings at Beltway Plaza Mall in Greenbelt, Maryland Beltway Plaza Mall in Greenbelt, Maryland Beltway Plaza Mall in Greenbelt, Maryland

Iverson Mall; Hillcrest Heights, Maryland

Iverson Mall pylon in Hillcrest Heights, MDI’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.

Iverson Mall in Hillcrest Heights, MD Iverson Mall in Hillcrest Heights, MD

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.
Iverson Mall Value City store in Hillcrest Heights, MD Former Wards at Iverson Mall in Hillcrest Heights, MD Former Wards at Iverson Mall in Hillcrest Heights, MD

Iverson Mall food court in Hillcrest Heights, MD Iverson Mall in Hillcrest Heights, MD Iverson Mall in Hillcrest Heights, Maryland Iverson Mall in Hillcrest Heights, MD