Potomac Mills Mall opens on September 19, 1985


The box rose on September 19, 1985. Not just any box, you understand, but a big box, a really BIG box, a sprawling, horizontal, concrete bunker, rising up out of the Prince William County soil with the sort of implacable, irresistible, goldarned force of a tidal bore! Out on Route One, they were coming, they were roaring up from Fredericksburg, and spilling off I-95 from the Capital Beltway, a whole NEW wave of Virginia colonists, not to conquer the wilderness this time, oh no, but to CONQUER THE SALES!!

Potomac Mills Mall had opened.

The sales, you see, were the point. Potomac Mills was designed as an outlet mall, not a high-end number like White Flint Mall or Mazza Gallerie. This is how you ended up with Teri Garr at the ribbon cutting instead of Elizabeth Taylor. And infamous Virginia Governor Chuck Robb, just one year removed from his New York hotel room massage. 

Consumers drove to The Box to worship at the altar of the discount gods of retail - and what a pantheon of gods they were!! There was Waccamaw Pottery, a veritable cathedral of cheap housewares! There was Linens 'N Things, for the bed, the bath, and the beyond! There was Lamston's, that last, beautiful, dying gasp of the great American five-and-dime. IKEA! Books-A-Million! Hamrick's! Sears...Outlet!


Johnny Booker drove his Chevrolet Citation into the 5500-space Potomac Mills parking lot. He rolled up the manual window. He went to the mall's Elvis museum, and grumbled that there were no fried peanut butter and banana sandwiches to buy. He dropped a token in the Karate Champ machine in the Planet Fun arcade. He played a round of mini golf at Planet Fun. He ate caramel corn at Kernels World. Ate a juicy Julius Cheezer burger - on an English muffin, mind you - a Mother Load stuffed potato, and a cup of gumbo at Ruby Tuesday. And a Reese's Pieces Sundae at Friendly's. He emerged from The Box into the twilight, fully taking in that damn 140-foot-tall, 1,260-square-foot illuminated sign that loomed over I-95 like a capitalist bug zapper.

"Will you be back?" a reporter in corduroy pants and blazer asked Johnny as he walked back to his car. "Get the hell out of my way," Johnny retorted, stomping out a cigarette butt before snatching the Citation's door handle.

On September 19, 1985, the future arrived, wrapped in a shopping bag. Virginia had a new bargain basement. Call it a bunker. Call it a box. But the 80s are calling you, and they want their bargains back.

Location: 2700 Potomac Mills Cir, Woodbridge, VA 22192, USA

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