Rockville Mall (MD) / Downtown Malls

Moderator: Groceteria

TheQuestioner
Contributor
Posts: 95
Joined: 28 Nov 2005 16:39

Rockville Mall (MD) / Downtown Malls

Post by TheQuestioner »

I wanted to float this out there and see who had any recollections/info on the old Rockville Mall in Rockville, MD. It was probably one of the biggest flops in the history of retail centers. I'm especially curious about it because my visits to it in it's dying days and glimpses of it's abandoned remains were a big reason for my ongoing interest in retail architecture and history.

I only know the basics on Rockville Mall's history, and my own experience with it. It was built around 1972, and was pretty much DOA from the start. It was a major part of Rockville's "urban renewal" and between it and the nearby library and county/city civic buildings, the entire "old town" Main Street portion of Rockville was wiped out. By the 90's most people lamented the loss of what was the only part of Rockville that still retained some elements of it's late 19th/early 20th century character.

From what I've read, that part of town was run down and largely vacant of retail activity by the 1960's. By the mid 70's, it was now very modern and largely vacant of retail activity. The mall had only underground (or more accurately "under building") parking garages, and the layout was not really like a normal suburban mall due to the space constraints. I think it had only one level of retail, not sure how many corridors or what shape layout/arrangement it was in. All I know is that by the early 80's the place was already on it's last legs. I would visit it occasionaly to go to the one and only Friendly's restaurant in the DC area, and half the mall was already abandoned and "blacked-out." I don't think there were any skylights or windows in the mall, so when I would enter to go to Friendly's I would see a few open shops (a video arcade was the only other one I can recall) and then the lighting past a certain point in the hall was just turned off completely. It was really spooky, there were no barriers in the hall or anything, it was as if the mall was slowly being consumed by a dark void.

I think the mall closed around 1983 or so. The opening of White Flint Mall nearby really did it in, since the stores there were more high-end and it was easier to reach from the Beltway. The place sat for a few years and then was redeveloped in fits and starts, first becoming a mix of offices and light retail, then losing what little retail it had. United Artists opened a multi-level theater there around 1987, long after "Rockville Mall" had died. (Other varied names were used for the complex in an attempt to unjinx it) I guess they were trying to get in on the ground floor of one of the supposed renewals that were often discussed but never occured around there. The theater was closed around 1996 when much of the old mall was torn down. Strangely, parts of the mall still exist as office space, though the layout and shape of the remaining building gives no real indication of it once being retail.

Downtown Rockville went through another attempted renewal around 1998, when a new Regal Theaters was built behind the surviving portion of the mall, in the pit of where much of the old mall and old theaters had stood. This revivial only partially worked, since the theater was and is successful, but not much else sprung up around it. I think another "revival" was/is being attempted in the past couple of years, but I have no idea if it's any more successful than the previous attempts.

Personally, I think any efforts to make this area a "town center" shopping area like "Downtown Silver Spring" will fail as long as the old mall building is there. I am amazed they didn't demolish it in the mid-90's when they took down the rest. It is a real eyesore, towering 3-4 stories above Rockville Pike. The remaining building is right up against the side of the road, with a pedestrian bridge connecting it to the Metro train station. (This station didn't open until around 1985, if it had been there at the beginning of the mall's life the mall *might* have had a chance to be successful in some way. Might.)

Once in the late 80's, I went there with my Dad to visit the cable company's office, located in the converted portion of the mall. Everything looked pretty modern and refurbished, with a new escalator and oddly-shaped wide walkways due to the strange conversion. It seemed to have been gutted and rebuilt, not a straight reoccupation of the retail units. There was a set of large metal doors up against one of the huge walls in this hallway, with a chain and padlock around it. I went over to them and peered through the gap between the doors and could see the remains of the old mall. The wall was placed perpendicular to the old hallway, filling the gap all the way to the ceiling. My view was straight down the hall toward what was probably the location of an anchor store. It was pretty well preserved, dark but with some sunlight coming in from above. (strangely contradictory to my earlier memories of there being no skylights, you can see why I seek more detailed info on this mall) It was eerie seeing a dead mall in all it's glory. It would have easily rivaled Dixie Square on a dead-mall geek-o-meter. After about a minute of peeking through there, a guard came over and asked what I was doing. It didn't even occur to me to ask him to open the doors and let me take a better look. Today, armed with a digital camera, I would be ready to bribe him if necessary to get in there. Of course, this portion is long gone, but the fact that an entire mall hallway, complete with old store signs still up, could rot there untouched for the better part of a decade, excited me and made me want to find other such places. It was only upon the discovery of sites like this one that I learned I was not alone in this interest.

Thanks for reading my long-winded recollection. That's all I or anyone else I know seems to know about Rockville Mall. Any additional info would be greatly appreciated, especially opening date and closing dates. (The better to scour the newspaper microfilms with)
rich
Veteran
Posts: 673
Joined: 15 Nov 2005 20:51
Location: Washington, DC

Post by rich »

Kann's department store, the low-end DC-based chain was to anchor the mall and it went out of business just as the mall was to open. There probably wasn't an viable tenant for that space---higher end stores wanted "real malls" and it wouldn't have fit a K-Mart.

I seem to recall that there was some effort to reconfigure the space in the early 90s and draw in restaurants and new office tenants, which had short-lived success.

The area would have a tough time replicating Silver Spring's success or even Bethesda's. It's a relatively small area and in area dominated by government buildings, with some recently redone strip shopping areas nearby and it's across the street from the poorest section of Rockville.

My guess is that the mall came after some other attempts to revive the area, which probably ended up helping doom the mall. There was a late 60s/early 70s ranch-style Acme, just up Rockville Pike/Hungerford Drive from the mall. I think that was a carpet store in the 90s and it finally demolished in the late 90s. There was a more successful strip from the 60s behind the Acme, which was anchored by Giant. I haven't been in that part of Rockville recently, but I think that center has been completely redone.
Mid Century Mod

Rockville Mall Revisited:

Post by Mid Century Mod »

Questioner,

I looked up Rockville Mall, and couldn't find a whole lot about it.

A couple facts though:

It was built on a fifteen acre site -in downtown Rockville- bounded by Washington Street, Beall Avenue, Hungerford Drive and East Middle Lane.

The mall opened in 1972, and was a disaster from the day it opened. There were several attempts to reinvent it. All failed. The article sez that "most of the mall" was torn down in 1995.

Of course, the land is being redeveloped. Groundbreaking for the "Rockville Town Center" took place in June, 2004.

I looked up a circa-1981 map of downtown Rockville.....here is a quick "site plan" I drew up, showing the mall as it was.

Image

I wonder, did any of these downtown, urban renewal, shopping malls (so popular in the 60's & 70's) succeed?

There was one built in my old hometown (Middletown, Ohio). They started it in 1973, and dedicated it in 1975. It (like Rockville's) was an unmitigated disaster. It was finally razed in 2001.

I hope this little bit of information was helpful.

Cheers,

Mid Century Mod
Jeff
Veteran
Posts: 940
Joined: 21 Nov 2005 21:44

Re: Rockville Mall Revisited:

Post by Jeff »

Mid Century Mod wrote: I wonder, did any of these downtown, urban renewal, shopping malls (so popular in the 60's & 70's) succeed?
Actually even the ones built in the 80's seemed to fail as well.

Two examples here in So Cal:

Plaza Pasadena (opened in 1980)
Opened with three anchors, The Broadway (east), May Co (middle) and JCPenney (west). The mall failed in the early 90's when Old Pasadena was redeveloped and became an upscale district. May Co closed first in the mid 80's (didn't last long - small store as well then subdivided into mall stores), JCPenney closed in the late 90's (after mall was nearly empty) and The Broadway became a clearance center in 1996. The mall was torn down in 2000. Macy's kept the Broadway open as a clearance center and converted to a Macys store. This location was to be a Sears, but with the demise of the mall, it never happened. It is now an open air center called Paseo Colorado.

Hawthorne Plaza (opened in 1977)
Opened with three anchors, The Broadway (middle), JCPenney (south) and Montgomery Wards (north). Wards closed in the 80's, JCPenney in the early 90's and The Broadway was converted into a clearance center (like Plaza Pasadena) and closed in 1998. The mall has since been closed.

Only one, built in the early 90's, actually survives to this day, and has struggled, but is still open. Burbank Media Center (now Burbank Town Center)
User avatar
Groceteria
Great Pumpkin
Posts: 1927
Joined: 04 Nov 2005 12:13
Location: In the breakroom
Contact:

Post by Groceteria »

Mid Century Mod wrote:I wonder, did any of these downtown, urban renewal, shopping malls (so popular in the 60's & 70's) succeed?
The answer pretty much seems to be "no"".

Two particularly odd ones were in Redding CA and Rock Hill SC, where they actually put a roof over main street and built an interior "mall" using the existing storefronts. Rock Hill's was particularly shoddy, but both were just creepy as all get out.

Rock Hill finally tore theirs down a few years back; it was apparently constructed in such a way that there was minimal damage to the buildings. Last time I was in Redding, though, the downtown mall there was still very present and very deserted. It looks like it will be considerably harder to remove as well.

The few semi-successful downtown projects of thso sort seem to have been the ones which didn't replace Main Street but were sort of built "off to the side" as in Sacramento and Santa Rosa.
Jeff
Veteran
Posts: 940
Joined: 21 Nov 2005 21:44

Post by Jeff »

http://flickr.com/photos/kuker/sets/131730/

I found that awesome set of pictures of the Redding mall being built on Flicker (thanks to a google search).
rich
Veteran
Posts: 673
Joined: 15 Nov 2005 20:51
Location: Washington, DC

Post by rich »

The mall in Pasadena got off to a good start, but then there was a grizzly murder in the parking garage and nothing was the same after that. Malls seem very prone to decline once crime makes it into the media. For years, malls had plenty of crime--even violent crime, but the operators kept it out of the papers and people felt safe.

I can think of several failed malls: Painesville, Ohio (small, old county seat 30 miles E of Cleveland, 10 miles E of a big mall), Richmond Indiana (good sized county seat with a mall), Nashville TN. They either had nothing you couldn't find in a suburban mall (Nashville) or had small stores that had better exposure and traffic when people could park in front. Small, local business doesn't seem to do well in a mall (although early malls had many local retailers, but not the more quirky or service oriented businesses that manage in neighborhood or small town business districts). Yet, downtowns also need something that ins't in a suburban mall to succeeed.

Rockville's mall was doomed because the area already had plenty of shopping nearby--Congressional Plaza and even Wheaton Plaza. Lake Forest & White Flint would just have added to this.
terryinokc
Contributor
Posts: 79
Joined: 06 Nov 2005 23:34

Post by terryinokc »

Regency Mall in Augusta, Georgia seemed sort of doomed from the start also. It was built in 1976 or 1977--and was touted as the largest mall in Georgia. It had three anchor stores, Montgomery Ward, JB White, and Belk. Actually seemed to pretty well the first couple of years, until the Augusta Mall was built across town, and had higher end stores like Richs and Davisons/Macys.

Not long after it opened, there was some kind of story started that the psychic Jean Dixon had predicted that there would be a horrible accident at the largest mall in Georgia where the second floor would collapse and kill/hurt dozens of people. I think that was the story......anyway, some kind of tragedy would happen there.

After that, things seemed to start declining. I think it was pretty much vacant except for the Montgomery Ward and a few retail shops until the late 1990's. When Wards closed all their stores......that seemed to be the end of the mall.

I visited relatives around there this last summer......the place is totally vacant with boarded up windows, holes in the exterior signs, and lots of weeds. There was talk of some kind of remodeling, but I don't think anything ever came of it.

What a big eyesore along the highway!
TheQuestioner
Contributor
Posts: 95
Joined: 28 Nov 2005 16:39

Post by TheQuestioner »

rich wrote:Kann's department store, the low-end DC-based chain was to anchor the mall and it went out of business just as the mall was to open. There probably wasn't an viable tenant for that space---higher end stores wanted "real malls" and it wouldn't have fit a K-Mart.... .
I never knew about Kann's plans to be there. They were history by the time I was born. I kept confusing them with S. Klein, the other recently deceased DC-area dept. store I kept hearing about as a kid. From what I recall S. Klein was a higher-end (but not Hecht's-level) store than Kanns, is that right? Was Kann's a K-Mart/Korvette's/Zayre type operation, or was it trying to be more like an actual department store?

What store or stores *did* end up anchoring Rockvilel Mall? By the time I visited, there were no anchors. Just a few random mall-type stores like the arcade, maybe a Radio Shack and shoe store. (years later, when I peered through the doorway to see the dead mall, I recall seeing a Thom McCann sign, but I am not sure if that was still open by 1981-82.)

rich wrote:...There was a more successful strip from the 60s behind the Acme, which was anchored by Giant. I haven't been in that part of Rockville recently, but I think that center has been completely redone.
The old Giant was demolished about 2 years ago. It was open as Giant until about 3 years ago, when they built a new store on the former site of Hechingers, less than a quarter-mile up Hungerford Dr. Someone online had a big set of photos of the dismantling of the facade and sign of that Giant, maybe dcgrocery.com. There aren't too many of those 60's-style Giant's left now. I never knew about the Acme being nearby. I recall Hub Furniture occupying a grocery-size space near the Giant, facing Hungerford. Perhaps that was the old Acme?
rich
Veteran
Posts: 673
Joined: 15 Nov 2005 20:51
Location: Washington, DC

Post by rich »

Kann's was part of that now gone species of stores that were simply low end department stores. They usually carried a full line of merchandise, but at the low end--although some didn't have furniture or appliances. Bailey's in Cleveland, Tiedtke's in Toldeo, the Fifth Street Store in LA, and Goldblatt's in Chicago were other examples, as were Alexander's and JW Mays in New York. The Federal's chain in Detroit was in this ball park, too, but had lots of house brand merchandise. The first generation of discount stores killed off or greatly wounded a lot of these stores.

The next rung up were "promotional" stores--the dept stores that were known for bargain basements, cheaper brands and more sales events than the upscale stores. Hecht's started in that catgeory. Lansburgh's was probably in that catgeory, too.

In it's last days, I think the ex-Acme sold carpet. It probably didn't last long as a super and had other lives. Acme had stores in other failed urban renewal projects in the DC area and thad short lives. The one at Half & L, SW in DC (also a ranch) lasted about a year and is now a post office. It's familiar to anyone who's had a car registered in DC, because the inspection station is nearby. Unlike the long-running Safeway down the street, it was in the poorer end of Southwest and somewhat off the beaten path.
TenPoundHammer
Veteran
Posts: 225
Joined: 17 Jan 2007 21:05

Post by TenPoundHammer »

I would like to know more about the downtown malls in Rock Hill and Painesville. When did they open? Did they have anchor stores? Are they still standing? Heck, what were the malls' NAMES?
User avatar
Groceteria
Great Pumpkin
Posts: 1927
Joined: 04 Nov 2005 12:13
Location: In the breakroom
Contact:

Post by Groceteria »

TenPoundHammer wrote:I would like to know more about the downtown malls in Rock Hill and Painesville. When did they open? Did they have anchor stores? Are they still standing? Heck, what were the malls' NAMES?
As I said about five posts up, Rock Hill was torn down several years ago. Again, it was not so a much a mall but a roof built over Main Street. I don't know that it had a name at all, per se. Any "anchors" would have been stores that were already there prior to the construction of the "mall"; nothing new was built other than the enclosure of the street. I do remember that a Woolworth's was still there in the mid 1980s, at least.
rich
Veteran
Posts: 673
Joined: 15 Nov 2005 20:51
Location: Washington, DC

Post by rich »

The Painesville mall dated from the mid 70s. It's anchor was a Carlisle-Allen department store that had been there for 15-20 years; it was a fairly modern store that had grown to 100K sf through a succession of expansions. Carlsile's was based in Ashtubula, the next county seat over and an old factory town/lake port. The mall drew alot of curiosity seekers when it opened & was quite nicely done. The stores were mostly those which had been in the old downtown shopping district-a mix of clothing stores, service businesses, etc. The mall didn't last, though. I think it made it through its first Christmas and then the stores rapidly departed. the death knewll was construction of a Mr. Wigg's discount department store-that was a chain that mostly located in small towns, but was based in suburban Cleveland. Later it was a Fisher's Big Wheel--a similar K-Martish regional discount chain that tended to small towns and far exurbs. The mall was converted to office space in the early 80s. I haven't seen it in a good 15 years, so i don't know what's there now.

It didn't include the Kresge or Newberry variety stores, which were across the stree--Kresge may have been gone by the time the mall opened. There also was a Sears nearby, but it closed right around the time the mall opened--the big mall store 10 miles down the road would replaced it. The County took over both Sears & Kresge for office space.
TenPoundHammer
Veteran
Posts: 225
Joined: 17 Jan 2007 21:05

Post by TenPoundHammer »

I've heard of Fisher's Big Wheel, but I can't find a thing about them on the internet.

Were these Rock Hill and Painesville malls just called "Downtown Mall"? I'd like to know the specific mall name, as I'm working on a list of malls in the US.
User avatar
Groceteria
Great Pumpkin
Posts: 1927
Joined: 04 Nov 2005 12:13
Location: In the breakroom
Contact:

Post by Groceteria »

TenPoundHammer wrote:Were these Rock Hill and Painesville malls just called "Downtown Mall"? I'd like to know the specific mall name, as I'm working on a list of malls in the US.
A quick thirty seconds on Google provided the following info from this page:
In 1977 Rock Hill became one of the hundreds of cities around the nation attempting to save their downtown retail centers by covering part of main street in order to create a mall.[34] While successful at first, by the mid-1980s the TownCenter Mall began losing stores, such as the Belks' Budget Fair Store. The Mall had become part of the problem in the downtown area, and the debate over what to do about the mall divided the community.
I'm sure another thirty seconds on Google might produce similar info on the other mall as well.
Post Reply