The Marlow Heights Shopping Center sign is the original one that went up around 1957.  It looks like it was constructed by an old company named Service Neon.  For most of it's life it was repaired by a company called Diehl Signs.  That company went bankrupt and it is unknown who repairs it now. Few companies specialize in that old style exposed neon anymore.

Marlow Heights Shopping Center was built in two phases. Like Iverson Mall, it too was developed by an Italian family - the Scuderi's. [remember the Scuderi building behind Marlow Heights Shopping Center?] The first section completed around 1958 included the Giant Food and Woolworth's. The second section completed around 1960 included Hecht's and Drug Fair. The Hecht's is still open and does a decent business. The interior is just as dated as the outside. Mr G Cleaners was indeed an experiment started by Giant Food. There was also a Giant Carpet in the same shopping center. Mr G is still open and run by a Korean family. It looks like a garden center because the owner is fond of keeping plants in the front windows! The original garden center for the area was called Arcadian Gardens and it was attached to the Hecht's (between their auto center). It is long gone and now a vacant lot.

The Kemp Mill Records and Up Against The Wall are fairly recent additions. That shopping center was constructed on the site of a Jr Hot Shoppes [that I used to work at] that closed around 1981. Kemp Mill was originally in Iverson Mall until it moved outdoors. The current site opened as Nobody Beats The Wiz. Up Against The Wall didn't open that location until the early 90's. It is the only remaining type of store that sells that style of clothes. Remember Merry Go Round, Jeans West, County Seat, etc.?

The car dealerships on Branch Ave were mostly relocated from nearby Saint Barnabas Road. The only original one that still operates is Ourisman Chevrolet (“You always get your way, at Ourisman Chevrolet, hey!”). Old dealerships like Kaplan & Crawford, Bill Cairns, etc. are all gone. Sheehy Ford is still there which opened in the early 70's [courtesy Gary, www.dcgrocery.com].

Iverson Mall

Iverson Mall being built with an overpass was a mistake. It probably seemed like a good idea at the time, but makes it hard to navigate. Many people have gotten hit by cars over the years due to drivers getting blinded by the sudden darkness which occurs right where the pedestrians are crossing. [Could have installed floodlights to illuminate the area]. Again, this mall was developed as a family operation and not by a major corporation that had design experts.

The mall always has been very simple and has nothing truly exciting about it [except for, “Sumi’s”]. When it was opened in 1967 a big deal was made about it being the area's first completely indoor shopping center. Their tag line was "Springtime Is Forever at Iverson Mall". Unlike many local malls in the area, this was a family constructed project by the local Italian families. It was developed by Anthony Carozza who built most of the homes in Hillcrest Heights along with the Hillcrest Heights Motor Lodge that used to be across the street from the mall. Other families involved with the mall were the Amatucci's and Antonelli's. The Amatucci's had a car dealership on Branch Ave and later were board members of Bank Of Southern MD which had their HQ at Iverson Mall.

In all honesty, it never was a very busy mall. Since it was constructed over Iverson Street, the lower level shops are in two sections with the road in the middle. the busiest years for the mall were in the early to mid 1970's. A lot of people would drive to Landover Mall when it opened in 1972 since it was larger and had more choices. The mall got off to a rough start with the troubled early years in the community after the 1968 MLK riots in DC and the 1972 PG County forced busing program for school integration. The community was always working class and had it's share of crime, but crime did have a sharp increase around 1975 [as it continues today, but believe it or not, it is tapering off].

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