Retail Beginnings Over Hollow Ground
In 1968, as bulldozers cut into limestone for the mall’s foundation, the ground opened into a cave wide enough to walk and lined with needle-thin crystals. They called it Crystal Paradise. Then they sealed it and poured the foundation.
By the summer of 1969, the shell of Harrisburg East Mall stood above that cave. Wanamaker’s lit up first, its escalators humming and perfume counters already stocked. Gimbels opened beside it.
Two years later, JCPenney joined, and the corridor stretched between anchors with terrazzo underfoot and fluorescent light buzzing overhead…