Apparently, a eulogy must be said, for a death I never expected. Not a person, but a place. A place that holds so many memories from my childhood is leaving us. It is a place called The Berkshire Mall.
Situated on what I assume was once a part of Berks County's former lush farmlands (before the housing boom slowly crept in) in West Wyomissing, the Berkshire Mall was a place where families came, along with teens and their friends hanging out after school, Friday evenings, and the weekends.
Truly, I hardly know where to begin!
From my memory, which leads up to the end of 1991/first week of 1992, there were two eras of the upstairs portion as well as food. The upstairs once had a restaurant, or rather a few. The one that comes to mind is Gadgets, which had a Looney Tunes theme. There was also a barber shop, Radio Shack, and Starcade, where the coolest arcade and pinball games awaited handfuls of quarters to pay the rent. In those days that upstairs also had a street lamp decor.
There was a small food "lane" downstairs close to the Sears end of the building. Taco Casa, Arby's, and I believe a Paolo's Pizza. I think there was a cheesesteak place too, but I am not positive. There was also once a small photography studio, like a pop-up-store, in the center of that lane.
Also in that part of the mall was once a 1-screen movie theater and then a Chuck E Cheese was there for a couple of years, it did not last long.
Other food shops were Donuts Galore in the center near the colorful fountains. What comes to my mind was a great place called York Steakhouse, a cafeteria style eatery that had some decent food. York was a regular Friday Night treat before it closed down.
Store-wise, there were all sorts of clothing and shoe stores. As a reader, I loved Walden Books and B. Dalton Bookseller.
And then there was Wall-to-Wall Records, where there was practically anything for anyone's tastes, from vinyl to cassette and later likely CDs, though I was not there for the CD era.
After the creation of the new upstairs food court in the late 1980s, the streetlamp motif was gone in favor of brighter colors. A shame, really, that old theme was fun.
I remember whenever we drove up the Warren Street Bypass on U.S. 422 (now also 222), there was a curve where the Berkshire Mall was revealed in a pretty cool way, with the John Wanamaker anchor was up front with its cursive logo beckoning us forth. Other anchors were Sears along with its separate auto shop. I distinctively remember a good video game area at Sears in the 1980s. They also had a photography studio where we had family pics taken a few times. In the center was Pomeroy's for a long time. I remember the cool blue POMEROY'S lighting up at night. It later became the Bon Ton, with a less cool logo.
Sadly, the era of indoor shopping malls all around is coming to an end as a whole. Online shopping doomed them before they knew it in the late 1990s...thank you, Amazon, and *%$# you at the same time.
Situated on what I assume was once a part of Berks County's former lush farmlands (before the housing boom slowly crept in) in West Wyomissing, the Berkshire Mall was a place where families came, along with teens and their friends hanging out after school, Friday evenings, and the weekends.
Truly, I hardly know where to begin!
From my memory, which leads up to the end of 1991/first week of 1992, there were two eras of the upstairs portion as well as food. The upstairs once had a restaurant, or rather a few. The one that comes to mind is Gadgets, which had a Looney Tunes theme. There was also a barber shop, Radio Shack, and Starcade, where the coolest arcade and pinball games awaited handfuls of quarters to pay the rent. In those days that upstairs also had a street lamp decor.
There was a small food "lane" downstairs close to the Sears end of the building. Taco Casa, Arby's, and I believe a Paolo's Pizza. I think there was a cheesesteak place too, but I am not positive. There was also once a small photography studio, like a pop-up-store, in the center of that lane.
Also in that part of the mall was once a 1-screen movie theater and then a Chuck E Cheese was there for a couple of years, it did not last long.
Other food shops were Donuts Galore in the center near the colorful fountains. What comes to my mind was a great place called York Steakhouse, a cafeteria style eatery that had some decent food. York was a regular Friday Night treat before it closed down.
Store-wise, there were all sorts of clothing and shoe stores. As a reader, I loved Walden Books and B. Dalton Bookseller.
And then there was Wall-to-Wall Records, where there was practically anything for anyone's tastes, from vinyl to cassette and later likely CDs, though I was not there for the CD era.
After the creation of the new upstairs food court in the late 1980s, the streetlamp motif was gone in favor of brighter colors. A shame, really, that old theme was fun.
I remember whenever we drove up the Warren Street Bypass on U.S. 422 (now also 222), there was a curve where the Berkshire Mall was revealed in a pretty cool way, with the John Wanamaker anchor was up front with its cursive logo beckoning us forth. Other anchors were Sears along with its separate auto shop. I distinctively remember a good video game area at Sears in the 1980s. They also had a photography studio where we had family pics taken a few times. In the center was Pomeroy's for a long time. I remember the cool blue POMEROY'S lighting up at night. It later became the Bon Ton, with a less cool logo.
Sadly, the era of indoor shopping malls all around is coming to an end as a whole. Online shopping doomed them before they knew it in the late 1990s...thank you, Amazon, and *%$# you at the same time.
