By Matthew T. Eng, Offbeat NOVA
Landmark Mall has remained closed near Interstate 395 in Alexandria, VA, for more than five years.
The mall, anchored by Sears, Lord & Taylor, and Macy’s, was opened in 1965 as the first major mall in the DC metro area to feature three anchored department stores. Over the years, the 675,000-square-foot outdoor center was eventually enclosed in 1990 to its current form.
That is until the wrecking ball came last Thursday.
On May 12, 2022, a small crowd of spectators looked on as a wrecking ball plowed into the Mall’s iconic sign at the top level of the food court. Seeing the news on social media, I traveled down Van Dorn road to snap a few pics of the demolition. By the time I got there, a giant hole was left in the building. If you looked hard enough, you can see into the top level of the food court. The neon sign was gone — and soon the Mall will be. But demolition is slow-moving, and it seems it will be a while before it is all gone. The location will be redeveloped into a mixed-use space, including a new INOVA Alexandria Hospital. I wanted to make sure I at least got all of the signs preserved in digital format, even though they will most likely be the last remnants of the old former location to go.
We will see if it stays that way. Sometimes, plans don’t work out. Remember when the first Top Golf down the road in Alexandria was supposed to be a mix-use facility? Nope. It’s still a golf entertainment complex. Old habits die hard, and real estate in Northern Virginia never seems to die.
My own personal memories of Landmark Mall are limited. Moving to the Northern Virginia area in 2013, I only managed to go to the mall a few times. Like most people did towards the end of the mall’s life, the mall served as a giant retail mausoleum that housed the only Chick-Fil-A in the area (located on the top floor food court). When I last went to the mall in 2015 to get a space heater at Sears, the mall was almost entirely abandoned, earning the no-to-coveted “Dead Mall” status in the years before its closing. The mall received a little life after its closing when it served as a brief set for the movie Wonder Woman 1984.
I was able to go to the mall after production wrapped to take pictures of the abandoned mall after Covid hit. They were some of the first pictures I took after Offbeat NOVA started. Back in 2020, the mall was left completely empty, save for the Sears anchor (closed in July 2020). After waiting two years for a good story on the mall to materialize, it seemed appropriate to share now that the mall is breathing its last breaths.
It will be interesting to see how the demolition progresses. It’s hard to say if the mall was ever “iconic” like Tyson’s Corner or the Galleria, but it did serve as a hub of diversion, shopping, and entertainment for over fifty years. In its absence, malls like the Springfield Town Center are only getting more crowded (even in Covid times).
Do you have memories of Landmark Mall to share? We’d love to hear from you.
Offbeat NOVA 