CHATHAM MALL: ELLICOTT CITY, MD
Spence Lean's Commentary
Posted March 7, 2006 (user submitted)
This Mall was built in the late 1960s or early 1970s as Route 40 became the hub
for Ellicott City's reatil. It Featured Caldor and K-mart as Anchors. (K mart
may have originally been Bradlees) It also had a Giant Food Outlot as well as a
Bank which has changed hands many times and a Roy Rogers. The enclosed mall was
very small and had little more than a dozen store fronts. Among them were "Just
a Dollar", "Music and Arts Center" (I took Saxophone lessons here), "Jo Ann Etc",
"South Hunan" (chinese restaurant), "Radio Shack","GNC" "The Dugout" (Baseball
Cards) a ciagr store and of course Flickers.
Flickers was a video arcade which
my friends and I had many birthday parties. This mall was very small and
featured a mix of mom and pop stores and some national chains. This mall didn't have
the amenities of a traditional mall either. No center
court or food court, no fountain, no seats for shoppers to take a break.
Columbia Mall on the other hand catered to the shopping needs of Columbia and
Ellicott City. It was much larger and upscale. In the mid to late 90s Chatham
mall's had many vacancies. The Dollar store, Jo Ann Etc, and Flickers had all
closed up shop.
Mall traffic had dropped dramatically. The mall corridor just became a walk
way from Kmart to Caldor. Speaking of Caldor, it was around this time that
Clador had decided to call it quits. Kmart then sealed off its mall Entrance
and could only be entered from the outside. Chatham mall was in real trouble.
The mall was torn down and the few tenants moved into newly built strips
through out the property. The only remaining vestiage of the former mall is the
Kmart which survived Kmart's round of chapter 11 closings. Home Depot built a
store on the property too. The name was chnaged from Chatham mall to Chatham
Station Shopping Center. It has many of the tenants from the enclosed mall, they
include: Radio Shack, Newscenter, the Cigar Store, The Dugout, Music and Arts
Center, a goodyear tire center, and Oriental Manor. The Anchors are Kmart and
Home Depot and old Giant Food Outlot that really needs to be renovated and
expanded. The Roy Rogers building became Eistein Brothers Bagels and the bank
is a Wachovia.
Chatham mall just became too small and didn't have upscale tenants for the
area. Bascially Chatham Mall just couldn't compete with much larger and more
upscale Columbia Mall.
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Tom Flynn’s Commentary:
User submitted in 2025Let us not forget...Tyler's Country Clothes (got my first Herman Survivors there), Plant Planet and Pappy's Pizza. Grew up in EC in the 70's and 80's...Centennial ES, Dunloggin MS and MSJ Class of 84.
Carl Simon’s Commentary:
User submitted in 2025There was a hot dog shop in the Chatham Mall that my mom really liked. They used to put baked beans on the hot dogs. I wish there were some pictures of that old mall. We used to go there a lot as kids.
Patti Jensen Vucci’s Commentary:
User submitted in 2022The Kmart is gone. The Wachovia is now Wells Fargo, I’m not sure what the original mall looked like but there is a Dicks sporting goods there and the Giant food store still exists.
Alan Schoen’s Commentary:
User submitted in 2021I was just thinking about Chatham Mall today while I drove by. I went looking for pictures online but I couldn't find any. I wish I could see what that atrium looked like. I spent so much time in my childhood wishing I was at Flickers, and I remember looking at Magic cards in The Dugout. Just another memory lost in time like tears in the rain.
Clayton Otto’s Commentary:
User submitted in 2021There was a store called the Gun Locker too for a while. It opened there after the store of the same name closed in Brooklyn.
Francis Wong’s Commentary:
User submitted in 2020There was a computer store there called "The Logical Choice" - it sold Apple computers, and IBM PC clones. Chatham also had a pretty large Hallmark store.
Marcy Mullings’ Commentary:
User submitted in 2020I remember the Chatham mall & for the 30 years it was opened was pretty well attended. There was a G. Willikers club in the center of this enclosed mall with a left wing of stores anchored by a Cooks, then a Caldors, then a K-Mart and a right wing of stores anchored by another store that later became a Home Depot.
Carla Bishop’s Commentary:
User submitted in 2019The anchor stores when opened in late 70’s were Grants and Cooks
Daniel Dennis’ Commentary:
User submitted in 2019Isella's!!!!
Michele D. Freeman’s Commentary:
User submitted in 2018What was the night club that was in there in the late 70's early 80's??