East Hills Shopping Center was an outdoor

shopping mall A shopping mall (or simply mall) is a North American term for a large indoor shopping center, usually anchored by department stores. The term "mall" originally meant a pedestrian promenade with shops along it (that is, the term was used to refe ...

Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania Pittsburgh ( ) is a city in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, United States, and the county seat of Allegheny County. It is the most populous city in both Allegheny County and Western Pennsylvania, the second-most populous city in Pennsylva ...

. Opened in 1960, the center lost most of its major stores in the late 1970s and underwent several failed attempts at renovation.

History

East Hills opened in 1960 under the development of Mellon-Stuart, a local engineering firm. It was built as an outdoor mall with Joseph Horne Company (Horne's) as the main department store. Other major tenants included

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 ...

, Kresge, and a Thorofare supermarket. A year after the mall's opening, Horne's added a second store at the mall which specialized in discounted clothing. The mall was largely vacated in the late 1970s, having lost most of its business to Monroeville Mall, a larger mall that also featured a Horne's. In 1979, Horne's closed its East Hills store, as did G. C. Murphy, Kresge, and Thorofare. The president of East Hills' merchants' association said in 1980 that East Hills' design was "outmoded" and not suitable for colder weather, since unlike Monroeville, East Hills' concourses were not enclosed. In 1981, a local developer purchased the property with plans to convert it to a

factory outlet An outlet store, factory outlet or factory shop is a brick and mortar or online store in which manufacturers sell their stock directly to the public. Traditionally, a factory outlet was a store attached to a factory or warehouse, sometimes allowin ...

mall. Golden Dawn Supermarket opened in the former Thorofare in 1980, which closed five years later and became

Giant Eagle Giant Eagle, Inc. (Western Pennsylvania English: ) and stylized as giant eagle) is an American supermarket chain with stores in Pennsylvania, Ohio, West Virginia, Indiana, and Maryland. The company was founded in 1918 in Pittsburgh, Pennsylv ...

. In 1987, the complex was renamed Eastgate Commerce Center, and was rezoned to allow for light industrial use. Besides a

Zayre Zayre () was a chain of discount stores that operated in the eastern half of the United States from 1956 to 1990. The company's headquarters was in Framingham, Massachusetts. In October 1988, Zayre's parent company, Zayre Corp., sold the stores ...

discount store on an outparcel, the center remained largely vacant. Both Zayre and Giant Eagle closed in 1989. Eastgate Associates bought the property in 1991. The company planned to renovate the mall, which had only seven tenants at that point, for light industrial use. This redevelopment was unsuccessful. By 1998, only 15 percent of the space had been reused. In 1999, Petra Ministries bought the former Zayre store behind the mall and converted it to a church. They continued to own the mall property through January 2013, at which point it was put up for sale. Between 1999 and 2007, Petra had attempted to get

Walmart Walmart Inc. (; formerly Wal-Mart Stores, Inc.) is an American multinational retail corporation that operates a chain of hypermarkets (also called supercenters), discount department stores, and grocery stores from the United States, headquarter ...

to build a store on the site. The mall was demolished in 2001. Lowe's and

Kmart Kmart Corporation ( , doing business as Kmart and stylized as kmart) is an American retail company that owns a chain of big box department stores. The company is headquartered in Hoffman Estates, Illinois, United States. The company was inc ...

were also proposed as replacements for the mall, but as of 2013, the site remained vacant. U-Pull-And-Pay auto salvage opened on the site in 2017.

References

{{Pittsburgh Shopping Shopping malls established in 1960 Shopping malls in Metro Pittsburgh Demolished shopping malls in the United States 1960 establishments in Pennsylvania 2001 disestablishments in Pennsylvania Urban decay in the United States Demolished buildings and structures in Pittsburgh Buildings and structures demolished in 2001