Monroeville Mall Rises from Harper’s Mine
Before Monroeville Mall opened in 1969, the land was farmland and remnants of Harper’s Mine. Highways built in the 1950s and 1960s turned it into a suburban crossroads.
In the mid-1960s, Don-Mark Realty, later Oxford Development Company, secured 280 acres. Plans called for a $30 million enclosed center with anchors at each end.
By 1966, grading machines moved more than 5 million cubic yards of earth to level 110 acres, costing $2.5 million. Parking for 6,500 cars was laid out across the site…