Capital City Mall: Harrisburg's Indoor Commons
On a gray day in the Harrisburg suburbs, Capital City Mall hardly looks like a relic: a low, pale box off Route 15 in Camp Hill, still ringed by asphalt and humming with people who actually use it daily.
Shoppers go from Macy's to JCPenney and Dick's Sporting Goods, while Sportsman's Warehouse brings in hunters and people who like outdoor activities. H&M, DSW, and a rotating mix of clothing and electronics stores always have something new.
Signs lead families to the far end, where Dave & Buster's is a fun place for people who want some excitement, and then they can get shawarma, ramen, and bubble tea instead of pizza and soda.
The mall is a single story, roughly 600,000 square feet of conditioned air and orchestrated movement in Lower Allen Township, Pennsylvania, where strollers, high schoolers, and retirees share the same polished corridor.
It is the only Macy's for miles, the only Dave & Buster's in the region, the sort of center that still functions as a default meeting place long after many of its peers have emptied out.
Capital City Mall is in its sixth decade now, which is a long time for any retail experiment. From the parking lot, it presents as another suburban shopping center off another highway interchange.
Yet inside, the place holds the layered story of how one community has shopped, worked, flirted, loitered, and occasionally panicked since the mid-1970s, adapting just enough to stay busy while so many other enclosed malls have given up the role.
Building Capital City Mall: New Suburban Regional Center
In the early 1970s, before anyone in Camp Hill could wander through a carpeted hallway, Capital City Mall was just an idea on Crown American's drawing boards.
The developer from Johnstown chose 54.9 acres in Cumberland County, right off Route 15 and a few miles from Pennsylvania State Capitol in Harrisburg.
In November 1972, they announced plans for a bigger Harrisburg mall that would try to beat the strip-style Camp Hill Shopping Center and compete with Colonial Park Mall and Harrisburg East Mall.
Construction started in February 1973. The plan was for a one-story mall with 632,000 square feet, three main stores, and space for seventy-five shops.
Sears would bring 101,500 square feet of well-known shopping. H. H. Bowman would add 100,000 square feet of local flavor.
Murphy's Mart, a 102,800 square foot discount store run by G.C. Murphy, would focus on selling lots of items at low prices.
Other first stores like Chess King, Foxmoor Casuals, Spencer Gifts, and a 21,000 square foot Rea & Derricks Drugs would line the main hallway, while a separate Acme Markets would handle grocery shopping.
The mall opened in steps. On July 29, 1974, Sears and about sixteen stores opened. A bigger opening on August 15 added Bowman's and Murphy's Mart, bringing the total to about fifty stores.
Outside, a six-screen Capital City Mall Cinemettes with its own entrance gave people a new place to watch movies and experience this new suburban way of life.
From Bowman's to Hess's: Early Changes at Capital City Mall
By the late 1970s, Capital City Mall felt, to central Pennsylvania, like a finished thought. The anchors were Sears, H. H. Bowman, and Murphy's Mart, bracketed by Acme in its pad and the Cinemettes up front.
Families learned the path from appliances to clothes to the drugstore. Teenagers made their own way from Spencer Gifts to any snack counter that would let them hang out.
The idea was simple: no matter what the weather was like on the Capitol steps, it was always comfortable inside the mall in Camp Hill.
In the middle of 1979, just five years after opening, Bowman's closed its big store. Crown American did not want to leave the main store empty.
The space was made bigger and improved, and in August 1979, Hess's opened its first store in the Harrisburg area.
This started a pattern: stores might leave, but the mall would always bring in a new one before people got used to seeing an empty space.
The single hallway was like a small test: a walkway that tried to feel like a town square, where people went to see each other as much as to shop.
Food Courts, Discount Chains, and Growth
In the 1980s, Capital City Mall grew from a basic group of big stores into something more like a small city.
The freestanding Acme Markets that helped launch the mall quietly shut its doors in May 1982, and became a Toys R Us in 1985.
G.C. Murphy's parent company was taken over by another company in 1985, and the Murphy's Mart name started to disappear.
At Camp Hill, the discount store closed for a while, then reopened as Ames in August 1987, selling the same types of products but run by a new company.
Even as store names changed, the mall kept expanding.
On November 14, 1986, the mall opened the Garden Grove Food Court, a 30,000 square foot area at the front entrance with nine spots for restaurants and plenty of seating for people to relax.
Hess's added another 20,000 square feet of space for shopping, making it even more of a main fashion store, while Cinemettes continued to attract regular shoppers at the edges.
By the late 1980s, Sears, Hess's, and Ames were the main stores inside; Garden Grove was the center for social activity; the theater quietly served people outside.
The mall became so busy that a police station was eventually set up there, showing that what used to be farmland ten years earlier had basically become a new downtown.
Hecht's, JCPenney, and the Stability Sell
The 1990s were an era of rebranding and expansion. Hess's, already struggling as a chain, closed at Capital City Mall so its space could be redone once again.
On October 2, 1995, the same spot reopened as a roughly 120,000 square foot Hecht's, a department store from the mid-Atlantic region that connected Harrisburg more closely to other nearby cities.
Across the walkway, Ames left earlier that year. Its old Murphy's space was fixed up and made bigger, and on November 8, 1995, JCPenney moved in, offering its own mix of everyday clothes and dressier options.
Sears tried to keep up. By 1999, it had finished adding on and updating the inside, giving a new look to a store that had been there since the mall opened.
Around the year 2000, the mall was estimated to have about 682,300 square feet to rent, with 86 store spaces and 19 small stands, making it a busy mix of chain stores and local shops.
Meanwhile, the owners were changing. In 1993, Crown American divided itself into a real estate company and a hotel company.
Ten years later, in November 2003, the group of malls, including Capital City Mall, was sold to a Philadelphia-based PREIT that focused on large shopping centers in the region.
The new owner took on not just a building but the shopping routines of the whole area.
From United Artists to Food Courts and Macy's
The new landlord came in with a renovation plan that did not care about old memories. In 2004, they announced a makeover that would close the long-running United Artists movie theater and turn it into a place to eat.
The theater closed in December, and by November 2005, the building had been rebuilt as a 12-spot food court with Garfield's Pub & Restaurant as the main sit-down place.
Lady Foot Locker, Victoria's Secret, and a group of early-2000s stores like Hollister, Wet Seal, Body Central, and Forever 21 opened to attract teenagers.
On May 28, 2006, Hecht's changed its name to Macy's, bringing about 120,000 square feet of a well-known national store.
Davenport's Italian Oven opened as another sit-down restaurant, then later gave up the old Garden Grove spot to DSW, which opened there in March 2013 and turned what used to be a fountain area into a shoe store.
Garfield's later closed, and by 2016, its space became Hand & Stone Massage and Facial Spa.
Out in the parking lot, a separate Toys "R" Us store closed in 2012.
The building was demolished, made bigger to about 50,000 square feet, and reopened on October 16, 2015, as Field & Stream, an outdoor store connected to Dick's Sporting Goods.
In 2019, that same building changed again to Sportsman's Warehouse, trading toy aisles for hunting and fishing gear while the walls stayed put.
Sporting Goods, Dave & Buster's, and a Winner-take-all Mall
By the mid-2010s, Capital City Mall's concourse read like a roll call of national retail. Chains such as H&M, Forever 21, Victoria's Secret, DSW, and Bath & Body Works lined the main spine.
Between them, local shops and eateries, from Bleacher Bums to Shawarma House & Grill, gave the place a faintly local accent.
Then the longest-serving anchor collapsed. In early 2017, Sears announced that its store would close.
Within weeks, the doors were locked, and by spring, the original box was being demolished. A new multi-tenant building took its place.
Dick's Sporting Goods opened there in September 2017 with 61,000 square feet, alongside a Fine Wine & Good Spirits and several smaller bays.
A Sears Appliances & Mattress shop in the project kept the logo alive until 2023, one of the last Sears-branded outposts in Pennsylvania.
Old Navy closed after Christmas 2017, vacating a box near JCPenney. Its space went to Dave & Buster's, which opened on October 22, 2018, with arcade games and huge screens.
By the end of the decade, the owner was describing the 615,000 square foot property as almost fully leased, employing around 1,000 people and functioning as the region's winner-take-all mall.
Bomb Threats, 50 Years, and What Comes Next
The 2020s have made Capital City Mall both a place that has gotten through tough times and a center of attention.
In the early 2020s, the concourse was joined by newer concepts like Zumiez, Lovisa, BoxLunch, and the boutique Rose & Remington, alongside local names such as HBG Fine Jewelry, Asoul Ramen, and Boba Cha Bubble Tea.
In September 2023, a bomb threat forced everyone to leave the mall; no bomb was found, and police said it was probably a prank call meant to cause trouble.
In July 2024, a video about a mall security officer spread quickly online, leading Cumberland County police to investigate and putting the mall in the news for a short time.
At the same time, 2024 was an anniversary year.
Local news marked fifty years since the mall opened in 1974, describing a place that was almost fully rented, with main stores like Macy's, JCPenney, Dick's Sporting Goods, and Sportsman's Warehouse.
The mall ran a campaign asking shoppers to share old photos, while Dave & Buster's closed for a short time to update its look and reopened on June 28, 2024, with a more modern design and free games for the first 200 guests.
The bigger retail situation is still uncertain. Macy's plan in 2024 to close 150 stores made people wonder about its Camp Hill store, even though it is still open.
Police records show a January 2025 problem in the Shoe Department, a theft of softball bats at Dick's in August, charges about gun forms at Sportsman's Warehouse, and a search for someone accused of indecent exposure.
Starting December 10, 2025, the mall tries something new, setting up a Giving Machine where visitors can buy meals, school supplies, and other help for people in need at a kiosk until early January 2026.
Fifty years later, the mall is still open, and its story is still changing.
