Monroeville Mall is a shopping mall that is located in the municipality of Monroeville, Pennsylvania, east of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States. It is situated on heavily-traveled U.S. Route 22 Business (US 22 Bus.) near the junction of Interstate 376 (I-376) and the Monroeville interchange of the Pennsylvania Turnpike. The mall features JCPenney, Dick's Sporting Goods, and Macy's, in addition to a Cinemark Theatres.
Mall background
Completed in 1969, the mall was extensively renovated and expanded between 2003 and 2004, and features the traditional retailers Barnes & Noble, Dick's Sporting Goods, JCPenney, and Macy's in addition to a Cinemark Theatres. It contains of retail space on , making it the largest shopping complex in Western Pennsylvania in terms of square footage. It is one of two CBL-owned malls in the Pittsburgh area, the other being Westmoreland Mall in Greensburg.
Several major shopping centers, including the Miracle Mile Shopping Center, national retailers and restaurants can be found along the U.S. Route 22 commercial corridor, adjacent to the Monroeville Mall, creating the biggest such concentration of retailers and other commercial businesses in the eastern environs of the Pittsburgh Metropolitan Area. This mall is located on Mall Circle Drive, across from Monroeville Convention Center, venue of the Pittsburgh Comicon, a comic book convention, from 2009 to 2014.
With 150 stores, the Monroeville Mall is currently the eighth largest shopping mall in Pennsylvania.
The mall is famous for being the filming location of the 1978 George A. Romero horror film Dawn of the Dead. Less famously so, it is the implied setting for My Chemical Romance's Early Sunsets Over Monroeville, that takes inspiration from Dawn of the Dead.
History and notable features
Before the 1950s postwar migration movement, Monroeville was predominantly a rural farming area. The opening of the Pennsylvania Turnpike in the early 1950s, followed by completion of Interstate 376 (Parkway East) in the early 1960s, spurred the growth of Monroeville and its eastern suburbs. In November 1954, the Miracle Mile Shopping Center opened for business with numerous shops and eateries. As shopping malls increased in popularity in the 1960s, residents of Monroeville and the eastern suburbs shopped at the now-defunct Eastland Mall in nearby North Versailles, or at Greengate Mall (now demolished and rebuilt as Greengate Centre) in Greensburg, Westmoreland County.
Proposal
During the mid-1960s, Don-Mark Realty (later Oxford Development Company) proposed building the largest shopping mall in the United States, and acquired a tract of land known as Harper's Mine. Despite local residents questioning the suitability of the site, Don-Mark was confident that it was perfect. By 1966, grading equipment was used on the site in preparation for the mall's construction. More than of dirt was moved to level the portion of the site, with excavation costs totaling $2.5 million at the time. Construction on the $30 million mall then began in 1967 and lasted for two years. Parking lots were then paved and spaced to accommodate 6,500 vehicles.
Opening
On Tuesday, May 13, 1969, the Monroeville Mall opened its doors with Gimbels and Joseph Horne Co. at opposite ends and JCPenney in the middle. The five and dime G. C. Murphy store provided a lower-price alternative for shoppers on the lower level. The mall contained 125 stores on two levels and featured the Ice Palace, a skating rink. Another unique feature was the location of a local Italian restaurant directly adjacent to the rink, with large picture windows in its dining rooms that gave patrons direct views of skaters on the rink. The mall's opening would contribute to the eventual decline and closure of the East Hills Shopping Center in nearby Penn Hills, a smaller outdoor mall also anchored by Horne's. It would also affect business at the nearby Miracle Mile Shopping Center, which was greatly impacted following the relocation of its JCPenney store to the Monroeville Mall, although business would gradually level out over time.