Capital Plaza Mall (the region now known as simply ''Capital Plaza'') was a shopping mall located at the intersection of Annapolis Road ( Maryland Route 450) and the Baltimore–Washington Parkway in Landover Hills, Maryland. It was built between 1961 and 1963, as a regional shopping center to serve the Bladensburg and Landover area of suburban Washington, D.C. The mall was a major attraction in Prince George's County, until its slow decline that began in the 1970s. This continued until the mall's closure in 2005, and ultimately its demolition in 2007. Part of the grounds are now occupied by a Wal-Mart store.

History

Development and opening

The opening day festivities on August 7, 1963, were themed by the popular movie ''Around the World in 80 Days'', and featured representatives from a dozen foreign countries, including Miss Universe Ieda Maria Vargas of Brazil. Maryland Governor

J. Millard Tawes John Millard Tawes (April 8, 1894June 25, 1979), was an American politician and a member of the Democratic Party who was the 54th Governor of Maryland from 1959 to 1967. He remains the only Marylander to be elected to the three positions of Stat ...

officiated the grand opening. The $11 million shopping center originally consisted of 45 stores, which included branches of S.S. Kresge, Kroger,

People's Drug Store Peoples Drug was a chain of drugstores based in Alexandria, Virginia. Founded in 1905, Peoples was subsequently purchased by Lane Drug in 1975, Imasco in 1984, and finally by CVS in 1990, which continued to run the stores under the Peoples banne ...

, Thom McAn Shoes, Lerner's, and a

Hot Shoppes Marriott Corporation was a hospitality company that operated from 1927 until 1993, founded by J. Willard Marriott and Frank J. Kimball as Hot Shoppes, Inc. In 1957, Marriott Corporation opened its first hotel in Arlington County, Virginia, U ...

drive-in restaurant. The complex also included a

movie theater A movie theater (American English), cinema (British English), or cinema hall ( Indian English), also known as a movie house, picture house, the movies, the pictures, picture theater, the silver screen, the big screen, or simply theater is a ...

and a professional building. During the late 1980s, an Auntie Anne's Pretzel Shop and

Cinnabon Cinnabon is an American chain of baked goods stores and kiosks, normally found in areas with high pedestrian traffic such as malls, airports and rest stops. The company's signature item is a cinnamon roll. As of December 2017, there are more th ...

Store also opened inside Capital Plaza, next to the movie theater. The two

anchor store In retail, an "anchor tenant", sometimes called an "anchor store", "draw tenant", or "key tenant", is a considerably larger tenant in a shopping mall, often a department store or retail chain. They are typically located at the ends of malls. Wit ...

s that were the mall's major attractions were Montgomery Ward and the later Bradlees, which opened and operated briefly in 1982 as Memco until it became a branch of the Washington, D.C.-based home improvement

Hechinger The Hechinger Company was an American chain of home-improvement centers headquartered in Landover, Maryland, on the immediate outskirts of Washington, D.C., from 1911 to 1999. It was also an online retailer owned by Home Decor Products from 2 ...

retail stores. Capital Plaza was a whole new concept in Prince George's County shopping in the Woodlawn and Landover Hills areas, during the 1960s. This was the first mall-style shopping center--called a "plaza" because of its open-air design featuring lighted fountains, trees, and benches. Capital Plaza was once the main shopping mall in the central Prince George's County area other than

Prince George's Plaza A prince is a Monarch, male ruler (ranked below a king, grand prince, and grand duke) or a male member of a monarch's or former monarch's family. ''Prince'' is also a title of nobility (often highest), often hereditary title, hereditary, in s ...

, prior to the opening of Landover Mall. Capital Plaza's prime location along Maryland Route 450 and the Baltimore-Washington Parkway made it ideal for shoppers by both automobile and public transit. Local bus service to Capital Plaza operated along Annapolis Road, linking the plaza with shoppers from the nearby neighborhoods of College Park, Hyattsville, Riverdale, Rogers Heights, Edmonston, Bladensburg, Colmar Manor, Cottage City, Brentwood, Mount Rainier, Villa Heights, Cheverly, Landover Hills, Landover, New Carrollton, Lanham, Glenarden, and even certain pockets of Washington, D.C. (provided by the old WMA Transit Company, until later becoming the Metrobus system). In the late 1970s-80s, Capital Plaza even featured a Trailways bus station. Neighboring shopping featured Robert Hall Men's and Kinney Shoes, Shakey's Pizza, and a Grand Union Market along Annapolis Road.

Decline and closure

Following the opening of nearby Landover Mall in the 1970s, Capital Plaza began a long, slow decline. The plaza grounds also served as the local home of the

UniverSoul Circus The UniverSoul Circus is a single ring circus, established in 1994 by Cedric Walker and Calvin "Casual Cal" Dupree, an African-American man who had a vision of creating a circus with a large percentage of people of color performing. He began se ...

, in hopes of attracting more customers to the mall. Between 1999 and 2000, the parent companies for the mall's two anchor stores, Hechinger and Montgomery Ward, both filed for

Chapter 11 bankruptcy Chapter 11 of the United States Bankruptcy Code (Title 11 of the United States Code) permits reorganization under the bankruptcy laws of the United States. Such reorganization, known as Chapter 11 bankruptcy, is available to every business, whe ...

. In the end, both retailers closed over 100 of their retail stores, including the ones at Capital Plaza, by the end of 2000. By 2005, nearly all of the mall's smaller tenants closed and moved out of the location. This resulted in the closure of the mall by its owner Nellis Corporation.

Demolition and successor

The site was leased by Wal-Mart, which demolished the mall to build the first (and only, until December 4, 2013, when two Wal-Marts opened in Washington, D.C.) Wal-Mart store inside the Capital Beltway. The new Wal-Mart opened in March 2007 and featured over 11,000 applicants for 330 jobs. As of October 2018, both signs that advertised the mall are still standing: the one located at the entrance which had the features of the mall listed and the one located off of MD 450 that has been renovated to promote the area's new name of simply Capital Plaza. The UniverSoul circus, an attraction that begun when the mall was standing, still rents out the location to host its events. Unlike before when it rented the parking lot across the mall, it now rents the area that is fenced where the west wing of the mall once stood. Still standing near the Wal-Mart is the McDonald's, United Bank (formerly Chevy Chase Bank and

Capital One Bank Capital One Financial Corporation is an American bank holding company specializing in credit cards, auto loans, banking, and savings accounts, headquartered in McLean, Virginia with operations primarily in the United States. It is on the list o ...

), and an international supermarket (formerly

Safeway Safeway is an American supermarket chain founded by Marion Barton Skaggs in April 1915 in American Falls, Idaho. The chain provides grocery items, food and general merchandise and features a variety of specialty departments, such as bakery, d ...

) that were in business during the Capital Plaza Mall tenure. The former Hot Shoppes building, long vacant, was demolished on August 10, 2015. A Royal Farms gas station opened in front of the former mall property in January 2020, with additional retail, including

Starbucks Starbucks Corporation is an American multinational chain of coffeehouses and roastery reserves headquartered in Seattle, Washington. It is the world's largest coffeehouse chain. As of November 2021, the company had 33,833 stores in 80 c ...

and Tropical Smoothie Cafe, opening later in 2020. A

Chick-fil-A Chick-fil-A ( , a Word play, play on the American English pronunciation of "wikt:filet#Pronunciation, filet") is an American fast food restaurant chain which is the country's largest which specializes in chicken sandwiches. Headquartered in Coll ...

opened on another pad site in January 2023. A Chipotle Mexican Grill with a pick up lane opened in October 2023.

References

External links

Deadmalls.com website (accessed Aug 21, 2008)
{{DC Malls Shopping malls established in 1963 Shopping malls disestablished in 2005 Shopping malls in Maryland Demolished shopping malls in the United States 1963 establishments in Maryland 2005 disestablishments in Maryland Buildings and structures demolished in 2007 Demolished buildings and structures in Maryland