Baltimore's Mondawmin & Harundale Malls

[barante]

BJC is Baltimore Junior College, which moved to the old Park School on Liberty Heights Avenue when the neighborhood began to change and Park relocated to Brooklandville. (BJC previously was located at City College on 33d Street.)
The New York Times (Oct. 5, 1956, 60 Stores Open a Big Baltimore Shopping Center) lists the lead stores as Sears, Penn Fruit, G.C. Murphy, Food Fair, Franklin Simon, Bond Clothes and Lerner.

[mikey jam]

Greetings, Anyone remember to defunct Cedonia Mall and Reisterstown Rd Plaza when it was open space. Before malls, heck there was the famous shopping districts of Highlandtown, Monument St, Light St, Broadway and 36th St, (which 36th st now upscale). Read's Drug Stores were everywhere. Help out you westsiders where did you shop before malls?

[archerfox]

I grew up in Glen Burnie and remember this was one of 2 places to shop. Harundale also sported a Youth Center as well as a bank at the one entrance door. You could also enter through Hoschild Kohn's. Additionally there was a fabric shop in the mall. The Rock I clearly rememebr was dated 10/58 and inscribed with a quote? Names of the builder? Names of the county exec at the time I am sure but don't recall for sure. Hoschild Kohn also had a 2nd level and you could walk out onto the balcony and look down into the mall proper. There wsa also a restaurant upthere and a public restroom. I also rememer 2 shoe stores Thom McAn and Stride-Rite. Kinney Shoe store was not in this mall but in it's own separate location. There was also a fine jeweler's and the grocery store you spoke of on the other end. Hoschild Kohn had the first and for many years only Chubby section (kid's clothes for those who were a little "chubby"). As well as the only supplier of uniforms for the girl scouts, brownies and fireflies. Also there was a SInger store to buy sewing machines and get them repaired tucked in a corner of the amall near Hoschild's. Hope this helps you.

[mikey jam]

Eastpoint (later a mall) was the big shopping center on the eastside. Located in eastern Balto County it also had a large volume of city shoppers. Live penguins and monkeys here. Outside was a miniature golf course, and as always a 5&dime store.

[Baltimorean]

Hello there,
I do realize that this is an old conversation but I would like to share my knowledge of the Mondawmin Mall with you if you are still interested. I worked in the mall as a teen ager and my father managed a store there. Let's talk.

[barante]

I'd love to read your recollections.

[jim prow]

hi, my name is jim prow and i worked for the rouse co. for 30 yrs.. i have some info. for you.

mr. rouse began his company as, jas. w. rouse & co (formerly hunter, moss & rouse). it was a mortgage co. and he wrote most of the mortgages on bungalow homes in gray manor, dundalk, md.. he had wealthy balto.businessmen on his board. jim rouse developed his first mall (mondawmin) that belonged to these businessmen. he then developed his own mall (harundale.) later on mr. rouse bought back the mondawin mall from his board members. realizing his talents in building malls, the mortgage co. became secondary and the co. name was changed to the rouse co. and was headquatered at the village of cross keys (which he built.)

the frist industrial community in the country was "dundalk", md.. the concept was people could walk their children a short distance to the school, pass through the park, shop at the shopping center and there was a bus line. mr rouse used this concept to build the city of columbia. that's why all of columbia is made up of town centers.

[scottd0317]

I was there the day it opened, hung out there for years, worked my way through college there and ended up working for the company that built it (The Rouse Company - see Jim Prow's comments on this thread). Its claim to fame was a stretch, but it was the first enclosed mall that was designed as an enclosed mall (rather than enclosed later like Mondawmin was) to be built east of the Mississippi. I can tell you all you need to know if you care to contact me at [email]n2dwords@aol.com[/email]. I lot of the stuff written above is accurate and a lot is off, although usually not by much. The rock had a hole drilled in the top of it. It held a staff that had a blue wooden swallow mounted on the top. The swallow was the mall's logo, and is derived from the French word for swallow (l'hirondelle) that is the source of the word Harundale.