Westview Mall is a
shopping mall
A shopping mall (or simply mall) is a North American term for a large indoor shopping center, usually anchored by department stores. The term "mall" originally meant a pedestrian promenade with shops along it (that is, the term was used to refe ...
located in
Catonsville, Maryland, United States. The mall originally opened in 1958 as an outdoor strip mall, but was later converted into an indoor shopping center. The original anchors were
Hutzler's
Hutzler's, or Hutzler Brothers Company, was a department store founded in Baltimore by Abram G. Hutzler (1836–1927) in 1858. From its beginning as a small dry goods store at the corner of Howard and Clay Streets in downtown Baltimore, Hutzler's ...
and
Stewart's. Other tenants included
Food Fair
Food Fair, also known by its successor name Pantry Pride, was a large supermarket chain in the United States. It was founded by Samuel N. Friedland, who opened the first store (as Reading Giant Quality Price Cutter) in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania in ...
and
G. C. Murphy
G.C. Murphy was a chain of five and dime or variety stores in the United States from 1906 to 2002. They also operated Murphy's Mart (full scale discount stores), Bargain World (closeout merchandise), Terry & Ferris and Bruners (junior department ...
.
Stewart's became
Caldor
Caldor, Inc. was a discount department store chain founded in 1951 by husband and wife Carl and Dorothy Bennett. Referred to by many as the Bloomingdale's of discounting, Caldor grew from a second story "Walk-Up-&-Save" operation in Port Ches ...
in 1983 and Hutzler's was sold to
Hochschild-Kohn
Hochschild Kohn's, also known as Hochschild-Kohn or simply Hochschild's, was a 20th-century American department store chain based in Baltimore, Maryland. It was started in 1897 as a partnership between Max Hochschild, Benno Kohn, and his brother L ...
. By 1990, the mall had 80 stores.
In 2002, the mall returned to its original outdoor status, when the indoor section, which had largely failed, was converted into
big box store
A big-box store (also hyperstore, supercenter, superstore, or megastore) is a physically large retail establishment, usually part of a chain of stores. The term sometimes also refers, by extension, to the company that operates the store. The te ...
s such as
Sam's Club
Sam's West, Inc. (doing business as Sam's Club) is an American chain of membership-only retail warehouse clubs owned and operated by Walmart Inc., founded in 1983 and named after Walmart founder Sam Walton as Sam’s Wholesale Club. , Sam's C ...
and Marshalls, while
Lowe's occupies the space where Stewart's had been. As of 2022, the mall is owned by
CB Richard Ellis.
Murder case
Westview Mall came into the news in 1991, when a well publicized murder took place in the parking lot. On June 6 of that year, 49-year-old Jane Tyson was murdered in the presence of her grandchildren, ages 6 and 4.
Wesley Baker was convicted of the crime, and was executed on December 5, 2005, after more than 13 years on Maryland's
death row
Death row, also known as condemned row, is a place in a prison that houses inmates awaiting Capital punishment, execution after being convicted of a capital crime and sentenced to death. The term is also used figuratively to describe the state of ...
.
References
{{Shopping malls in Maryland
1958 establishments in Maryland
Buildings and structures in Baltimore County, Maryland
Catonsville, Maryland
Shopping malls established in 1958
Tourist attractions in Baltimore County, Maryland