Capital City Mall; Camp Hill, Pennsylvania
Not every mall can be exciting, and truth be told, the Capital City Mall in Camp Hill, a suburb just southwest of Harrisburg, isn’t terribly remarkable. It’s a fairly standard mid-sized one-level mall with 576,000 square feet and three anchor stores organized roughly in the classic dumbell fashion. Its greatest drama seems to be that it was partially responsible for killing off another similarly-sized mall–the Camp Hill Mall–just to its north. But even that was due more to Camp Hill’s loss of Montgomery Ward than anything Capital City had a direct hand in. That said, I wanted to throw this one up because I have some (well, okay, one) picture from before the mall’s recent renovation and also a set taken a few weeks ago, after said renovation.
The Capital City Mall is shaped like a “T,” with Sears at the western end, Hecht’s (soon to be Macy’s) near the center court, and JCPenney at the eastern end. There’s a long side corridor extending outward from Hecht’s towards the south, and when I first visited in fall of 2004 this corridor was the home of the mall’s food court. Aerial photos show this area of the mall as having a notably different roof, so it was, unsurprisingly, almost certainly added later. As you can see from the photo below, it was looking a bit rough at the time:
Fast forward to today, and this corridor has been walled-up and turned into a fairly straightforward side hallway with stores along the edges, including a shiny new Hollister. That means that much of the original “open” area of the former food court is now occupied by store slots and there’s very little evidence that the food court was ever there. The food court itself moved towards the western end of the mall, not far from Sears, and occupies a space formerly taken by a movie theatre and several smaller stores along the side of the mall. Beyond some minor cosmetic upgrades, the renovation didn’t do much else (and as you may notice, the floors haven’t been redone at all). Until 2004, all of the Harrisburg area malls were pretty dated. This renovation was almost certainly necessary for PREIT to keep this mall in line with the much more comprehensive renovation they completed in 2004 of the larger Harrisburg Mall, which is located only a few miles down the highway and is also PREIT-owned.
Look for Harrisburg’s other shopping malls: Harrisburg Mall (formerly Harrisburg East Mall), Colonial Park Mall, and (hopefully) Camp Hill Mall soon. I may need the help of some good Labelscar readers at filling in the blanks on Camp Hill, since it was disenclosed before I ever visited and I don’t have any good pictures to share. If you have something you’d like to contribute, please let me know!
Check out the comprehensive PREIT leasing page on the Capital City Mall (which has a site plan and aerial photos and other neat stuff, as well as the official site.
Steven Swain
July 21st, 2006 at 2:15 am
Two things stick out in my mind about this mall. One is the perfect shot of the Hecht’s store. The second is the Sears mall entrance. You can’t see it really well in the picture, but it’s spoting the updated “Title Case” logo with the red underscore. I guess they did it because of the mall remodel (which isn’t particutrally effective, BTW
Want a little bit of mall history? Capital City opened in 1974 with Sears, Bowman’s and G.C. Murphy as anchors. In 1979, Hess’s repleced Bowman’s. G.C. Murphy was replaced by Ames seven years later, as the mall was being renovated and the food court added.
In 1995, Hess’s closed and Hecht’s took over its space. Ames closed that same year and was replaced by JCPenney (which may or may not have contributed to the JCPenney closure at Harrisburg East Mall a few years afterward). In 1997, the mall was renovated again and Sears expanded in 1999.
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Aaron
August 18th, 2006 at 1:15 am
I am almost 32, just about the same age as the Capital City Mall (it opened just a few months before I was born)…
I can help provide some insight on it…..The food court (in its original spot) wasn’t added until 1985…The mall would end right before the entrance to the old food court. Before the food court, there were some restaurants in the mall, such as Amity House (a restaurant once owned by Weis..none of them exist anymore), York Steak House, Roy Rogers, and a hot dog place that I can’t remember the name of.
The long hallway that houses bathrooms and L.A. Nails once housed the arcade, which was called “Supercade”. The next arcade to be in the mall was a CyberStation in the food court, but in 1997 it was replaced by an eyeglass store.
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Jonah Norason
August 19th, 2007 at 2:59 pm
I think I may have almost stopped at this mall…I remember that it had “FOOD COURT” listed with the anchors…
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stephanie
September 4th, 2007 at 9:23 pm
I spent most of my adolescence in this mall. Haven’t been back easily in close to 20 years — pictures of it in this post look so antiseptic and horribly generic. My late 70s/early 80s memories of it are defined by images of dark wood “rustic” decor which feels, in my nostalgic reveries, cozy rather than claustrophobic. Does anyone know at what point they tore down the cineplex that was attached to the mall? I want to say it was a six-plex.
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B Reply:
July 6th, 2009 at 2:30 am
@stephanie,
Yea. I also spent every second I could at this mall from 75-95. I remember everything about it. It is so distant from its original shell. There was a pizza shop right at the edge of where the food court was built(cant remember the name). I used to play the jukebox on the left hand side and it had the best 80’s pizza! The Supercade was my home away from home. I actually worked there in 1989. Used to use all of the red coated quarters they gave us for bum games, playing games myself. There was a Friendly’s mid mall that closed when the mall forced all of the restaurants to move to the food court. The York Steak House was one of the first buffet style restaurants I ever remember. Their Honey glazed chicken was incredible. I can still taste it to this day.
The decor of the mall was awesome and i truly miss it. There was a record store in in the corner where the jewelry store is now. I can remember Brett & Crew signing autographs there in 84 or 85. Lets see, what else? Murphy Mart was a great store, I remember buying(or having my grandma buy for me) Atari 2600 games there that were stacked in the bins up front for cheap prices. I also remember Off The Wall and a few other stores that were there. Radio Shack was not far from the arcade, it was replaced by Electronics Boutique in November of 88, I worked there from it’s open until 92. The manager and I are still friends today.
Spencers had been there for the malls entire existence up until just 4 or 5 years ago, when it went out of business. Sears and Radioshack are the only two original stores that are left, I believe. Toys R Us came along around 85 or 86. There was a drug store near where Old Navy is now, though I cant remember its name.
Rocky Horror was a huge part of being at that mall for me in 1989. Great movie theater in the back, that isnt there anymore that I watched many movies in and enjoyed my first real kiss outside of.
Many memories. God, I miss the 70’s and 80’s. What a great time to grow up in and around Camp Hill, PA.
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Donna Reply:
November 1st, 2009 at 7:06 pm
@B, do you know if there’s a walgreens inside, or a Wal-mart ??? and , what is the address there ( at the mall ???
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Todd
June 9th, 2008 at 11:12 am
I all but grew up at this mall and haven’t been back since the late 80’s so THAT is the mall that I still is my memory. That means the mall WITHOUT the food court. Steph, the cineplex still existed in the early 90’s because a few friends of mine were in a Rocky Horror cast at that theater.
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Casey
November 30th, 2008 at 6:16 pm
ok, this must be old, because there is NO hects at the mall, its now macy’s, and the food court has changed a lot. i spend nearly every single weekend at this mall, so CHANGE THE PICTURES… because it looks nothing like that anymore
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Dominic Reply:
July 26th, 2009 at 12:57 pm
@Casey,
Whoa! Lose the attitude. You’re probably 16 and have no idea what nostalgia means. Go elsewhere to complain.
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Sarah
February 15th, 2009 at 3:31 pm
I moved to the area when I was a child in 1995, so I essentially grew up with both the Capitol City Mall and the Camp Hill mall. I remember that I used to go more to the Camp Hill Mall, because it actually seemed nicer and had a Yummy Gummi Zoo (Candy and Stuffed Animal Store). I should send you some pictures that I have of the interior of the Camp Hill Mall, or at least the hallway that hasn’t been walled up. The movie “Mannequin” from 1987 was actually filmed at the Boscov’s in the Camp Hill Mall. In terms of Capitol City however, the pictures that are currently posted do not do it justice. It really has been improved quite a bit from how it looked before the renovation. Now it has a lighter and airier feel and has pulled in major stores like Build a Bear Workshop, Wet Seal, and Forever 21 that it did not have before. The overall decor of the mall is no longer dated and it doesn’t have a dark feel to it anymore. It is certainly a more upscale mall than it used to be, and nearly makes up for no longer having the Camp Hill mall anymore. For a little history lesson, the Camp Hill Mall also used to have a Benetton, Unitz, and Camelot Records in it at it’s prime. It’s a shame that it’s no longer the beautiful interior mall with the fountains and brown terra-cotta decor that it used to be. However, if you enter through Boscovs’, you can still walk into a hallway with a few tenants in it and see the old decor and a teal “Mall” sign in it.
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Stephanie Smirnov
March 5th, 2009 at 4:16 pm
Thanks to Todd for clarification on the Capitol City cineplex. And as for Camp Hill Mall — unless you came of age in the mid-1970s you probably wouldn’t remember the ORIGINAL Camp Hill Mall — when it was the Camp Hill Shopping Center, open-air, anchored by a Korvette’s (which then became Boscovs). There wasn’t much else there at that time — an independently owned drugstore with a bona fide, old-timey lunch counter (I’d ride my bike there for chocolate milkshakes and grilled cheese), a shoe store where they gave you pretzel rods (Florsheim’s?)…and the Camp Hill Twin, a freestanding two-plex movie theater a stone’s throw away in the parking lot.
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B Reply:
July 6th, 2009 at 2:37 am
@Stephanie Smirnov,
Dont forget the Bowling Alley in the back and the great arcade that was one of the last stores left before that mall closed. There was a flea market there for years before they tore it down and put up what we now know as the Camp Hill Mall. Even the Camp Hill Mall has undergone changes in its years of being built. There used to be an entire hallway before Boscovs. A record store, A candy shop, a hair salon, jewelry store and pet shop were among the stores in that hallway.
The movie Manequin was partially filmed in Boscovs right before the Camp Hill Mall opened. If you watch one of the first scenes from the movie when Andrew Mccarthy picks up his love interest outside of the store, you can see the B from the Boscovs logo to the far right. Their are many interior shots that you will also recognize. Remember the Record shop they had in the original Boscovs? How about the stereo shop right behind that? The auto parts shop to the back of the store?
My entire existence was based around the Camp Hill and Capitol City malls from 75-95.
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GoneFromTheBurg Reply:
November 8th, 2009 at 1:01 am
@Stephanie Smirnov,
Yes I remember well the open air plaza. The Muza piped in for that outdoor stroll. The Camp Hill Barbers were located mid center on a frontside corner. Very small square footage before the mall was enclosed. The corner drug store was distinctly ’70’s pharma retail. Kiddie City was a blast running up and down the isles shooting siblings with cap gun rifles still in the package. Korvettes has a great LP record selection. Very groovy those times. And today, “so antiseptic and horribly generic” is spot on. No more mom and pop hobby shops and Kinney’s shoes. CVS and Walgreens have been servicing sick society ever since…
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