Bremerton Mall/Wheaton Plaza, Part 1

When I filmed this, I took my mother with me. She remembers shopping here "in the old days." The backside of the mall scared her half to death.

This is East Bremerton's notorious "dead mall." Located on Wheaton Way, one of the busiest roads in Bremerton, this eyesore looks like something from Silent Hill or the Fallout game series. The backside of the building is the entrance to a tent city. Today, it's hard to imagine that this urban blight was ever a functioning shopping mall, but it was.

Shops that occupied space at the location were: Merit Mart/Value Giant, Volume Shoe Source, J. K. Gill, the Bank of Bremerton, a popcorn kiosk, Helen's Health Food store, a video arcade, a tire and lube shop, a gun shop, a furniture shop, Woggy's Magic Shop, Albertson's Grocery Store, a diner, Mum's Dry Cleaner, a salon (possibly Hair Crafters), Flowers to Go, Lamb's Office Supply, Pacific Fabrics, Total Video, and K-Mart. The restaurants in the parking lot were originally a Seasons and a Herfy's. There was also a Shell gas station in the parking lot at one point.

In the 1990s, the Value Giant half was occupied by Eagle Hardware and Garden. Eagle became a Lowe's, which moved down the street, leaving the building vacant. Today, the only functioning shops on the premises are a mortgage company, a Rite-Aid, and Pacific Fabrics. Pacific Fabrics and Rite-Aid plan to leave when their leases expire.

News story about Wheaton Plaza: http://www.kitsapsun.com/news/2010/may/16/with-kmart-gone-whats-the-future-fo...

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[casecroft]

This mall did have carnivals in the parking lot, every summer for several years starting in maybe 1969 and going through at least 1975. I remember riding the Ferris wheel and the Scrambler there, too.  Before that there were carnivals in the vacant dirt lot surrounding what used to be Kitsap County Bank on Wheaton -- it's the mall that now has Value Village.

[zombienotld]

Thanks for remembering "The can man," I was in that alley buying cans for Reynolds Recycling from 1987 to 1997. The Albertsons roof caved in late December 1996, and Reynolds continued to have me purchase till spring of '97, at that location then moving the operation to Wal-mart, where I am still buying Aluminum, Copper and brass today! The Reynolds company sold us to Wise metals- out of Baltimore, then to Tomra in 1998, then in 2001 they laid us off. So WESTSOUNDRECYCLING was born! The Can man

[Blondeblu1]

I was looking for how to get info about selling in the parking lot. Btw Mum's owners moved to their house East of the mountains and sold their old place to me which was in 1999. Rite Aid was suppose to have taken over everything per my realtor at the time. But it appears they did nothing. Of course in 1999 i asked "where are the stores in West Bremerton?" and was told "go to Silverdale there is Nothing here!" No change No growth is my personal feeling.

[ceedeath]

i remember the can man too! and was thinking about when the video started!!! oh the first section my mom used to get her hair done at some thing "girls name" cut and curl, like edie adams cut and curl or something like. or was it gene adams...

[ceedeath]

@ceedeath oh its the arcade area i was thinking of.

[ceedeath]

i used to just hang around this mall, like you said a lot of spaces were rented out that wasn't part of the actual store, like this little cut place that sold tiny stickers, i loved that place. oh and one year the circus came and set up shop there one summer. i never actually went to the show but i would ride the elephants for free and just hang out with the carni's all day (the days of showbiz pizza place, re other video comment

[ceedeath]

is the beginning didn't that section used to have a godfather's pizza?