Cranberry Mall

The Cranberry Mall was likely built at some in the late 1980s, as it shares a lot of traits with the Columbia Mall near Bloomsburg, PA which is confirmed to have opened in 1988. The reason I say the two are similar is because they both likely opened with the same anchors of JCPenney, Sears, Bon-Ton and Hills. Both Hills locations would convert to Ames and funny enough both in turn would both be partly reused by Dunham's Sports. Unlike Bloomsburg, an Ollie's Bargain Outlet would open in the remainder of the Ames space.

When I visited back in 2016, I would of rated this a C-class mall since JCPenney had already closed at that point. Sadly, this mall today is not in great shape and definitely belongs in the D-dying category. Bon-Ton closed as part of its bankruptcy last year while Sears had closed this location in late 2017. This leaves Dunham's as the sole anchor with mall access. A future blog post will highlight this Bon-Ton store during its final weeks of its liquidation sale.

JCPenney already closed, but left their signage behind

Former KB Toys!

While I personally love the architecture and design here, I don't see a bright future for this mall. The mall has already gone past the tipping point and with the recent GNC announcement of them pulling certain mall locations, I can't help but feel it this location will be among them. There was a period of time where the former Sears was apparently being looked at by Rural King, but any hope for that conversion will not happen since Rural King bought the former Kmart in Franklin.

Millcreek Mall & Plaza Complex (Part One)

Even though Erie is the fourth largest city in Pennsylvania, its interesting to note that the Millcreek Mall is the only mall that Erie ever had. Although there was another "mall" located elsewhere, I'm fairly certain it was just a plaza that had used 'mall' in its name. Either way it doesn't matter now, as that 'mall' has been torn down and replaced with a residential complex.

Due to the shear size of the Millcreek Mall and shopping complexes nearby, I've decided to split the posts into at least two different posts. One for the plaza and one for the mall itself. This first part will focus on the exterior of the mall, plazas and other chains located outside the mall. 

For the mall anchors we have the following:

Sears has been here since the mall opened.

Bon Ton was a former Elder-Beerman

Formerly Kaufman's

In addition to Sears, JCPenney is also an original mall anchor as well.

Burlington Coat Factory was previously a fifth anchor here but it has since relocated to a former Walmart down the road from the mall. The mall has taken over the former two story store and absorbed it as a continuation as one of the mall corridors. Here's a picture of while construction was ongoing:

I will have to return to take a few pictures of what the exterior looks like now. I did re-visit the mall recently but I had parked on the opposite side of the mall so I failed to take an exterior shot of its current state. I did get some interior pictures though! Upon making this post, I realize now that I also need to return to take some photos of another plaza I have none of. I guess you could say I was thinking when I visited recently....

Here's some pictures of the mall's food court entrance and other stores that have an exterior presence.

Moving on to the one plaza I have captured.

Notice a few new stores have opened. Five Below was under construction at the time of this photo.

There's something very ironic in the photo above. I'm fairly certain that Ross was formerly where Old Navy was. Ross had closed its location for a time and then opened back up as you can see in the very same plaza in a former Border's. When I revisited recently now Old Navy has now closed and its space is empty. Again I did try to take a photo of that, but it came out extremely bad. Also notice one of the first Field and Stream located in the very top left of the above photo. 

Toys R Us

Former Hills/Ames which was being used as a flea market for a time. It is now my area's first 'At Home' home decor store as seen below.

There's definitely a few more pictures of I have to take of the mall's shopping plazas here so you can expect further posts on the Millcreek Mall plazas in the future. Part two will cover the mall itself.