RICHLAND MALL
Elton Road and Theatre Drive
Richland Township (Cambria County), Pennsylvania

Ground was broken for Johnstown, Pennsylvania's first shopping mall on April 30, 1973. Built by James O'Rourke and James Streeter, under the auspices of Michigan-based Unimich Development and the Somerset Trust Company, the single-level RICHLAND MALL was situated on 58.9 acres, 4.8 miles southeast of Downtown Johnstown.

Anchoring the 650,000 square foot complex were a 1-level (86,400 square foot) Sears, 1-level (83,400 square foot) K-Mart and 1-level, Johnstown-based Penn Traffic.

There were over ninety retail spaces in RICHLAND MALL, which had a tropical sunken Garden Court at its center. Stores opened between October and December of 1974.

Charter tenants included GNC, Thom McAn Shoes, Thrift Drug, Sweet William Restaurant, the Richland Mall Twin Cinema and a mall-accessed Shop 'N Save supermarket.

Anchor alterations commenced in March 1982, when four of the six Penn Traffic department stores were sold to the Johnstown-based Crown American Corporation, who also owned the Allentown-based Hess's chain. The RICHLAND MALL Penn Traffic was remodeled and rebranded as a Hess's.

The mall was given a facelift renovation in 1989, which included the removal of the sunken center court. It was filled in and replaced by a merry-go-round. New floors were also installed throughout the complex and its exterior refinished with stucco surfaces.

Moreover, the original twin cinema was replaced by an 8-screen multiplex, fitted into space previously occupied by the supermarket.

Commercial competion arrived in 1992, with the completion of GALLERIA (JOHNSTOWN). The new megamall was located just 1.1 mile northeast of RICHLAND. It immediately snatched the older center's Sears.

This store space was filled by a Canton, Massachusetts-based Hills, which was rebranded, by Rocky Hill, Connecticut-based Ames, in 1999. Hess's had been rebranded in 1995, reopening as a York, Pennsylvania-based The Bon Ton. It closed for good in 1998. Ames shut down in late 2001.

Suffering from its run in with GALLERIA (JOHNSTOWN), RICHLAND had been in a state of decline since the mid-1990s. In 1998, the mall corridors were closed off, leaving only the hallway stretching between K-Mart and the mall's northeast entrance open. The Ames store and cinema also remained in business, as they had exterior entries.

The Jupiter, Florida-based McGill Property Group came on the scene in the early 2000s. K-Mart was evicted and -in 2003- the mall, save for its cinema and outparcel Michaels Arts and Crafts (in the old Sears Auto Center), was demolished.

A 480,000 square foot power-format complex, RICHLAND TOWN CENTRE, was erected, anchored by a 1-level (203,600 square foot) Wal-Mart SuperCenter.

The first stores opened in September 2004. Michaels and the cinema relocated into newly-built structures, with their old locations being bulldozed. Inline tenants included T.J. Maxx 'N More, Ross dress For Less, Bed Bath and Beyond and Circuit City. The final new store grand opening was held in early 2006.

Sources:

www.deadmalls.com / Posts by Daniel Hull and Jeremy Durst
www.therichlandmall.com
www.gis.co.cambria.pa.us
http://www.mcgillpropertygroup.com/