Opening on October 15, 1953, The Levittown Shopping Center holds a very special place in the hearts of many people who grew up in the area. It was Main Street in a place that had none! It was where you shopped for school clothes, it was where you saw Santa (and where your toys came from!) it was where you went to the movies, it was where you met your friends for a soda, it was where politicians came to press the flesh with the people of the community.  Sadly, because of time and progress elsewhere, it is now just the shell of it's former self. As I walked through there on a cold rainy day in the Fall of 2001, and it's hard to imagine that it was once bright, shiny and new. A discarded plastic bag danced on the wind through the barren walkway where families once strolled, window-shopped and smiled.

Here are some of your memories...

I will always have a special place in my heart for the Levittown Shopping Center. As a kid, my mom would take us there (Christmas shopping, errands, and such) I loved going to Woolworth's!!! I remember eating at the lunch counter, but most of all I wanted to walk down the long stairway to the pet department. The toy department was right next to it!!! I can still close my eyes and see every inch of that store. McCrory's and Grants were near by, Pomeroy's was across from Woolworth's. What a treat is was when mom let us eat lunch at Pomeroy's!!!! We thought we were high class!!!.I remember every dime store at the center was the same. Each had the toys & pets in the basement. Pomeroy's had three levels (and moving stairs!!) as a child I was deathly afraid of them. When the Oxford Valley Mall was built everyone worried what would happen to the Levittown Shopping Center. It held on for many years after (lot's of stores remained until the middle 80's. As a teen I would rather go to Levittown Shopping Center than to the mall. So many childhood memories are there. 

Christmas shopping with a few (and I mean few) dollars. And buying presents for the whole family. I think Santa was at Grants or McCrory's. It might have been Grant's. Santa was way in the back of the store on the first level. Even as a teen, my girlfriend and I would get our pictures taken with Santa for our moms. Pomeroy's also had a Santa, downstairs

I was just up north (March 99) and asked to see the Levittown Shopping Center, but I was told it was empty and that it had been vandalized. What a shame!!! Maybe I' glad I did not see it. It is always good to carry memories of a better time!!!

I love you web page, it brings back great memories. Keep up the good work!

Doris (Hill) Caucci 
Stuart Fl
Formerly Levittown ,Pa

The Ranch House.  I remember it well.  I was always fascinated by this huge black and white steer head trophy that was the center piece over the archway inside.  And, as I recall, there was a Sun Ray Drugs in the back

Lou Brooks

I remember Pomeroys, Sun-Ray Drugs, Kresge, Ed's Coin & Stamp, Food Fair, a shoe store, a bakery, Town Theater, and the Levittown Public Recreation Association. It probably didn't have more than 25-30 stores when it opened. The largest tenants were Pomeroys, Food Fair, and the LPRA. It had a lot of open space for walking and sitting. I remember when the Blue Laws were enforced and you could only go in certain aisles of the drug store because items in the other aisles were against the law to be sold on Sundays. ( I also remember that Philadelphia was a dry town on Sundays, too!!!)

Ken Deitz

I remember some stores at the shopping center. They were: The Hitching Post which was a women's store owned by Ham Bickle, M&M Sporting Goods, Sears, Kresge's ( it was a 5 & 10 cent store) also a Woolworth's, Thom McCann Shoes, Pomeroy's, Big Boy's Restaurant, A kids shoe store, I have to remember the name! The Bank and I'll try and remember more. I remember going to the shopping center to see "Senator Kennedy" and  "L.B.J." speak to the people during the campaign. I shook Kennedy's hand while sitting on my Dad's shoulder's. Also The Levittown Players which has produced many well known actors over the years was based at the community center at the center. My mom was the president of the group for many years and starred in many of the plays. I was in one when I was 3!

Mindy Feinberg

Levittown Shopping Center, in the 1950’s, from a kid’s viewpoint: 
o     The shopping center was a great spot to stop for a vanilla Coke at the Ranch Room to cool off in the summer and to warm up in the winter. 
o     The 1st record that I bought was displayed in a record store window.  What a wonderful find to get a record with 2 hits on it, rather than one with an undesirable flip side:  Elvis’s “Hound Dog” and “Don’t be Cruel”. 
o     I remember a ground and lower level Sears Roebuck store. Visually, it had the dullest looking layout and presentation of all the stores that I frequented.  On the mall level, I remember, as best I can, ammunition in boxes sitting on open shelves, but you had to be 18 years old to buy it.  On the ground level, I remember a Sears automobile repair center, right next to the retail store itself. Just inside the entry was a 6 ounce Coke machine, the kind where we could pay the nickel for one, then release the lever handle 6 notches, push down and get another until we each had a Coke.  We didn’t abuse it too much, but it was nice to have available when we needed it. 
o    Kresge’s, or was it another “5&10” cent store, was located  on the other end of the mall from the Ranch Room.  It had comic books for sale in the middle, and a soda fountain on the side.  It was just perfect for us to pick up a few comics, then read them while we sipped ice cream sodas with some of our paper route earnings. 
o     The Community Center was near the Ranch Room.   I don’t remember finding much of interest in there except that there were some really “old” guys , who were always there, playing wicked games of ping pong. They would have wiped up the floor with us. 
o     I believe that when Nixon came to visit the shopping center, his wife Pat was smeared by a lipstick wielding woman outside Pomeroys dept. store. She claimed that Pat wore too much makeup. 
o     I was outside Pomeroys one evening after the stores were closed, when I first heard that Buddy Holly, Richie Valens and the Big Bopper died in a plane crash.  I was at that same location 20 years later at about the same time on a Sunday evening, refreshing my memories, when a Police car that was cruising the mall walking area, stopped and interrogated me for awhile.  Seems as though the closed mall is off limits (now that we're not there to protect it anymore).

Tom Merlia

I enjoyed reading the memories of Levittown on your website. My mother and my brother worked at Pomeroys--in fact my brother still works at the store even though it is a different chain now. All our school clothes and even our DOG came from Pomeroy's, my mother brought home a 4 month old German Shepherd that had been in the cage too long and she felt sorry for it. Levittown must have had more influence on me than I thought, I eventually married a guy from Levittown NY! We have the same values and similar memories of our respective Levittowns.

Laura Kapelle Bradbard (previously of Harvest Road)

Your piece on the Shopping Center brings back a flood of memories. The most pronounced is that of Pomeroy's. My dad worked there part time in the "Appliances Section " for years. Later my dad did all of the printing for the Pomeroy's chain. Since he got an employees discount, it seemed like we did all of our shopping there. As a child, my mother would walk with a neighbor to the shopping center pushing my brother in a carriage. Groceries were gotten "religiously" from Penn Fruit. We lived in the Kenwood section, so the shopping center was very close. We lived across the street from Ham Bickell who owned The Hitching Post - who was mentioned in one of the other responses. 

I remember I was allowed on my first foray away from the house, on my bike, with a friend to go to the shopping center to get something at Kiddie City. That was big doings when you're eight or nine years old! I took music lessons at Melody Music (downstairs). There was Eastern News where you could buy all kinds of magazines, comic books, and penny candies. I saw RFK and Barry Goldwater give their campaign speech there. 

We also spent a lot of time at the LPRA building where there were a lot of activities in the winter. I remember going to the movies at the Town Theater for 35 cents on Saturday afternoons. As a teenager, the shopping center was the social magnet - hanging out and checking out other kids hanging out. My first job was at Kresge's working at the grill /fountain part time. Later, as a young adult I can remember the attempts at revitalization - the discount hamburger meat butcher shop was a favorite of my family. 

Sadly, I now read the reports of the current conditions of the shopping center. However, the good childhood and adolescent memories remain of the Levittown Shopping Center - downtown Levittown! 

Bryan Carrick

Hi, I just finished looking at pictures of old and new Levittown and it made me so sad. I grew up in Millcreek, graduated from Wilson in 1972. The pix from the Levittown Shopping Center were especially sad. I remember going there every Saturday to shop with my friends. It was beautiful then. We would spend the whole day there. I remember going to see the Mummy at the Towne Theatre- the line was wrapped around the building twice. They had actors dressed in costume before the movie was shown. I also remember my brothers being in the soapbox derby there. My brother also entered some kind of contest there and won a motorized red Corvette he could drive. He had his picture in the paper driving it. I now live in Venice, Fla. and it is just so sad to see the changes Levittown has undergone. It was a great place to grow up. I went to Abe Lincoln Elementary. Is it still there? We used to cross the footbridge and walk thru Plumbridge to get to school.

Thanks,
Terry Davis

If you come across an old bag or box from one of the stores, let me know I'll scan it and add it!