Harundale Mall, in
Glen Burnie,
Anne Arundel County, Maryland
Anne Arundel County (; ), also notated as AA or A.A. County, is located in the U.S. state of Maryland. As of the 2020 United States census, its population was 588,261, an increase of just under 10% since 2010. Its county seat is Annapolis, wh ...
, United States at the intersection of
Ritchie Highway and Aquahart Road, was the first enclosed, air-conditioned mall built east of the
Mississippi River
The Mississippi River is the List of longest rivers of the United States (by main stem), second-longest river and chief river of the second-largest Drainage system (geomorphology), drainage system in North America, second only to the Hudson B ...
.
Originally built in 1958, the mall closed in 1997 and was demolished and redeveloped into Harundale Plaza, a shopping center anchored by Lidl and Regency Furniture.
History
Opening
The mall opened on October 1, 1958. Developed by Community Research & Development Inc, headed by
James W. Rouse and designed by architectural firm Rogers, Taliaferro, & Lamb, the fully enclosed and air-conditioned center, which was constructed at a cost of $10 million, was described as the first one of its kind on the east coast. Built around an existing group of six stores on the property, the mall consisted of a total of 350,000 square feet, and featured fountains and plants throughout the mall. The primary "Garden Court" featured a 35-foot cage of
"Mynah birds", along with a staircase leading to a balcony restaurant over top a fountain. Major retailers included department stores
Hochschild, Kohn, & Co and Brager's, a large
Oppenheim Collins branch, both
S.S. Kresge and
G. C. Murphy
G.C. Murphy was a chain of five and dime or variety stores in the United States from 1906 to 2002. They also operated Murphy's Mart (full scale discount stores), Bargain World (closeout merchandise), Terry & Ferris and Bruners (junior department ...
variety stores, and
Food Fair
Food Fair, also known by its successor name Pantry Pride, was a large supermarket chain in the United States. It was founded by Samuel N. Friedland, who opened the first store (as Reading Giant Quality Price Cutter) in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania in ...
.
Grand opening ceremonies, beginning at 9 AM, featured Governor
Theodore McKeldin
Theodore Roosevelt McKeldin (November 20, 1900August 10, 1974) was an American politician. He was a member of the Republican Party, served as mayor of Baltimore twice, from 1943 to 1947 and again from 1963 to 1967. McKeldin was the 53rd Governor ...
, James W, Rouse, president of Hochschild, Kohn, & Co Martin Kohn, and various other politicians, including then senator
John F. Kennedy.
In 1959, Brager's would convert to the Brager-Gutman's name, with the two store's merger that year. A single screen theater, operated by
General Cinemas
General Cinema Corporation, also known as General Cinema, GCC, or General Cinema Theatres, was a chain of movie theaters in the United States. At its peak, the company operated about 1,500 screens, some of which were among the first cinemas certif ...
, opened across from the mall in 1964. By 1971 the mall's Food Fair had also been converted to the new Pantry Pride name.
Missing persons
The mall was connected to two missing persons cases, in 1969 and 1970. Twenty-year-old
Joyce Malecki was last seen at the Harundale Mall on November 11, 1969; she was found dead two days later at a shooting range in
Fort Meade, Maryland
Fort Meade is a census-designated place (CDP) in Anne Arundel County, Maryland, United States. The population was 9,327 at the 2010 census. It is the home to the National Security Agency, Central Security Service, United States Cyber Command and t ...
. The next year, 16-year-old Pamela Conyers was last known as having driven to the Harundale Mall on October 16, before her body was found four days later in a wooded area, near what is now the Waterford Road/
Maryland Route 648
Maryland Route 648 (MD 648) is a collection of state highways in the U.S. state of Maryland. These nine highways are current or former sections of the Baltimore–Annapolis Boulevard between Annapolis and Baltimore via Glen Burnie. There are ...
overpass along
Maryland Route 100
Maryland Route 100 (MD 100) is a major east–west highway connecting U.S. Route 29 (US 29) in Ellicott City (just north of Columbia) and MD 177 (Mountain Road) in Pasadena. MD 100 also connects to Interstate 95 (I-95), US 1, the Balt ...
.
Changes and decline
The mall's first renovation began on July 14, 1980. Done by Leblang & Associates, the $250,000 renovation consisted of a total repaint and re-tiling of the mall, in addition to a new "picnic area" in the south court, redesigned kiosks, and expanded planters and seating areas. The mall's Pantry Pride location was sold at auction in 1981 to E-Zee Markets, who went on to close the store in 1983.
Hutzler's
Hutzler's, or Hutzler Brothers Company, was a department store founded in Baltimore by Abram G. Hutzler (1836–1927) in 1858. From its beginning as a small dry goods store at the corner of Howard and Clay Streets in downtown Baltimore, Hutzler's ...
would acquire the Harundale Mall location of Hochschild, Kohn, & Co in 1984, with that location replacing their existing store at the Southdale Shopping Center. This location would become one of several announced to become "Hutzler's Value Way" in September 1988, before closing later that year.
Value City
Value City was an American discount department store chain with 113 locations. It was founded in 1917 by Ephraim Schottenstein, a travelling salesman in central Ohio. The store was an off-price retailer that sold clothing, jewelry, and home good ...
took over the former Hutzler's space in 1989.
The mall, then at 80% occupancy, was put up for sale by owner
The Rouse Company
The Rouse Company, founded by Hunter Moss and James W. Rouse in 1939, was a publicly held shopping mall and community developer from 1956 until 2004, when General Growth Properties (GGP) purchased the company.
Beginnings - Moss-Rouse Company
...
in 1995. The next year,
McCrory announced it would close its Harundale store once it reached the end of its lease in October, as part of wider store closures as a result of their 1992 bankruptcy. The mall quietly closed in 1997, with only two exterior tenants including Value City staying open. This was followed by the sale of the property to Manekin Corp, who announced plans to demolish the mall and redevelop the property into a strip mall.
Redevelopment as Harundale Plaza
By 1998 anchors for the strip mall had been announced, to include a
Superfresh Supermarket and an expanded Value City, with both bank tenants at the former mall,
First Union and
Crestar, negotiating leases for new locations. Demolition began in March 1998, and was finished the next year. The final major store,
AJWright, was announced in November 1999.
Value City closed its doors in order to be converted to
Burlington Coat Factory
Burlington, formerly known as Burlington Coat Factory, is an American national off-price department store retailer, and a division of Burlington Coat Factory Warehouse Corporation with more than 1,000 stores in 40 states and Puerto Rico, with i ...
, as part of a deal reached by owner Retail Ventures Inc to sell leases of up to 24 stores, in 2008. AJWright would be converted to
HomeGoods
HomeGoods is a chain of home furnishing stores headquartered in Framingham, Massachusetts. It was founded as a small chain in 1992, and grew to include hundreds of locations throughout the United States. HomeGoods sells furniture, linens, cooki ...
in February 2011, and later that year, Superfresh would close its doors.
Regency Furniture would later open in that space.
References
{{Shopping malls in Maryland
Glen Burnie, Maryland
Shopping malls in Maryland
Demolished shopping malls in the United States
Shopping malls established in 1958
Shopping malls disestablished in 1998
1958 establishments in Maryland
1998 disestablishments in Maryland
Demolished buildings and structures in Maryland
Buildings and structures demolished in 1998