Ahh, this strip mall has been around for a really long time, even longer before I was born in the extreme early 90s. When I was a little toddler in Garwood, my dad would take me out here just to walk around. There was an "open space" area with visible steel structures where I used to just run around briefly during those times. Today, that "open space" is still there.
This strip mall has two anchor stores. Since the early 90s, those anchor stores were Walgreens and Kings. During the 90s, they had some other notable stores that I remember either going into or passed by when I was little. Those stores included Radio Shack, Encore Books (I bet a lot of you during those times remember this store!), Dress Barn, an Eye DR place, a liquor store, and a laundromat. The roof tops on the strip mall were green, and some green circles were visible on some parts of the strip mall as well.
The parking lot is huge, and reasonably sized for all of the patrons here. The parking lot is also for patrons only, since they don't like commuters parking for the purpose of boarding trains. In the 90s, the parking area revealed a lot of old, faded parking stripes and designs, which proved that the parking layout was different long before I existed. But fast forward to today, the old parking decals are long gone, and the lot itself is quite smoother than before.
Today, the stores that are still in business since the 90s include Kings, Dress Barn, an Eye Dr place (with different name), and a laundromat. Encore Books was gone and the space was probably taken over by Pet Valu. Walgreens moved further down the road, and Crunch Fitness took their former spot, thus making them an anchor. The liquor store got replaced by GNC. The steel structures were covered up in the "open space" area. The roof tops are still green today, as well as the circles, except for the one circle on top of Investors Bank. Not sure why that was painted with a different color.
Overall, this strip mall serves the purpose of catering to the patrons in a very small town. I've never had an issue with parking here at all. Walking from one end of the strip mall to the other is pleasant. But be patient when trying to make a left turn into the strip mall from South Avenue as the opposing traffic can be very hectic at times. Cheers! read more