Westgate Mall: Bethlehem, PA

Westgate Mall is one of those malls easy to miss.  From the outside it does not even look like a mall.  From aerials, it is easy to mistake it for a large strip center.  This probably explains why in the many discussions about dying malls that this one is overlooked.  Originally opening in 1973, the mall exists as a forgotten yet surviving early shopping center in Bethlehem.  Since eclipsed by larger malls, the mall has largely become a community mall serving an ever decreasing customer base.  Probably the only reason it survives today is because it maintains three major anchor tenants that provide financial security although they seem to be awaiting either redevelopment or openings for better locations.

Developed by Harold S. Campbell, Westgate Mall is a combined enclosed strip and enclosed mall meaning that few like it exist anywhere.  The anchors to the original center included Hess's on the west end of the main mall, Newberry's on the east end and George's IGA Foodliner on the strip portion.  The mall also contains an upper level portion of offices on the strip portion over the top of the current Rite-Aid.  Another second level office portion was located next to Newberry's, but that portion is walled off and currently unusued.  In all, it was a strangely designed center.

It's a big step up into the mall leaving Bon-Ton (former Hess's).  However, don't expect to be stepping up into a shopper's paradise.  The first photo shows the bend from the enclosed strip into the main mall with the former Newberry's entrance on the left and a mystery staircase to walled off offices straight ahead.  Photo and all other uncredited (webmaster) photos taken May 3, 2014.

Westgate Mall in the full mall portion has no natural light relying on overhead artificial light to brighten the concourse.  This was typical in the 70's, but since the 1980's natural light is preferred.

It is unknown what this last operated as, but it was a very large tenant.  The portion on the left was rebuilt after a 1977 fire.

Apparently this empty store was used as a Republican campaign headquarters in 2012.  Photo by Digital Sky taken August 26, 2012.

Former Newberry's mall entrance head on from the main mall with the mystery steps to the right (no public access, of course).  First photo taken May 3, 2014.  Second photo by Digital Sky taken August 26, 2012.

An interesting note about the Hess's is that it is identical in design to a store built at South Mall closer to Allentown.  However, the enclosure of the mall was not handled in a typical fashion.  Since the mall included both a strip and enclosed portion, ultimately the strip portion was enclosed, too!  However, unlike most efforts to enclose a strip, it simply became an enclosed hallway with the original tenants on one side and the parking lot on the other with glass windows separating it.  Only a portion of the enclosed strip actually has tenants on both sides.  In addition, Hess's anchored the mall in a strange fashion with the store staggered like a discount store with the store set back away from the front of the mall.  While it still does have a mall entrance, it includes a tiring set of steps and an odd diagonal door to the right going directly outside.  In addition, Bon-Ton today takes up space of an inline tenant on the opposite side of the single door.

Looking back from Newberry's to Bon-Ton with these odd railings posted as a means to give some sort of definition to the mall.  The mall has continuous slopes from Newberry's to Bon-Ton.  First photo is by Digital Sky from August 26, 2012 and second is from May 3, 2014.

These photos show the mall a little less cheery between 2012 and 2014 with the colorful banners removed overhead.  First photo by Digital Sky.

Kay Jewelers sporting this vintage logo has since left the building.  Only in Pennsylvania would a store like this last this long in a basically dead mall.  I guess they drew enough traffic from Bon-Ton.  Second photo by Digital Sky taken August 26, 2012.

Westgate Optical clearly appears to be one of the mall's oldest tenants.  Photo by Digital Sky taken August 26, 2012.

Tragedy struck the mall when in 1977 a fire erupted that destroyed 18 stores.  The fire happened along the front portion of the mall next to Hess's.  That portion today includes is where Bon-Ton operates a second store in the mall.  Aside from this obvious major setback, the mall appeared to be modestly successful throughout the 70's and 80's, but by the 1990's the mall began to struggle as Lehigh Valley continued to draw customers away.  Like most early malls, the mall had a tough time competing with only one department store anchor and a major five and dime store as its principal anchor tenants.  JJ Newberry closed with most of the chain in 1997 leaving a huge vacancy in the center of the mall that has never been filled.  However, the owners also lucked out with A&P eventually being replaced by Weis and Hess's was replaced by Bon-Ton.  Rite-Aid also maintains a location in the mall along with Weis in the enclosed strip portion.

The two entrances to Bon-Ton.  The latter replaced an unknown store inline and was part of the portion rebuilt after the 1977 fire.  Note the door on the right of Bon-Ton to the outside.  The wall directory ties the two images together.

The two Bon-Ton stores side by side with the "escape door".  Photo by Digital Sky taken August 26, 2012.

Beginning of the enclosed strip portion includes what appears to be a second former entrance of Newberry's to the right.

More of the corridor headed to Weis with a bend in the corridor approaching the Weis store entrance.

A curiosity with the mall was the size of front-facing inline tenants, most of which looked to be junior anchors.  An empty store with a wood front is the most noticeable sat next to a former front mall entrance that is today part of Subway.  This store had both outside and mall entrance access and took up a large section of the road-facing side of mall.  It looks like today it periodically opens as a temporary store/office, but most everything in the main mall portion is empty.  Kay Jewelry and Payless Shoes are two of the remaining tenants in that section as of 2012 with Kay since departed.

Weis entrance on the right; outside entrance on the left.  Judging from the scene ahead this looks like a bit of a tight squeeze for that cart full.

Another bend in the enclosed strip beyond Weis includes some narrow stores on the left that create a breif (and more legitimate) mall.  Something tells me that door on the right is fake.

Twisting and turning on a climate controlled urban hike that ends at Rite-Aid

Rite-Aid on the right with the end of the mall in sight.

The east end of the mall is...a single glass door.  The possibilities are endless just across that parking lot!

Looking back from the door to the beginning of the long and twisting journey back to Bon-Ton.

Despite this, today Westgate Mall is significantly vacant.  Most of the active tenants are located in the front of the mall with parking lot access while the back of the enclosed mall is mostly empty.  Bon-Ton also likely only holds on due to inability to obtain anchor space at Lehigh Valley Mall nearby.  Otherwise, they would probably close.  The mall has also not had any renovation in at least 30 years making it one of the most vintage malls still in operation in the state, but that is supposed to change when it was announced in 2015 that the mall would receive a $5 million dollar overhaul.  Much of that is to support the addition of Sky Zone Trampoline Park in the main mall corridor.  How the mall hangs on is anybody's guess considering that the vast majority of shoppers drive a little further up the road to go to Lehigh Valley Mall.

View of the upper level offices from the bend in the enclosed strip portion.  The Weis is visible in the background.

Near the turn back to the legitimate (double-sided) mall.  Not that this is illegitimate.  It's still a mall, and these days you take what you can get.

Outside view of the mall from the Bon-Ton side.  The stores in the foreground were wiped out in the 1977 fire.

Bon-Ton's second store outside with the funky mall entrance in the right corner.

Exterior shots of the Bon-Ton (former Hess's) with the mall name on the NW corner.  Photo by Digital Sky taken August 26, 2012.

The most probably future for Westgate Mall is a redevelopment into a regular strip mall when Bon-Ton finally leaves, but for right now the owners seem to be committed to keeping an enclosed mall: very unusual in 2016!  Regardless, Bon-Ton is probably exploring options currently including taking over the current Sears store in the partially demalled Whitehall Mall.  It is curious that after Leh's department store closed at Whitehall that they didn't decide to relocate then, but most likely at the time they felt they couldn't effectively compete so close to the larger, better mall.  Whitehall was also trying to shake off their own reputation as a mall favored by elderly shoppers when it was redeveloped.  Whatever the outcome, it is absolutely remarkable that this mall has made it over 50 years.  As the first regional shopping mall in Lehigh Valley, it has endured quite a bit of competition to survive this long even in its anemic form.  

Westgate Mall main entrance.  Only the logo was changed.  The original entrance used an Old English-style font.  Photo by Digital Sky taken August 26, 2012.

A secondary mall entrance to the main mall was unceremoniously downgraded to an entrance for Subway.  To the untrained eye, it looks demalled!  Photo taken by Digital Sky August 26, 2012.

Westgate Mall's original logo was found on this sign.  Photo by Digital Sky taken August 26, 2012.

Weis, originally Harold's IGA Foodline.  To all appearances it was an A&P, and it may have very well been one originally.  Photo by Digital Sky taken August 26, 2012.

Describing the mall corridor is difficult, so hopefully these directories shed some light.  What is not shown is the walled off upper level area at the bottom of the L next to the old Newberry's mall entrance.   Second photo by Digital Sky taken August 26, 2012.

Westgate Mall Brochure Photos: Macon, GA

In two other posts, I discussed the long-demolished Westgate Mall/Shopping Center in Macon, GA.  While largely unknown outside of the city, it was not only the first enclosed mall in Georgia but probably also the first dead mall in Georgia.  A mall that lost its reason to exist by 1975, it was marketed in various forms for 19 more years before being de-malled in 1994.  If this had been anything but the first of its kind in the state, probably no photos would exist.  However, contributor Tony Webb was kind enough to inform me that he had some photos of the place, and he went to the trouble of getting them for this site.  His father, Bernard Webb, was the architect of the mall and Tony had a brochure from a local glass company showing the mall just before it opened.  Most of these photos involve the exterior, though a couple store fronts are featured inside.  I think you will agree from these photos that this was a very uniquely designed mall even for its time.   All images below are from that brochure sent to me by Tony Webb.

This is the artists drawing from the air.  The anchor on the left is Colonial Stores (later Big Star), and the tall anchor in the rear is J.J. Newberry's.  The grocery store on the opposite end is Big Apple (later Food Giant).  Woolworth's is shown between the front entrance and Colonial Stores.  Liggett Drug is shown on the left between the front entrance and Big Apple, which also had an outside entrance.  Liggett eventually became Eckerd Drugs at the last.

A look at the front entrance.  This looks substantial enough that you would expect a much larger mall inside!  I guess this place WAS huge for 1961.

Here is another mall entrance with the caption from the original brochure left in place.

Here is an outside entrance to a barber shop and a side mall entrance, which looks more typical for the 60's.

The store front of Butler's Shoes and mall entrance to Newberry's are both pictured here.

Hefner's Bakery looks positively classy with its logo and alternating glass/dark panel design.  I wish malls and department stores still had bakeries.

This was found on the front of the brochure crediting all involved in the construction of the mall.  Bernard Webb, Architect; Fickling and Walker, Developers, A.R. Briggs, Contractor and Binswanger Glass Co, Glazing.  Binswanger produced this brochure prior to the mall opening.

This passage in the brochure is both quaint and weird at the same time.  I don't see the connection with peaches and a mall, but I would take seeing the inside of this mall over peaches.

Westgate Shopping Center Revisited: Macon, GA

Westgate Shopping Center, also known as Westgate Mall [see older post], was redeveloped in 1994.  Sadly, it seems so many redevelopments of old malls in the 90's now call for another redevelopment.  In the case of Westgate, it is really in a bad spot.  The mall was ailing for years when it was finally torn down, and initially the redevelopment was wildly successful.  The only original anchor to carry over from the original mall was Burlington Coat Factory, but the new strip shopping center brought with it Home Depot and Media Play, both winners in that time period.  Wal-Mart had been added previously, which came itself in the 1980's and did not appear to connect to the mall itself.  The redeveloped center, which replaced the oldest enclosed mall in Georgia, did well for a decade but then seemed to finally fail due to a myriad of problems.

The original mall itself was not very big.  Aside from the fact it never actually had a department store anchor, the number of shops numbered only 30.  It was this compact design which probably led to the many attempts to re-tenant the center into something that Macon Mall did not have.  These days it would have been a perfect center for medical, professional or county offices, but the owners apparently instead preferred the higher dollar option of razing the mall for a traditional strip mall.  It did indeed work for awhile, but looking at where it is today, was this really the best idea?

When Westgate opened, I-75 was not completed and Eisenhower was not yet built, but it was close to downtown.  You think it would have taken advantage of the location.  The first photo shows a drawing of what the inside of the mall looked like.  Early enclosed malls instead of advertising the stores were advertising climate control!  If only today's lifestyle center builders would take a little tiny hint that this isn't California.

A listing of all the original tenants in the mall.  Note the lack of department stores.  No department store ever came to the mall, though Wal-Mart served as a pseudo-anchor in the later years.

Aside from Westgate, the only other mall I have known not to have a department store was Innsbruck in Asheville.  What the mall did have originally, however, was two grocery stores, two five and dime stores, a drug store and an auto parts store.  It was a novelty indeed, but definitely not an all-in-one shopping extravaganza.  Grocery shoppers could choose Big Apple (precursor to Food Giant and later Cub Foods) or Colonial.  Those looking for five and dime could choose between Woolworth's or Newberry's.  The Auto Parts store appeared to be a local affair, and it eventually became Otasco.  After a day of shopping, shoppers could dine at G&M Cafeteria and then get desert at Hefner's Bakery or Betty Ann's Candies.  While real shopping remained downtown at that point, it is undeniable that this was a period when malls were fun and had something for everyone.  Why did that ever have to change?

This is a corrected Westgate Mall map showing a 1993 aerial, but detailing all of the previous stores operating in the mall as well as modifications.  The first name on all the stores listed is the original tenant when the mall first opened.

The problem with redeveloping a dead mall with more retail is that the luster tends to fade quickly.  I can think of no older shopping mall that was redeveloped into a strip mall that turned out to be successful long term.  Part of that is that the owners did not take into account that the surrounding area would eventually pull it down.  This was what was there when the strip was first redeveloped in 1994.  Small shops were placed between Burlington and Wal-Mart.

The factors that killed Westgate could be summarized as crime, bankruptcy of one of its major tenants and a new shopping center down the road.  Obviously, the center would have successfully redeveloped if the neighborhood was prime for new retail.  However, nobody was interested in moving in the dying strip whose cheap stucco remodel looked hopelessly dated by 2005 and its core of shoppers shifting elsewhere.  Second, the bankruptcy of the Media Play chain was obviously a difficult void to fill along with Wal-Mart, which left the center by the middle of the last decade.  Third, Home Depot was lured away to a huge strip further west on the opposite side of Macon Mall.  The end result of this is that the once thriving strip mall is now largely empty making it twice dead much like what happened with Roswell Mall near Atlanta.

This scene looks like the apocalyse (or post-dollar crash) showing a virtually empty strip mall with major chain stores.  If not for Burlington Coat Factory there would be no car in sight.

Media Play was one of my very favorite stores in the 90's, but its all-in-one concept fell apart after the 90's as its competition became more numerous and stronger against the chain.  This is one of the few with the sign still up.  Note the light inside, though...this is a really big surprise coming in the next two pics.

Aside from the light, this damage to the building shows something severe happened.  Apparently a tornado made a direct hit on this building in 2008, which was the same one that hit Macon Mall.

...and severe it was!  The tornado apparently tore off part of the roof leaving a sizable portion of the abandoned store completely open to the elements. 

After nearly 50 years, it apparently is finally too late for Westgate.  This sign looks to predate the demolition of the enclosed mall.

It is unfortunate that the original mall did not find new use, but I wonder if it would have been thriving today re-purposed if they had not torn it down to start with.  It seems Houston Mall is doing better as a spliced up mess of medical, government and professional services than Westgate did as a strip, so maybe the owners of Houston Mall were pretty savvy not giving into the de-malling craze of the past 15 years.  Since this mall is years too late for that, I am guessing Burlington Coat Factory will probably end up at Macon Mall eventually.  Perhaps they should just tear down what is left and let it go back to nature.  It is derelict overall as it is, and it is also a victim of its own age combined with years of poor planning.  Westgate could have succeeded had it been built larger and had department stores, but the circumstances just did not work either time.