Category: Mall Culture
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What Happened to Reading, Pennsylvania?
Read more: What Happened to Reading, Pennsylvania?Without fail every time I post an old photo of Penn Street there are multiple comments asking, “what happened to Reading?” (and this is putting it nicely). Generally these comments are rhetorical and negative in nature, but sometimes I believe folks are genuine in wanting to know how we went from thriving industrial city of…
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Pomeroy’s Proposed Expansion – On this Day 1957
Read more: Pomeroy’s Proposed Expansion – On this Day 1957An architect’s drawing of the proposed $1,500,000 expansion and modernization project at Pomeroy’s, Inc., is shown in the top photo, while below inside the outlined area, are the five buildings which will be razed and the diner, at 6th and Cherry streets, which will be moved to make way for the new construction. (Eagle Staff…
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C.K. Whitner’s Department Store
Read more: C.K. Whitner’s Department StoreOn December 2nd 1980 management announced that the 103 year old C.K. Whitner’s Department store located on the 400 block of Penn Street would be shuttering permanently in January of 1981. Declining foot traffic downtown was cited as the reason why the business was no longer having success in that location. At this time Whitner’s…
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Haunted Fairgrounds Square Mall
Read more: Haunted Fairgrounds Square MallThe Fairgrounds Square Mall has itself become a ghost. It was just demolished over what will inevitably go down as the infamous Summer of 2020. The mall was on its last leg for years, and it only seemed fitting that it would meet its end in such a year as this one has been. However,…
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A 100 Year Review of Berks – Happy New Year 2020!
Read more: A 100 Year Review of Berks – Happy New Year 2020!Happy New Year Berks County! Not only is it a new year but also the beginning of a new decade. As we leave behind the 2010s, let’s look back on the beginning of the last 10 decades, and some of the events that we experienced together as a community during them. The past is important…
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Happy Thanksgiving! November 28th, 1974
Read more: Happy Thanksgiving! November 28th, 1974Thanksgiving Day also fell on November 28th in 1974. Here is a look at that day’s Reading Eagle: Walter S. Shearer, who owns a poultry farm in Sinking Spring R.D. 6, holds one of his flock. To find out what eventually happened to this turkey turn to page 31 – Eagle Photo That homemade taste…
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Woolworth’s – Penn Street / Berkshire Mall
Read more: Woolworth’s – Penn Street / Berkshire MallWoolworth’s 6th and Penn Reading store was opened on September 20th, 1884, under the name, “Woolworth & Knox”. It was just three doors down Penn Street across from 6th street from the successful Pomeroy’s department store and later moved to the Berkshire Mall. Woolworth’s moved to the Berkshire Mall when it opened in 1970, as…
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Kaleidoscope at Berkshire Mall
Read more: Kaleidoscope at Berkshire MallThe Kaleidoscope was a store in the Berkshire Mall in the 70s. It sold jewelry, black lights and other psychedelic things. You could also get your ears pierced there. Do you remember this store?
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Gadgets Restaurant
Read more: Gadgets RestaurantLets talk about Gadgets, the lesser-known and not as successful (as the likes of Showbiz Pizza Place and Chuck E. Cheese) animatronic themed restaurant from the early 1980s. From 1982-1984 this cutting edge restaurant was upstairs at the Berkshire Mall. It featured animatronic singing robots as entertainment. A 20-minute show entertained guests every half hour.…
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Bon-Ton / Pomeroy’s at the Berkshire Mall
Read more: Bon-Ton / Pomeroy’s at the Berkshire MallEveryone has heard that Bon-Ton had declared bankruptcy and was subsequently closing all of it’s stores back in April. Liquidation began immediately, and finally after 4 months of sales the location at the Berkshire Mall is closing for the final time today, August 28th 2018 at 5:00 pm. Bon-Ton occupied the center anchor at the…