By John Gibbons
It was Christmas time and this was the place to be. Music chimed through the department stores and smaller shops. Teenagers swarmed around Sound Odyssey record store and Space Port arcade. Moms and their young kids waited in anticipation to sit on Santa’s lap at his North Pole wonderland. Radio Shack, Lamplighter Gift Shoppe and Allens Shoes served a steady crowd of shoppers. Many older folks strolled Steinbachs, with its beauty salon and restaurant which overlooked the back of the mall, where an Orange Julius and Beachcomber Collectibles stood. Just about everything could be found here. Outside was a drive in theater, a grocery store, and a tavern. Inside, young ladies shopped designer fashions at Jeans Emporium and Tres Chic. The mall was buzzing when Donna Sommers bought her disco wardrobe there. The year was 1978 and the place was the Shore Mall.
Shore Mall opened ten years earilier as an open-air mall called Searstown. The anchor stores were Sears, Grant City and a Pantry Pride supermarket. Between 1971 and 1974, the mall was enclosed and expanded, with Steinbach, an up-scale department store added as a fourth anchor store. Grant City was shuttered in 1976 when the chain declared bankruptcy but JCPenney soon took over the space. Pantry Pride supermarket was replaced with Foodtown, and the mall was renamed Shore Mall.
The Hamilton Mall opened in 1987, just five miles west on the same road. This newer, larger two- story complex drew thousands of former shoppers and lured national retailers. Sears and JCPenney moved there right away. With the two Anchors gone, Shore Mall underwent renovations enclosing the still open-air portion between the two anchors as well as re-tiling the mall to a blue and white color scheme.
In 1988 Clover, a discount chain in the former JCPenney/Grant City space, while Boscov’s replaced the former Sears. Boscov’s opened to much fanfare. It was (and still is) one of their best performing stores. Circuit City opened in the former Foodtown, which closed in the early 1990s. Steinbach went out of business in 1995 but was replaced in 1996 with Value City Department Store. Clover closed in 1997 when that chain also faced closure by its parent company, becoming Burlington Coat Factory a year later.
The Circuit City’s location at front right side of the mall was replaced with a K&G Fashion Superstore in 2006. It is now rented seasonally by The Spirit Halloween Costume Store. In January 2006, The Shore Mall was to Cedar Shopping Centers for $36.5 million. Their initial plan was to “de-mall” the mall converting it into an Open-Air Plaza.
In 2010, Cedar Shopping Centers received a $41 million state grant be used to help finance an $87 million dollar revamp of the mall. The plan called for demolishing most of the mall (except Boscov’s, the former Burlington Coat Factory, and nearly everything that can be seen from the Black Horse Pike) and converting the site to a strip mall with four additional large stores. It also included $23 million for transportation upgrades such as a reconfiguration of Exit 36 of the Garden State Parkway, an intersection between West Jersey Avenue and the Black Horse Pike.
A time capsule was buried next to the Steinbach store to be opened 100 years later on March 20, 2074. It was dug up in a small ceremony in 2013 due to the mall’s demolition. The plaque and contents of the capsule were given to the Egg Harbor Township Historical Society. Inside the capsule were clothes from Steinbach’s department store, a reel-to-reel film, copies of several local newspapers and fashion magazines. The contents were preserved under a lead sheath and a water-treated plywood box. The capsule items are now on display there, along with other artifacts from the mall. Ironically in 2074, the mall will be ancient history. Hopefully, The Hamilton Mall will still be alive.
