BLACK HORSE PIKE CENTER
Black Horse Pike and West Nicholson Road
Borough of Audubon (Camden County), New Jersey

In the 1950s, the J.C. Penney chain was based in New York City. The retailer had expanded into the suburbs, with an early shopping center format store opening in Sacramento's COUNTRY CLUB CENTRE in 1952.

This store was a dry-goods-only operation, dealing in men and women's apparel, fashion accessories, linens and the like. These stores measured in the neighborhood of 28,000 to 60,000 square feet.

Examples would include Penney's at LOS ALTOS CENTER (1955), in Long Beach, 163rd STREET CENTER (1956), near Miami, GREEN ACRES CENTER (1956), outside New York City and BIG TOWN MALL (1959), near Dallas.

With the dawn of the 1960s came a new concept. J.C. Penney decided to build new, full-line stores in suburban malls and strip centers. These locations would offer the aforementioned soft lines, but would also sell home appliances, furniture, electronics, sporting goods, paint and hardware.

The first such store opened November 16, 1961 at Camden County, New Jersey's BLACK HORSE PIKE CENTER. This J.C. Penney encompassed 72,200 leasable square feet on its main level. A basement included additional sales area.

The BLACK HORSE PIKE CENTER, itself, was situated on 33 acres, located 4.9 miles southeast of Centre City Philadelphia, on land that was formerly a part of the Fromm Farm.

The 497,000 square foot, open-air mall consisted of a single level of retail. In addition to J.C. Penney, it was anchored by a 1-level (138,000 square foot), New York City-based E.J. Korvette discount mart, with an F.W. Woolworth 5 and 10 as its junior anchor.

The complex was soon outclassed by several large interior malls built in its vacinity. These were CHERRY HILL MALL (1961) [May 2008 archive], 4.8 miles northeast, in Camden County; MOORESTOWN MALL (1963) [February 2008 archive], 7 miles northeast, in Burlington County; ECHELON MALL (1970), 5.2 miles southeast, in Camden County and DEPTFORD MALL (1975), 3.9 miles southwest, in Gloucester County.

BLACK HORSE PIKE CENTER persevered, but its Korvette's went bust in 1980. It was soon replaced by a Columbus, Ohio-based Woolco, which turned out to be a poor choice for a replacement, as this chain folded in January 1983.

Next came a Braintree, Massachusetts-based Bradlees discount mart. This location lasted until 2001. Its closure was joined by the shuttering of J.C. Penney in the same year. Woolworth had been gone for nearly four years, leaving the mall with only twelve operational stores.

The owners of the property, the Plymouth Meeting, Pennsylvania-based Wolfson Verrichia Group, decided that a complete reconstruction of the aging shopping center was in order. An adjacent (110,000 square foot) cluster of stores, anchored by an Acme supermarket, was also redeveloped.

The original sections of BLACK HORSE PIKE CENTER were razed in 2004 with a groundbreaking, for a new complex, held September 14, 2004.

Dubbed AUDUBON CROSSING, the open-air retail hub was anchored by a freestanding, 1-level (137,000 square foot) Wal-Mart, freestanding Staples and freestanding Pep Boys automotive center (which had been a part of the original BLACK HORSE PIKE CENTER). Two strip center store blocks included tenants such as Avenue, Payless ShoeSource, Dot's and Deb Shops.

The entire complex, encompassing 475,000 leasable square feet, was completed in the summer of 2005. The adjacent, Acme-anchored complex, redeveloped simultaneously, was renamed AUDUBON COMMONS. It was also dedicated in the summer of 2005.

Sources:

www.departmentstorehistory.net
www.boroughofaudubon.com
www.retailtraffic.com