Going to the (Half-Dead) Mall

From Mick Melvin:

I often travel to Bensalem, Pennsylvania, to visit my father. He has lived there for about 25 years. When visiting, I always pass the local mall when driving to his house. I have been to the Neshaminy Mall many times. So on my latest visit, I decided to go see how the once-bustling shopping destination was holding up. Also, I traveled with only sandals on my feet and thought I could find a cheap pair of shoes/sneakers since the fall weather was moving in. That did not happen, but I did feel like I went back in time for a moment.

If you know anything about malls in southeastern PA, they were the place to be in the 70’s, 80’s and even 90’s before the internet took over retail. I spent many teenage years roaming the corridors of the Exton Square Mall near my adopted hometown, Downingtown, PA. It was more than a shopping place, it was a place to be social.

I have also shopped at many other malls in the area including the Concord Mall, Franklin Mills Mall, King of Prussia Mall, Plymouth Meeting Mall, Springfield Mall, Granite Run Mall, Valley Forge Mall, Coventry Mall and lastly, The Gallery at Market East in Center City Philadelphia. These were the places most families did their holiday shopping and a lot of children got to hang out with their friends. Sadly, most of those malls, including the Neshaminy Mall, are not bustling anymore.

The anchor store at Neshaminy used to be Strawbridge & Clothier Department store, but the store closed in 2006 when it was bought out by Macy’s.

The mall has steadily declined since its closure. Strawbridge & Clothier department stores started in Philadelphia in 1868. The anchor store was located at 8th and Market Street, which was to be the Champs-Élysées of Philadelphia, but it never really materialized. However, Strawbridge's opened many branch stores throughout Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and Delaware. All of the malls mentioned above were offsprings of the Strawbridges and Clothier in Philly. The first mall being the Suburban Square Mall in Ardmore, PA, in 1930.

The Neshaminy Mall opened in 1968. Among the main stores at the location besides S&C were the Sears Department Store, Sears Auto Center and Modell’s Sporting Goods, which are now closed.

The main stores still keeping the location alive are the AMC movie theater, Boscov’s department store, Verizon Wireless, and Barnes & Noble bookstore. There are a scarce amount of smaller stores but it doesn’t look like the place will be able to sustain itself with the lack of traffic to this once-booming location.

Now, the parking lots are pretty empty, the food court has only a few eateries, the foot traffic is very light and the mall now looks like a ghost town.

I was there on a Sunday afternoon and I saw maybe 50 people. Presently, there are only 24 stores posted on the website for the Neshaminy Mall. Down from 47 open stores in 2023. When I was a teenager, most of these malls had over 100 stores at most locations. King of Prussia Mall being the largest with over 400 stores. I remember getting my new sneakers at Foot Locker, getting an Orange Julius smoothie and a Chick-Fil-A sandwich before roaming around the mall laughing with my family and friends. Sadly, from the way things are looking, it won’t be long before the malls and a cherished time period will be a thing of the past.

Here's a list of 121 stores at the Neshaminy Mall dating back between 2011-2023.

Here's a list of the 24 stores open as of this fall at the mall:

• AMC Theatres
• Barnes & Noble
• Boscov's
• Shoe Carnival
• Torrid
• Norman's Hallmark
• Bath & Body Works
• Aeropostale
• Hot Topic
• Jackson Hewitt Tax Services
• Night Owl Graphics
• Philly Pop Up Weddings
• T-Mobile
• Master Brows
• Jean Madeline Aveda Institute
• On the Border Mexican Grill & Cantina
• UNO Pizzeria & Grill
• Stir Fry 88
• Bavarian Pretzel Kiosk
• Shreeji Ice Cream
• Perfume Place
• Massage Mob
• Safe Repair
• Polar X Ornaments

In September, the new owners of the mall, Paramount Realty, met with representatives of the Bensalem Economic Development Corp., and said they are dedicated to redeveloping the site as a mixed-use property.

Nobody Lives in Centralia

From Dave Brigham:

I first heard of Centralia, PA, in the late '80s, in a song of the same name by the band Nice Strong Arm. I was haunted by the lyric, "Nobody lives in Centralia."

I don't remember when I found out there was a town with a tragic story behind that lyric, but it was several years ago. I'd forgotten about Centralia until reading Bill Bryson's A Walk in the Woods. The book is Bryson's account of walking parts of the Appalachian Trail, and is an excellent read.

He spends several pages covering the history of Centralia, a former mining town in east central Pennsylvania, under which a fire has been burning since 1962. Bryson drives to the town, and finds a spooky scene out of an end-of-the-world movie.

Bryson cites an article that states that there may be enough coal under the town to burn for a thousand years. Think about that.

Much of what we write about and take pictures of here is decay and abandonment. Much of the time, amidst the rust and overgrowth and collapse, it is possible to see a new future, a day when developers buy and clear a property and build a new office park or residential community.

In Centralia's case, unfortunately, the future is beyond anybody's view. Much of the town has been bulldozed and there are few residents. Below is an embedded trailer for a documentary about the town, "The Town That Was." I had embedded the movie here, but for some reason it's not working.

One of the guys in the movie nails it when he says, in essence, we know how to build a town, but we have no idea how to end a town.

The main source in the movie is John Lokitis, who at the time the movie was made (it was released in 2007) was 34 years old. I was struck by his genuine love of the town, concern for its upkeep (he refurbished old municipal Christmas decorations and hung them although few are around to see them anymore), and sense of the history of both the doomed burg and his family and fellow residents.

After watching the movie (it's 70 minutes long) I did an online search for Lokitis. He has since moved out of his house, so apparently nobody is taking care of the town any more. Very sad, and cautionary tale.

Here is the trailer. If you want to watch the whole film, go to this Hulu.com link.

The Gut

From Mick Melvin:

I was driving in my adopted hometown of Downingtown, PA, (I was born in New Jersey) and thought I would drive past my old house. As most of you know by now, I love nostalgia. Downingtown is an old paper mill town along the Brandywine River, which was the site of many battles in the Revolutionary War. The town is a mixture of 18th century stone homes and new mega-houses.

On the way to my destination, I saw this old rundown house with the words "No Trespassing" spray painted on the front.



I remember driving by this house a million times. It has steadily declined over the years. The house is right next to the former home of the Anderson family, which are still friends of my family to this day. These houses are located in a section of town known as "the Gut."

The Gut was a small stretch of road with about 10 or so homes. Most of the families who lived in the Gut were African American. Many of the homes were in decline, which is probably the reason it was called the Gut.

The houses up the hill from the Gut were more modern and up to date homes; we lived "up the hill." When coming from Downingtown, we had to drive up the hill and through the Gut to get to our house. I remember my father telling me that the real estate agent didn't want to take him that route for fear of seeing that section of town. It ends up that it was one of the major selling points for my parents.

As it turns out, the families we met in the Gut will be friends of ours for life. The Boggs, Smith, Simpson, Walls and the Anderson families to name a few. My family always lived in the white neighborhoods (up the hill), but our parents made sure we lived close to other African Americans so we would understand and appreciate our culture. I basically lived in two worlds growing up, the white and the black. As a result, I have friends and acquaintances from many cultures in Downingtown.



I'm so glad my parents picked that location, because it exposed me to those cultures. Seeing that house reminds me of a time when I was trying to figure "it" all out. It comes down to the fact that we are all connected no matter the color of our skin. Taking pictures in my old stomping grounds brought back memories of a childhood with many good friends and a lot of lessons learned. If any of those families get to read this, I'd like to say thank you for all the love and the life lessons I gained because I lived up the hill from the Gut.

Working In a Coal Mine

I've been anxious to publish Michael Cevoli's pictures for quite some time now. Due to his busy schedule, my time spent promoting my first book and some back-and-forth on just which pictures to publish when, the process has taken longer than I'd hoped. But finally I'm ready to feature the first of what I hope will be many posts from him.

Based in Providence, RI, Cevoli is a graduate of the master's program at the Rhode Island School of Design. The photos below are part of his thesis work at RISD. He is slated to show some of his work at a museum in Poland this year.

The photos below were all taken in Pennsylvania. I think they're great. I hope you do, too. -- Dave Brigham


From Michael Cevoli:

Open Mine, Ashley, PA



Drag Line, Darkwater, PA



Coal Breaker, Ashley, PA



Patch Housing, Ashland, PA



Family Shrine, Byrnesville, PA



Coal Fire, Locust Mountain, PA