Skookle

Part 3 of our trip brings us to the late Schuylkill Mall. Unless you've spent some time in Eastern Pennsylvania, you've probably got no clue how to pronounce that name so let's clear it up now- it's "Skookle." The mall got some thorough coverage by a number of photo/videographers when its closing was announced in 2017, but it's the kind of place you have to see in person to have a full appreciation for. 

Schuylkill Mall first opened in 1980, clocking in at 800,000 square feet and anchored by Sears, Kmart, and Hess's. Crown American was the developer. It was expanded twice- Pomeroy's added a store on in 1983 and Phar-Mor in 1991. Pomeroy's was sold to Bon-Ton not long after they opened, and as a result Bon-Ton closed the mall's Hess's when they bought the chain. Hess's then became an outlet store, and later Steve & Barry's. Phar-Mor closed with the chain in 2002, and became Crown American's house brand Black Diamond Antiques. Dunham's took over the Phar-Mor space in 2012, and Black Diamond moved to the Hess's space. The mall started losing tenants rapidly around that time. Sears closed in late 2014, followed by Kmart early the next year. Black Diamond closed in 2016, followed by Bon-Ton in early 2017. PREIT owned the mall for a short time after buying out the Crown American portfolio, but sold this off to Empire Realty only a few years later along with some of their other lower-performance Crown acquisitions. In 2017, the mall, which was down to only Dunham's, a theater, and a couple inline stores, went into Chapter 7 Bankruptcy and was auctioned off to an industrial developer. They announced they were going to tear down the mall and replace it with warehouses. The mall itself closed in September 2017, but Dunham's and the theater continued to operate a while longer. Less than two weeks after the theater shut its doors, demolition began and the rest is history.

Most of the mall's roadside sign has been taken over by the theater. They put up a huge fight against the mall's closing, since the current theater had only been there for a couple years and wasn't even close to paying off the massive renovations they did. Eventually, a deal was reached and they closed. Rumor has it they'll be reopening at the Fairlane Village Mall in Pottsville soon.

Phar-Mor/Dunham's wasn't here very long either. I imagine they were also pretty upset about the closure. They replaced this location with one at Fairlane the following year.

The mall's main entrance. I was worried at first since a paper in the door said the mall officially closed the week before I got here. Thankfully, that really didn't mean anything. The doors were unlocked and nobody told us to get out.

Since the mall was technically already closed at this point, none of the inline tenants were still in operation. Overall that made for a surreal experience, even though from what I've seen it wasn't much livelier before.

Some interesting decorative lights in the mall hallway. I'm pleased to report these were salvaged, and The Gone-Ton has one now.

Code of Conduct is still in place. It would have been a neat souvenir but I couldn't make it to whatever salvage auction they had.

The mall had several of these awesome fountains. I believe they were still in service up until the mall closed, so I just barely missed seeing them in action.

The plants are still looking healthy, but they haven't really had a chance to dry out yet. One of these would also have been a cool souvenir. I considered snatching one on the way out but between me not having a container to stick it in and the risk of security catching me I decided not to.

The mall's main corridor was incredibly wide. I imagine at one point in time this was full of kiosks, but there were none to be found this time.

Fairly certain that store on the left was a Kay Jewelers.

I'm guessing this is a former Verizon store. The only other store I've seen mirrored slat ceilings like that was at a Verizon in Philly. Update: This was actually a KB Toys for most of its life, and later became home to several one-offs.

The center court was mostly taped off due to a leaking roof.

The floor doesn't look wet now, but I figure a lot of water has to be getting in when it rains in order for them to block off an area this big. After seeing a similar situation at the now-closed Phillipsburg Mall, I'm led to believe Crown American kinda sucked at giving their roofs adequate drainage.

Looking inside the possible Verizon space. I love that ceiling.

The center court had a few impressive skylights over it. With those spotlights this would have looked cool at night too.

Seeing how Bath and Body Works always seems to be the last thing to close in a mall, this was a novelty for me. I'm surprised they didn't relocate to Fairlane Village too.

None of the empty storefronts were walled off, but some of the ones that closed before they gave up had tarps hung up behind the gates.

Former Sears' mall entrance. They expanded into some of the inline mall space in the late 90's, hence the more modern storefront.

H&R Block was one of the final holdouts. They relocated closer to downtown Frackville after the mall's closing was announced.

Taking a peek through the Sears gate. If I were to guess, I'd say those pillars are where the store ended pre-expansion.

For some reason I wanna say this used to be a hair salon. Update: This was most recently a temp agency.

Mall entrance adjacent to Sears. For whatever reason they had this one taped off.

Looking inside the potential former hair salon. Those white panels might have held mirrors originally.

Some more decorative lighting in the Sears corridor. They look cool now, but they would be a lot cooler if they were on.

This might have been Victoria's Secret originally.

Heading back to the Center Court. Hey look- another person! Littman Jewelers was in the space seen on the right. They closed in 2014.

Some lower-end stores that were operating here later in the mall's life. This looked like it was basically a gas station convenience store, minus the gas station. Correction: This was the mall's help desk.

Former Fashion Bug, which has been empty since the chain closed in 2013. We'll be taking a closer look at it later in the post.

A few more unknown vacancies. The middle one should be easily identifiable but I don't recognize the facade. The one on the right was an independent pizza place.

Towards the theater, there were some more skylights with leakage problems. I love the palm trees here.

Former Shoe Department. Not sure when it closed, but the interior looks intact enough I doubt anybody moved in after they closed.

This should be another easily identifiable storefront but it's not coming to me. Update: It was originally Auntie Anne's, but then became a Twisted Pretzel which closed a few years back, reopened, then closed again. Thanks Esw01407 for the information! The one in the background really looks like a former Everything's $1.00, but was reportedly a Pocket Change Arcade and later Namco. Everything's $1.00 imploded pretty quickly so there's a chance Pocket Change moved in later; or perhaps the two just used very similar facades.

The theater, which had expanded into the hallway leading from this side entrance to the main corridor during their 2013 remodel. The former Kmart's just beyond that.

The theater was still open when I visited and had a fair amount of people inside. The ceiling was a bit higher here than in the rest of the mall, which is probably why I liked this area so much.

Another out-of-service fountain. This court was surrounded with movie displays.

A quick look inside the old Kmart. One lone cart's lingering behind. 

Looking down the theater side of the old Kmart. The 2013 remodel was pretty thorough; it would have looked like the next picture beforehand. I can see why they put up a fight against the mall's closure.

Now here's Kmart's the non-theater side. They were on the left, the right side had a Chinese buffet and a DaVita Dialysis center. You can also see one of the original round recessed lights, which is what the mall had originally. I believe the fluorescent lights seen here were put in by PREIT. They did the same thing to a number of former Crown American's.

The entrance at the end of that hallway was actually set pretty far into the mall. DaVita's mall entrance was to the right of me, but their space went all the way to the outside wall. It makes sense; no point in air conditioning an extra 50 feet of hallway if won't fit another storefront.

Peeking through the gate of the old Chinese buffet. The free-floating tables are all gone but the booth seating remains in place.

Heading back over to the center court. I'm willing to bet the green/white/red façade store was a pizza place.

I loved the huge plant growing here. I think it's some variety of palm that usually won't grow much bigger than this.

Closed store with a sorta nondescript interior. I'm guessing it was outfitted originally by a major chain but painted and carpeted by an independent store.

You know a mall's in trouble when even the Chick-Fil-A pulls out! Surprisingly they were among the first to deflect from here. This location closed in 2009. I remember they were one of the last, if not very last, tenants left at Granite Run. Sadly, they didn't have any other locations in the area. Now they've got to go to Reading or Allentown to get their chicken fix.

This was the entrance hallway opposite to Dunham's. It's got another neat 80's light fixture which annoyingly isn't on.

If I hadn't seen the actual Bath & Body Works earlier in my exploration, I would have thought this was it. Turns out this was just a restaurant with a very similar storefront. Correction: It wasn't a restaurant, it was a tobacco and lottery shop.

Walking back over toward the center court. Fashion Bug doesn't count as an anchor, but they did have a pretty big store.

It's a little dark to see much inside, but it looks like its been left pretty well intact since they left.

They've even still got the logo on their windows!

Wooden storefronts like that look timeless to me. You could tell me that was an original tenant or that whatever was there opened in 2005 and either way I'd believe you. It served as the mall's Hallmark store, which was an original tenant that closed in 2014.

DEB's a good indicator as to when the mall management finally gave up. The mall started losing tenants rapidly in 2014; DEB as a chain went under in 2015 and their sign is still up, indicating they had given up trying to keep the mall presentable by then.

A real old-timey Spencer store, complete with a scar from their old logo! I get the impression they closed around 2014.

I would have loved to see these fountains in action. Actually, I would have liked to have seen the entire mall back when it was in action.

The original Gap space was one of the more long-term vacancies. Another (now-closed) store moved into the left half at some point. I'd guess this side hasn't been used in close to 20 years; Gap had been operating the replacement store elsewhere in the mall for a while, which closed in 2012.

The outside of it. The left side was originally a mirror of this, it's funny they kept this half instead of just gutting it out.

Former Payless next door. Before their bankruptcy, finding a closed one of these was pretty uncommon. Now they're all like this, so it's not as special. :(

This planter here, filled with coal, was until shortly before I got this picture home to a coal miner statue. I was going to say it's to celebrate the region's history, but mining is still the region's main industry so perhaps livelihood is a better word. The statue was moved to a new home in a museum at nearby Knoebel's Amusement Park in preparation for the mall's demolition.

This space was home to Lifelong Learning Center for at least the last 20 years, but the façade looks better suited to a store or perhaps restaurant which is what I'm assuming was here when the mall first opened. Lifelong Learning Center relocated to downtown Pottsville when the mall began to shut down.

Looking inside the former Hess's. The antique market that had been operating here the past few years closed a week before my visit. Looks like they were still working on clearing it out.If I were to guess, I'd say Steve & Barry's added the wood flooring, and the fluorescent strips were put in by the outlet store that operated in between Hess's and them.

Jo-Ann Fabrics was an original tenant that closed in the mid-2000's. The space was later used as a gym, but Jo-Ann's labelscar held on underneath their sign.

Looking inside, the Gym really didn't change too much in here. I can't tell if the rear delivery door was open or if they had another glass door in back.

Former home of the vending machines, which I'm assuming were still here until recently. These graphics likely date back to the early 2000's, pre-PREIT. The logo on the bags is what Crown American used for all of their malls at the end.

Heading back outside, here's Dunham's parking lot entrance. It didn't get a total renovation when they moved in, but they re-clad it to match their prototype.

The front half of the old Hess's was last used as an auction house, while the back was Black Rose Antiques. There was a curtain between the two but not an actual partition, so I still think of them as being the same place. You can still see Steve & Barry's labelscar pretty clearly here. Update: There was actually a clothing store operating in this part for a time prior to the aucton house moving in.

Former Hess's/Black Rose entrance. I believe the spray paint has something to do with the demolition; I'm not familiar with that code in particular but I think it has something to do with the utilities being disconnected.

Former Sears and another mall entrance. For as cool as this mall's interior was, the outside was pretty ugly. They didn't have to use the exact same brick for literally everything.

Former Bon-Ton entrance. They were the last full-size anchor to close. I'm willing to blame their leaving on the mall's bankruptcy and subsequent closure. The entire Bon-Ton chain went under the following year, so I can't be mad at them for pulling out though.

Of the anchor spaces, the old Sears was the most interesting from the outside. That's a pretty low bar since the others were (aside from their entrances) detail-less brick boxes. Sears' design has some depth and texture to it.

The mall entrance between Kmart and DaVita. If I'm remembering correctly, this was the only non-anchor entrance with metal siding instead of brick, which I think was due to Kmart's sign being mounted over it.

Kmart's garden center. All things considered, after being closed for 3 years it doesn't look much different than a still-operating Kmart's. I get the impression they've stopped using these, at least in my region. I haven't seen one being used for anything other than storage in years.

There were a couple freestanding stores outside the ring road which were technically still part of the mall. It still stands; it wasn't included in the redevelopment plan. I figure without a mall nearby it is still going to take a hit- it's not a visible from any roadways aside from the mall's loop. Big Lots was originally Weis, which closed this location after building a new one in Pottsville in the early 2000's. I'm not sure what the space on the right was originally (perhaps a pharmacy?) but it has since become a DaVita, replacing the one in the mall.

McDonald's was an original tenant. When the mall opened, they had both this freestanding parking lot one and another inside. Like the Big Lots, this one remains open. It was eyebrowed in the early 2010's. 

Finishing off the post with a little novelty I discovered- Snapchat's Schuylkill County filter stole the mall's logo! I'm glad it gets to live on digitally, even with the mall itself gone.

Honestly I can't remember if I've used this song in the past. I try not to recycle songs here, but this one works so well for this mall.