Washington Mall was more than a retail property. For the people who relied on it, it gave routine parts of daily life a specific place.
It opened in South Strabane Township in 1968 as the Washington area's first enclosed mall. Inside were a grocery store, a barber, a bank, a drugstore, a dry cleaner, and a department store.
One visit could handle the week's errands without going outdoors. The full mix of services, rather than a single tenant, was what gave the mall its role. As tenants left over the next several decades, the losses extended beyond leased retail space.
The last interior tenant closed in 2014. About a decade later, the building was removed to make room for the next use of the land.
Washington County's First Enclosed Mall Opens in 1968
On October 17, 1968, at 10 a.m., J.C. Penney moved into a building it had never occupied before.
The new store in Washington Mall was three levels and 140,000 square feet, with its own auto center. The J.C. Penney it replaced, on North Main Street in Washington, had been 12 times smaller.
Other retailers followed, choosing suburban mall space over downtown storefronts.
Local Investors, 40 Acres, and a Bet on the Interchange
Washington Mall was not built by a national developer.
The ownership group was made up of local investors: Angelo Falconi, Phillip Falconi, C.S. Coen, Richard Coen, Helen Brooks, Marilyn McIlvaine, Ben H. Richman, Stephen I. Richman, George W. Mawhinney, Donald Plung, Howard Plung, and Frank Noll.
The Falconi family held the largest share.
Construction ran about a year on a 40-acre tract near Oak Spring Road and Washington Road in South Strabane Township, about 100 yards from the Washington city line.
The site sat close to Interstates 70 and 79. Shoppers could reach it from Washington County, Greene County, southern Allegheny County, parts of Westmoreland County, and the northern West Virginia panhandle.
At opening, Washington Mall was the only enclosed mall between Pittsburgh and the southwestern Pennsylvania state border.
The total construction cost was $6 million.
South Hills Village had shown the enclosed format could work in the Pittsburgh region when it opened in 1965.
Washington Mall followed three years later with the same premise: a climate-controlled building, shared parking, and a department-store anchor designed for shoppers arriving by car.
Opening Day: 41 Tenants and a Place to Get Everything Done
The mall opened at full occupancy with 41 tenants signed to long-term leases. J.C. Penney was the dominant anchor.
G.C. Murphy, at 30,000 square feet, was the next-largest. Giant Eagle and Thorofare handled groceries.
Shorty's Lunch, Barbara Joyce Restaurant, All-Pro Chicken, and the XXI Amendment Lounge served food and drinks.
Union National Bank and First Federal Savings & Loan handled banking. Thrift Drugs filled prescriptions. Rishell's Barber Shop and Mikus Beauty Shop offered cuts and styling.
Imperial Cleaners handled dry cleaning.
Kinney Shoes, Hanover Shoes, and Teeks Fine Shoes were in the corridor. Biggs Hardware, Jo-Ann Fabrics, and Singer covered home and craft needs.
Rhea's Bakery, Bestyet Donuts, and Bard's Dairyland covered baked goods and dairy.
Warrick Four Seasons Flowers and Gifts, the Kard Kiosk, and Lang's Carriage House served gifts and cards. Hixon's Playland gave children somewhere to be.
A single visit could cover groceries, a bank deposit, dry cleaning, a haircut, new shoes, and lunch without stepping outside.
That mix made the mall a place for ordinary errands as much as special shopping.
The Expansion Years: Two Theaters and a Bigger Grocery
The first major addition came in 1974, adding 70,000 square feet and roughly 15 to 20 new tenants.
The expansion also brought a two-screen Cinemette theater to the west side of the property, which opened in late December 1974.
The theater gave the mall a reason to visit on evenings and weekends when no shopping errand brought people there.
In 1983, the ownership group acquired the adjacent Washington Plaza strip center, which included a Kmart that had been on the site since 1963.
That purchase extended the mall's commercial footprint beyond its enclosed building.
The 1987 additions were the largest in the property's history. A new Giant Eagle of 68,000 square feet replaced the older supermarket space, at the time the second-largest store in the Giant Eagle chain.
On December 18, 1987, an eight-screen theater opened on an outlot, replacing the earlier two-screen Cinemette.
The theater ran under the names Mall Cinemas and Cinema World; Carmike Cinemas operated it for part of its run before leaving in 2001.
Competition Arrives and the Tenant Mix Shifts
Franklin Mall, later Washington Crown Center, opened in North Franklin Township in 1969, only a year after Washington Mall, placing two enclosed shopping centers in direct competition inside a modest regional market.
That competition narrowed Washington Mall's advantage from the beginning.
Big-box centers and newer highway commercial development pulled shoppers away from enclosed mall corridors by the 1990s.
Giant Eagle relocated from Washington Mall to Strabane Square in 1999, removing the grocery anchor that had drawn consistent weekly traffic since opening day.
Afterthoughts and Altmeyer also closed that year. Thompson Hardware had closed in 1997 and been replaced by Dollar General.
Pottery Factory Outlet closed in 1998, and its former space was divided among REX Stores, D&K Stores, and Dollar General by 2001.
Staples opened in 1996 in the space formerly occupied by Marianne Shop.
A 2004 redevelopment concept proposed partially demolishing the enclosed building and reorienting tenants toward the parking lot, with J.C. Penney, Toys R Us, and Staples expected to remain.
Financing never came together.
J.C. Penney moved to The Foundry at South Strabane in 2007. The Foundry encountered structural problems connected to a former mine-dump site and financial difficulties.
J.C. Penney closed its Foundry store on June 6, 2008, and returned to Washington Mall in September 2008.
The old building took back its original anchor.
JCPenney's Final Years and the Last Interior Tenant
In January 2014, JCPenney included the Washington Mall store among 33 planned closures nationwide.
The store closed by early May 2014, ending a 46-year run in the three-level building it had occupied from the mall's first day.
Jo-Ann Fabrics was by then the last interior tenant. It had been part of the mall since opening day in 1968. On July 25, 2014, Jo-Ann closed after relocating to Washington Crown Center.
Its departure left the enclosed corridors with no operating retailer and ended the building's function as a working interior shopping center.
The exterior-facing and annex tenants that remained were accessible from the parking lot and no longer connected to any enclosed mall experience.
The eight-screen theater had already closed on January 20, 2013, and was demolished in October 2016.
Toys R Us, operating in an annex area of the property, closed no later than April 15, 2018, during the chain's national liquidation.
Staples closed in February 2024. By early 2025, Harbor Freight and Grand China Buffet were the only active businesses remaining on the property.
26 Ownership Entities, $12.75 Million, and the Demolition Contract
The ownership structure that had served the original investors became a complication in redevelopment. By 2025, the property had accumulated 26 separate ownership interests, and every one had to agree to sell.
79/70 Associates LLC, connected to Chapman Properties of Leetsdale, assembled the property after a process that began taking shape in September 2023.
The acquisition came to $12.75 million. The sale documents were signed on June 12, 2025. The deed was recorded on July 1, 2025.
Washington County and the Redevelopment Authority of Washington County committed blight-remediation funding for demolition from an account supported by federal American Rescue Plan Act money.
The demolition contract of $5.9 million went to Neiswonger Construction Inc. That use of public money drew local questions because the site was being cleared for a private commercial redevelopment anchored by a Costco warehouse club.
County officials classified the former mall as blighted property requiring publicly funded demolition before private development could proceed.
Critics questioned whether public demolition money was appropriate for a private retail project.
The development team said the retail construction was privately funded and that South Strabane Township tax-increment tools were not practical for the construction schedule.
Washington Mall's Site in 2026: Cleared, Graded, and Planned for Costco
A ceremonial demolition kickoff took place in July 2025. By February 2026, the former mall was largely rubble.
Harbor Freight and Grand China Buffet still stood, pending demolition once relocation and lease timing allowed.
Harbor Freight had a building permit for a new 16,000-square-foot store and had begun foundation work.
By March 2026, demolition was substantially complete, and the site was in grading, stormwater, underground utility, and foundation work.
The planned redevelopment includes a Costco warehouse club of 152,000 square feet, a Costco fuel station, a Campers Inn RV dealership and service center, a relocated Harbor Freight, and additional retail buildings.
Costco was being planned for a possible December 2026 opening.
JCPenney left North Main Street for a three-level anchor in 1968 and stayed 46 years. Jo-Ann Fabrics, an original 1968 tenant, closed in July 2014.
The theater that opened in 1987 was demolished in 2016. The enclosed corridors that held 41 tenants on opening day are gone.
What is being built on the same 40 acres is a warehouse club larger than any single tenant the original mall ever held, near the same highway interchange that made the site worth developing in 1967.
