Harrisburg Mall; Harrisburg, Pennsylvania
It was the fall of 2004, and I was finishing up my first day of what was then the longest trip that I’d taken alone. After a long day spent trawling across the northeast, I found myself standing in the lobby of a Red Roof Inn in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, entirely by myself in a city that I knew nothing about beyond that it was a) the capital city of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania and b) home of the Three Mile Island nuclear power plant.
I knew full well that I’d spend the entire evening doing what I’d done all day–exploring the city and visiting malls–but something was strangely freeing about arriving in this strange city without a plan. My first stop was the Harrisburg Mall, just about a mile from my hotel.
At the time, I was going to seek out a place named the Harrisburg EAST Mall, but apparently the mall was in the middle of a major rebranding and renovation, and I stumbled into the center of it. Apparently the Harrisburg Mall (no “East” anymore), which is the largest enclosed shopping mall in metropolitan Harrisburg, hit some rocky times in the early ’00s. Anchored by Hecht’s, JCPenney, and Lord & Taylor until 2003 or so (though I think the Lord & Taylor may have once been a Hess’s), L&T pulled out of the mall as part of a larger round of closings. JCPenney and Hecht’s both announced their intention to leave soon after. The mall was sold, and management had to do something quickly to turn around the fortunes of the rapidly-emptying mall. Despite that the Harrisburg East Mall had been the area’s dominant mall quite recently, it seemed headed for a fast crash.
Thankfully, Lubert-Adler and Feldman Equities took a proactive approach to protecting the mall, which they detail in this case study. They renovated the two-level, 840,000 square-foot, 90-store center inside and out, introducing a rather Pottery Barn-esque design scheme, and convinced Hecht’s to stay on the property. The JCPenney space was quickly filled with a Boscov’s store, and the former Lord & Taylor was dramatically reworked to become a Bass Pro Shops, which today drives a large amount of traffic to the mall. In addition, a final phase of the mall’s renovation calls for the construction of a lifestyle-center-style streetscape to be built onto the front of the structure, creating space for additional outdoor retail. A movie theatre is also scheduled to be added to the rear of the mall, between Hecht’s and Boscov’s and presumably off of the food court wing.
When I visited in 2004, the mall had a surprising number of vacancies and Bass Pro Shops had not yet opened for business. As of a month ago, when I swung by again, the mall had rebounded dramatically and now boasts an 80% occupancy rate and seems to have reclaimed its role as the dominant mall for the Harrisburg area.
As you see from these pictures, Harrisburg Mall isn’t terribly exciting, bar its tall pylon or unrenovated basement court (the final picture). But it is an example of a mall that was quickly and strategically pulled out of an undeserved rapid nosedive and has been brought back to profitability. I wish all mall management companies were this stealthy.
For a vintage view, check out this 1988 shot of the mall’s parking lot! For a modern aerial view, check out this really neat-o black and white photo that shows the mall today, with the Harrisburg skyline in the background.
This is my sole photo from the 2004 trip. The fuzziness is arr-tistic, not simply a result of my old VGA-res style camera phone:
And here’s some that are a bit more current, all taken July 2006:
Labelscar: The Retail History Blog » Capital City Mall; Camp Hill, Pennsylvania
August 1st, 2006 at 2:03 am
[...] 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. [...]
Prangeway
August 1st, 2006 at 3:12 am
Why was the Bible out? Were you learning outside of church again?
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Caldor
August 1st, 2006 at 3:14 am
It was for necessary inspiration.
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Steven Swain
August 1st, 2006 at 12:13 pm
Back when it was Harrisburg East, the mall was anchored by Hess’s, John Wannamaker and JCPenney. Lord & Taylor replaced Hess’s and Hecht’s replaced John Wannmaker.
I’m kind of disapointed thatt here are no pictures of the Boscov’s. They have a tendency not to change the exterior architecture of aquired stores much, and I’m sure there was a vintage Penneys facade here
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Caldor
August 1st, 2006 at 12:18 pm
I totally forgot to even drive around back and grab some shots when I was there a few weeks ago! I can’t speak with much specificity about the Boscov’s facade, but if you look at the “neat-o black and white aerial photo” that I link to towards the end of the post, you can see the Boscov’s store at left. From what I remember of it, the facade was pretty typical of what I expect to find at a Boscov’s, so maybe they did renovate it. But again, the only time I got up close to the exterior of this store was on my visit in 2004 and it was actually dark at the time. I could’ve easily missed some details.
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Steven Swain
August 1st, 2006 at 4:50 pm
Yep, Boscov’s been renovated. Shoot.
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J.B. Smith
August 13th, 2006 at 7:20 am
Wanted to correct some misinformation from earlier posts. It was the former Hechts location that was previously Hess’s, and even before that, Gimbels. The Lord and Taylor store was in the former John Wannamaker location in the mall. Now that I have set that straight, I wanted to share some of the other stores that used to be located at the Harrisburg “East” Mall. Back in the old days, in the Gimbels end (later Hess’s, and then Hechts) there used to be a Woolworth’s, adjacent to that was a Harvest House Cafeteria, and a G.C. Murphy store that was two floors (the 2nd floor is now the food court). Also in the mall was a place restaurant/bar called Mother’s Subs (that later became a Swatara Twp. Police Substation), a Pizza place that I believe was called Lucas Pizza (located off the center court), which was linked to serious drug related problems and drug related violence that began to plague the mall in the early to mid 1980s (even leading to the mall being “locked down” when gun related violence broke out. At one time there was also a Friendlys Restaurant, a Lerner’s Store, a Bakers Shoe Store, A Rea & Derrick Drugstore (Later People’s Drugstore & then CVS). There was also a basement area (off from center court) that had restrooms & an arcade, which was later a WHTM-27 annex studio briefly. It seems to me that prior to being an arcade, that space may have housed a skating rink (either ice or roller), but I don’t actually remember this being the case. There also was an annex a little distance from the Gimbels (et.al.) end. The annex included a movie theatre, a bar (forget the name), a State Store (State owned/operated liquor store) and a Greyhound (bus) substation. The Theatre end is now a Toys R Us. While building the Toys R Us (a redevelopment of the annex), the toy store giant expressed its displeasure with the proximity of the State Store to its location & expressed its desire to get the State to not return its liquor store to the annex once the redevelopment was completed. They felt it was bad for business given the fact that they catered to kids and the perception(s) of who frequented liquor stores. The State of PA was not swayed and promised that they would be returning to the annex. For some reason, the State Store (nor its rebranded “Wine & Spirits Shop”) did not return. Just behind (literally) the annex is Dauphin County Prison.I always found it funny that the mall was right near the prison & if that wasn’t bad enough, there was also a Greyhound location. I always figured one could break out of prison…hit the mall to steal some new clothes…then hop on a bus to get out of town (LOL). The Greyhound Substation did not return following the redevelopment of the annex. I guess Toys R Us was cool with being right in front of a County Prison, but not several spaces from a liquor store. Without getting into a political debate about the corrections system of the US, or the socio-economic problems that plague Harrisburg (as well as many US cities), anyone familiar with Harrisburg’s ills might easily figure that Toys R Us might have figured that being in front of the County Prison might actually be good for business for reasons that shall go unmentioned by me.
The Harrisburg “East” Mall also hosted the local portion of the March of Dimes Telethon each year at its center court. Celebrities who hosted the local portion at the mall included: Soupy Sales, Bob Ewbanks, Mary Ann Mobley, her husband Gary Collins, just to name a few that I can remember.
Now that you probably know more about the Harrisburg “East” Mall than you did before (or probably cared to know), I will wrap this post up. Hope someone enjoys the info though.
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norman St. Amour Reply:
May 10th, 2009 at 4:56 pm
@J.B. Smith, That’s nothing. In Lebanon County, their license plate academy is located next to a retirement home. How’s that for neighbors!
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nick
December 4th, 2006 at 3:29 am
Just a note, there is now a bus tour company that runs out of the old greyhound substation… “Go Tours” or something like that. The local opinion of the location is still pretty poor, as the mall has been the location of a few highly publicised rape cases… Most people prefer the Colonial Park Mall in, you guessed it, Colonial Park, or Park City Mall in Lancaster.
There is also a truly dead mall in downtown lancaster, but I can’t recall the name of it right now…
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norman St. Amour Reply:
May 10th, 2009 at 4:58 pm
@nick, Are you talking about Watt and Shand? That is currently being rebuilt into a convention center.
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Brian
December 14th, 2006 at 6:19 pm
Lord & Taylor replaced Wannamaker’s in 1997. Hecht’s opened in 1995 and was Hess’s before that it was Gimbel’s.
The mall had it’s fair share of crime with a shooting or two in the the 1980’s and even a carjacking/abduction a few years ago outside of then Lord & Taylor.
It was a popular place to go in the 1980’s. Most of the malls in the Harrisburg area declined in the 1990’s, both Lord & Taylor and Hecht’s had nice stores though.
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Mike F.
March 13th, 2007 at 4:29 pm
The “bar” in the annex was Paradise Alley. There was also an auto parts store that had a name that started with Uncle…spent a lot of time and $$ at that mall in the 70s and 80s.
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Sara
March 25th, 2007 at 11:03 pm
And the Hechts is now a Macy’s.
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stephanie
August 19th, 2007 at 6:46 pm
Does anyone remember the Patio Restaurant inside the Hess store, circa 1978? Height of disco fabulousness in a sit-down restaurant — with mirrored walls, nightclub lighting, and (for some reason) huge portions of typical anchor-store-in-a-mall cafe type food. And really cool bowls of multi-colored sugar on every table — FANCY.
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josh
August 22nd, 2007 at 2:06 am
The “bar” in the annex was Paradise Alley. There was also an auto parts store that had a name that started with Uncle…spent a lot of time and $$ at that mall in the 70s and 80s.
The auto store was called Miller’s. They sponsored my baseball team I played on in the late 1970’s.
I used to get all my haircuts at Headhunters which was right near Friendly’s. Lucas had the first Sicilian style pizza I ever had. It went very well with the Orang Julius.
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Jonah Norason
August 22nd, 2007 at 9:49 am
Whoa. That would be kind of awkward. Having a bus station near a prison is very uncommon. In fact, my 7th grade history teacher made the misfortune of parking a car between a bus station and a prison. When the prisoners were released, they ignored her and ran for the bus. The lesson here is that prisons near malls don’t directly affect crime. Granted, it’s certainly NIMBY, but hey, malls had things to worry about on their own.
Shame you didn’t snap a picture of the mall directory…
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catnapped
August 25th, 2007 at 9:21 pm
I didn’t see it mentioned, but back in the days when Hess’s was still there, Toys R Us occupied the basement (there was an outside entrance). Only when Hecht’s took over the building did TRU build the new location outside the mall building.
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Todd
June 9th, 2008 at 11:20 am
I remember we did most of our shopping at the Capitol City mall and the Camp Hill mall. I guess a lot of folks on the west shore associated The East Mall with crime and such and just avoided it. And The Colonial Mall was getting pretty long in the tooth even in the 80’s and it was a pain to get to.
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Andrew Thompson
November 2nd, 2008 at 4:25 pm
I was just at Harrisburg Mall yesterday- Boscov’s is now gone as part of the bankruptcy reorganization of the department store, and does it show. The food court was down to five eateries: McDonald’s, Subway, Orange Julius, China Max, and Big Star Pizza. In addition, there is no book store and the former Disney Store is now a Xmas store. The mall better not be heading back towards death- they are now building a Barnes and Noble there which will have a mall entarance, but I fear if that will happen, the mall will become just like Camp Hill Mall across the river.
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Patrizia
November 13th, 2008 at 6:29 am
In paradise alley worked a really hot guy by the name of Gregg or Craig. I wonder how life has treated him….
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Rachel
December 5th, 2008 at 3:29 pm
Part of the reason the food court lost spots was to build the mall access to the movie theater.
JC Penney ended up returning to Harrisburg, practically a stone’s throw away in the High Pointe Commons (big box) shopping center) a few years later.
Barnes and Noble pushed back their opening date to 2009.
Panera Bread had a location built for them with “streetscape” access in between Bass Pro and B&N – but they decided not to move in.
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Jonah Norason
December 7th, 2008 at 9:53 pm
What? Who said JCPenney was returning to Harrisburg? So, it becomes a JCPenney, then Boscov’s, then Penney’s again? And no citations on the internet anywhere? BS.
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catnapped
January 14th, 2009 at 7:48 pm
In case anyone is interested (or cares for) an update, Barnes and Noble seems to have bailed out of the project entirely, joining both Panera and Sega in vacating stores that hadn’t even opened yet (the B&N letters on the store have recently been removed but remain on the mall’s outside pylon). For Jonah, JCPenney built a new location several years ago at the nearby “Highpointe Commons” (off of Lindle Road, on the east side of I-283), along with Target and a bunch of other specialty stores.
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Cole Selkirk
February 14th, 2009 at 3:09 am
Does anyone remember a record shop called “Music Scene?”
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Bev Kalucki
March 2nd, 2009 at 8:25 pm
Does anyone remember a bakery that was in the Harrisburg East Mall and the Park City Center back in the 70s? Cheesecakes and buns were baked on the premises and sold. There was an almost cave like feel about the place, as the entire back was this huge oven, almost like a pizza oven. I have no idea if this was a chain, as the only two locations I remember were these two.
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vetern mall employee
April 24th, 2009 at 10:02 pm
I work in this field and am very familar with all the centers in central PA. The impression that Harrisburg was the desirable mall of the market anytime since the very early 90s is crazy! In the 90s Harrisburg did a reno that for a short time did give them the title of Top Dog, however with some changes at Capital City that changed around 95-96. Since then Capital City has out performed all the other malls in the market.
The purchase of the center by Feldman was nothing short of a disaster. The vacancy rate is higher now than ever, the sales are steadily declining.
Many of the current tenants are on a % rent structure and kept to simply keep lights on in stores.
Macy’s is eyeing that store up for closing, and if it does Bass Pro will have a kick out allowing them to leave.
The mall recently was foreclosed upon and now under new management. Nothing short of a bottomless credit line and a miracle will save this place
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norman St. Amour
May 10th, 2009 at 5:03 pm
I was manager at Kid’s Toys for a year. I believe Payless Shoes now occupies the spot accross from Macy’s.
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GoneFromTheBurg
November 8th, 2009 at 12:42 am
No mention of the Marriot Hot Shoppe Cafeteria here. It was located on the first floor just outside of Wannamaker’s. Located nearby ,there was a large circular water fountain with a sizable eagle statue for that ’70s decor. Can’t remember at the moment if it was made of bronze or concrete. Hanover shoes and Matango’s candy were close neighbors as well. Walden’s Books was originally on the 2nd floor above center court. Used to watch Soupy Sales from that vantage point during the March of Dimes telethon. Remember the original dark wood trim and planted vegetation along with water ponds and smaller fountains along the center run of the first floor? Talk about a memorable ambience long gone. Today, the place harbors tumble weeds with an auro of baron sterile vacated malaise. So much of the burg has degenerated much the same way. I’m grateful for the past and its better memories. Everytime I return for an out of town visit, I can’t believe I ever grew up in this place that has long since lost it’s identity and turned into one more geography of nowhere. Shame…
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