William Molesky’s Commentary:

The Northway has been renovated or to say torn down and rebuilt into a super strip mall that houses a Target, Joann's fabrics, Marshall's Department Store, a now empty Linens n Things, Dress Barn, Eddie Bauer Outlet, a large liquor warehouse and a  Super Shoes.  The whole complex of The Northway Mall is spread over a large area that includes a BJ's Wholesale Club, Lowe's (built on the site of Lechmere and the movie theater).

As a child growing up in Colonie I frequented both Colonie Center and Northway Mall.  Colonie Center always seemed upscale but I always liked going to Northway Mall for the variety it had.

My memory may be a little skewed but these are my best relocations of the mall.

The mall had 3 main anchors a Montgomery Ward West side of mall. Corvettes (Two Guys) east end and a Woolworth complete with a lunch counter and an attached restaurant in the center. The mall also had on the front side a restaurant, dentist office and a pet store that was only accessible from the outside of the mall.

The St Francis Chapel was my favorite place for a catholic mass.  The masses were on the half hour, there was no singing, at least until I was in high school.  There was always interesting people to look at and IT WAS IN A MALL!!

Some referred to it as Our Lady of Montgomery ward due to it's proximity to Wards.

Now this is where the memory becomes fuzzy, The corvettes store closed shop and left a big hole in this end of the mall that sat empty for a few years until the mall expanded and cut up the old area into smaller shops that included a Marshall’s a sneaker store that is where most of my sneakers were bought a store that sold flavored popcorn, a baby clothing store and a few other knick knack shops.

Then Colonie Center had a big expansion in the early 90's that seemed to coincide with the demise of the mall.  Close to the end my only reason for going was for a quick mass and a trip to a comic book shop that hosted all day magic card tournaments. Gone were the days of running around Wards until your mom got fed up with you and your brothers playing hide and go seek in the clothes rounder so you were shipped off to Woolworths with dad for a soda and to look at the fish and hamsters that always seemed to close to the lunch counter.

I still frequent this mall in my mind and when I’m walking through Target with my kids I close my eyes and imagine standing at the east end of the old mall holding my dads hand looking at goldfish and trying to remember the smell of grilled cheese and incense.

Brendan’s Commentary:

The old Lechmere and Cine 10 buildings were torn down in the spring of 2007. A Lowe's was built on the site and opened later in the year.

In regards to the comment on the Terra-Sever image, the image was probably taken during a holiday, the Sears parking lot at the south end of Colonie Center across the street is also empty, as well as the BJ's parking lot.

Bryan Rhee’s Commentary:

Please check out this google maps picture. Do you know why there are so many cars parked in front of Lechmere? Was this picture taken back in the early 90's? Another weird observation is that all the cars parked on the northside of Lechmere are taking up only two rows. When's the last time you went to a store and everyone parked only in the first two rows, especially when the parking lot is that big?

http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&hl=en&geocode=&q=Colonie+Center,+Albany,+NY&sll=42.683445,-73.807869&sspn=0.156476,0.280838&ie=UTF8&ll=42.706037,-73.828962&spn=0.002444,0.004388&t=h&z=18&om=1

Great site, If you have any pictures of the inside of a Service Merchandise, that would be great.

Thanks.

Mark H. Delfs’s Commentary:

The Cine 10 & Lechemere building has been knocked down and a new Lowe's is going to be going in. I drive by that dead mall every day and watched them raze both buildings. Massive construction is already under way for the Lowe's.

Joan Kivlen’s Commentary:

Ok here goes...When the theaters were built they were known first as cine 1 thru 6 then 1 thru 8 and finally 1 thru 10. The original anchor store was Korvettes on one end and another defunct chain that I cannot recall on the opposite
end.These two chains both occupied the mall before Wards department store moved in. In its heyday the mall had a large Woolwoths dept. store and McDonalds, a small Roman Catholic chappel and a Strawberries Records and Tapes store. As time wore on the mall began failing and began trying different sales strategies to attract clients.

Directly across the street on Central Avenue is Colonie Center, which itself is a mall that was built shortly after Northway Malls completion. What many people either do not know or do not remember, is that there was until 1994 a closed tunnel that went beneath the parking lots of both so that customers could walk safely between the two malls without being struck by a car. Shortly after opening , this tunnels were sealed to prevent bums and criminals from taking root. It stayed unremembered until 1994 when Colonie Center conducted the first of many major rennovations.