Monroeville Mall

Address: 200 Monroeville Mall, Monroeville, PA, 15146

Hours:

10:00 - 21:00 ( Mon - Sat )  12:00 - 18:00 ( Sun )  

Monroeville Mall is a two-level, enclosed shopping mall in Monroeville, Pennsylvania, east of Pittsburgh. It is located near the junction of I-376 and I-76. It sits on 170 acres and has 1,128,747 square feet of leaseable space on two floors.

Developed by Oxford Development Company, the property was acquired in 2004 for $232 million by CBL & Associates Properties, Inc., a REIT based in Chattanooga, Tennessee. Recently, the mall finished a remodeling project to compete with several newer, more luxurious malls in the Pittsburgh area. It is one of two CBL malls owned in the Pittsburgh area, the other being Westmoreland Mall in Greensburg. Both malls are marketed together through various media outlets.

In the mid 60s 110 acres of the 280 acre Harper Mine area was cleared to build the 1.13 million square foot complex. $2.5 million dollars was spent to excavate nearly 5 million cubic yards of dirt. The $30 million dollar building began construction in 1967 and two years later, the doors to the Monroeville Mall were opened. The Mall contained 125 stores on two levels and housed The Monroeville Mall Ice Palace, a world class ice skating rink. The parking lot contained 6,500 spaces. The Mall was decorated with fountains and plant life that flourished under enormous skylights. One end of the Mall featured a large yellow clock tower that housed 12 animated puppets, each one representing an ethnic group in the Pittsburgh area. One puppet performed every hour, and all performed together at 1pm and 6pm. At the opposite end of the Mall sat a large fountain, surrounded by a seating area. The Mall was anchored on three sides by two story department stores. Hornes and Gimbels flanked the Mall, while JC Penney sat in the middle, directly across from the Ice Palace. The stores contained in the Mall ranged from high fashion to hardware. There was a bank, several places to eat, pharmacies, pubs and even a ministry center. Over the next few years, many changes were made to the Mall's layout. In 1984, much to the dismay of local citizens, the Ice Palace was replaced by a food court. The clock tower was removed, and was replaced by a holiday children's train and an escalator. The fountain at the opposite end has been removed in lieu of a Mister Rodgers's Neighborhood Playspace. Gimbels has been replaced by Boscovs, and Hornes has been replaced by Macys. In early 2004, the Monroeville Mall was purchased for $231.2 million dollars by CBL & Associates, a firm out of Tennessee.

[Facts]

* Monroeville Mall was developed by Oxford Development Company in 1969, and at the time it was considered to be the largest shopping mall in the United States.

* Monroeville Mall was home to the first world-class ice skating rink in an enclosed mall on the East Coast. It closed in February 1984, to be converted into a food court, which still exists today.

* The Monroeville Mall property was once proposed to be the site for the now defunct Three Rivers Stadium in the early stages of development.

[Dawn of the Dead]

Monroeville Mall is most famous as the filming location for the movie, Dawn of the Dead, the 1978 cult horror classic, directed by George A. Romero. In 1977, George A. Romero began filming Dawn of the Dead on location at the Monroeville Mall. The Mall was used as a fortress to protect four human survivors from a world taken over by the walking dead. Romero used the location to its fullest, beautifully displaying the Mall and its vastness, almost giving the Mall a cavernous feel. The movie went on to become a huge hit worldwide, leaving legions of dedicated fans in its wake. Fans travel far and wide, sometimes from other countries, just to have a chance to visit the location.

* Monroeville Mall is also the setting for the survival board game Mall of Horror.

* Rock group My Chemical Romance recorded a song, "Early Sunsets Over Monroeville", based on the film Dawn of the Dead.

* The Pittsburgh punk rock group Drunk by Six recorded the song "Dawn of the Dead" because of the filming of the original motion picture being so close to Pittsburgh.

[Anchor stores]

* Boscov's (234,538 sq. ft., formerly Gimbels, then Kaufmann's)

* JC Penney (210,467 sq. ft)

* Macy's (240,526 sq. ft., formerly Horne's, then Lazarus)