Washington Crown Center facts for kids
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| Location | Washington, Pennsylvania, U.S. |
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| Coordinates | 40°9′34″N 80°16′34″W / 40.15944°N 80.27611°W |
| Address | 1500 West Chestnut Street |
| Opening date | 1969 |
| Developer | Crown American |
| Owner | Kohan Retail Investment Group |
| No. of stores and services | 45 |
| No. of anchor tenants | 8 (4 open, 6 vacant before April, 2021) |
| Total retail floor area | 676,136 square feet (63,000 m2) |
| No. of floors | 1 |
| Public transit access |  Freedom Transit bus: Local B, Local Saturday |
Washington Crown Center is a large indoor shopping mall in North Franklin Township. This area is in Washington County, Pennsylvania, close to the city of Washington. It's also south of Pittsburgh. The mall used to be called Franklin Mall.
Washington Crown Center has many stores. It has big main stores, called "anchor stores." These include Marshalls, Ross Dress for Less, Rural King, and Jo-Ann Fabrics. Some of the mall's past anchor stores were Sears, Macy's, The Bon-Ton, and Hollywood Theaters.
How the Mall Started
The mall first opened its doors in 1969. Back then, it was known as Franklin Mall. Its first big stores were Troutman's, Sears, and Grant City. In 1976, Grant City changed its name to Hills.
Changes Over Time
In 1999, the mall got a new name. It became Washington Crown Center. It also had a big makeover, which is called a renovation. Over the years, many stores changed. For example, a store called Kaufmann's became Macy's in 2006.
More new stores kept coming to the mall. In 2013, Marshalls opened. Then, in 2014, Ross Dress for Less moved in. Other popular stores like Jo-Ann Fabrics, Ulta, and Books-a-Million also joined the mall.
In 2015, the company that owned the mall, PREIT, said it planned to sell Washington Crown Center.
Recent Store Changes
In August 2016, the mall was sold to a new owner. After this, some big stores closed. Macy's and Gander Mountain both closed in 2017. A new store, Rural King, took the place of Gander Mountain in May 2018.
Later, The Bon-Ton department store closed all its locations by August 2018. On August 31, 2019, it was announced that Sears would also close its store here. This was part of a plan to close many Sears stores across the country. The Sears store closed on December 15, 2019. It was the last Sears store in western Pennsylvania.
On October 3, 2020, Hollywood Theaters announced it was closing all its movie theaters. This was because of the COVID-19 pandemic. This left Rural King, Marshalls, Jo-Ann Stores, and Ross Dress for Less as the mall's main stores. Ulta Beauty was expected to move to a different shopping center in April 2021. Ross Dress for Less was also expected to close on January 19, 2021. This would leave Marshalls and Rural King as the only big anchor stores.
