Could Legoland provide building blocks for rebirth?

News flash! There were people inside the Plymouth Meeting Mall.

Hundreds of them.

No, we’re not talking about a scene from decades ago. We’re talking about a busy night in April of 2017.

That has not been the case in recent years.

Yes, activity at the location on Germantown Pike in Plymouth Meeting has been brisk ever since a makeover in 2009. But most of that activity has been at businesses located on pads in the parking lot – outside the mall.

The restaurants, especially Redstone American Grill, are a beehive of activity … but the area inside the mall often looks like a ghost town. And, with the recent closing of what had always been the mall’s largest draw – the Macy’s department store – the scene has become even more eerily deserted.

Of course, that same scenario has been trending across America. Shopping malls, once hailed as the wave of the future, have become increasingly less popular. Strip centers and “big box” centers have become the most successful retail model.

The convenience of an enclosed, dry, comfortable place to shop at a variety of stores has been replaced by a quick in-and-out mentality.

Somebody needs to reintroduce the masses to the benefits of mall shopping. That’s where the Valley Forge Tourism & Convention Board stepped in.

The area’s largest tourism booster scheduled a marketing and networking event at the Plymouth Meeting Mall. It was in conjunction with the grand opening of the Legoland Discovery Center, the ultimate indoor playground that uses the Lego building blocks as its central theme. The area’s business leaders came out for the event … and saw a modest amount of shoppers in the mall.

“It’s great to see people here,” said Montgomery County Commissioner Joe Gale. “This place has been too quiet for too long.” It wasn’t always that way. When the Plymouth Meeting Mall opened in 1966, it was hailed as both a dynamic shopping center and a social gathering place for surrounding communities.

That popularity lasted for years, as attested by the quote from 38-year-old Ed Harris, the vice president of marketing and communications for the Valley Forge Tourism & Convention Board. “I grew up in Roxborough,” he said. “This was our mall – our place to go as teenagers. We would take the bus up from Roxborough and see almost everyone we knew. It was the place to be.”

That was never truer than on a beautiful April night, 50 years ago

in 1967 – arguably the busiest night in Plymouth Meeting Mall history.

That was the night the mall was converted into a dream location for the 400 members of the Plymouth Whitemarsh High School junior class and their dates. It may have been Plymouth Meeting, but those kids were mentally transported to Hawaii for the evening. The mall was adorned with palm trees. Hawaiian decorations were everywhere.

The floor of the mall was the elaborate scene for the junior prom, but the balcony level was the viewing location for thousands of spectators who came to witness the spectacle. Not just parents, but it seemed the entire community came out to revel in the excitement at the Plymouth Meeting Mall.

In those days, on a Friday or Saturday night, there was a traffic jam of shoppers walking around the mall. Every teenage girl was searching for the latest styles at the Ladybug store. It was difficult to find a seat at the lunch counter in front of F.W. Woolworth’s, still referred to as a five-and-dime store. The anchor department stores were Strawbridge & Clothier and Lit Brothers. The Pantry Pride grocery store was a major tenant. And the Cork & Cleaver was a very popular pub-style restaurant.

All of those are long gone. Some are replaced by Boscov’s, Express and Whole Foods, in the “Outdoor Lifestyle Wing” that was added in 2010.

And, now, Legoland. The hope is that this 33,000 square foot playground will bring shoppers, accompanying their kids, back to the mall.

As part of that effort, Valley Forge Tourism and Convention Board focused the spotlight on the new optimism. Harris gave a power point presentation to the assembled business leaders, titled “20 Ways to Build Your Brand in 2017.”

There were many good points in the presentation, but No. 11 was especially pertinent – “Invent and Re-Invent the Category.”

It was impossible to look around the Plymouth Meeting Mall and not remember the days when it was invented – as one of the first, and busiest, indoor malls in the Greater Philadelphia area.

And it is impossible to avoid recognizing the efforts to re-invent it, with the help of a totally new concept – Legoland.