July 14, 2017. Opened 40 years ago, the mall was very busy with five anchor stores and approximately 91 smaller stores. In the last few years, one by one, the anchor stores started to close. Other stores declared bankruptcy and closed. The cause is unclear, some said it was due to Amazon prices with good delivery, but most had no idea of the actual reason.
We visited the mall because so many homes and business that closed, an abandoned, ended up with broken windows, damaged walls and graffiti everywhere. We wanted to see how the mall was kept up in the last two months of its existence. (expecting to close September 2017).
We were surprised to see everything very clean and even the waterfalls were clean and operational.
Very eerie to walk through a very large mall on what should have been a very busy Friday shopping day to find it almost completely void of people.
There were a few reminders of the days when kids were everywhere and enjoying themselves.
There were 4 small stores, a movie theater and one large store still open in the mall. At the large sports store there were no customers and at the small pizza shop next door there was just one guy having a slice.
We said goodbye to Frackville, Pennsylvania and to the demise of another 'brick and mortar' giant. (Several blocks away, we had an excellent room at the Holiday Inn Express - delicious breakfast too).
(photos - Nikon D500)