Comments on: Prince Georges Plaza; Hyattsville, Maryland

By: JAMES SPEORL

JAMES SPEORL — Sun, 28 Feb 2010 21:09:34 +0000

@Mister Uptown Himself, >>>> Ahh,….the old Hot Shoppes Cafeteria. My Mom worked there before she went to work at the old C&P Telephone Co. She says that was one of the first places to open when they were building the Plaza. We ate there almost every night and really miss the regulars that we saw there each week. It was a local meeting place for friends and neighbors, so lots of people could easily socialize back then. I recall the menu by heart. The food was great, especially the Swedish Meatballs, Veal, Swiss Steak and Stuffed Peppers. The newer food court just can’t match the old Hot Shoppes! In later years, business was down and I heard the rent was too high for them to stay open. I’m sad to see both the Hot Shoppes and Big Boy gone!

By: JAMES SPEORL

JAMES SPEORL — Sun, 28 Feb 2010 20:57:25 +0000

@Steve Latter, >>>>I do recall Riverdale Plaza as a kid. Giant Food, People’s Drug (later CVS) and the S.H. Kress Co. 5&10 (later became McCrory 5&10) were the main stores. The Riverdale Theater, the Firestone Dealer and I-Hop were still there at last check. That McDonald’s was the main one in the Bladensburg area besides Landover Hills way back when. The building along Riverdale Road was once a Food Fair and later became a furniture store. There was once an ACME store across Kenilworth Ave. The bus service back then was provided by D.C. Transit System, Route 84 / East Pines to Potomac Park line. We took that bus over there quite often. Great Memories!

By: krash1980

krash1980 — Sun, 08 Nov 2009 22:38:44 +0000

Definitely a discount mall.

By: Steve Latter

Steve Latter — Mon, 27 Jul 2009 18:03:38 +0000

Does anyone know much of the history of Riverdale, Plaza? I remember before in became Riverdale Plaza in the mid-1960s I could get a pony ride for 6 Royal Crown bottle caps.

By: Mister Uptown Himself

Mister Uptown Himself — Sat, 18 Jul 2009 15:58:14 +0000

Don’t forget about Hot Shoppes. Does anyone remember that place? Maybe it was because I was 2 years old when we would go there and I would always get a toy at G. C. Murphy’s afterwards, but that place had the best food.

Ron Paul 2012

By: Peggy Coleman

Peggy Coleman — Sun, 21 Jun 2009 02:45:55 +0000

I went when it first opened. It had a sewing machine-fabric shop, and it wasn’t covered with an over roof at the time. I recall the dime store, and the wonderful glass painted wind chimes as I walked in.
The counters were still the old fashioned “island” types. And there was an escalator. I vaguely remember a big open field, and a baseball diamond in the general area where it was built eventually. I remember some big red blinking lights from tv or radio towers down toward Queenstown Rd or Kirkwood area shopping center. It had Atomic architecture, as I recall. After the PG Plaza mom took me to a nearby Bar B Que place. Forgot the name. Those days are missed !

By: Malls of my childhood. « Fabianquest’s Blog

Malls of my childhood. « Fabianquest’s Blog — Mon, 06 Apr 2009 03:42:15 +0000

[...] Malls of my childhood. By fabianquest I haven’t set foot in a mall in years, but when I was a kid growing up outside of Washington, D.C., in the late ’70s and early ’80s my family would visit all the local malls, mainly because wandering around a shopping center was a cheap way for my mother to entertain two kids. There was Capital Plaza, where my father had worked at Montgomery Wards between his stints in the army; Prince Georges Plaza, around the corner from my family’s church, where I would buy model rockets at the Kaybee Toys; Beltway Plaza, where my mother, brother and I stood around for an entire afternoon to see “The Empire Strikes Back” because all the matinees had sold out; and Landover Mall, which was the big kahuna back then, but has now gone to the great closeout sale in the sky. [...]

By: mallguy

mallguy — Mon, 27 Aug 2007 14:58:49 +0000

It’s right across the street from the Mall, closer than the White Flint Station is to the White Flint Mall….the PGP Metro station is on the Green Line.

By: Jonah Norason

Jonah Norason — Sun, 26 Aug 2007 22:20:51 +0000

How far away was this from the Prince Georges Plaza METRO station?

By: dangeejay

dangeejay — Thu, 17 May 2007 20:31:37 +0000

Big oops! I meant to say in my previous post that G.C. Murphy closed 40 years after opening at P.G. Plaza.