Friday, May 21, 2021

Church Hill Mall

 

        In today's day and age, it is quite amazing that a community the size of Hazleton, Pennsylvania is a rare community that is actually able to support two malls.While the nearby Laurel Mall may get more attention from customers for more national tenants, the Church Hill Mall manages to survive with more local tenants.  The mall is a small 'hallway mall' that is basically a shopping center with an enclosed walkway. It does have an Ollie's Bargain Outlet as an anchor though in addition to Family Dollar as a inline tenant. CVS did operate a location here for a bit, but it would relocate down the road to a new standalone store. 
        It would appear that not much is known about the history of the mall. All I can find is that original anchor Gaylord's (a local chain; space now split between Ollie's and other tenants) opened in 1965. So that would suggest the mall opened around the same time. Gaylord's would become Gee Bee and later Value City for a time. At the other end of the mall, a local supermarket served as an anchor before now operating as a Key Foods. I'm unsure of what this space was originally, but it seems likely that it has always been a supermarket.


    


It appears that this would have been where Gaylord's, Gee-Bee & Value City's mall entrance would have been. 












Monday, May 3, 2021

Former Kmart #4084

 NOTE: This post comes from outside the blog's coverage area.

As a store that is a part of the #40xx range, Lynchburg's Kmart was among the early stores having opened in the 1960s. The location had a pharmacy and a cafe- though the cafe closed before the store did.