Zachary Palmer's Commentary

Although I am unsure of when the Village Mall opened, it existed as one of the smaller regional malls popular back in the day. It's only true anchor was a Bradlees located at it's far end. On the other end was an ACME supermarket, although it offered no entrace to the mall itself. The mall was one floor, set up in an F pattern, with the two right tips offering entrances to the mall, the bottom on the F hitting a dead end, and the top of the F offering entrace to the Bradlees. It featured a a two cinema movie theatre and an arcade.

In 1982, the Willow Grove Park Mall opened in nearby Willow Grove, and the decline of the Village Mall was apparent. By the early 90s, the entire section from the middle to the dead end was vacant, with one larger store in that section hosting Toys for Tots each year. The movie theatre became second run, offering 1.50 films. As Bradlees entered Bankruptcy in 1995, the location at the village mall was closed, and things became worse.

A few short years later, an attempt at revitalization was made. Wal-Mart took over the Bradlees location, and a few new businesses moved into the mall. But not even that could save the mall. Eventually, the mall was redeveloped and turned into a strip mall. The entrance between the Wal-Mart and the mall was sealed up.

Currently, there are still remnants of the mall. Three businesses still remain, all of which were located on the outward face of the mall- a Chinese restaraunt, a nail salon, and an Eckerd. The front doors to the Eckerd do not lead into the Eckerd itself- rather, they lead into an original hallway from the mall which goes straight to the Eckerd. The glass doors which originally lead into Chinese Store from the mall interior allow customers to see the mall's interior hallway and a closed store across from it. However, other stores have been built completely through, from front to back.

In addition, two other stores remain in business. Village Hardware, a family owned hardware store, moved into a location on Hatboro's main street. Village Pretzels (formerly Pretzel King), a small stand from the mall, also moved to Hatboro's main street.