HARUNDALE MALL : GLEN BURNIE, MD
Chris Hanssen's Commentary
Posted July 9, 2007 (user submitted)
The mall had a small outer shopping center that had an Erols Video store and I bought a movie that starred Joan Jett and Michael J. Fox. The only thing I have from it. I used to go to an Italian Restaurant called Guiseppies right square in the middle of the mall and it had some excellent food. There was a five and ten store that had a restaurant in the store. Above Value City Department Store was a Horn and Horn Smorgasbord Restaurant an unusual place to put a place. My aunt Nancy used to work at a bank there. I banged my head there because they had a kiosk that sold exercise equipment and never secured it correctly. Small bump formed where I landed.
The Rite Aid drug store had a doctor's office. There was an arcade there and I played there and was really nice. I almost went to the Army because there was an US Military Recruitment Center there and I was never let in. Waldenbooks was next to the where that old Gamerman's was. Back to Value City which is the only store that survived the demolition. Next to water fountain there was a stone that is 3 feet tall and had a dedication on it. Now its in the same area it was when the mall is at since the mall became a Shopping Center called Harundale Plaza. The Rouse Company owned the mall. It was built in the 50's and lasted till the mid to late 90's.
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Lucas Dicus’s Commentary:
User submitted Feb 2007I was surprised to see that the Harundale Mall wasn't on the list of Maryland malls, although there are a couple of others from the area where I mostly grew up that may deserve some mention, too.
The Severna Park Mall, located on Route 2 (Ritchie Hwy) in Severna Park, MD is a place I hardly remember. By some time in the early 1990s, it was closed, although some stores with exterior entrances (some never connected to the interior) remained, and as far as I know are still there today. I think some of the interior space has been demolished, but there is still a shopping center there. It was a fairly small mall, and I think it had a rather short life, opening probably in the late 70s or early 80s. It really wasn't convenient to a whole lot of things, and Severna Park residents were probably more inclined to go to Annapolis or Marley Station, for the larger, newer malls there.
The Glen Burnnie Mall, also on Route 2 (Ritchie Hwy) in northern Glen Burnnie, MD is still functioning, I think (I haven't been there in a few years), but is dying. The Marley Station mall, which opened sometime (I think) in the mid 80s slowly ate away at business for the Glen Burnnie mall. When the Arundle Mills Mall opened in the late 90s, I think this took away almost all of the GB Mall's remaining business (I think this may have been the final coffin nail for the Harundale Mall). There is a Best Buy built onto the mall, which only has an exterior entrance, and as far as I can recall, NO actual anchor stores, nor have there been any for a while. I suppose the closest thing may have been a Value City at one point...there used to be an anchor department store of some sort, but I can't remember what it was, and I'm pretty sure it's gone now. I think it only ever had two at a time. There is a nearby strip mall which still has decent business, as we
ll as some other restaurants and such in the same parking lot. It's in a high traffic area, near Route 10 and not far from I-695, which I think has helped to sustain it.
The Harundale Mall is sortof a sad story in a way, and something that I think deserves a word of mention on here. There is an entry about it on Wikipedia, although I can recal it first-hand, if only in its later years. It opened in 1958, and was the first enclosed mall on the east coast (Cherry Hill Mall of Cherry Hill, NJ often tries to make that claim, but they were the first Big mall of the east coast, perhaps the oldest one still standing, dating back to 1961). It also was the first fully climate-controlled mall, featuring air conditioing (which may have been added later). It did quite well for a long time, even after the Glen Burnnie and Marley Station malls were built. Harundale and Marley Station, like Glen Burnnie (and Severna Park, actually) are also located on Route 2/Ritchie Hwy.
Anyway, Harundale had its age as a bit of a novelty attraction for a while, but by the late 90s, it was starting to fail. The Arundle Mills mall, a hulking monstrosity on one level of over-sized stores, with few traditional department store type anchors, a few outlets, a cinema, and a Medieval Times, sealed Harundale's fate. The novelty of a new mall, combined with the wide variety of stores was something Harundale couldn't keep up with. A number of people hoped to have the mall preserved in some form or another, perhaps made into a community center, even if parts of it wound up being demolished, but it was not to be. Sometime around 2000, the mall was demolished, leaving only a discount department store (which had closed itself off from the mall, if it had ever connected to begin with). In the lot, a small strip has been made, and some other stores have been put in as well as a post office. It's now the Harundale Village or something like that...thankfully i
t hasn't been replaced with big box stores. It really wasn't all that conveniently located to many other things, so that has probably counted against it.
Unfortunately, I don't have any pictures, although there are probably some around. Marley Station has an unclear future, also thankful to the Arundle Mills monstrosity, but I think it will survive as an alternate mall, and having a more central location, convenient to Route 100 and Route 10, as well as the residential areas that used to be served by Harundale. Arundle Mills is somewhat interesting, however, because of the fact that it was put in what's actually a somewhat inconvenient location. It's sortof near to Routes 295 and 100 (I think they added a new exit from Rt 100 for it), but there's a few lights past the exit ramp before you reach the mall. People are bused in on MD mass transit from surrounding areas, especially Baltimore and Brooklyn, MD. It's sortof an outlet mall, though, so perhaps that is enough of a draw, but personally I tend to avoid it when I'm in the area, sticking to the familiar territory of Marley Station, a former c
hildhood hang-out of mine.