PRINCE GEORGES PLAZA
East-West Highway and Belcrest Road
Hyattsville, Maryland
The first shopping mall in DC's Maryland suburbs was designed by New York City's Lathrop Douglass and the Daniel Schwartzman firm. The complex was developed by Yonkers, New York's Eastern Shopping Centers, which was a mall-building subsidiary of the Grand Union Company.
PRINCE GEORGES PLAZA was built on a 56-acre tract, located 6.5 miles northeast of the United States Capitol, in suburban Hyattsville. The site had been part of the Christian Heurich estate. The mall parking area was divided into Upper and Lower Levels, with the open-air shopping center consisting of a Mall (or Upper) Level and small concourse of Lower Level stores. These were accessed from the Lower Level parking area, on the northeast corner of the complex. During the early years, the Lower Level also housed a fallout shelter.
A 2-level (148,700 square foot), Washington-based Woodward & Lothrop ["Low-thrup"] was dedicated on August 1, 1966. The store was built on the site of the original Grand Union, with a new supermarket having been added to the southwest corner of the complex.
Retail centers in the PRINCE GEORGES PLAZA trade area included WHEATON PLAZA (1960) {6.7 miles northwest, in Montgomery County}, CAPITAL PLAZA (1963-2005) {2.9 miles southeast, in Prince George's County} and -eventually- LANDOVER MALL (1972-2006) {6.1 miles southeast, also in Prince George's County}.
The second renovation of PRINCE GEORGES PLAZA was done in the mid-1970s, when courts and concourses were enclosed and climate-controlled. A "Grand Closing" ceremony was held in August 1977, marking completion of the project. At this time, the shopping hub contained ninety stores and services.
A third remodeling, completed in June 1990, added a 10-bay Food Court at the mall's Main Entrance. The shopping venue became accessible via rail rapid transit on December 11, 1993. The DC METRO Prince George's Plaza station, a stop on the METRO Green Line, was located across the East-West Highway from the mall.
Woodward & Lothrop closed for good on November 10, 1995. The store re-opened, as a J.C. Penney, on July 20, 1996. G.C. Murphy was shuttered August 31, 1999. In September 1998, the mall had been acquired by the Philadelphia-based Pennsylvania Real Estate Investment Trust. They initiated a 20 million dollar mall renovation in 2003, with the vacant G.C. Murphy being razed.
A 30 million dollar makeover, which added new exterior facades and renovated all common areas, got underway in late 2016. As part of the remodeling, new stores were signed. Chipotle Mexican Grill and Five Guys Burgers & Fries welcomed first diners in February 2018. DSW opened in March 2018, followed by Ulta Beauty, which made its debut in April of the same year.
Sources:
The Washington Post
http://www.mncppc.org / The Maryland-National Capital Park & Planning Commission
"Prince George's Plaza (Washington Metro)" and Woodward & Lothrup" articles on Wikipedia
BLACK AND WHITE PHOTOS:
From the Gottscho-Schleisner Collection / Repository: United States Library Of Congress Prints and Photograph Division, Washington, D.C. / Taken by Gottscho-Schleisner, Inc., May 29, 1959 / Douglas Lathrop - Client / Photographs are in the public domain: no known restrictions on publication / www.loc.gov/rr/print/catalog.html / Negatives / LC-6613 series: numbers 74110 through 74127-A.