Eastland Mall (North Versailles, Pennsylvania)
Encyclopedia
Eastland Mall was a two-level, enclosed shopping mall located at 833 East Pittsburgh-McKeesport Blvd in North Versailles, Pennsylvania
, situated on 57 acres (230,671 m²) of land at the peak of a hill overlooking the Monongahela River
. The mall was home to such stores as Gimbels, Sears
, J.C. Penney
, F.W. Woolworth Company, and Gee Bee discount store. The mall annex also included a two screen movie theater and auto repair center.
, Sears, National Record Mart, May-Stern, Kinney Shoes, Thom McAnn, and F.W. Woolworth Company moved into the mall.
When Eastland Shopping Plaza opened, downtown McKeesport suffered as Sears and J.C. Penney moved from McKeesport into Eastland Shopping Plaza. Three other McKeesport retailers, Immel's, Wander Sales, and Richard's Shoes, opened stores in Eastland. At its peak in the 1960s, Eastland Shopping Plaza employed 800 people.
The upper level of Eastland was originally an open-air marketplace. After a fire destroyed much of the property and caused $1 million worth of damage on June 6, 1973, a roof was added and the entire mall was enclosed. At this time the "Shopping Plaza" in Eastland's name was changed to "Mall" and a Gee Bee discount store was opened.
Just six years after its opening Eastland faced competition from all-enclosed Monroeville Mall
, then billed as the largest mall in the United States, located under six miles (10 km) away. Four years earlier, Eastland saw competition from South Hills Village
, the country's largest (and first two-story) enclosed mall, in Upper St. Clair
and Bethel Park
. Greengate Mall (now Greengate Centre
) in nearby Greensburg
, Westmoreland County
would also open the very same year as South Hills Village. In 1979, Century III Mall
, the third largest enclosed shopping center in the world (at that time), opened 10 miles (16.1 km) away in West Mifflin to further speed the decline of Eastland as J.C. Penney relocated from Eastland Mall to Century III Mall.
Furthermore, whereas these four malls were located in and around more affluent suburbs, Eastland was located primarily around old mill towns. Many of these communities lost vast amounts of population during the lifetime of the Eastland Mall. Braddock
, which East Pittsburgh-McKeesport Blvd leads directly into two miles (3 km) away, had approximately 12,000 residents in 1963. By the mall's close in 2005 it had fewer than 3,000. This demographic change took with it potential customers and employees of Eastland Mall.
After Eastland Mall had already filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy, its most devastating blow came in September 1986 when Gimbels, which had developed and owned the mall, went out of business, taking most of Eastland's tenants along with it. Benderson Development Company of Buffalo, NY purchased the mall from the bankrupt Gimbels department store two years later.
For the next 20 years Eastland tried to stay afloat with a variety of unique tenants - including a PennDOT state driver's license testing center, a beer distributor (Beer World, located in the old J.C. Penney's), a distribution center for Xerox
, the local magistrate's office, a professional wrestling center (PWX, owned by James Miller), a bingo parlor (Eastland Social Hall Bingo), and a low power TV station, WBYD-CA
. Most notable was the addition of a two story indoor and spacious outdoor flea market
in the space once occupied by Gimbels which, according to a flea market manager, drew 500 vendors and 2,000 customers per weekend at its peak.
Many smaller retail stores then opened inside the mall, including Harper's Bazaar (a mom-and-pop women's clothing store run by Jim and Carol Harper), Kennywood Messenger Service (a notary and vehicle licensing service), Amer-a-Quick printing service, a barber shop, and a beauty parlor. The revival was temporary. In the 1990s, the flea market was moved off to the side in the old Gee Bee store, taking foot traffic away from the retail stores located inside the mall.
The building then fell into a state of ruin. By the time the mall closed in 2005, it was only worth $1.38 million - less than the $1.4 million that Benderson Development Company paid for it 1988. By that point, trash cans holding water falling from the leaky roof abounded throughout the mall. Parts of the original Gimbels facade had collapsed and the walls were showing stress cracks. The walkway was no longer heated and the tiles were so broken and floor so uneven the heels of a shopper's shoes often caught in the floor.
Two tenants survived for the entire 42-year life of the mall, Valley Shoe Repair and Marc Anthony's Hair Salon.
Although some tenants supported keeping the mall open, North Versailles Township officials wanted to see the property cleared and replaced by new retail space or housing. It was also rumored that University of Pittsburgh Medical Center
(UPMC) purchased the property in order to centralize their Braddock and McKeesport hospital locations. After a year of sitting vacant, the mall, including the theater, was razed in early 2007. Benderson Development Company, the company who owned the Eastland property at the time had proposed building a multi-use complex on the site tentatively known as "Eastland Centre", although as of mid-2010, the former mall site remains undeveloped and the Benderson website no longer has Eastland listed on its portfolio.
North Versailles, Pennsylvania
North Versailles is a first class township in Allegheny County, Pennsylvania, United States. The population was 10,229 at the 2010 census.-History:...
, situated on 57 acres (230,671 m²) of land at the peak of a hill overlooking the Monongahela River
Monongahela River
The Monongahela River is a river on the Allegheny Plateau in north-central West Virginia and southwestern Pennsylvania in the United States...
. The mall was home to such stores as Gimbels, Sears
Sears, Roebuck and Company
Sears, officially named Sears, Roebuck and Co., is an American chain of department stores which was founded by Richard Warren Sears and Alvah Curtis Roebuck in the late 19th century...
, J.C. Penney
J.C. Penney
J. C. Penney Company, Inc. is a chain of American mid-range department stores based in Plano, Texas, a suburb north of Dallas. The company operates 1,107 department stores in all 50 U.S. states and Puerto Rico. JCPenney also operates catalog sales merchant offices nationwide in many...
, F.W. Woolworth Company, and Gee Bee discount store. The mall annex also included a two screen movie theater and auto repair center.
Opening
The Gimbels department store chain began construction on Eastland Mall in 1961. After approximately two years of construction and $12 million of construction costs, Eastland Shopping Plaza opened on August 15, 1963. In addition to a 200000 square feet (18,580.6 m²) Gimbels, some of the nation's largest stores, J.C. PenneyJ.C. Penney
J. C. Penney Company, Inc. is a chain of American mid-range department stores based in Plano, Texas, a suburb north of Dallas. The company operates 1,107 department stores in all 50 U.S. states and Puerto Rico. JCPenney also operates catalog sales merchant offices nationwide in many...
, Sears, National Record Mart, May-Stern, Kinney Shoes, Thom McAnn, and F.W. Woolworth Company moved into the mall.
When Eastland Shopping Plaza opened, downtown McKeesport suffered as Sears and J.C. Penney moved from McKeesport into Eastland Shopping Plaza. Three other McKeesport retailers, Immel's, Wander Sales, and Richard's Shoes, opened stores in Eastland. At its peak in the 1960s, Eastland Shopping Plaza employed 800 people.
Decline
Local residents say that the mall was doomed from the start. While Gimbels was being built, high winds blew down its unfinished brick walls.The upper level of Eastland was originally an open-air marketplace. After a fire destroyed much of the property and caused $1 million worth of damage on June 6, 1973, a roof was added and the entire mall was enclosed. At this time the "Shopping Plaza" in Eastland's name was changed to "Mall" and a Gee Bee discount store was opened.
Just six years after its opening Eastland faced competition from all-enclosed Monroeville Mall
Monroeville Mall
Monroeville Mall is a two-level, enclosed shopping mall in Monroeville, Pennsylvania, eastof Pittsburgh. It is located near the junction of Interstate 376 and I-76...
, then billed as the largest mall in the United States, located under six miles (10 km) away. Four years earlier, Eastland saw competition from South Hills Village
South Hills Village
South Hills Village is a two-level shopping mall located in the Pittsburgh suburbs of Bethel Park and Upper St. Clair. It was developed by the Oxford Development Co. as the first shopping complex to be built as a fully enclosed structure. The two-level complex is currently owned by Simon Property...
, the country's largest (and first two-story) enclosed mall, in Upper St. Clair
Upper St. Clair, Pennsylvania
Upper St. Clair Township is a Home Rule Municipality and township in Allegheny County, Pennsylvania, United States. It is located about south of Pittsburgh. The population was 20,053 at the 2000 census.-History:...
and Bethel Park
Bethel Park, Pennsylvania
Bethel Park is a home rule municipality in Allegheny County, Pennsylvania, United States, and is part of the Pittsburgh Metro Area, approximately 7 miles southwest of Pittsburgh...
. Greengate Mall (now Greengate Centre
Greengate Centre
Greengate Centre is an expansive open-air power center in Hempfield Township, Pennsylvania. It is located on U.S. Route 30. The center opened in 2005 on the site of the defunct Greengate Mall, which was demolished in 2003. Greengate Centre currently encompasses over of retail space, and more than...
) in nearby Greensburg
Greensburg, Pennsylvania
Greensburg is a city in Westmoreland County, Pennsylvania, United States, and a part of the Pittsburgh Metro Area. The city is named after Nathanael Greene, a major general of the Continental Army in the American Revolutionary War...
, Westmoreland County
Westmoreland County, Pennsylvania
-Demographics:As of the census of 2000, there were 369,993 people, 149,813 households, and 104,569 families residing in the county. The population density was 361 people per square mile . There were 161,058 housing units at an average density of 157 per square mile...
would also open the very same year as South Hills Village. In 1979, Century III Mall
Century III Mall
Century III Mall is a regional shopping mall located in the southern suburb of West Mifflin, Pennsylvania. It is the fourth largest shopping mall in the Greater Pittsburgh area. Opened in 1979, and remodeled in 1997, the three-level mall contains of retail space and approximately 110 stores...
, the third largest enclosed shopping center in the world (at that time), opened 10 miles (16.1 km) away in West Mifflin to further speed the decline of Eastland as J.C. Penney relocated from Eastland Mall to Century III Mall.
Furthermore, whereas these four malls were located in and around more affluent suburbs, Eastland was located primarily around old mill towns. Many of these communities lost vast amounts of population during the lifetime of the Eastland Mall. Braddock
Braddock, Pennsylvania
Braddock is a borough located in the eastern suburbs of Pittsburgh in Allegheny County, Pennsylvania, 10 miles upstream from the mouth of the Monongahela River. The population was 2,159 at the 2010 census...
, which East Pittsburgh-McKeesport Blvd leads directly into two miles (3 km) away, had approximately 12,000 residents in 1963. By the mall's close in 2005 it had fewer than 3,000. This demographic change took with it potential customers and employees of Eastland Mall.
After Eastland Mall had already filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy, its most devastating blow came in September 1986 when Gimbels, which had developed and owned the mall, went out of business, taking most of Eastland's tenants along with it. Benderson Development Company of Buffalo, NY purchased the mall from the bankrupt Gimbels department store two years later.
For the next 20 years Eastland tried to stay afloat with a variety of unique tenants - including a PennDOT state driver's license testing center, a beer distributor (Beer World, located in the old J.C. Penney's), a distribution center for Xerox
Xerox
Xerox Corporation is an American multinational document management corporation that produced and sells a range of color and black-and-white printers, multifunction systems, photo copiers, digital production printing presses, and related consulting services and supplies...
, the local magistrate's office, a professional wrestling center (PWX, owned by James Miller), a bingo parlor (Eastland Social Hall Bingo), and a low power TV station, WBYD-CA
WBYD-CA
WBYD-CA is a Class A low-powered television station based in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. It is owned by Benjamin Perez with its transmitter and antenna located on the WQED tower in the Oakland area of Pittsburgh, along with its sister stations WIIC-LP and WPTG-LP. However, the station is licensed to...
. Most notable was the addition of a two story indoor and spacious outdoor flea market
Flea market
A flea market or swap meet is a type of bazaar where inexpensive or secondhand goods are sold or bartered. It may be indoors, such as in a warehouse or school gymnasium; or it may be outdoors, such as in a field or under a tent...
in the space once occupied by Gimbels which, according to a flea market manager, drew 500 vendors and 2,000 customers per weekend at its peak.
Many smaller retail stores then opened inside the mall, including Harper's Bazaar (a mom-and-pop women's clothing store run by Jim and Carol Harper), Kennywood Messenger Service (a notary and vehicle licensing service), Amer-a-Quick printing service, a barber shop, and a beauty parlor. The revival was temporary. In the 1990s, the flea market was moved off to the side in the old Gee Bee store, taking foot traffic away from the retail stores located inside the mall.
The building then fell into a state of ruin. By the time the mall closed in 2005, it was only worth $1.38 million - less than the $1.4 million that Benderson Development Company paid for it 1988. By that point, trash cans holding water falling from the leaky roof abounded throughout the mall. Parts of the original Gimbels facade had collapsed and the walls were showing stress cracks. The walkway was no longer heated and the tiles were so broken and floor so uneven the heels of a shopper's shoes often caught in the floor.
Two tenants survived for the entire 42-year life of the mall, Valley Shoe Repair and Marc Anthony's Hair Salon.
Although some tenants supported keeping the mall open, North Versailles Township officials wanted to see the property cleared and replaced by new retail space or housing. It was also rumored that University of Pittsburgh Medical Center
University of Pittsburgh Medical Center
The University of Pittsburgh Medical Center is an $9 billion integrated global nonprofit health enterprise that has 54,000 employees, 20 hospitals, 4,200 licensed beds, 400 outpatient sites and doctors’ offices, a 1.5 million-member health insurance division, as well as commercial and...
(UPMC) purchased the property in order to centralize their Braddock and McKeesport hospital locations. After a year of sitting vacant, the mall, including the theater, was razed in early 2007. Benderson Development Company, the company who owned the Eastland property at the time had proposed building a multi-use complex on the site tentatively known as "Eastland Centre", although as of mid-2010, the former mall site remains undeveloped and the Benderson website no longer has Eastland listed on its portfolio.