Joshua O'Connell's Commentary

At it busiest, the HQ was the place to shop for any hardware, Circuit City was a cool electronics store to shop at, Farm Fresh was in a convenient location to get groceries, and my mom enjoyed shopping for coats at Burlington Coat Factory (which also had a coin boutique up front where I liked to poke around occasionally as a kid).

I remember when Rose's was gone, at one point a "Book Sale" came into the area for a few months in their old location. As was common in those areas at the time, a big discount bookseller that bought extras, odd prints and such would come in and sell books on row after row of tables, stay for a few months, and move on. In the Clinton Crossing Outlets up here where I live now in CT, they have a permanent bookstore, but their mobile sales I've seen in various places over the years, with a simple banner that says in red lettering "Book Sale."

The Circuit City that was located there was a small location by today's standards, and was one of the ones that had the old diagonal "pluggy" entrance that was streamlined before they did away with the plug altogether.

John Barker's Commentary

{deadmalls.com assistant editor Anita Rose's picture of the mall after Burlington Coat Factory moved in 2004}

Former home to Roses, Montgomery Wards, One Hour Martinizing, Giant Open Air, Rite Aid Drug Store, and speciality shops. Wards moved to Coliseum Mall in the mid 80s, though it's auto center remained on site until the company folded. HQ and Circuit City occupied the vacant Wards store. Burlington Coat Factory bought out the center portion of the "mall" and occupied it until 2004. Roses went out in the early 90s. Giant's turned into a Farm Fresh (who closed the small laundrymat outside). There was a Crestar Bank on the corner of that side; Farm Fresh caught fire and burned, effectively closing that side of the strip (Rite Aid having gone out of business at that location in the 80s.) HQ went out of business in 2000/01, and in one of the quickest store closings, Circuit City announced on a monday in 2002 that their store would be closing by the following friday. And so it was. They tore town the old Farm Fresh wing while Roses and the old Wards property sit and decay. When Burlington Coat Facotry made the jump to Coliseum Mall in 2004 the mall was torn down.